Chapter 2
Isla
A sigh of relief escaped me and my legs gave out completely, I slidding to the floor.
“Are you okay?” The stranger asked.
I tried to speak but I ly mang d a nod. Then, finally, the tears came. I didn't even realize I was crying until he gently wiped a tear off my cheek with the back of his thumb.
“You've been drugged,” he said softly. “You need to get somewhere safe.”
“I was… I was waiting for someone,” I whispered. “H — He didn't come.”
His eyes softened. “Come on. Let's get you safe.”
I nodded again, too exhausted to argue. I didn't know his name. I didn't even know where he came from or why he saved me. But in that moment, I didn't care.
I was glad to be safe.
Even if it was in the arms of a stranger.
As we moved up the stairs, my legs wouldn't stop shaking.
The hallway outside the room where everything nearly happened spun like a carousel, and I gripped the stranger's arm as of they were the only thing nchoeing me to reality. My skin felt too tight. My dress clung uncomfortably to my damp body. My heart was racing, my chest heaving in shallow, panicked breaths I couldn't seem to control.
The world tilted. My limbs felt like jelly and my vision was hazy but through the blur, his face came into focus.
At first, I thought I was hallucinating. No man had the right to look that good. Towering over me like some kind of avenging god, he radiated power with every breath. His jaw was sharp enough to cut glass and dusted with the right amount of stubble.
And those eyes, those stormy-grey eyes, locked onto mine with a focus that was out of this world. His eyes weren't just looking at me. They were reading me. Like I was a book he'd already memorized but still wanted to keep flipping through, page by page.
His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of his black shirt. And he smelled like leather and something deeper — like the woods after a rainfall. There was something about him. Something Alpha.
I couldn't speak. I didn't need to. He crouched beside me, his voice a low growl laced with barely concealed fury.
“They won't touch you again.”
And just like that, I knew I was looking at the kind of man people warned you about. The kind of man who didn't ask for permission. The kind who didn't play by the rules.
The kind who would burn the world to protect what was his.
And right now, that person was me.
His warm hands wrapped around me. “You've been drugged. You need rest.”
His jaw tensed like he'd been fighting an inner war.
I heard voices in the hallway and my whole body went rigid. Did those Alphas return?
“P - Please,” I whispered, hating how weak I sounded. “I — I don't feel right. I'm burning up. I can't think.”
It was like chaos was inside of me. It wasn't just the spiked drink or the club or the three Alpha's. It was everything. Pain, betrayal, Richard, and now, this heat beneath my skin that wouldn't just go away. I couldn't tell where the fear ended and the yearning began.
“I don't want to be alone,” I confessed, tears burning at the corners of my eyes. “Please. Just for a little while. I need…”
I couldn't finish the sentence. I didn't even know what I was asking for.
He stared at me, unmoving. And then, with a reluctant sigh, he reached for my hand.
“Come with me.”
His room was in the penthouse. Top floor, sleek, too expensive. I wasn't surprised. He looked like someone who bled power. I didn't ask questions. Didn't need to.
He ld me inside and handed me a glass of water, watching me drink like he wasn't sure if I'd collapse again or throw up. I curled up on the edge of his bed, my knees drawn to my chest.
“I don't even know your name,” I mumbled.
He didn't answer. Instead, he turned away and began to pace the room like he was trying to avoid looking at me too long. Like I was dangerous.
Or maybe he was.
“I should leave,” I whispered but my legs refused to move. My entire body felt like it was being pulled in a dozen directions. I was torn between what I knew was right and what I desperately craved in that moment.
But what did I want?
Connection?
Escape?
Or him?
My eyes found him again. The stranger who'd stepped between me and my near-rapists. And maybe it was the heat or the haze or even the heartbreak of a man I thought would show up but something inside me snapped.
“I feel… hot. It won't stop,” I said in a whisper. “P - please, help me.”
His eyes darkened. “Don't ask me for things you don't understand.”
“Maybe I don't want to understand.” I said, standing slowly and swaying a little.
He closed the distance between us in two steps, his arms catching my arms again. This time his touch was firm.
“You don't know me.” He said in a growl.
“I don't need to,” I whispered.
Silence stretched between us.
Then he leaned in.
And kissed me.
There was nothing soft about his kiss. It was like being caught in a storm. It was wild and consuming. His mouth moved over mine with heat and hunger and I didn't resist. I didn't want to.
My clothes fell away, time disappeared, and I lost myself in the warmth of his touch, in the press of his skin, and in the weight of his body anchoring me to something that felt like both a mistake and salvation.
For one night, I forgot.
I forgot about Richard. Forgot about the shame. Forgot the ache that had hollowed in my chest in weeks.
All that existed was him. The way he looked at me as if I wasn't broken and the way he touched me like I mattered.
And when it was over, I laid there in the dark, tangled sheets that smelled like him, listening to the steady beat of his heart under my cheek.
I wanted to say something but no words came out.
What could I possibly say?
Thank you for saving me? Or Thank you for ruining me just a little less than the man before you did.
Instead I closed my eyes and pretended just for a little while that I wasn't lost.
I told myself that this wasn't temporary.
That he wouldn't be gone in the morning
And that I could have the chance to start over.
Again.