Chapter 20: Small Details
Rosalie:
The house was so quiet that it almost felt abandoned.
Only the sound of the wind existed.
It howled outside the villa endlessly, rattling the glass walls and bending the tall trees beyond the garden so violently that their branches looked seconds away from snapping apart completely. Dark clouds had covered the sky since early morning, swallowing the entire world beneath layers of gray and black until noon looked more like late evening.
A storm was coming.
A bad one.
I stood near the staircase for a moment, listening carefully to the house around me.
Nothing. There were no footsteps, no voices, and no movement. The villa genuinely felt empty.
Aria only dropped by once in a while, and Eiden disappeared somewhere after breakfast without telling me much beyond asking me to rest. As for Zaiden...
Well. I hadn’t seen him since that night.
The mere memory immediately made heat creep into my cheeks.
Goddess.
I still couldn’t fully process what had happened two nights ago.
Everything about my twentieth birthday felt like some insane fever dream at this point. First, the three men I had loved for years publicly chose another woman over me. Then I nearly died. Then I somehow ended up with Eiden Thorn and discovered not one, but two fated mates.
And apparently the Moon Goddess thought all this wasn’t chaotic enough because she also decided to throw my first heat into the situation.
Wonderful.
Absolutely wonderful.
Just remembering how I practically threw myself at Eiden that night nearly made me want to bury myself underground permanently. And Zaiden had been there too. Which somehow made the embarrassment ten times worse.
No one discussed it afterward, thankfully.
Eiden behaved normally. Aria seemed to know nothing about it at all. And Zaiden Nightfang... he just simply vanished as smoothly as he appeared that night out of nowhere.
Part of me was relieved about that. Because honestly, I had absolutely no idea how to face both men after that night.
Needing a distraction from my own thoughts, I had spent the last twenty minutes checking the villa to make sure none of the windows or balcony doors were left open before the storm fully arrived.
The upper floor was secure and the ground floor too.
Now all that remained was grabbing some water before returning to my room. At least, that was the plan.
I stepped into the kitchen quietly, then froze instantly because someone was there.
A man stood in front of the massive refrigerator with his back facing me while he pulled out a chilled water bottle casually, completely unaware of my presence.Or so I thought initially. Because even from behind, I recognized him immediately.
Tall, broad shoulders, black hair, and that terrifyingly powerful presence impossible to mistake.
Zaiden Nightfang.
My breath caught instantly. For one wild second, my first instinct was to turn around and leave before he noticed me. But my feet refused to move. Instead, I stood frozen near the kitchen entrance while my gaze remained fixed helplessly on the man in front of me.
This was only the second time I had properly seen him. And despite the storm raging outside and the darkness filling the house, he somehow looked even more dangerous today.
My heart started pounding ridiculously hard.
How was this real?
How was I somehow mated to two of the most powerful and mysterious wolves in existence?
Eiden Thorn and Zaiden Nightfang.
If someone told me this weeks ago, I would have laughed in their face.
I was still trapped inside my thoughts when Zaiden suddenly turned around, and his gray eyes met mine directly as if he had known I was standing there the entire time.
My breath hitched.
Stars!
Those eyes really were unfair. They weren’t cold exactly. But there was something intensely sharp about them - controlled, observant, and dangerous enough to make most people lower their gazes immediately.
Then he spoke, "Do you need something?"
His voice was deep and smooth. Not harsh, nor particularly warm either. It was just calm enough to send my already unstable heartbeat into complete chaos.
For several painful seconds, I simply stared at him like an idiot. Because my brain stopped functioning the moment he looked directly at me. Then realization hit. Oh! He asked me a question.
"I-"
Fantastic start, Rosalie.
I swallowed quickly. "Water," I managed awkwardly. "I came for water."
To my surprise, Zaiden didn’t react to my obvious nervousness at all. He simply turned back toward the refrigerator again and calmly retrieved another bottle.
I stood there silently while he grabbed a glass from the cabinet overhead before pouring water into it. But instead of handing it to me immediately, he paused and added some room-temperature water from the jug resting on the kitchen counter.
I blinked slightly in surprise.
He was adjusting the temperature because the refrigerated water seemed to be too cold.
The realization stirred something strange inside my chest. It was such a small thing, such an ordinary thing. Yet somehow, no one had ever paid attention to details like that for me before.
Not even-
I immediately cut the thought off before my mind could drift toward Alastor, Darien, and Kaiser again.
Zaiden finally seemed satisfied with the temperature because he turned and walked toward me. And the closer he got, the harder it became to breathe normally.
The mate bond stirred violently inside me immediately. Warmth spread through my chest while awareness sharpened painfully. And I became conscious of everything at once - his intoxicating scent, the sound of his footsteps, the way his shirt sleeves were rolled slightly upward, exposing strong forearms, the dark strands of hair falling near his eyes, and the terrifying calmness surrounding him.
Stars.
I forgot how to function around this man.
By the time he stopped in front of me and handed over the glass, I was genuinely worried he could probably hear my heartbeat echoing through the entire kitchen. Still somehow, my hand remained steady when I accepted it.
Small victory.
"Thank you," I whispered softly.
He gave a slight nod. Then, without another word, he stepped past me.
The movement brought him close enough that his scent wrapped around me briefly again, making the bond pulse warmly beneath my skin.
My breath caught slightly.
Then his voice came from behind me. "If you have time," he said calmly, "join Eiden and me in the study."
I turned immediately.
But he was already walking out of the kitchen.
