Chapter 181: Make Me Feel Like A Woman

Azura’s POV

Rhydor went entirely still. His hands dropped back to his sides, and his breathing hitched in his throat.

He knew exactly which night I was talking about. He didn’t need me to spill out the details.

It was the night the entire axis of our world had violently shifted.

The night we went all the way, almost crossing a physical line that we could never, ever uncross.

It was the exact moment he had stopped treating me like a prisoner and started treating me like something precious.

"I cannot properly explain it," he whispered, his amber eyes locked onto mine with a burning intensity.

"I just know deep down in my soul that I am entirely ready to face any punishment you choose to inflict on me."

"I will wait a hundred miserable years for you if I have to. But please... do not reject me."

"I still want to be your mate, Azura. More than anything."

I stood flat against the heavy wooden door, looking into his desperate face for a long, agonizing moment.

"I was never actually planning to reject you formally, Rhydor," I said, my voice completely steady and even.

He blinked in total shock, his mouth parting slightly as if he couldn’t fully comprehend the words falling from my lips.

"Severing the bond and rejecting you would inflict a massive amount of physical and emotional pain on Logan," I explained, my voice softening by a fraction as I spoke his wolf’s name.

"And I care about Logan far too much to ever intentionally hurt him. He was the only single entity in you who actually cared about my safety from the very beginning."

"He was the only one who actually loved me for who I am."

I paused, my expression hardening instantly as I let the temperature in the room drop back down to below freezing.

I fixed Rhydor with a piercing, brutal stare.

"But you?" I spat out the words dripping with a cold, unyielding disdain. "I do not want a single thing to do with you, Rhydor. To be honest, there are moments where I deeply wish the Moon Goddess had given me only Logan as a fated match."

"Without your miserable soul attached to him."

The devastation on his face was instantaneous.

The very second the words left my mouth, a sharp, deep, utterly unbearable spike of agony came rushing through the awakened mate bond, slamming directly into the center of my chest.

It felt like a heavy weight crushing my lungs, forcing me to feel the exact depth of the wound I had just carved into his spirit.

But I didn’t flinch.

I did not take a single syllable back.

I took a deliberate step forward, forcing him to look down at me as I drove the point home.

"I am entirely serious, Rhydor. I wish with every single ounce of my being that Logan alone was my fated mate. Without you in the picture."

Rhydor gave a slow, miserable nod of his head.

His handsome face smoothed out into a neutral, blank mask, but I could see the violent, agonizing tremor in his jaw as he fought with every shred of his strength to keep his composure from shattering entirely.

His eyes were glassy, drowning in fresh moisture.

"I will... I will let you speak to him then," he whispered, the words barely scraping past his throat as his shoulders sagged in complete defeat.

"Since he is the only one in this body you actually care to see."

He slowly closed his heavy eyelids, drawing in one final, trembling breath.

When his eyes snapped back open a second later, the deep amber irises were completely gone.

They were burning a fierce, brilliant shade of crimson.

Logan stood before me, occupying Rhydor’s massive frame, but his entire posture had shifted into something entirely fluid, soft, and infinitely warm.

He looked down at my face, his bright red eyes pulsing with a gentle, comforting light.

"I know he gave you an incredibly hard time, my love," Logan murmured, his deep voice carrying a rhythmic, soothing purr that instantly eased the tension in my own shoulders. "But inflicting that kind of severe pain on him... it automatically hurts me too. We share the same vessel."

"I do not care," I replied, though my voice lacked the vicious bite I had used on Rhydor.

I looked up into his crimson eyes, a heavy sigh escaping my lips.

"I deeply wish there was a way I could physically separate the two of you. I would do it in a heartbeat."

Logan let out a low, gentle chuckle that vibrated softly through his broad chest.

He shook his head back and forth, a tender smile touching his lips.

"You know that is impossible, my beautiful girl," he murmured.

He lifted a large, scarred hand, his touch incredibly light and reverent as he reached out and gently tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind my ear, his knuckles brushing softly against my cheek.

"I am his wolf, Azura," Logan explained softly, his eyes locking onto mine with an absolute devotion.

"If you love me with all your heart the way I am right now... then whether you want to admit it or not, you love him too."

"Both of us are tied to the same thread. There is no difference between us. He is me. And I am him."

"We are two sides of the same coin."

I looked up into his familiar face, my brow furrowing slightly.

"Is he... is he actively listening to us right now?"

Logan’s smile widened slightly, a playful spark dancing in his red eyes.

"I completely blocked him out before I stepped forward. He is far too drowned in his own sadness to listen to a single word right now. So I did the poor man a massive favor."

I blinked in surprise, my eyebrows shooting up.

"You can actually block him out of his own mind?"

Logan gave a firm, reassuring nod.

"Only if his spirit is broken enough to let me take the reins entirely. And right now... he is willingly letting me have total control."

I let out a slow breath, my shoulders dropping as I nodded my head in understanding.

"I didn’t want to spend my life hating him, Logan," I admitted quietly, my voice dropping into a rare, vulnerable whisper.

"But it is not an easy thing to just let go of everything he did to me. It’s not that simple."

"I know," Logan murmured, his voice dripping with an intense, profound understanding.

He tilted his head slightly to the side, his crimson gaze boring into my soul.

"Be honest with me, Azura. Are you actually in love with him?"

I stared directly up into his face.

It was Logan’s beautiful spirit looking back at me, but underneath the crimson glow, it was still Rhydor’s physical face.

The wolf I loved with everything I had, wearing the exact face of the man I had spent months despising.

If I loved the beast... did that truly mean I loved the man who carried him?

"To be honest with you, Logan..." I whispered, the words barely audible as a sudden wave of warmth rushed up my neck.

"I am entirely terrified. I am scared to death of finally giving in to this bond."

Logan reached out, his movements slow and deliberate as he placed his large hands gently against the sides of my face, his palms warm against my skin, forcing me to hold his steady gaze.

"If he were lying to you right now about wanting to fix things between you two... I promise you I would have violently ruined his plans a very long time ago."

"But he is not lying to you, Azura. He truly, desperately wants to make things right with you. He never wants to cause you a single drop of pain ever again."

"I know he is trying," I muttered, a streak of doubt clouding my mind.

"But what if everything changes down the line? What if he turns back into the monster he was?"

"I have known that man his entire life," Logan stated firmly, his voice ringing with absolute certainty.

"He is a man of his word. Even when he is dealing with his worst enemies, he never breaks a promise."

"He told the entire pack he wanted to make Isadora his Luna," I cut him off sharply, the lingering sting of that rejection flaring up in my throat. "And look what happened there. He completely went back on his word."

Logan let out a soft, patient sigh, his thumbs gently wiping the corners of my eyes.

"Are you trying to tell me that you can actually fight a true mate bond forever, Azura? If the Moon Goddess wants a specific path for you, and you try to resist the pull too hard..."

He stepped even closer, his massive frame completely enveloping my personal space as his voice dropped into a mesmerizing whisper.

"The exact day that your resistance finally breaks... You will realize you have absolutely nothing left to hold onto. You will realize that the exact thing you were trying so hard to fight against... is the one thing you actually want most in the entire world."

He cradled my face in his large palms, his touch incredibly warm.

"That is exactly what happened to him, my love. He tried with everything he had to resist the pull of you."

"He genuinely thought Isadora was the easy, safe answer to his problems. But after that fateful night... after you willingly risked your entire life to save him from the darkness..."

His red eyes burned with a brilliant, emotional light.

"Every single stone wall he had built around his heart came crashing down into the dirt," Logan whispered fiercely.

"He broke things off with Isadora. He intentionally hurt someone he genuinely cared about, all because he wanted to make his true mate happy. He chose you."

He squeezed my cheeks gently, his eyes pleading with mine.

"You heard the man, Azura. He is entirely ready to face any punishment you throw at him. He will wait for you forever."

"Just please... give him a single chance to prove it to you."

He searched the depths of my grey eyes, his voice breaking into a bare murmur.

"Please, Azura."

I looked up into his brilliant red eyes, feeling the fierce, unwavering devotion of the wolf I loved, wrapped entirely inside the physical form of the man I had fought against for so long.

The wall inside my own chest felt a noticeable crack forming along its surface.

"I will try," I whispered into the silence of the room.

A massive, breathtaking smile broke across Logan’s face, radiant with pure, unadulterated joy.

He leaned down slowly and pressed a soft, lingering kiss directly against the center of my forehead.

It was gentle, reverent, and completely devoid of demands. When he finally pulled back, a faint, knowing look crossed his features.

"I will go for now and let him return," he murmured, a small smirk touching his lips as he began to recede.

"But I wanted to tell you one last thing before I go."

I frowned slightly, looking at him in confusion.

"What is it?"

"I can feel her," Logan whispered, his red eyes glowing with an intense excitement.

My heart skipped a beat.

"Feel who?"

"Your inner wolf," he replied, his smile widening into something primal and beautiful. "My fated mate. I can feel her spirit vibrating inside you."

He paused, letting the revelation hang in the quiet air.

"I do not know the reason why I cannot fully hear her voice yet," he murmured. "But I can completely feel her presence waking up. And I absolutely cannot wait to finally meet her face to face."

He gently closed his heavy eyelids, the crimson light fading instantly beneath his lashes.

When his eyes snapped open a second later, the deep red was gone, replaced by the familiar, intense amber.

Rhydor was back.

His large hands were still cradling the sides of my face, his thumbs resting against my cheekbones.

The moment he realized where his hands were, he cleared his throat nervously, a deep flush creeping up his neck as he slowly pulled his hands back and took a deliberate step away from my space.

"I... I will let you get some rest now," he stammered, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked toward the floor. "If you need a single thing... just let me know. I’ll be close."

He turned his massive body around, his boots scraping against the stone as he walked toward the heavy wooden door.

"Wait," I called out quickly, the word escaping my throat before I could stop it.

He froze instantly, his hand hovering inches away from the iron door handle.

He did not turn around immediately, his broad shoulders tensing as he waited.

"What is it, Azura?" he asked, his voice quiet and cautious.

I hesitated, a sudden, fierce wave of intense heat rushing straight up to my cheeks.

My face felt entirely warm, and every single defensive instinct in my body screamed at me to shut my mouth and let him leave.

But I was not a coward. I had never been a coward.

"I want to..." I started, my voice cracking slightly as I forced the words out.

Rhydor, who still had his back turned to me, said with his voice dropping into a soft, encouraging murmur.

"Go on. Just say it. Whatever it is you want, Azura. Just say it."

I drew in one deep, final breath, squaring my shoulders as I looked him dead in the eye.

"Make me feel like a woman."