Chapter 7: Den of Shirtless Predators
1112 Words
I couldn’t breathe. Not because the air was gone, but because he was too close.
Viper’s presence slammed into me, wild and scorching. His emotions pouring through the bond like gasoline poured over embers. Power. Hunger. Possession.
My knees almost buckled under the weight of it, my wolf… no, my body reacting before my mind could catch up.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, my back pressing instinctively against the cold stone wall.
He didn’t answer right away.
Instead, his hand tightened at my waist, fingers digging in just enough to remind me how easily he could pull me closer or pin me there forever.
Heat bled through the thin fabric of my uniform where he touched me.
“Let me go, Viper…” My voice betrayed me, breathless, shaking.
His head dipped, not touching me, but close enough that his breath brushed my ear. Warm. Dangerous.
“You’re trembling,” he said softly. Not mocking. Observing. “That’s not fear.”
My heart slammed against my ribs. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A low chuckle rumbled from his chest, unmistakably wolf. “Alina,” he murmured, my name sounding wrong… and right … on his tongue. “You can’t fool me.”
I swallowed. “I’m not trying to—”
“I can smell you. Right, Cross?”
Lila howling inside me.
Cross. It must be his wolf’s name. Lila responded differently.
However, it’s too early to get caught. Right? Or… no?
“What? I don’t know what’ are you talking about, Viper. I want to go home.” I breathed.
His nose brushed the side of my neck, not quite touching skin, but close enough that every nerve screamed.
“Your scent … It’s wrong. Different. Not the polished little heir Russell parades around.”
My pulse thundered. “You’re imagining things.”
“Am I?” He inhaled slowly, deeply, like he was committing me to memory. “There’s fire in you. Wildness. No healer smells like this.”
“Viper—”
“Fiancée,” he corrected, smirking as he pulled back just enough for me to see his eyes. Glowing faintly, predatory, amused. “And you smell like a lie.”
Yes.
Yes, I’m not Alina.
The confession burned at the back of my throat, desperate to escape.
My chest ached from holding it in, from pretending, from wearing someone else’s name like borrowed skin.
“You’re too tense,” he said, thumb brushing absently against my hip. The contact sent sparks racing through me. “Like you’re waiting to bolt. Or bite.”
“I’ve been holding myself together all day,” I snapped quietly. “Don’t push me.”
That made his smile widen. “There you are.”
I hated how my body reacted to him.
It was exhausting pretending to be Alina for one day.
A year? That’s hardly enough time to decide.
“If you think you know me, then stop trapping me and prove it.” I blurted out.
For a heartbeat, the world held still.
Then his hand loosened, but he didn’t step away.
“Oh, I will,” Viper murmured. “But understand this … once I’m sure… I don’t let what’s mine walk away.”
I gulped, my throat suddenly dry.
“Whoa… That's quite a warning,” I said, forcing my voice steady. “But you’re acting like you care now. Why?”
“You talk too much,” Viper replied, though his tone wasn’t sharp.
“You said you wouldn’t bother with me,” I shot back. “You said you didn’t care whether I existed or not. Am I remembering wrong?”
His eyes burned brighter, molten silver edged with shadow, like a wolf being challenged in its own territory.
“Watch where you stand, little dove,” he murmured.
I looked around, really looked, and the truth hit me all at once.
Nightshade House.
A den full of shirtless predators who wouldn’t hesitate to tear me apart just to see what I was made of.
This place would devour someone like me.
I let out a short, disbelieving laugh. “So what is this? Are you saying… you’re saving me now?”
His lips twitched. Not quite a smile, but something unfamiliar, something I had never seen on his face before.
“I’m not saving anyone, Russell.”
“Then why are you here?” I demanded. “Why step in at all?”
For a heartbeat, he didn’t answer.
Then he moved.
One second there was space between us—barely—and the next he was right there, fingers closing around my waist with unyielding certainty.
Heat flared again where he touched me, sharp and immediate, my breath hitching as my back brushed the cold stone wall.
“Viper—” I whispered.
“Don’t,” he said softly, the single word a warning wrapped in restraint.
I could feel his wolf stirring beneath his skin, a low, dangerous hum of possession vibrating through him. And gods help me, my body reacted in direct defiance of everything I was supposed to be.
“Please don’t command me. I’m not your flock.” I said.
His gaze darkened. “Then start behaving like someone who wants to survive, little one.”
“Behaving… how?” I challenged, even as my pulse thundered.
“You think this place is a game?” he said, exhaling hard, his grip tightening just enough to remind me how close I was to losing control. “A school thing. Classes. Titles.”
“Then tell me,” I shot back. “What the hell is this really about?”
His eyes dropped, to my mouth, my throat, before lifting again, locking onto mine with devastating intensity.
“This is a power-claim system, Russell,” he said quietly. “Knowing when to start and when to step back is instinct, not impulse.”
I swallowed hard. I’d been thinking the same thing.
This wasn’t just a school.
This was a battlefield disguised as one.
“You’re… enlightening me,” I said thinly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, Alina.” His fingers tilted my chin up, forcing our gazes to meet. “I’m warning you. Don’t play with me or anyone in this power society.”
My breath stuttered. He got too close to the truth.
But not close enough.
“I’m not playing anything, Viper.”
“I hope so,” he murmured. “Or—”
“Or?” I pressed.
His voice dropped, rough and lethal.
“Maybe you’re ready to be ripped apart alive, Alina.”
- Writer
