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Mine rose, too. I knew the scent blockers must have failed by now, even if I didn’t know exactly when.
The car ride had gone on forever.
I’d shivered in Dusk’s arms, but he hadn’t let me go. The affection was false, though. It would only last until he discovered the truth.
Time tripped over itself, scattering like beads across the floor. Sometimes I was with Dusk in the car.
Then I was back there.
In a room that smelled like them. It was slowly lodging into my consciousness like a great pillar, roots diving too deep to ever be dug up.
Passionfruit scented the sheets, and their teeth were on my flesh.
I knew what they were doing, even when I didn’t want to. Marking me with bites deeper than Umbra had ever given. With everythingbuta true claim.
Marking me with bites so vicious that they would scar, and every alpha who saw me would know…
Flynn’s were the worst, his bites ripping me from the silence of my mind with the threat of a dark bond. His eyes danced with joy when I clutched him. Terror a knife in my heart. Yet the dark bond never completed.
My body ached.
Finally, the car stopped and Dusk picked me up in his arms. We were outside for a moment, and I inhaled the smells of treesand rain before I heard a front door opening and boots upon creaking hardwood. Everything inside here smelled of pine, and there was comfort in its unfamiliarity.
Dusk’s territory.
He set me down on a large bed with faint traces of dark opium.
“Stay.”His aura flickered and his command came through, gripping me. I listened. Not because I wanted to be on the bed, but because there was a frightening safety in letting his dominance, his aura, take over.
And because I think a small part of me was terrified of finding out what his punishments might look like after he saw my body—when he realised it held no interest to him anymore.
He left me for a time, and I didn’t know how long I spent in silence. When the door creaked, I growled.
I don’t think I’d ever done that before. The first time was followed by the scent of lily of the valley, wolfsbane and blood, but the door creaked no more and they were gone.
Safety returned with the silence as time slipped by, fading in and out.
Finally, the door creaked again, and my growls were ignored. The bed shifted as the weight of a body offset it.
I couldn’t look up and see him, but dark opium could give him away from a million miles.
I curled up tighter, afraid.
Again, the bed shifted, and then his warm touch was everywhere. I reacted, fighting him, a rough wail in my throat as he held me down. Just like always, he didn’t care what I wanted. Something warm was on my face. A damp cloth… He pinned me in place, washing my forehead.
I didn’t understand. I fought him harder, but then the cloth was gone and he curled up around me until I could barely breathe. I wailed louder, unable to stand his touch.
“I’m sorry.” His whisper was rough.
I shuddered.
Why was he saying that?
“I failed you.”
He was purring, but there was something desperate in the sound as if, for the first time, he wasn’t sure it was enough to drag me to the surface again. And like an avalanche, all my feelings came crashing down, and I was bawling my eyes out.
I couldn’t take it.
