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I made my footsteps deliberately heavy as I walked across the packed earthen floor.
Everything in our den was either light wood, grey stone, or dark earth, though we spruced things up with pelts we had gathered on ’hunting’ trips to the farms on the Cardinal border. Cavernous rooms stretched high and wide, shadows hiding the mass of spider webs and bats above us, big enough for the giant ogres that used to live here. No natural light ever entered the cave, and not just because of the darkness of the forest above us.
Our chimneys had been carved when Cassandra, a local witch, offered us the empty caves in exchange for labour. And thank God she did, because if I had to endure Valko stomping about the main chamber’s fireplace while I was trying to cook, I would have thrown a knife at him years ago. I didn’t care if he was stronger than me - no one wanted to look at his sour face day in and day out.
“Valko,” I called out as I approached.
He started at my voice. His back straightened as he turned on the stool, glaring at me for interrupting him. I threw myself onto the large wooden chair in front of him, my elbows falling to my thighs as I leaned forward, the jumping fire lighting my face. “Come on, Val, you’ve got to let her out.”
I would be happy keeping her locked down there, not having to see her body that was calling me to mark her. She killed Nero, she killed my fucking cousin, and I couldn’t get rid of the image of the soft rise and fall of her chest, begging for my grip, or her lips, or the dance of soft curls of crimson hair between her thighs.
We both glared at each other, sensing, challenging, weighing up our energy. It was obvious I wasn’t just here to chat. Especially when Fillian whimpered from his bed, loneliness pouring through the bond.
I blew out a heavy sigh as Valko slowly closed his eyes, fresh pain rolling through us.
“No.” His voice rumbled. “She stays where she is.”
I couldn’t tell if this longing came from me or Fil, or even Valko, and I fucking hated it. We had never been this connected before.
Back when the Vermillion Knights attacked, we searched the Midnight Castle for days, trying to find any survivors. Fillian was huddled in a cupboard in the kitchens, stuck in wolf form. Valko and I did everything we could to reach him, get him to shift back to human form after the trauma of watching the death and destruction caused by the knights. We had poured all of our energy into finding him in the darkness of his young mind, and, even with all of our focus on the bond, it still hadn’t been so strong.
Hearing Fillian was as heartbreaking as it was annoying. And the solution was clear.
“He’s fucking howling, Val. Howling. I haven’t heard him do that since he was a pup. He’s driving me nuts.”
And so was she. I didn’t know how she was doing it, but I wasn’t blaming Fil for this. She had done something to us. It wasn’t just the mating bond. Red was fucking with my mind. I was consumed with thoughts of eating her, licking her out, making her writhe beneath me before I pushed inside her. It was her fault. Fil had all the fun the first time, but if she was out again - when she was - I’d take my chance to show exactly how I could make her scream.
“He had her for one night. That was enough to break her and tame his wolf,” Valko grunted.
My laugh snapped along with the crackling fire. “You’ve got to be joking. He’s worse than before. We can’t leave him like this.”
“He must learn as we did,” Valko said, his gaze fixed on his frantic hands.
“Why are you being so stubborn?” My growl was low, resisting his order. “She’s going to stay here until King Cordovan gives in. Why waste the opportunity, especially when Fil is acting like this?” I hated my wolf’s disgust with me for how we treated her. I ignored his protests and his pleas to release her. She was responsible for the death of countless wolves, and now she was causing my pack brother to suffer.
Valko’s snarl resonated through my body as his gaze snapped to me. He could push his angry alpha power at me all he wanted. I wasn’t backing down on this.
“We cannot afford to put ourselves at risk, not when she is already so powerful.” He glowed with anger, the brown of eyes replaced with the yellow of his wolf.
Or not when Valko was so scared of what lay between the four of us that he had already carved six spoons since we’d brought her here.
“Then we do the same as last time," I said. "Keep her blindfolded, gagged, tied up. Nothing that will give her a hold on us.”
The thought of her being at our mercy sent a thrill through me. I reached down to gather thin curls of wood from the floor, crunching them between my fingers, distracting myself from the tang of lust that called me to go to her.
“She’s already been in our bond, manipulated us,” he said. “You felt it too. Who’s to say she won’t do it again?”
I was sure she was doing it already. Except I was a fucking idiot and letting my emotions sway me. Not just my desire, but my need to punish her to remedy everything that had happened to us, to the wolves.
I lifted my head and forced myself to keep my eyes fixed on his. “Either you let her out, or I will.”
He growled at my dissension, but I continued to hold. My instincts told me to bow my head, to submit to my alpha, but something more powerful made me rise from the chair and look down at him.
Red still had things to pay for. One night was not enough to satisfy the rage and my hunger for revenge. If she thought she was safe now that we had stolen her purity, she was sorely mistaken. Valko could preach all he wanted about protecting us, but I wasn’t done.
“Valko, be serious. Even if Cordovan responds to our demands, it will be easier for Fil if she’s not here. He can still smell her - hell, her scent’s already marked the entire den.”
Fil had said she smelt of apples, but it wasn’t just that. Hints of cloves wafted from her skin, with just the slightest touch of nutmeg, all swirling around me in a mouth-watering concoction. I was already thinking of all the dishes I could create for her when apples came back in season across the border. I wanted to see her mouth wrapped around the food I made for her, moaning as she tasted my love, though it wouldn’t measure up to the taste of her skin.
