I Thought It Was Just One Night

I never planned to see him again.

One night. That's all it was supposed to be. I met Jace Carter at a club—golden hair, a wicked smile, and a body that moved like sin itself. We barely made it to the hotel bed before tearing each other apart. It was raw, addictive, and far too intimate.

But I don't do feelings.

I left before sunrise, dropped a hundred-dollar bill on the nightstand, and told myself it meant nothing. Just another body. Just another game.

Then he showed up in my economics class—transfer student, top of his class, and now my seatmate.

"Hello, Lynn," he said, his eyes gleaming. "Miss me?"

He started closing in. Sitting too close. Touching too often. Whispering things that stirred something inside me I couldn't name.

Until the night he kissed me in the lab. Until the cameras flashed. Until I saw the cold satisfaction in his eyes.

That's when he told me the truth—

He's not just a man.

He's an Alpha.

And I'm the Omega he's been hunting.

I thought I was playing him.

Turns out, I was his from the start.

...

The hotel room door slammed behind us, muffling the pulse of the city below. Jace pushed me back against the wall, his hands roaming my body like he already owned it. Our kisses were frantic, bruising, impossibly deep—months of tension erupting in one explosive night.

His fingers slid up my thigh, his breath hot against my neck. "You drive me crazy," he growled, his voice rough with need.

"Good," I whispered, tugging at his shirt, desperate to feel skin against skin. His muscles flexed beneath my touch, and I let myself fall into it—the chaos, the heat, the escape.

We stumbled toward the bed, shedding clothes like secrets. When he entered me, the world around us vanished. His rhythm was demanding, unrelenting, but his eyes—God, his eyes—never left mine. There was something in them that made my chest tighten. Something I didn't want to name.

He moved like he knew every part of me, like he'd memorized my body in another life. And for a few hours, I let him. I let him believe he was touching something real. I let myself believe it, too.

"You're more than I imagined," he murmured against my collarbone, his voice trembling in a way that felt too honest. "This is... different."

I didn't respond. I just pulled him closer, silencing him with the kind of kiss that meant nothing and everything all at once.

When it was over, our bodies tangled in the sheets, I lay awake beside him, watching the shadows crawl across his face. He looked peaceful. Vulnerable. Like he trusted me.

A mistake.

I slipped from the bed and padded across the room, naked but composed. My dress lay crumpled on the floor, heels kicked into a corner. I dressed in silence, gathering my hair into a ponytail with practiced ease.

He stirred as I reached into my purse and pulled out a crisp hundred-dollar bill.

"Lynn?" he murmured, blinking sleep from his eyes, a slow smile spreading across his lips. "Hey... come back to bed."

I didn't answer.

Instead, I placed the bill on the nightstand, folding it precisely in half.

His eyes found the money and froze. "What the hell is that?"

I shrugged, slipping on my jacket. "Consider it payment. For a good night."

His expression crumpled, confusion giving way to disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"It was fun," I said coolly, avoiding his gaze. "But that's all it was. Just fun."

Something in his face changed. He sat up, the sheet falling loosely around his waist. "You don't mean that."

I gave a small, bitter laugh. "You don't know me, Jace. Don't pretend this was anything more than what it was."

His jaw tightened, and I saw it—the flicker of something wounded in his eyes. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, like he couldn't find the right words. Like he didn't know how to respond to being discarded.

I turned away.

Better this way.

Cleaner.

Colder.

I didn't look back as I walked out the door, heels clicking against the hallway floor like a metronome. My heart pounded in my chest, and for one foolish second, I almost stopped. Almost turned around.

But then I remembered who I was.

What I'd seen growing up.

What love really meant.

Nothing.

Just a lie wrapped in pretty words.

I stepped into the elevator and let the doors close behind me, sealing off the night like a finished transaction.

I didn't see the way Jace's eyes darkened as he stared at the money on the nightstand.

I didn't hear the sharp exhale of pain he let out once the silence swallowed him.

And I didn't know that in trying to protect myself, I'd just broken something sacred.