Chapter 3 3

RANDOM FACT: Wolves can smell prey from more than a mile away, and their chase instinct is triggered not by hunger alone, but by movement. The moment you run, the predator in them wakes up.

——————

The world around me shifts. 

It feels like my soul is being ripped out of my body and pulled. Hard. It feels almost as if I’ve forgotten how to breathe. Everything goes black— then suddenly, I’m on the ground. 

I’m panting, my heart racing faster with every breath that leaves my body. I’m on all fours, and even though I want to raise my head, I can’t move. It’s as if there’s something far more than I can comprehend in front of me. The ground itself is pitch black, like a lake of darkness. I can see my own reflection, but… only that of my body. Not my face. 

And the pressure grows. It pushes every inch of my body, like it’s demanding I go on my face and bow and beg for forgiveness. It’s almost like it's finding its way into my body too, grabbing everything it can, squeezing me, making it hard for me to breathe— my thing is pulsing again. It’s begging for more. Asking for nothing else to be done to it. Even now, while I can barely understand anything that’s going on, my body is no longer listening to me.

He’s walking to me. 

Vetiver. Amber. Sandalwood. Leather. Vanilla. All of these scents find their way into my nose and slowly, I feel myself start to raise my head. The second I do so, I realize he’s kneeling. The scent grows stronger, and my stomach turns but not in a bad way. I want to bury my face into his neck, I need him. That’s all I know now. Him. 

I see his face again. And his eyes— they’re gold now. And soft. It looks like I’m staring at something that could kill me with just a kiss. And I wouldn’t even regret it. “Run.”

My body moves the second he says that word. And I’m running. 

I don’t know where I’m running to, I don’t even know where I found the energy to. It’s almost as if my body is suddenly filled with adrenaline and all the fear I was feeling earlier has finally overpowered the horniness. I’m thinking about Claire, force myself to hold onto the memory that is her. I try to think of her smile as I run, try to think of the way she smiles at me when I buy her favorite cupcake. Try to think of everything else but him. 

And all of a sudden, my legs stop. 

I’m panting more than I did before and everywhere looks different now. It looks like I’m in a forest, surrounded by trees with only the light of the moon showing me the path. There’s no sign of life, or evidence of another person here. Like I’m in an entirely different place from Garouihl. My brain starts flashing again with different thoughts, pain wracking through every rib in my body as I try to think of what else to do before I hear a voice say behind me, “Found you.”

The moment I turn to see who it is, a hand grabs me by the neck and pins me to the bark of the tree. I’m choking, trying to rip his hands away but it’s pointless. My feet are barely touching the ground and I know almost instinctively that I can’t fight. I can’t run. Fighting or trying to fight is pointless. 

Kael Veyne stares at me, his face void of any emotions. He’s not squeezing me too tightly that I can’t breathe, but I can’t move. And then it happens again. The pressure. This time it hurts. It hurts so much that I feel the need to scream. It’s almost as if every bone in my body is trying to break itself but the moment I think I’m about to pass out, pleasure fills me. 

It starts from the tips of my fingers and spreads like wildfire, crawling up my veins, rushing to my head until I feel dizzy. My eyes are starting to see in different colours, but his hand around my throat keeps me upright and awake. 

He leans in closer, and for a second, my mind flashes back to Aaron, but the second I feel his nose on my neck, every thought of that idiot disappears. Searing heat shifts through me, lighting my veins on fire as I let out a gasp. 

His scent follows after— stronger, intoxicating, pulling me under. Every nerve in my body feels like it’s bundling all over each other, and my thing is throbbing. Begging for his hand to move past my skin. To touch me anywhere else. To feel me more. Take me to do whatever he wants. 

And I know I wouldn’t even try to fight him. 

“Kael—” 

The second I whisper his name, I am not sure what I expected but it was not the way he growled after, sending vibrations straight down to the thing between my thighs. I'm trembling, shaking, and instead of me screaming at the top of my lungs and hoping someone will come rescue me, I don’t. I want to hear him growl again.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he inhales, slow, deliberate, dragging it out like he’s memorizing me, everything about my scent. And then he lets out his tongue, dragging it across my neck. 

Static feels my brain the second I feel him lick me. My hands— traitorous hands— that are supposed to push his hand away are grabbing his muscular hands, my nails digging into his skin as if I’m trying to make sure he doesn’t move away from me.

He pulls away slightly and his golden eyes lock on mine, flickering with something primal, something dangerous, but softer than before. Like tasting him has opened up every secret in my head, like he knows my entire soul as he says against my skin, his breath hot and smelling faintly of smoke and vanilla. “You ran,”

Then he leans into me, his eyes now staring at my lips as he sets me softly to the ground. “But I found you. And you wanted that,”

My lips part, and I try to speak, I really try to. But he’s a foot taller than I am, and his eyes are piercing into my soul. I’m trying not to think of the way my member is pressing into my pants, or the way I want to go on my knees and give him whatever he wants, but with the way he’s looking at me, it seems almost as if he already knows everything. 

“No,”

My protest is weak, and not even half believable. He doesn’t say anything, not immediately. Instead, he comes even closer, his large body caging mine against the bark while the moonlight shone every hard line of muscle crushing into me. I can feel the heat radiating through his chest, the slow rise and fall of his breathing, steady in contrast to mine like it was trying to soothe me. 

I wait for that terrifying pressure to come, but what I feel next is not as painful as that. Instead, it’s those things again. Wrapping around my body, keeping me stiff and unable to move as his mouth hovers a breath away from mine while he whispers, voice low and rough, “Say it. Admit it. Say yes,”

… fuck. 

All of a sudden, his lips are on mine but it’s nothing like anything I’ve ever felt. Its almost as if whatever kisses I’ve shared with previous people never existed as his tongue shoves itself into my mouth like he owns me, like I’ve been his from the start.

My head slams back against the tree from the force as his pheromones hit me like a tidal wave— all five of them stream through my veins, reaching into my lungs and burning it until there’s no air left that isn’t of him.

I moan into his mouth, my hands moving to his body as I dig into it. I want to feel disgust but it’s impossible when all I want is my legs wrapped around his waist while he digs me even deeper into the tree. 

His free hand grabs my hip, pulling me closer, grinding me against the hard press of his body. I can also feel him down there, and the mere thought of that inside me is almost driving me insane with desire. 

I start to pull away, wanting to breathe, or say his name, or maybe just fucking look at him, but he starts growling again. It’s so low I almost don’t hear it as he says, “Mine,”

His teeth scrape my bottom lip. Pain moves through me but before I can react, he drags his tongue across the wound he leaves as he says almost like a soft groan, “I found you. You’re mine.”

His. I am His. 

“No.” The word rips out of me, hoarse, desperate. He startles and moves away slightly, and I use that small window of surprise to slip underneath his arms and start slowly back away. Everything in me is ordering me to return to him. That nowhere could be safe. Nowhere would ever be safe. I need him to be with me. But I don’t. Instead, I say quietly, “I have to wake up,”

For a long, suffocating heartbeat, Kael only stares at me. Shadows start to form all around him, swirling all over his body, then he says, low and final, “Call for me again,” And like a prayer, he adds,  “And I’ll come.”

And just like that—

The weight collapses. The ground tilts. Darkness swallows me whole.

I wake choking on air.