MoonFlames: Cornered By Fated Fangs

Simone "Please tell me that's a video." My voice came out thin. My hand was already on Rai's bedroom door, one inch from pushing it open. Behind the door, a woman moaned. I told myself it was porn. Rai watched it sometimes. He'd told me so, grinning, like it was nothing. Tonight was going to be my first night with the boyfriend I'd waited for. I pushed the door open to see a blonde woman on his bed and Rai was on top of her. My bag slipped off my shoulder and hit the floor. Rai's head turned slowly. He didn't even look sorry. A slow smile pulled at his mouth, like I was a show he'd forgotten to turn off. "Simone. You're early." My throat closed. I stared at him, then at the blonde, who pulled the sheet up with a small, bored sigh. "Who is she?" I managed. "Does it matter?" Rai pushed off the bed and pulled his jeans up, taking his time. "Don't make that face. You look like a kicked puppy." "You told me you were watching porn." My laugh came out cracked. "I stood outside your door like an i***t, telling myself it was porn." Heat climbed up my neck. My fingers were shaking, so I curled them into fists. "How long?" I asked. Rai shrugged. "Since the second week." The room tilted. Four months of him kissing my forehead, telling me he'd wait for me, that I was worth waiting for. "You said you respected me." "I said what you needed to hear." He stepped closer. He tilted his head and studied my face, his eyes lingering on mine, one green, one blue. His lip curled. "God, those eyes. I always thought they were creepy. Like something that crawled out of a doll factory." My jaw tightened. "Don't." "Walking Barbie doll. Pretty, dumb, and stuck with the same face." He flicked a strand of my hair. "Did you really think I'd stay with a girl who won't even open her legs?" "I'm leaving," I told him. My voice shook, but I stepped back anyway. "And I'm telling the elders. Your father sits on that council. Let's see what he thinks when I tell him what kind of boy raised in his house cheats and lies and treats girls like this." The laughing stopped and Rai's smile faded. His shoulders dropped, head lowered, and when he lifted it again, the brown in his eyes was gone. They glowed yellow. I stumbled back into the doorframe. "What... what are your eyes..." "The elders?" He crossed the room in two steps. "You think I'm scared of the elders, Simone?" His hand closed around my throat. My back slammed against the wall. Pain split across my neck as something sharp pushed into my skin. I looked down and his fingers weren't fingers anymore. Black claws, long and curved, sank into my flesh. "You really are a pathetic little human," Rai whispered, his face an inch from mine. "Everyone in this town knows what we are. Everyone but you. Your family hid you well, didn't they? Poor, clueless Simone. Stupid enough to think she lived among normal people." Stars burst in front of my eyes. His claws dug deeper. "You'll keep your mouth shut," he told me. "Or I'll rip out your tongue myself." He let go. I hit the floor coughing. I tried to scream. A thin, broken breath scraped out of me, and nothing else. "Oh, that'll last a few hours," Rai said, wiping his claws on the blonde's sheet. "Maybe longer. Shame. I liked hearing you beg." I crawled for the door and his boot came down on my hand stopping me. "Where do you think you're going?" He crouched, grabbed my hair, and yanked my head up. "You threatened me in my own house." I shook my head. My lips shaped the word please. No sound. "Aww." He pouted. Then his voice went flat. "Too late." He reached into his nightstand. A small metal case clicked open. Inside lay a needle, thin and long, with a vial of pink liquid. My heart slammed into my ribs. I thrashed and kicked at the floor. He pinned my arm under his knee like I weighed nothing. "Know what this is?" He held the vial up to the light. "Aphrodisiac. Strong stuff. Made for wolves. For a human?" His grin widened. "You'll be begging for it by the time I'm done." I shook my head again and again. I tried to bite his hand but he slapped me so hard my vision flashed white. The needle slid into my neck. My head dropped back against the floorboards, and the ceiling blurred. "There," Rai cooed, patting my cheek. "Better. Quieter." "Rai," the blonde called from the bed, a little nervous now. "Are you sure about this? She looks bad." "Relax." He stood and wiped his hands. "I've got a better idea than killing her. Killing's too clean." He pulled out his phone and dialed. I couldn't lift my arm. Every breath dragged heat into my chest. My thighs clenched on their own, and shame burned through me even as my body betrayed me. "It's me," Rai spoke into the phone. "Yeah. The human girl, the one I told you about. Bring everyone." He listened. A cruel laugh scraped out of him. "All nine of you. And keep the sick ones near the front." My eyes fluttered. I forced them to focus on him. He ended the call and crouched beside me again, smiling that gentle, awful smile he used to wear when he kissed my forehead. "Nine rogues, sweetheart. They haven't had a woman in months. Five of them are carrying a disease no one can cure." He stroked my hair, "I'd say I'm sorry, but I plan to be far away when they start." He kicked my stomach so hard, I spat blood. Then he dragged me outside, I just knew he was taking me to my death.