BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 182: THE MOMENT I TOOK

Chapter 182: THE MOMENT I TOOK

{ "The moment of love is a fleeting glimpse of eternity."}

Her eyes searched mine like she was looking for permission I couldn’t give but desperately wanted to. And then, she leaned in, her lips pressed to mine, gentle at first. The breath I’d been holding slipped out of me like a ghost. My thoughts scattered like leaves in a windstorm.

She tasted like everything I’d spent years trying not to need. Rain and steel and something impossibly sweet. Gods. Her scent hit me all at once, that subtle wildflower softness hidden under layers of leather and resolve. It curled around my senses, sank its claws into me, and wouldn’t let go. My restraint shattered, and I kissed her back harder, deeper, like I could make up for all the nights I lay awake thinking of her. My hands found her waist, then her back, pulling her against me like I was afraid she’d disappear if I didn’t hold tight enough.

"Belle," I breathed against her mouth, voice wrecked and wanting.

She smiled slightly, lips brushing mine. "Took you long enough."

I growled soft, rough, nothing like the ones I gave in battle. This was different. This was need and I pushed her gently against the nearest tree, hands braced on either side of her head, barely remembering how to breathe as her hands slid up my chest like they belonged there. Like she belonged there. She did. She always had. The beast inside me wasn’t snarling or raging now it was silent.

"You shouldn’t have done that," I whispered.

Belle looked up at me, calm and beautiful and defiant. "Then why do you look like you want to kiss me again?" I didn’t answer. She kissed me again this time with hunger and I was wrecked.

Each brush of her lips was a storm across my skin, setting fire to places I’d kept frozen for too long. Her mouth moved over mine, slow then demanding, and the sound that slipped from her and the soft, helpless moan, it undid me. Completely.

I groaned into her mouth, my hands gripping her waist, her hips, anything I could reach, desperate to anchor myself to her. Her lips parted against mine, and I deepened the kiss, tasting her like I’d been starving for her all my life and only now realized what I’d been missing.

Her moans were quiet, breathy, but they struck something ancient and wild inside me.

Something I couldn’t cage anymore.

The Rogourau Alpha beast in me stirred within me in need and hunger. My vision burned silver at the edges. The heat rolled through my chest, searing, rising. My skin prickled as my power flared just beneath the surface, as if the beast inside me was... bowing and I confirmed what I had been running away from.

Belle Mortas was my mate, blessed to me by the moon goddess even at my age. The thought hit me like lightning. I pulled away just enough to look at her, lips red, breath shallow, pupils blown wide with the same fire I felt crashing through me.

"Belle..." I whispered her name like a prayer, like I was saying it for the first time and the last. "Do you feel that?"

Her fingers curled around the collar of my shirt, grounding me as she nodded. "I have always known from the first time you came to Bay shifter lands with Alpha Tor. I was scared because I knew that my father, General Mortas, would object to us, but the call of the moon has been pushing me towards you.

"The Moon goddess has been kind to me," I said, breathless. "She... She gave you to me."

Her lips parted, eyes wide, chest rising and falling against mine." Let me hear it, Ro.u"

"Belle," I murmured again, reverent now. "You’re my mate."

"Fuck yes "She beamed "

"Belle..." I started, unsure, my voice a little raw. "You don’t have to say anything just because—"

"Stop," she cut in, eyes blazing. "Don’t you dare shrink from this." She stepped closer, fire in every word. "Rou, do you know who you are?"

I frowned, my heart thudding. "I know what they call me."

She let out a breathless laugh. "What they call you is true. You’re the most powerful alpha shifter in the known lands. The only living Alpha Rogourau. You could level mountains with your bare hands. Command storms with your roar. And still, here you are afraid to believe you’re mine."

Her hands came up, cupping my jaw like I was something precious. Like I wasn’t the monster they’d painted me to be. Like I wasn’t dangerous and that I was hers. "I’ve watched Bay Shifter commanders and Generals in awe as you entered the Bay Shifter lands," she whispered. "They see the beast in you. The power you carry. "I tried to look away. She wouldn’t let me. "But I see the man who holds back because he doesn’t want to hurt me," she said. "I see strength and restraint. The storm and the silence."

My throat tightened. "Why are you saying this?"

She smiled, wild and radiant, like the moonlight had chosen her lips to speak the truth. "Because I love that you’re mine," she said. "Because I want the beast. The alpha. The legend. Every broken and burning part."

Her words hit me harder than any blade ever could. I felt them in my chest, in my bones, in the deepest corner of my soul where I’d locked the belief that I’d ever be wanted for who I truly was.

And now, she was looking at me like I was her greatest victory. "You are the second most powerful Alpha shifter beast in the lands," she said again, slower this time, like it was sacred. "And you are mine."

The beast in me stirred. nNotsnarling, not raging. It rumbled, low and warm, like a purr of recognition. Like it was finally home. I didn’t know what to say. So, I said the only thing that felt right. "I’ve waited my whole life for someone to see me the way you do, Belle."

Her fingers brushed down my throat, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Take me."

Fuck! She didn’t know what she was doing to me. The beast inside me snarled in agreement, clawing at my insides, ready to obey her command. My hands trembled where they hovered at her waist, every instinct screaming to pull her against me, to kiss her breathless, to mark her in the most primal way the Moon had ever intended. Because she deserved more than heat and impulse and shadows in a forest. She deserved everything.

"You don’t know what you’re saying," I said, my voice low, hoarse, strained from the weight of holding back. "If I touch you now, if I take you, I won’t stop. There’ll be no turning back."

"Good," she said, fierce and breathless. "I don’t want to turn back."

But I stepped back. Just an inch. Just enough to keep my control from shattering entirely. She looked at me like I’d just betrayed her. "No," I said gently, swallowing the ache in my throat. "Not like this. Not in a moment stolen between the trees. Not when you’ve waited your whole life to be claimed by someone who sees you, who honours you."

Her lips parted, and her brows pulled in frustration, maybe pain. She didn’t understand. "I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything," I whispered. "But when I take you... It will be all right. Sacred. Ours."

She blinked, stunned into stillness, and I reached up and cradled her jaw, my thumb brushing the corner of her mouth, wanting to burn this moment into my soul.

"I’m going to Hanka Island tomorrow," I told her, "But when I return... I will go to your father. I will stand before him not as a rogue, not as a beast, but as the Alpha chosen by the Moon for his daughter."

"Rou..." she whispered.

"I will ask him for his blessing. And when I take you," I said, leaning in, my forehead brushing hers, "it will be with the stars above us, not secrets around us. With fire, not haste."

She exhaled, shaky and torn, her fingers digging into the front of my shirt like she didn’t want to let go. Neither did I. "Wait for me, Belle," I breathed. "And when I return, I’ll ask for you with the full weight of who I am."

Then her voice, soft as wind through the trees: "You better come back." I smiled against her skin, full of longing and devotion and the ache of restraint.

"I’ll tear the sea apart if I have to," I vowed.

And that is how Belle and I spent the night, simply as two souls wrapped around each other beneath a canopy of stars. She curled against my chest, her fingers resting softly over my heart like she knew it would ache when she was gone. I held her tighter than I should have, memorizing the shape of her breath, the weight of her presence, the way the forest fell silent around us like even the world didn’t dare disturb what we had.

When the first sliver of morning light pierced through the trees, it hit her hair like gold. I wanted to bottle the sight, keep it, carry it, bury it in my chest so I’d never be without her, even across oceans. I sat up slowly, brushing a leaf from her shoulder as she blinked up at me with that look, the one that made it harder to breathe.

"Don’t say it," she whispered. "Just... kiss me."

I kissed her like it was the last thing I’d ever do, and when I finally pulled away, her hands lingered in my shirt, unwilling to let go. I took them gently in mine, brought them to my lips, and kissed her knuckles.

"I’ll come back for you sweetheart," I said, barely above a whisper.

And that is how I left her, my steps were heavy as I moved toward the river path and the caves that led to Hanka Island but her warmth stayed with me, pressed into my chest and branded into my soul.