Chapter 3 – A Game of Shadows

Aurora’s POV

Damien Blackwood had never looked at me before.

Not like this.

Not with that burning intensity, like I was something more than just another girl in the school.

I walked down the hallway after our strange encounter, my mind still reeling from his words.

"You should be careful. You never know who might be watching you."

Why would he say that?

And why did it feel like he was talking about himself?

I shook my head, trying to focus on my next class. Maybe this was just some twisted game he played. After all, Damien wasn’t just mysterious—he was dangerous.

At least, that’s what everyone said.

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Damien’s POV

I should have stayed away.

I told myself over and over again that getting close to her was dangerous.

But the moment I saw her in that hallway, so small, so delicate, yet trying so hard to be invisible…

I knew I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

Aurora Hayes.

My mate.

The one thing in this world I could never have.

Not yet.

I clenched my jaw as I walked away from her, my hands itching to pull her back.

She didn’t know what she was.

Didn’t know what I was.

Didn’t know that her scent had driven me insane from the moment I first met her.

Didn’t know that I had spent the last few years fighting the unnatural, primal urge to claim her before she was ready.

I was never supposed to reveal myself like this.

But when I saw those bullies put their hands on her, when I saw the way she lowered her head, too used to being hurt…

I lost control.

I wanted to rip them apart.

I wanted to show them who she belonged to.

And now, I had made a mistake.

She was looking at me differently now. Questioning me.

I had let my guard down.

And if I wasn’t careful…

She would figure out the truth.

That she had never been alone.

That even after I disappeared, I had never stopped watching her.

Because I was waiting.

Waiting for the day when I could finally take her away.

Waiting for the day when she would belong to me.

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Aurora’s POV

By the time I got home, I was exhausted.

I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

The way he touched me. The way his voice had dropped into something dangerous and possessive when he warned me.

And most of all—the way I felt when he looked at me.

Like I was important.

Like I was his.

I sighed, flopping onto my bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Maybe I was just overthinking it.

Damien Blackwood wasn’t some dark protector. He wasn’t some shadow watching over me.

He was just a boy.

A popular, playboy, mysterious boy who would never look at me that way again.

Right?

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Damien’s POV

I watched as the light in her bedroom flickered off.

Standing in the shadows outside her house, I exhaled slowly.

I knew I shouldn’t be here.

But I couldn’t help myself.

I had been waiting years for this moment.

And soon…

Aurora Hayes would be mine.

Whether she knew it yet or not.

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