The Fire In The Blood
635 Words
The heavy oak door clicked shut behind the guard, leaving the fire-lit chamber suffocatingly quiet.
I scrambled backward until the carved wooden headboard bit hard into my spine, my fingers clawing into the thick fur blankets. Kaelen didn't take another step forward, but his presence filled every cubic inch of the room—heavy, suffocating, and absolute.
His amber eyes raked over my face, tracking the frantic, erratic pulse hammering at the hollow of my throat.
"You thought you could hide it," Kaelen murmured, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that scraped against my nerve endings. "You crossed my border on bleeding feet, playing the part of a terrified human running for her life. But a human would have broken miles back. A human heart wouldn't be beating this fast, echoing like a war drum in my chest."
My breath hitched. I pressed my teeth hard into my lower lip, tasting iron. For years, I had trained myself to suppress every ounce of my wolf, burying her deep down in the dark to survive Victor’s brutal regime. Weakness kept you alive; showing your wolf meant a cage, a collar, or worse.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied, though my voice shook violently.
"Liar," Kaelen growled.
In a fraction of a second, the distance between us vanished. He didn't walk; he struck like an apex predator. Before I could blink, his large, calloused hands caught my wrists, pinning them softly against the mattress on either side of my head.
A bolt of pure, white-hot electricity tore through my veins.
It wasn't just a touch—it was a detonation. My inner wolf, starved, battered, and locked away for years, violently clawed her way to the surface, howling a frantic, joyous response to the raw, dominant heat radiating from the alpha holding me down. My chest heaved as an answering fire flared deep inside my ribs, burning hot enough to melt ice.
"Let me go!" I gasped, twisting wildly beneath him, high on adrenaline and sheer, terrifying panic. "Victor is going to come for me. He won't leave me alone, and if you keep me here—"
"Let him come," Kaelen interrupted, his face inches from mine. His pupils were blown wide, completely swallowing his amber irises as his own wolf raged just beneath his skin. "Let every bastard from the eastern pack march up these mountain stones. I will tear them apart with my bare hands before I let anyone lay a finger on what is mine."
"I am not yours!" I spat back, chest pressed against his, my heart hammering like a trapped bird against a cage of bone. The fury tasted like smoke and copper on my tongue. "I didn't run halfway across the country just to trade one tyrant for another! Get off me!"
A dark, dangerous thrill flickered in Kaelen's eyes. He didn't flinch away from my defiance; he leaned into it, his breathing turning ragged as his nose brushed the sensitive skin just below my ear, inhaling my scent deep.
"You think I'm a tyrant?" he whispered, his lips grazing my jawline, sending a fresh wave of liquid fire racing straight to my core. "A tyrant takes. I give. And right now, every drop of blood in my body is screaming that you belong to me, wolf to wolf, soul to soul."
My body betrayed me. Despite the rage, despite the terror, my core liquefied at the heat of his touch. My fingers—free now from his grip—clutched instinctively at the thick lapels of his tunic, pulling him closer even as my mind screamed at me to fight.
Kaelen groaned, a raw, primal sound of absolute surrender and possession, and captured my lips in a kiss that tasted like smoke, thunder, and total destruction.
- Writer
