Exposed
1345 Words
Elle POV
“Time to wake up.”
The voice was soft—female—but it sliced through the darkness like a blade. My eyelids fluttered, heavy, disobedient, until the murk sharpened into shape.
A ceiling.
A bed beneath me.
My wrists bound behind my back.
Panic shot through me before memory slammed in place: the contract, the dragon, the blood, the darkness.
I jerked upright—or tried to—but the restraints bit into my skin, forcing me still.
The room around me was wrong. Too polished. Too extravagant. Too still.
A carved bed stood on the other side of a set of gilded bars—my cage was built directly inside someone’s suite. Plush carpets. A sitting area. A massive bed draped in dark silks. The air smelled of smoke and something ancient.
A woman stood before my cage door, dressed in a crisp uniform, blonde hair knotted tightly at the base of her skull. She looked barely twenty—but dragons always did, even when they were centuries old.
Her blue eyes swept over me with a bland sort of disappointment.
“So it’s a rogue wolf this time,” she sighed. “Scrawny little thing. I doubt the prince will be impressed, but…” She shrugged. “We’ll make do.”
Heat rose to my cheeks. I hated how small her words made me feel.
“My name is Amber,” she continued briskly. “I prepare the prince’s Dolls. Only he or I will see you until your contract ends. This—” she gestured to the sprawling suite, “—is His Highness’s chamber. You will remain in your cage unless he decides otherwise. Understood?”
My voice barely made it out. “Yes.”
She unlocked the door and motioned sharply. “On your feet. The sooner you’re made presentable, the better.”
Her fingers undid my restraints, but she never left the room as she led me into a smaller adjoining space—a washroom tiled in gleaming obsidian stone, steam curling gently from the shower.
When her eyes lingered on me, I froze.
I’d never been naked in front of anyone. Rogues avoided packs. I’d never shifted. I’d never run wild and free with others. I’d always been alone, hidden, small.
Amber noticed.
“You’ve never shown your body,” she remarked, not unkindly—just curious.
“No.”
She exhaled slowly. “Do you understand what you signed up for?”
The question stung.
“Yes.”
Her expression didn’t soften, but she turned her back all the same.
I undressed with shaking fingers, stepping into warmth unlike anything I’d felt in years. The water washed away dirt, blood, fear—but it couldn’t touch the dread that sat heavy in my chest.
I dried quickly and slipped into the thin undergarments waiting on the counter.
Amber turned, frowned, and clicked her tongue. “Do you not eat?”
“When I can.”
She muttered something under her breath and pushed me gently onto a stool. The brush tugged through my hair, warm air drying it as she worked.
“You are bruised. Too thin. But underneath that, you’re… surprisingly beautiful. Perhaps the prince won’t reject you after all.”
My stomach twisted.
“Listen carefully,” she continued, forcing my chin up so she could meet my eyes. “You will be blindfolded. You will be gagged. You will stay silent unless he removes it. You will be placed exactly where he wants you. If you fight him—if you even startle him—you will not last here. Do you understand me, rogue?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
The submission tasted bitter on my tongue.
Amber led me toward a tall metal bar fixed into the floor and ceiling. It gleamed dangerously in the dim light.
“Against the bar,” she ordered.
I obeyed.
A cold collar snapped around my throat. The metal clicked into place, locking me upright. A chain joined it to the bar, forcing me to remain arched, vulnerable.
Then came the cuffs.
My wrists were pulled behind me and secured to a secondary rod.
My ankles were bound, spread just enough to force my stance open.
My back arched involuntarily under the tension.
I could barely breathe.
“This will always remain on you,” Amber said as she tugged the collar once. “The prince prefers his Dolls controlled.”
My heart hammered as she slid a soft black blindfold over my eyes, drowning the room in darkness.
My breath came quicker, shorter.
Then came the gag.
Cold metal brushed my lips before being pushed into my mouth, securing itself against my teeth. My desperate inhale filled with the scent of leather and something metallic and sharp.
A small, broken sound escaped me.
Amber stepped away.
“Good luck, little wolf.”
The door clicked.
Her footsteps faded.
And then—
A breath.
A presence.
Heat rolled across the room like a living thing, brushing my skin with fire-kissed air.
I hadn’t heard him enter. Dragons could move without sound when they wanted to. Nothing in my life had ever terrified me more than the silence that swallowed the room now.
A low chuckle unfurled behind me—dark, smooth, wicked.
“So you’re the solution.”
My knees nearly buckled.
He stepped closer. I felt him, even without sight. An aura of heat, power, and something primal enough to make my wolfless soul shrink inside me.
He inhaled deeply—slowly—and a shiver rattled down my spine.
“You reek of fear,” he murmured. “And innocence.”
His breath brushed the back of my neck.
My skin erupted in goosebumps.
“This night will test you.” His tone was calm, patient even, but beneath it simmered something volatile. “If you pass, I will keep you. Do not mistake this arrangement—I do not seek pleasure. I seek control. Quiet. Relief from the curse.”
His fingers brushed my hip.
I gasped behind the gag.
“But my men were right,” he said softly. “You’ve never been touched, have you?”
His hand slid up my ribcage, warm and firm, eliciting a tremor I couldn’t suppress. Embarrassment burned through me—why was my body responding to him? To this?
“There,” he whispered, amused. “I can smell it.”
He grazed his fingers over the thin fabric of my bra, then—
Snap.
The clasp broke cleanly. The straps fell away.
Cold air hit my exposed skin.
“I will not harm you, little wolf,” he murmured. “Something so perfect should not be broken. Not yet.”
His touch skimmed along my breast, gentle yet authoritative—claiming rather than exploring. Pleasure sparked through me, shocking and unwanted. I trembled harder.
Then suddenly—
He withdrew.
The absence of his warmth was worse than his touch.
A hand cupped the back of my thigh and lifted me effortlessly. I let out a muffled cry as he carried me—weightless—to what could only be the massive bed. He set me down on soft sheets, securing one ankle with a sharp metallic click.
Then—
The cage door slammed.
He was gone.
Silence crashed over me like a wave.
I rolled shakily onto my side, blindfold still suffocating the world. My arms curled around my chest, trying—and failing—to hide myself from the emptiness he left behind.
Tears slid hot and silent down my cheeks.
Rejection.
Of course.
He was a dragon. I was a rogue. What fantasy had I let myself believe? That my scent, my fear, my trembling… would be enough?
My body still tingled where he’d touched me.
I hated that I missed his warmth.
I hated that I wondered what would happen tomorrow.
But most of all—
I hated that somewhere deep in my trembling chest, a small, desperate part of me prayed he would come back.
- Writer
