Feral Wolf by Caroline Peckham

Ifelt fingers in my hair and leaned into them, thinking of Rosalie, of us lying on a beach together somewhere as the waves lapped against the shore. I was curled up with her under the palm trees and we were free, so far away from Darkmore that it was nothing but a distant memory that faded with each passing day. We did it, little pup.

The fingers dug in deeper accompanied by a snip, snip, snip sound as the effects of the sleep gas started to lift from my body. My eyelids were heavy and my limbs even heavier as I emerged from the dark slumber I’d been a slave to.

I was disorientated as I came around and as I called on my Lion, I found it raising its head beneath my flesh. What…where the hell am I?

My eyes cracked open at last and I found myself looking into the soft blue eyes of a blonde chick who was sitting in my lap.

“Who the fuck are you?” I slurred and her eyebrows arched.

“I’m Mindy,” she said with a weird ass fucking smile on her face. “I found you and now I’m keeping you.”

“Get off of me,” I snarled, about to shift when I realised my arms were bound behind my back. I’d break them clean off if I shifted into my Order now. Shit.

The snipping noise sounded once more and a long piece of my hair sailed down to land on the girl’s thigh. It took me three long, excruciating seconds of staring at that lock of gorgeous, silken perfection to realise what this girl was doing to me.

“No!” I cried in anguish, bucking my hips to try and get her off, but she wrapped her thighs tighter around me and her upper lip peeled back.

“Stay still,” she growled, snipping the scissors in front of my nose. “You’re going to take your punishment like a good little cub, aren’t you Roary?” She gripped my face, squeezing my lips and talking for me in a stupid growly voice. “Yes, I am, Mindy. You’re such a beautiful Lioness queen.”

“Not my hair, not my fucking hair,” I said in distress, yanking my face out of her grip. Who the hell was she and why was she doing this?

“Whastappening?” Sin’s voice sounded to my left and I jerked my head around to look over at him.

“It’s all going to be just fine,” another girl’s voice sounded in the space and as Mindy got up from my lap and a dark haired girl came into view, I realised we were in an elevator that didn’t seem to be moving.

“Hurry up and finish it, Telisha,” Mindy demanded of the other girl and she grabbed the piece of hair that had fallen to the floor and I realised she had a whole bundle of it in her grip. It was all gone. All of my fucking hair. Every last perfect dark lock. Every piece of my Lionhood, right there in her grip. I wanted to throw up, no I wanted to kill. I wanted to rip heads from bodies and paint the world red.

“My fucking hair!” I yelled as Telisha added the last piece of it to the hair in her grip. She had a shower cap attached to it all and as she glued the final piece onto it, I realised she’d made some sort of creepy ass wig with my mane.

Mindy took it from her, pulling it onto her head like it was a crown and my mane fell around her face, caressing her cheeks. I couldn’t blink, couldn’t breathe, I just growled and glared and broke inside.

“Dude,” Sin whispered to me. “I think she took your hair.”

“Why?” I demanded of Mindy, horrified to my core.

“Tell them why, Telisha,” Mindy commanded and Telisha pointed at me.

“Because the Nights owe Queen Mindy a debt,” she said loftily, lifting her chin and gazing at Mindy with a manic kind of devotion in her eyes.

“You.” Mindy rounded on Sin, pointing at him with her scissors. “Shift into his brother, Leon Night.”

It suddenly clicked in my head that Leon had called the girls he’d used his Charisma on Mindys. They’d been like his groupies when he’d been studying at Aurora Academy, all of them waiting on him hand and foot. Had this girl been one of them?

“You know my brother?” I rasped, still staring at my hair on Mindy’s head and wanting to tear that same head off to get it back.

“Of course I know Leon! I broke a leg for your brother!” Mindy cried. “I fell out of a window trying to answer his call. But did he even give me so much as a thank you for my efforts?” she spat.

“Look, Mandy, I dunno who you are or what brand of bug has crawled up your butt-” Sin started.

“I’m Mindy,” she hissed. “And if you interrupt me again, I’ll snip your dick off. Now use your Incubus power to sense my greatest desire. Now.” She jabbed the scissors at him and Sin gaped at her.

“I don’t want to,” he pouted.

I glanced around the space again, noticing the vents in the ceiling of the elevator and suddenly realised why I could access my Lion Order again. This was one of the elevators that led up to the Order Yard and the antidote to the suppressant was currently filling the air around us.

“Look, Mindy,” I snarled, rage pounding through my blood. “I’m not my brother. I don’t even fucking know you. But I know this. You are now my number one enemy, above any other motherfucker I have ever met. Because you took my hair. And no one – no one – touches my fucking hair and gets away with it. So you’re dead. So dead that the stars are laying out the welcome mat for you right now. So I suggest you start running because the second I get free, you’re going to rue the day you were born.”

Mindy scowled at me, tossing her hair – my hair – and pointing the scissors at me. “Big words for a little Lion cub on the floor. NOW SHIFT INTO MY FANTASY OR THE NEXT THING I CUT OFF WILL BE AN INCUBUS’S COCK!” she roared at Sin and just like that he shifted into my brother.

Long, golden hair fell around his shoulders and his tanned chest was on display, his muscles bulky and his eyes deepest gold like mine. Despite knowing that it wasn’t really him, a tug of longing filled my heart and I wished he really was here to destroy these bitches with me.

“Good, good,” Mindy purred, like really purred, which made me think she was a Nemean Lioness. She looked to me with her eyes narrowing. “You do know me, Roary Night,” she growled. “I’m the Lioness you rejected when I first got here. I propositioned you, I promised you the world and you know what you said to me?” She stepped closer with deadly intent and a vague memory stirred in my mind of this girl as my nose wrinkled.

“Were you that chick that cut off that guy’s dick and presented it to me in a box after I told him his whistling pissed me off?” I gasped.

“So you do remember me!” she said with a glimmer of pride in her eyes.

“Who the fuck gives someone a dick in a box? Even I’m not that depraved,” Sin muttered.

“The perfect Lioness, that’s who,” Telisha said, smiling at Mindy. “We carved it off together, didn’t we, Erica?”

“What did you call me?” the blonde growled and Telisha gasped as she realised she’d used the girl’s real name. “Nothing. I meant to say: We carved it off together, didn’t we, Mindy?” She batted her lashes.

“We sure did.” Mindy’s eyes snapped back onto me. “You and your idiotic brother can’t see that I’m the best woman you’d ever have and now I’m done waiting to be your servant, I’m going to claim a position of royalty all by myself.”

“And what are you doing here?” Sin demanded of Telisha who was sucking on a lock of my hair which she’d kept for herself.

“I just like eating hair,” she said with a bright smile. “Tasty, tasty hair.” She started chomping down on my beautiful locks and I could have wept.

“Tell them what else you like to eat, Telisha,” Mindy said with a smirk.

“People,” Telisha said with a monster’s smile as she eyed up me and Sin. “Tasty, tasty toeses and tasty, tasty noses.” She took a step toward Sin, but Mindy pushed her back.

“Not yet,” she hissed. “Not until I’ve got my revenge.” She approached Sin. “I would have made the best Lioness, Leon. But you had to go and shack up with a pride who aren’t even of our kind!”

“Um…I’m sorry?” Sin tried with a shrug.

Mindy slapped him around the face. “Sorrys aren’t good enough! Sorrys don’t bring back the years of my life wasted serving you, feeding you, being there at all hours of the day the moment you sent out a distress call. I was everything for you and how did you repay me?” Tears rolled down her cheeks and Telisha patted her back while swallowing down my hair.

Why my hair, stars? Why?

“I mean…don’t take offence, okay?” Sin started and I shot him a look that told him to stop talking, but of course he went on. “But like, that relationship sounds pretty one sided, kitten. Maybe you should just get yourself a Lion shaped vibrator and move on with your life?”

Mindy lunged at him, grabbing his hair and starting to cut it off with the scissors. But the moment the locks fell, they vanished into the air, the illusion fading away. That didn’t stop her though.

Telisha started drifting closer to me, licking her lips and I shifted against the wall of the elevator, trying to break the restraints on my hands. If I could get free and access my Order, then I’d tear into them to pieces with my teeth.

“Clearly you’re upset,” Sin said as Mindy stepped back, panting furiously as a lock of my hair tumbled from the shower cap she wore and Telisha snatched it up, starting to feast on it.

Fuck my life.

“Of course I’m upset,” Mindy snapped.

“Look, how about we make you feel better?” Sin suggested as his hair grew long again, recreating the vision of my brother, apparently feeding on Mindy’s fantasies once more.

“How?” Mindy narrowed her eyes.

“Well… I know what your desires are, it’s my gift. So I know what you really want,” Sin said, arching an eyebrow. It was too fucking weird seeing my brother’s face moving in the way Sin’s did.

“You do?” Mindy whispered, clearly tempted by his words.

“Yeah,” Sin whispered. “It’s fucked up, depraved, but all the best fantasies are, right kitten?”

Mindy nodded slowly, glancing at me and Sin’s head turned my way too.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I snarled.

“Mindy’s feeling lustful,” Sin said, putting a little emphasis on the last word and my heart drummed harder as I realised what he was saying. He was feeding on her lust, filling up his magic reserves. So if we just played along…

Sin shuffled closer and I shrank back as he puckered up to kiss me.

“Ergh!” I shouted, jerking away as much as possible. “You’re my brother!”

“Hush now, sex pot, it’s just me wearing his skin,” Sin purred.

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” I hissed.

“Kiss,” Mindy demanded. “Kiss for me to show me how sorry you are.”

“No,” I balked, trying to kick Sin back, but he was fucking agile and was somehow moving on top of me despite his hands being tied behind his back. “Stop it.” I tried to headbutt him, but his mouth collided with mine instead and Mindy moaned loudly.

“Mmm, my brother,” Sin said for her benefit and I started gagging, trying to turn my head away as he began licking my face instead.

I was going to kill him. He’d be so fucking dead that not even the stars could find his soul when I was finished with him.

“Now let me get in the middle,” Mindy demanded, dropping to her knees and crawling between us. Sin let her in as she lay down on me on her back and I spluttered as I breathed in some of my own hair on her shower cap.

“By the fucking sun,” I growled, leaning my head back as far as possible to try and get away from her.

Telisha chewed faster on my hair as she watched the show intently and Sin leaned forward, his mouth hovering above hers. “I can’t touch you with my hands bound, kitten.”

“Call me Mindy,” she begged.

“Alright, Mandy.”

“MINDY!” she shrieked.

“Shut up, Mindy!” Sin barked and the girl shivered like she liked that.

“Tell me what to do,” she half sobbed. “I’ve missed you telling me what to do, Leon.” She pawed at Sin’s chest and I bristled, still trying to get my face out of the nest of my hair on this bitch’s head.

“Untie me, Mindy. And let me show you how a Lion claims their mate,” Sin growled, showing how well he could fit the role of people’s desires. It was pretty impressive considering our fucking circumstances.

“Alright,” she panted, reaching around to free him and my gut twisted in anticipation. But as she leaned around him, she also started sucking on his neck and mewling like a cat in heat. Sin grimaced at me over her head, but the second she released his bound hands, he stole her scissors away with a flick of his fingers, sending them flying across the elevator and slamming straight between Telisha’s eyes.

The cannibal hair eater slumped to the ground dead and Mindy screamed as she thrashed between us. Nice shot.

Sin stood up, shoving Mindy off of me and helping me up, another flick of his fingers tearing apart the rope binding my hands in place.

I dropped my jumpsuit in a flash and shifted, almost filling the entire elevator as I knocked Mindy down beneath my paws. She screamed and slammed her fist against the emergency button on the wall, making the elevator doors slide open. I clamped her whole body between my teeth, throwing her out into the hallway and bounding after her like a cat playing with a mouse, a roar exploding from my throat.

“I am the queen!” she wailed, trying to get up, but I knocked her down again with one huge paw and clamped my teeth over her head. One sharp twist yanked her head clean off and I flung it down the hall, the shower cap wig flying off and slapping into a wall. I licked the blood from my lips as my rage cooled a little, but nothing could bring back my hair. Even in my Lion form, my mane was cropped short. Ruined.

I was no king of beasts now. I was just a cat with its claws pulled out. And it broke my heart.

Rosalie appeared at the end of the corridor running along and slamming into me, hugging me tight as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Where the hell were you, Roar? I’ve been so freaking worried!”

I tucked my chin down to draw her closer then snarled as I realised Cain was walking beside Ethan with his hands completely unbound.

“It’s alright.” Rosa stepped back, glancing over at Cain and realising what had me on edge. “He saved us.”

That wasn’t really good enough for me, but it was clear Rosa had decided to trust him, so I guessed I had to too.

Sin came bounding up to her in his own form and planted a hard kiss on her mouth which made my hackles raise again. “I missed you, sugar nut.”

“I missed you too, Sin.” She smiled, lingering in his arms for a moment before looking to the dead girl’s head on the floor.

“Holy shit, is that Erica Collins?” Cain muttered.

“Who?” Ethan asked.

“Some fucking loon who went on a killing spree a couple of years back,” Cain said. “She only targeted Lions and took their dicks as trophies.”

“Fuck,” Ethan said with a look of disgust. “Did she hurt you, man?” He looked to me and I shifted back into my Fae form, causing a gasp to leave Rosa’s lips as she spotted the devastation of what had happened to my hair.

I turned away from her, ashamed and wanting to hide so she didn’t have to see me like this. De-Lioned. Who even was I without my mane? I’d once had a great uncle Larry who had started balding at eighty-seven and his whole family had had to disown him for the shame of it. But this was so much worse than that – my hair had been cut. It was unthinkable, unimaginable, sacrilegious. I was almost glad my family had already disowned me because this would kill my mothers and likely cause my father to self-combust.

Sin passed me my jumpsuit and I pulled it on, walking over to the shower cap on the floor and picking it up, running my fingers through my butchered hair.

“At least she didn’t kill you, right?” Sin said cheerily. “Or cut off your cock. You’ve got such a nice, big cock and our wild girl would have been so sad to lose it.”

“It’s worse than that,” I muttered. “So much fucking worse…”

“I dunno, man. Imagine having to just sit there and watch me fuck her for you because you had no D. That would be sad. You wouldn’t even be able to jerk off over it. I mean, I could probably shift into you for her so she wouldn’t have to miss out on having you with a dick. But for you that wouldn’t help. Not one bit,” Sin kept going on and on about how awful my dickless life could have been and I just turned and walked away from him, trying to claim a little space even though there wasn’t any here.

“Roary,” Rosa said gently, moving to my side and laying a hand on my arm.

I turned away again, wanting to disappear, but she pulled me back, moving into my chest and pressing herself against me with a low whine in her throat.

“It’ll grow back,” she said, but I shook my head.

“It’ll never be the same,” I choked out. I’d never had my hair cut in my lifetime. That mane included the hair I’d been born with. It was luscious and magnificent and a point of pride for all Lions. There was no growing that back even if my hair ended up just as long as it had once been. I couldn’t undo this. Not ever.

“It will,” she swore, reaching up and pushing her fingers into what was left of my hair. Which wasn’t a whole lot. “It actually kinda suits you.”

“Don’t,” I snarled in warning, pressing her back against the wall, the shower cap bunched up in my fist. “Don’t you downplay this, Rosalie Oscura. My hair is my Lionhood. It’s the mark of a true king. A worthy Lion. It was the last piece of my old life I still had.”

“It’s just hair, Roar,” she tried and my fist collided with the wall beside her head, making her jump.

“Hey,” Ethan barked, appearing at my side in a flash and trying to pull me back, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

He looked ready to rip me to pieces for losing my shit so close to his mate and I turned to him eagerly, knocking my chest against his and growling darkly in anticipation of a good fight.

But before we could do more than face off and snarl at each other, a howl cut through the air, joined by several more a second later and Ethan swore as he looked over his shoulder.

“That’s the Lunars,” he hissed. “We need to move.”

I stepped back from Rosa and she took my hand, threading her fingers between mine and squeezing. The rage fell from me to be replaced by a desperate kind of hopelessness and I hung my head as we walked, pulling my hand from hers, not feeling worthy of it being there. I was just a shaved house cat with no pride in its heart. Father was probably shuddering with the feel of me falling even further from grace right now.

My hair stayed clamped in my fist with the shower cap, finding I was unable to let go of it as we moved along the corridor and I dragged my heels.

“We’re literally gonna die if you don’t hurry up, dude,” Rosa said and I nodded sullenly.

“Where the hell can we go? There’s no way out up here,” Ethan said anxiously, glancing around the corridor.

“There’s an exit hatch in the elevators,” Cain said as the howls drew closer. “I can access it.”

“Well aren’t you just Helpy Helperson now,” Sin taunted and Cain snarled at him.

“I just don’t want to be ripped apart by angry Wolves, Eighty-Eight,” he snapped. “I hardly care if you remain down here. In fact, I’d prefer it.”

“You can drop the little number nicknames, buddy,” Sin said with a grin. “You’re on our team now.”

“Fat fucking chance of that,” Cain growled, stepping into the elevator over Telisha’s body and reaching up to a concealed magical signature reader on the ceiling.

“By the stars,” he muttered, like the blood coating the floor irritated him.

“That’s what happens to people who send dicks in boxes. The stars will always find a way to get revenge,” Sin said in mysterious voice like he thought he was speaking for the heavens themselves.

Cain pressed his palm to it and a hatch slid open in the top of it. Rosa jogged to his side, looking up into the space above and Cain grabbed hold of her, lifting her up without asking.

She pressed a foot to his shoulder, climbing out of sight as more howls came this way. The Wolves had to be in their Fae forms since the Order suppressant was back on, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still rip us apart considering the sheer amount of them headed towards us.

Cain climbed up next and Sin followed, heaving himself inside before Ethan went after him. I trailed into the elevator, staring down at the hair in my hand and wondering if it was even worth living another moment now.

“Come on, hot stuff.” Sin hung upside down through the hatch, plucking the hair from my hand and disappearing up into it again.

“Give that back,” I snarled, leaping up and catching hold of the edge of the hatch as his giggles carried to me.

I pulled myself up with a murderous rage bleeding through me and Cain closed the hatch as I made it inside.

Sin was already halfway up the ladder that ran up the shaft toward the Order Yard and I raced after him, gaining on him fast and swatting his ankles as he continued to laugh. When he put the shower cap on his head, I lost it, fury filling me to the brim.

“You motherfucker!” I yelled as he made it to the top of the shaft and disappeared into a crawl space.

I made it there a beat later and climbed into the narrow space with a growl.

I crawled after him as fast as I could, catching hold of his ankle and yanking him backwards. I pushed him down beneath me and snatched the hair from his head, then threw my fist into his face.

He laughed through the pain and I scowled at this piece of shit.

“Don’t touch my hair,” I warned.

He reached out and wiggled his fingers through the hair stuck to the shower cap, singing do-daloo-daloo.

My hand closed around his throat. “You fucking-”

“Get out of the way, I need to open the next hatch,” Cain barked behind us then shoved his hand against my back when I didn’t immediately move.

I was squashed down on top of Sin as Cain crawled over us and I jammed my elbow up into his gut in payment before he made it to the other side and opened the next hatch.

Moonlight poured in and Rosa and Ethan howled at the exact some moment. Suddenly I was crushed again, my face driven down into Sin’s chest as the two Wolves fought to get out to the moon, barking like pups as they made it past us and tearing their clothes off as they reached the hatch. They disappeared outside with whoops which quickly turned to the deep tenor of fully shifted Werewolf howls.

“Fucking animals,” Cain muttered like a moody asshole and I clambered over Sin who was still laughing and followed Cain out of the hatch into the Order Yard.

We emerged from a boulder which concealed the hidden entrance and I gazed around at the trees and the moonlight filtering through them with a breath of relief. It was only an illusion of true nature created with magic, but it was close enough to reality that it gave some reprieve from the endless monotony of the prison. Out here, the enchantments made freedom seem that much closer. It made me remember why we were doing this. Why my hair was a sacrifice I’d have to accept making in the quest to get out of here. To get Rosa out of here.

Still, I pushed my mane into my pocket, not ready to part with it yet as a low, sad growl left me.

Sin clapped a hand to my shoulder as he made it outside, beaming widely. “Ah, what a perfect night for an orgy.” Then he ran off into the trees with another wild laugh and I was left staring angrily after them all, only to find someone else doing the very same thing beside me.

I glanced at Cain, opening my mouth to warn him about screwing us over and how I’d peel his damn ribcage apart if he even thought about hurting Rosa, when he shot forward in a burst of speed and collided with me.

I hit the ground with an oomph, bringing up my fist to punch him, sure he was about to kill me. His fangs drove into my neck and I cursed, punching harder, thrashing and fighting and clawing, but he had me in his grasp. I was fucking done for.

“Ros-!” I roared, but Cain’s hand slammed over my mouth to shut me up as he fed, drinking and groaning and delighting in my fucking death.

His weight was like a solid force I couldn’t battle against as he used the strength of his Vampire Order to keep me there while his venom locked down my ability to shift.

He kept taking and taking and I waited for him to rip my entire throat out as I fought to get up, but then he withdrew his fangs and released a sigh of satisfaction.

“Dammit, you taste like a fucking meadow, Sixty-Nine.” He shoved himself to his feet then shot off into the trees with the speed of his Order, surprising me by letting me live.

So we’re just letting the asshole Vampire guard run around alone now, are we?

Not that we could do much about it with his Order unleashed, but still. I didn’t trust that asshole one bit. I didn’t understand how Rosa could feel anything for him. He hated us, and he’d never shown Rosa much decency as far as I saw it.

He fed on her because it suited him and any kindness he’d paid her was to simply secure himself another feed. I didn’t have anything against Vampires, but this one seemed like the embodiment of a parasite. The way he looked at Rosa was like he wanted to possess her. Like she was his fucking Source or something. But guards didn’t get to lay a claim on anyone in this prison, so if he wanted a regular feeding bucket then he should have made one of his friends outside of this place into his Source. Though judging by his personality, making friends probably wasn’t one of his strong suits. Still…he’d just had a chance to kill me and hadn’t taken it. But that probably had more to do with what Rosa would have thought of it if he’d gone through with it than him actually giving a damn about me.

I sighed, my mind going to my hair again. And with my spirits down in the dirt, I headed deeper into the trees, glad at least that the dark was here to hide my ruined mane.

 

***

 

I sat at the edge of a large pond where the Moose and Bear Shifters usually hung out, throwing rocks into the water. The reeds stirred in a magical breeze that swept through the dome from time to time and I descended into a dark mood as I stared at the shower cap in my hand with my mutilated mane attached to it.

I’d tried putting it on, but honestly it only made me feel worse. Especially when I’d caught sight of my reflection in the water. The only hope I had now was getting out of this place and making myself a hair regrowth potion. But even then…a true Lion’s mane was meant to be grown over years, looked after and nourished daily. Bottle grown hair wouldn’t have the lustre of my old mane because it wouldn’t be imbued with a lifetime of love and tending to by my mothers. And maybe that was the hardest part about it all, knowing I’d lost the piece of myself which my family had helped gift me. On my fourth birthday, my mother Safira had given me my first hairbrush, and my mother Marie and Latisha had given me a gift basket full of hair products. My father had nearly shed a tear of pride when he’d given me a jar of the infamous Night hair serum, the recipe of which had been passed down to him from my great, great grandmother Clawdrey. He’d said that serum was imbued with the power of all the Nights who had come before me. And my hair had held that power too. Now it was dead. Cut off and severing me from the last remaining link to my family.

I didn’t even feel like a Night anymore. My father didn’t acknowledge my existence, my mothers wept at the mention of me, so I may as well have been a ghost, dead the moment I walked through the doors of Darkmore, my brother the only one who wanted to visit my grave.

I sighed then threw the shower cap of hair out into the pond, hoping for a dramatic splash before it sank away, but no. It just sat there, spinning in a lazy circle like a dead jellyfish.

“Roar?” Rosa’s voice reached me, but I didn’t turn around, just wanting to be alone right now. “Hey, um…are you okay?”

I said nothing and she appeared beside me, lowering down to join me on the flat rock I was sitting on. She spotted my hair out in the water and a snort of amusement escaped her. My head snapped around, a snarl rolling from my throat, but then I realised she was fucking naked and my pulse started to thunder.

Her knees were hugged to her chest but the delicious curve of her spine and the gleam of her olive toned flesh was like a Siren’s song to me and my cock. But I wasn’t going to be distracted from my mood, not after what had happened to my precious mane.

“If you came here to laugh at me, then leave,” I demanded, my temper rising fast. Nights were renowned for being chilled out, but when they lost their shit, they could rival the fury of a hurricane. And I was currently in dangerous territory.

Rosa’s smile fell into an angry frown. “Don’t be like that. I know you’re upset, but it’ll grow back, Roary. As soon as we’re out of here, I’ll buy you a hair growth potion and then-”

“It’s not the same.” I shoved to my feet. “You don’t get it.”

She stood too, following me as I stalked along the edge of the pond away from her and determinedly ignored her naked body. My cock wasn’t so easily distracted though as it grew solid for her, throbbing with a need it had wanted to fulfil for so damn long.

She caught my hand, tugging me back to look at her and my jaw tightened as I stared at her face, finding her looking more like the innocent little pup I’d once known than the fierce warrior who she’d grown up to be.

“You look hot without it,” she said and I snapped, losing it completely.

“Well thanks for letting me know my mane was so repulsive to you,” I barked.

Her lips popped open and ferocity filled those big brown eyes of hers, no sign of that young pup anywhere suddenly. And I was glad of that, because I didn’t want to see her as some kid anymore, I wanted her as a woman who knew her own mind, whose body was old enough to crave mine, even if it was still wrong. Fuck, Dante will kill me.

“I didn’t say that! I’m just trying to make you feel better,” she said in exasperation.

“Well don’t bother,” I snapped. “I’m tired of you trying to make anything better when it comes to me.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” she demanded, folding her arms as her eyes spat hellfire at me.

“You know what it means,” I growled, stepping closer and leaning down so I was nose to nose with her. “You came here for me. You’re trying to fix what happened ten years ago because you feel guilty. But I’m not your burden to bear, Rosa. I never was. I made my choice that day and it landed me here. It had nothing to do with you.”

A growl ripped from her throat. “It had everything to do with me,” she hissed, rising up on her tiptoes to get her face close to mine. “You came back for me. If you’d just left me behind then-”

“I’d never leave you behind!” I bellowed. “And that’s on me. Not you. You’ve fucked up your whole life by coming here, and now what? Do you really think we’re getting out of here, huh? Are you that star damned blind? Look around, Rosalie,” I full named her, scolding her like a pup because I needed to stop looking at her like she was mine. I needed to stop pretending that me loving her made any difference to the reality of our circumstances. She wasn’t for me. She was mated to another Fae and since I’d told her I loved her, she hadn’t spoken a word about it. Sure, we were in a bit of a fucking predicament and there wasn’t that many opportunities for a chat about our feelings, but she had time to go off fucking Ethan and Sin, didn’t she? So I was pretty sure I had my answer when it came to what she really wanted.

Rosa glared at me, not looking anywhere else but straight at me, the Alpha in her rearing up to challenge the Alpha in me. “I know exactly where we are, and we’re a helluva lot closer to getting out than we were before I got here, Roary.”

“You’re delusional,” I snarled. “I’m trying to go along with it, I’m doing everything you ask. But I’m starting to see that there really is no getting out of here. The prison is full of inmates hunting for us and the outside is full of guards waiting to contain us. And do you think they’re gonna just round us up nicely and put us back in our cages?” I caught hold of both sides of her face, holding tight as I stared at her unblinkingly, fear tangling with my gut at the thought of what might happen to her. “They could execute us for this. There’ll be new charges brought against us, they’ll study the CCTV and if they deem some of us too much of a threat, they’ll get rid of us quietly and efficiently while they lock down their prison again. Or maybe they’ll just kill us on sight the second they come down here because who’s gonna question it? At the very least we’ll end up in the hole for months if not years. We’re worth less than rats in this place. There won’t be inquiries until we’re dead and then they’ll simply say we died in the riots.”

“That won’t happen because we’re going to get out,” she said, her lips pushing out stubbornly as she refused to accept any other reality.

“I will not see you die, Rosalie Oscura,” I said in a growl, my eyes falling to her mouth and I couldn’t resist the urge to drag my thumb across her bottom lip, making her take in a small breath of air.

“What are you saying, that you’re done fighting for this? That you’re not gonna try and make it out?” she asked in horror. “Because I didn’t come all this way to leave you behind, so I’ll drag you out by your tail if I have to.”

I released her, shaking my head and backing up as my heart warred in my chest. “I’m saying you never should have come. I’m saying you should have let me rot here, because this fate is so much fucking worse than being a prisoner. The one thing that kept me sane in here was knowing you were out there, free, living your life. And now you’re stuck right here in the dirt with me and it’s torture! Why couldn’t you just stay home like an obedient pup? Why couldn’t you be a good girl for once? Why do you have to be so fucking stubborn?”

“Because I love you, Roary Night,” she growled and those words rushed through me in a flood of burning, tantalising heat. “I made a promise to myself a long time ago that one day I’d get you out of here. And I don’t plan on letting myself down on that, because that’s what makes me an Alpha of the Oscuras. If I can’t rely on my own abilities then I can’t rely on my pack, so if I say I’ll do something, every Wolf under my rule will know I’m not lying. So when I tell you I’ll get you out of here, Roary, you’d better fucking believe it.”

Silence hummed between us, the air so tense it felt like the weight of the stars were pressing down on my shoulders. I stared at this beautiful, powerful creature before me and realised this obsession she had with saving me had held her back her whole life. I’d tried to free her from the guilt by not letting her visit me, by cutting myself off from her as much as possible so that she could move on, but instead I’d bound her to me even tighter. And she had to let go.

“Look, I know I was your childhood crush,” I said and she winced at those words, her cheeks touching with colour the way only I could make them do. It sent another rush of blood to my cock seeing her flustered like that for me, reminding me of the Lion I’d once been, a king who could have had any woman he wanted, who made girls blush and stumble over their words. But she saw me through the tint of the past, not who I was right here in front of her. “You can’t let go of me because you’ve spent the last ten years feeling guilty believing you landed me here. But ten years is a long damn time, and whatever idea of me you were once in love with is long fucking gone. I might hold some power in this prison, but if we really get out of here, I’ll be nothing out there, little pup.”

“Don’t call me that,” she snarled. “I’m not a little pup.” She shoved me in the chest and I growled, my Lion instincts prickling as I caught her wrists in a vice like hold.

“You are,” I growled. “You’re the girl who stared at me at every Oscura event I ever attended. You were the one who wore a pretty dress at Dante’s twentieth birthday party to get my attention.”

“That wasn’t for you,” she hissed, the lie obvious by the way her cheeks flushed even further.

“You think I didn’t see all of it?” I mocked coldly, wanting to taunt and hurt and make her see why I was no good for her. “I saw how Dante’s little wild cousin hungered for the wildness she saw in me, but I assumed you’d grow out of it.”

“You said you love me,” she spat. “You admitted it.”

“I know,” I said, my grip tightening on her wrists as she tried to tug them free, but I kept her in my trap, my hunger for her growing. I was two men in that moment. The one who craved her with every atom in my body and the one who had to walk away before I got in so deep with her that I never got out. And honestly, I had no fucking idea who would win between them. “But my love isn’t pure, Rosa. It’s not the flowers and teddy bears kind, it’s tainted and wicked and wants to eat you alive.”

“I can handle it,” she growled. “You still see me as weaker, but I can match you in any game, Roary.”

“This isn’t a game you want to play,” I warned. “I’m not the man you fell for, I’m the monster he became. I don’t play nice with my prey and you’re the best hunt of my life. If I get my claws into you, I won’t let go, and I’ll leave my mark for everyone to see.”

“Prove it,” she ordered, leaning toward me rather than trying to run like she should have. “I dare you.”

Our old game became something far more serious in an instant. She was asking for the moon and I was really tempted to pluck it from the sky this time. Because Rosalie Oscura was my darkest, most forbidden desire. And I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about what I’d do with her if I ever let myself give in to this carnal appetite I had for her.

“Or do you forfeit?” she taunted, a cruel smile filling her full lips.

She tugged her hands free of my grip as I held myself in check, my cock as hard as iron as she arched a brow at me and backed up a step. My fists clenched and a dangerous growl rolled up my throat as she retreated another step and shrugged at me. My gaze dipped to her body and my throat clogged up as I took in her pert, shapely tits, her nipped waist and round hips. Her thighs clenched together as my gaze wandered to her pussy and I knew I was a fucking goner then, tasting my lips as I imagined what it would be like to spread those tanned thighs apart and taste her instead.

“For such a big, scary beastie, you’re kinda tame, Roary,” she said lightly, then turned her back on me, insulting me with that single move and making my resolve crumble to dust. The Fae in me roared alongside my Lion and every barrier in my head that held me back from her fell down at once.

She strode away from me toward the trees and I lunged after her, locking the crook of my arm around her throat and yanking her back against my chest.

“This what you want?” I growled in her ear.

She wriggled in my grasp and I held her tighter, sliding my free hand lower and dragging my fingers up the tattoo on her side where her scars were hidden.

“Every single one of these scars conjured a bloodthirsty animal in me who has never been fed. They make me want to find anyone who has hurt you and kill for you so fucking brutally that no jury on earth would pardon me of my crimes. So maybe I was always a condemned man when it came to you, Rosa. I would have ended up behind bars one way or another, it just would have been for murder instead of grand larceny.”

“You really think you’d kill for me, Roar?” she asked breathily and I slid my hand onto her breast, finding her nipple hard and peaked for me.

Her skin was so soft against my rough fingers and as I scored my thumb over her sensitive flesh, she arched back against me with a gasp. This body had ached for mine since she was old enough to know she wanted me. How many times had she made herself come while thinking about me? And how close had she come to imagining the truth of the animal I was becoming for her?

“I’d kill for this throat-” I bit into the flesh of her neck. “-and this mouth-” I bit her lower lip as she turned her head to look at me, toying with her nipple again to make her pant. “And this flesh.” I pulled my hand from her breast, carving it down the centre of her and cupping my fingers between her thighs, the damp, needy heat of her pussy wetting my hand. “I’d kill an entire army for this.” I tugged her ear between my teeth and her ass ground back against my hard cock, making a low groan escape me. “But it’s your soul I’d kill the most for. I’d destroy the world so long as your soul was kept untarnished. I’d die by my own hand for that too.”

“I don’t want you to die for me, Roary, I want you to fuck me,” she panted, a lilt of amusement in her tone, but I turned her laugh into a moan as I drove two fingers into her tight pussy. I circled them slowly, enjoying the feel of her as my palm grew slick from how much she wanted this. She bucked her hips to try and take more from me and I gave it to her as I pumped my hand, pushing another finger inside her, getting her somehow even hotter and wetter.

Her head tipped back as she leaned her weight on me, letting me take control as I tortured her nipple with one hand while driving my fingers in and out of her at a slowly increasing pace. When her pussy started tightening and her moans built to a needy crescendo, I tugged my hand free from the cage of her thighs and pushed down on her spine, making her bend over in front of me.

“No way,” she growled immediately, jerking upright and dancing away from me with her upper lip curled.

I stalked after her, the thrum of some deep and demanding energy in the air making me into nothing but a beast. I felt like I’d shifted into my Lion, only my body was still Fae as my animal instincts took over my flesh. I needed her beneath me, pinned down by my weight and submitting to my every demand. If I didn’t get that from her, I’d die. And if she wanted to put up a challenge then I would be glad to rise to it.

“I’m going on top,” she insisted.

“Like hell you are,” I growled, rushing forward to grab her by the hips.

I tossed her down onto the dirt and she scrambled to get up as I fell over her. Her teeth sank into my arm as I caught her thighs, parting them for me, before she swung her head up and cracked it against my forehead with a wild laugh. I reared back with a curse as she twisted onto her knees and crawled out from beneath me. But before she could jump up, I dove on her, crushing her to the ground and rocking the hard length of my erection against her ass, spanking the side of her thigh as I forced my knees between her legs.

“I’m not in the mood to be dommed, Roary,” she growled, but I could hear the game in her voice as she threw a wild grin back over her shoulder at me.

While I got stuck staring stupidly at that look on her face, she threw an arm back, locking it over my neck and throwing her weight sideways so we rolled. I hit the ground on my back and she rolled over on top of me, grabbing my hands and pinning them in the grass beside my head.

I barked a laugh at her attempt to subdue me, one fierce jerk of my arms freeing me from her grip, but then she flicked her hands and vines locked around my wrists, yanking them above my head. She circled her hips, riding her wet pussy over my cock and leaving a damp mark on my jumpsuit. I forgot to fight for a second as I watched that perfect display, leaning up to suck one of her nipples into my mouth and make her breathe, “Yes.”

But this war wasn’t won yet. I let her enjoy grinding her clit over my cock until her breaths came heavier and she reached down to try and free me from my jumpsuit. But in her moment of distraction, I ripped my arms free of her vines, holding onto the pieces of them and snatching her wrists. I tugged them behind her back, binding her hands together before she could even think about stopping me and disabling her magic.

“Stronzo,” she spat out and I smirked at her, taking a fistful of her hair into my grasp and tugging her head backwards to expose her throat.

“Looks like I caught myself a little sub,” I taunted, biting her neck to show her I was the beast who could rip it out, the one who owned her completely now.

She yanked at her hands, making her tits push together and I squeezed one in my large palm, watching her as she tried to get free.

“I’m no sub,” she growled.

“I think you like being at my mercy,” I said with a Lion’s grin and she cursed me in Faetalian, but her eyes were glittering with wicked thoughts.

“Well what are you gonna do now you have me, Roar?” she asked mockingly. “I’m not sure you’re Fae enough to handle me now I’m in your trap.”

I snarled at those words, pushing her off of me, standing up and throwing her over my shoulder. She squealed in surprise as I spanked her ass and carried her to the nearest tree, planting her down on her feet and shoving her up against it face first.

I pressed my palm to her spine and kicked her feet apart, unbuttoning my jumpsuit and freeing my throbbing cock. I slicked it between her thighs, feeling her soaking heat and teasing her as I circled it around her entrance.

“Roary,” she moaned in a way that almost sounded like a plea.

A tingle ran down my spine and I rolled my neck as the Lion in me begged for more. More of her beneath me, more of her submitting and becoming mine. My Lioness. She needed to bow to me and it wasn’t just a desire anymore it was a fucking need. A burning, raging instinct. I could feel the power of some higher force latching onto my soul, urging me on and begging me to claim her this way. In the way my Order needed to claim a mate.

I drove my cock into her in one unforgiving thrust that made her cry out and I dug my fingers into her hips as a deep groan left me. I’d wanted her for so long and fuck did she not disappoint. Her pussy was so hot and tight, wrapped around my thick length like it was made for me and only me.

“I claim you, Rosalie Oscura,” I growled in her ear, letting her adjust to every inch of me buried inside her. “You’re mine and fuck what the world thinks because of it. I’m done holding back.”

“So get on with it,” she snarled and I laughed as I started fucking her mercilessly, holding her exactly where I wanted her as I took and took from her body while she drove her ass back into me to meet every one of my furious thrusts.

From the sounds she was making, it was clear she liked it rough which made her even more perfect for me. I spanked her hard enough to leave a mark and she panted my name like she wanted more. Her pussy squeezed my cock and suddenly I felt her coming, her body convulsing and a howl leaving her lips which stroked my ego and got me even harder. But as her body came close to finishing me too, I pulled out of her and shoved her onto the ground.

Her cheek hit the dirt as she landed on her knees, her ass raised and her pink pussy waiting for me to claim it once more. She struggled to get up as I moved onto my knees behind her and palmed the reddened handprint on her ass as I watched her fight her binds. But they were too tight so she was all mine for as long as I wanted her.

I ran my fist up and down my cock as I enjoyed the sight of her on the ground for me, the moisture from her pussy making my hand glide smoothly along my length.

“Such a tame girl,” I taunted and she growled.

“I’m not tame, I’m wild,” she hissed, her muscles tightening as she tried to snap her binds.

“I’ll tame you, Rosa,” I said darkly, sliding my fingers between her thighs, coating them in her arousal before seeking out her clit and stroking my thumb over it.

“Ah, fuck,” she gasped.

My instincts were burning again and I needed more of her submission, needed her pressed beneath me while I fucked her like the beast I was and found my release deep inside her. She was mine to do what I pleased with and I was going to enjoy every second of having her like this.

I took my hand away from her needy clit and lowered my head down to taste her, running the pad of my tongue up the centre of her. She gasped, her hips rocking, trying to get me where she wanted me, but I took my time tasting her sweet flavour and sinking my tongue into her pulsing pussy. I brought my fingers up again to toy with her clit and she moaned my name into the dirt as another climax rose within her.

Just as she was on the verge of falling into ecstasy, I pulled back and slammed my cock into her, making her scream my name as she came all over it and I held her still as I thrust into her, chasing down my own happy ending as her body became completely mine. My balls tightened just before I came, giving her every drop of cum I had as I tipped my head back and roared my victory over her, pleasure ripping down the centre of me and making my head spin with how much blood had headed to my cock.

My world remained unsteady as I looked back down at her and found her body glowing with the light of the moon. I pulled out of her, untying the binds on her hands and rolling her over beneath me as her back arched and she reached for me as the halo of light around her seemed to glow.

“What’s happening?” I asked as my breaths came heavily.

“Roary,” she panted and I fell over her, my mouth colliding with hers as her legs tangled around me.

Her magic seemed to flow into me, but it wasn’t like any magic I’d ever felt it. It was the cool wash of moonlight beneath my flesh and I kissed her harder, needing more of it as she wrapped herself around me and my fingers tangled in her hair.

“Does this usually happen when you come?” I asked against her lips as she writhed beneath me and I looked down to find that same hazy white light engulfing me too.

“No,” she half laughed, half moaned as she pulled me closer once more.

The power of the moon seemed to reach into the depths of my flesh, shifting something inside me and aligning it entirely with Rosalie Oscura. I purred in acceptance of this feeling, the rightness of it, how natural it was to breathe it into my body and let it take over me. She became my one and only in that second, somehow more firmly than she had been before. She was the reason I’d breathe from this day forward, my purpose for living, my everything.

The cool light started to die away but it continued to shine around my left wrist as well as hers. I lifted my arm to find a mark of the full moon branded on my flesh and as Rosalie turned her arm over, I saw the very same mark upon her own wrist.

“The moon mated us,” she gasped, her eyes wide and silvery as the power of the celestial being still hummed within her body.

“You’re mine?” I asked, hardly able to believe I was that lucky. I’d been doing my best to make it so by mating her the Lion way, but I’d known in my soul that she was already claimed by another and I hadn’t truly believed it would work.

“Yes,” she laughed. “And you’re mine.”

“But Ethan…” I shook my head in complete shock as a new, confusing sensation ran through my body.

There was something different in the way I felt about him, something in this new bond that bound me to him too. Any animosity I’d felt towards him seemed to fall away. It was like he was…family. Linked to me deeply, profoundly. Though not in the way Rosa was. It was a headfuck and I didn’t know how to deal with all the new raging emotions settling within me, but what I did know was that this girl was all mine, moon chosen just for me. And if that wasn’t a reason to praise every star in the sky for creating such a fortune for me, then I didn’t know what was.

“I love you, mate of mine,” I said against her lips, stealing a slow kiss from her and knowing that I’d belong to this girl for the rest of time. “And I think fate is turning in our favour.”