5. Fire
1663 Words
AVERY
The pack land was massive.
Not just large, no... It looked endless. Sprawling. Alive in a way that made the hairs on my neck stand up. This wasn’t some small, backwoods pack living in obscurity. No, this place radiated power and history, etched into every inch of the land.
"What did Kylen do to anger them?" I asked, confused. I knew this was about Kylen, but what did he do to them?
"He must have f****d something up," Ember scoffed. "It wasn't new to that piece of shit."
She was sounding more healed and rested. The fresh air did so much wonder to us.
"And what do you think of this broody creature?" I asked, taking a quick look at Shade. He was silently following me, his brow knotted.
"He is okay."
I sighed and continued to walk, and stopped just when I reached the pack house. It wasn’t a house. It was a goddamn mansion.
Red brick walls rose up like a fortress, sharp-edged and immovable against the backdrop of green forest. Wide double doors of black wood sat at the top of a set of stone steps, guarded by thick columns and windows that glared like cold, watchful eyes. The architecture was sharp, elegant, and coldly intimidating, like it had been designed not just to house a pack, but to command one.
It was bigger than anything I’d ever seen.
Elkmoon wasn’t exactly small. We had our own pack house, but compared to this? Elkmoon looked like a quaint village. Here, everything was… more. Bigger. Bolder. Dangerous.
Cottages dotted the land around the pack house, at least a hundred of them or more. All arranged like chess pieces around a king. Some had smoke curling from their chimneys. Others had open windows and clotheslines swaying in the breeze, as if the wolves who lived here had nothing to fear. As if they were untouchable.
Behind it all, the woods stretched endlessly, thick and wild. I could see the outlines of trees standing like sentinels, too dense to see past. The kind of forest that whispered secrets you didn’t want to hear. The kind of place wolves disappeared into and never came back from.
I swallowed hard.
The silence settled around me thickly, until the crunch of footsteps behind me broke it, reminding me I wasn't a guest here. Oh, yes, I was Kylen's punishment. But if only then knew...
"Don't tell them yet. Until you are sure you can trust them. Stay here. This is the safest option," Ember ordered, and I knew she was right. They hated Kylen, and I hated Kylen, but for now... I had to keep the ruse that Kylen would be hurt by my disappearence.
Until I was sure I could tell them the truth.
I turned slightly and found Shade following close behind, his expression hard and unreadable. His brows were drawn low, eyes sharp as they flicked from the woods to me, like he was sizing me up. Again. Maybe he was. Maybe I was nothing but a piece on a board to him. A pawn.
But I was grateful to be a pawn, for now, and then I would become who I was supposed to be. A fucki.ng queen.
“What?” I asked before I could stop myself, my voice low and flat. "Do you want to say something?"
He didn’t answer. Just stared at me like I was some kind of puzzle he hadn’t solved yet.
“You look too comfortable for someone who had just been kidnapped,” he said quietly, like he meant for the wind to carry his words away.
I shrugged.
“Didn’t exactly get a say in coming here, did I? So, what do you want me to do now? Cry? Throw a temper tantrum?”
That earned me a small, humorless smile.
He stepped closer, his presence oppressive and strangely calm at the same time.
With his dark hair falling in his face and his eyes heavy with something I didn’t want to name, he made me feel… trapped. And oddly liberated.
“You’re here now,” he said. “And no amount of tears is going to save you."
“Yeah, look at me. I’m not crying.” I narrowed my eyes, folding my arms tightly over my chest as I took a step back. “So stop being your delightful self for a second, why don't you?” I grunted with a huff.
His gaze lingered on my face, unreadable. Something flickered in his eyes—approval maybe, or amusement—but it was gone too quickly to name. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, just watched me like I was a puzzle he would like to solve... and do other things.
I turned away before he could see the flush rising in my cheeks.
The pack house loomed in front of us, and I stared up at it, wondering how many eyes were behind those windows. How many people already knew I was here, and how many of them wanted to hurt and break me.
But this was still a sanctuary. This was better than the room I left behind.
Shade let out a breath, the sound low and sharp.
“You think you’re clever,” he said.
“I know I am," I said with a shrug.
That made him smile. Not the cold one I’d seen before, but something smaller. Rough around the edges. His head tilted slightly, just enough for a lock of dark hair to fall over his eye, and I had this intense urge to push it back. I didn't. That would be absurd.
“And stubborn.” He stepped closer, close enough for me to see silver dust in his ice-blue eyes, close enough to feel his breath on my skin. "I will break you." His voice was a quiet promise.
"You will find me extremely unbreakable, Shade," I said, glaring up at him.
I didn’t back down, though I felt the air between us shift. The tension wrapped around my ribs and pulled tight. I could smell him now. It wasn’t fair that someone so infuriating could also look like a walking storm and smell like every weakness I’d ever had.
His voice dropped. “You really think you can handle what I have planned for you?”
I lifted my chin, heart pounding in a way that had nothing to do with fear. “Try your best, Shade. You're not ready for someone like me," I bit out, frowning. "Let's see if you can keep up with me."
Shade blinked, once. Slowly. Like his brain was rebooting just from looking at me.
Then his gaze dropped—to my lips.
Just for a second.
But it was enough.
My breath caught. Heat curled low in my belly like a flame licking at the edges of reason.
His jaw flexed, and I saw the way his hands curled at his sides, like he was fighting the urge to touch me.
“What the f**k are you?” he rasped, voice thick like smoke, rough like gravel.
I let my lips curve, slow and knowing. Oh, I am done playing the victim. I would give him every reason to believe who he thought I was. Until I was ready to share my secrets.
"You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" I murmured, stepping in until there was barely a breath of space between us. My chest brushed his, and he tensed like a taut wire about to snap. My ni.pples tingled, but I ignored it as I looked into his blue eyes that had gone too dark.
He didn’t move. He didn’t dare.
I dragged a single finger down the center of his chest, stopping just above his belt. His muscles twitched beneath my touch.
“What else would you like to know?” I whispered, voice honey-sweet and molten-dark. “How I taste? How I sound when I come apart in someone’s hands?” I tilted my head, biting my lower lip as I looked up at him. “Or do you want to know just how much I can eat?"
Shade let out a sound, part growl, part gasp. His wolf flared behind his eyes, stormy and wild. He wasn't ready for this, was he?
"You’re playing with fire," he said tightly, voice pitched low and taut with restraint. "Don't. This isn't your home. You're not the Luna here. You think you are going to get out of this by being..." He let out a disgusted grunt, like I personally offended him. "You're my prisoner. Nothing else."
I leaned in, my lips grazing the shell of his ear. “Do I get a handcuff?” I whispered, my eyes wide. He blinked. His breath hitched. "How would you punish me? What would you do? Bite me?"
I could feel the storm rising inside him, the war between logic and desire. One twitch from me and he would lose that control. One more touch, and he would take me, rules be damned.
Oh, I wanted to break this powerful man. To make him make me feel alive.
I had been so dead for a while in that room, but my fire was slowly burning again, and I wanted to burn him in it.
"You made him speechless," Ember said, looking proud. "Welcome back, Avery. Kylen made you... into someone you are not."
"I feel so good, Ember. So fu.cking great. I think I am going to enjoy torturing him, and I am going to enjoy destroying Kylen and his bitches. Mark my word."
I let my fingers trail back up his chest, slow and teasing, ending with a light tap under his chin as I stepped back.
“You gonna keep staring at me like that, Shade?” I asked, voice like velvet. “Or are you going to feed me?”
He choked on air, then took a step back from me.
"Come in."
___
- Writer
