Cassius POV
I shouldn’t have kissed her.
I should’ve stopped it. I knew better. But in that moment, everything about April called to me, from the sharp edge of her defiance to the softness of her mouth. She was like fire and ice all rolled into one, and I couldn’t resist it.
But a jolt of awareness hit me the second my lips touched hers. I didn’t just kiss her-there was something deeper, something far more dangerous happening.
Her body melted against mine, her breath sharp in the quiet of the bar, but I pulled away too quickly as if the force of the kiss had struck me harder than it had her.
She was intoxicating.
I could feel her pulse beneath my fingertips, her heart racing. Her reaction mirrored mine, but there was something else in her eyes-a question, a challenge.
“What was that?” she asked, voice low, trembling with something I couldn’t name.
I ran a hand through my hair, stepping back as if distance could save me from whatever this was. “A mistake,” I muttered, but the words felt hollow as soon as they left my lips.
It wasn’t a mistake. At least not the way I wanted her to believe it. But it had been. A mistake because I wasn’t supposed to be feeling this way, not about her.
“You think it was a mistake?” Her voice had that sharp edge again, the one that made my stomach tighten.
I couldn’t look at her. Not when the temptation to pull her back into my arms was screaming louder than my thoughts. “I’m not who you think I am, April,” I said, my voice quieter, the weight of my secret heavy on my tongue.
I saw her stiffen, the subtle shift in her posture that told me she was pulling away, building walls in front of me again. That was the thing about April-she wasn’t the type to beg for attention. She didn’t chase affection. She was hard, cold even.
But I could feel the pulse of something deeper, something raw and honest, underneath all of that. I didn’t know if I could afford to let it show.
“You don’t know me,” I continued, watching as she held her ground, her face unreadable. “You don’t know what lies beneath me.”
She blinked, her eyes narrowing for a fraction of a second before her lips curled into a smirk that didn’t reach her eyes. “Maybe I don’t need to know,” she said, each word dripping with ice. “Maybe I don’t care.”
That stung.
It shouldn’t have. I didn’t care if she cared. But the bite in her voice, the way she kept her distance from me, was like a slap in the face.
I felt the walls I’d been building crack, just a little. For a moment, I wanted to cross that distance and make her see everything I was holding back. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t risk it.
“You don’t understand,” I said, taking another step back, creating space between us that felt like a canyon. “I can’t let you get close. You don’t belong in my world.”
The words burned in my throat, but they were true. She didn’t belong in my world. I wasn’t just an Alpha. I wasn’t just a wolf. I had lived in the shadows for too long and carried a weight far heavier than anyone could ever understand.
Her eyes flickered for a brief moment, and I saw the hurt there, but it was gone as quickly as it came. She was too good at hiding what she felt.
“I’m not like you,” I muttered, as if that could explain everything. It was as if the distance between us could be bridged with just a few words.
I was an Alpha. I had responsibilities and duties I couldn’t abandon for something as fleeting as desire. April was… something else. She wasn’t a part of my world, and I wouldn’t let myself get tangled in the mess that came with wanting her.
But Goddess, I wanted her.
Her expression was guarded, but I could see the cracks in her armour-the way her gaze lingered on me longer than it should’ve, the way her lips parted as if she were going to say something but stopped herself.
I took one last look at her before turning to the door, my heart beating a little too loudly in my chest. “It’s better this way,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure I believed it. “I’m dangerous, April. You don’t want to get too close.”
The words left a bitter taste in my mouth. Dangerous? Was that what I had become? A man who pushed people away, who hid behind his title and his secrets? Was I really someone she couldn’t get close to?
I didn’t wait for her response. I couldn’t. Because if I did, I knew I’d never walk out of that bar.
The door closed softly behind me, and I stood there momentarily, staring at it, at the space I’d just left.
What the hell was I doing?