A fairy, the embodiment of light itself, is ensnared by the clutches of HELL and dragged down by a ravaging and relentless HELLHOUND in this dark erotic shifter. As the shadows unfurl and long-buried truths come to light, her life spirals into a cap...
Standing in the grimy bathroom, I ignore the urge to go to his room to use that bathtub. The water was so warm that I could see the steam coming off of it; it made the air feel balmy. This bathroom is freezing. The water, no matter how I turn the knobs or how long I let it run, will not warm.
Biting into my lip, I step into the ice-cold spray and scrub myself with trembling hands.
Jumping out, I dash, naked and shivering, across the hallway to my room. Curling under my blankets, I wait for the chill in my bones to start to dissipate.
Just as it did all night, his voice plays in my head. Like mist rising up from the ground on a cold morning, it's quiet, a soft echo in my brain.
I don't believe him.
Everything he said last night was a lie. My father gave him my soul? I don't believe it for a second. But the sincerity of his voice and the way my body felt against his keeps playing tricks on me.
His touch healed everything. This incessant fucking ache in my neck and wings was gone for however brief a moment. I felt whole. His tongue exploring my mouth, the way he gently nipped at my skin—it was hard and deep, and it made me soar again.
It felt real. It felt like the truth.
No!
Jumping up, I quickly pull on my clothes and run out the door and down the hall. The smell of food hits me as I reach the top of the stairs.
"Cerberus!" I don't know why I'm yelling. I don't know what I'm going to say. I'm just furious, and I want him to know it!
"Yes, love?" He sits casually shirtless at the head of the table, surrounded by breakfast.
"Tell me everything. I need to know all of it!"
"I already told you."
"No." I pull the chair loudly from the table, sitting beside him. "Tell me all of it."
He hums and sits forward, "The truth is sometimes hard to hear. Are you sure you're ready for that?"
"Yes."
"Your father needed a favor. A monumental task that required significant payment. I only wanted a mate, so he gave me you. He bound your soul to mine. Then, he tried to go back on his word because he is a spineless, honorless scum. He had me betrayed and locked away in a hole in the ground for twenty-five years. He tried to marry you off, to give away what is mine."
"H-He wouldn't." I'm grateful for the seat, otherwise, I would be laid out on the floor.
"He would, little bird. He did."
Starting in my chest, a sharp, boiling acid starts to rush through me. Corrosive and vile, it takes over. Jumping to my feet, everything is coated in red, dripping, smeared, and spattered.
My father's cold, expressionless face, his insistence that I marry Mykle and bond myself to him by blood, it makes sense.
No.
He wouldn't. He wouldn't manipulate me like that.
He wouldn't bind my soul to this beast for all of eternity. What could he possibly want that he would be willing to pay such a high price?
"You're lying."
"I am not."
"You are!" I slam my hands down on the table. "He would never give me to you!"
The look on his face makes my vision go black. It's like time is speeding up, flying past me as I watch from above my body. The knife on the table is somehow in my hand, and before I can even react, it's planted deeply in his chest.
I'm zapped back to reality when a horrifying scream fills the room. It's me. I'm screaming.
"I'm sorry!" I stumble back, clutching my own chest. "I didn't mean to..."
I'm pinned to the floor in a dizzying whirlwind of movement. He's on top of me with the knife sticking out of his chest. With my eyes closed tight, fear makes me tremble. He's going to kill me. He's going to snap my neck or maul me. He's going to-
My eyes open and jerk up to meet his.
Between my legs, where his body is pressed against mine, a very distinct, very hard weapon of a different kind is grinding into me.
His eyes are so dark, swirling not with anger but with something else.
Hunger.
"God damn it," he growls and rips the knife from his chest, flinging it across the room before he attaches his mouth to the mark on my neck.
Warmth trickles down my chest, soaking through my shirt and running down my neck.
I can feel every hard inch of him pressed into my suddenly churning stomach.
"You didn't even think about it, did you, little bird?" He groans, pressing sloppy kisses to my lips. "My darkness is your darkness. It's in your soul."
"I didn't mean to," I whimper.
"Oh, but you did. You stuck it in to the hilt." He rolls his hips forward, sending an aching kind of pleasure through my body. I feel mushy, my bones feel loose, my insides have melted, and everything is hot. "You can do whatever you want to me, Robin. I can take it. Hit me, bite me, stab me," his voice shakes. "I want it. Every vile, wicked fantasy you can think of, I want you to use me. I want all of your pleasure."
Pressing my hand to his chest, I arch my back upward, pressing myself against him. My fingers slip against his slick skin, blood coating me.
Running my hands through his hair, I tug at it, and he groans into my mouth before pressing his tongue against mine.
Deep, drowning in the lust in my mind, something forces its way to the surface. A moment of clarity.
What am I doing?
I can't stop myself. His body caging mine to the ground, his hips pressing against mine, it's all I can think about. I want it so badly that I can taste it.
I should run screaming from the room, but I can't imagine pulling myself away from him right now.
Instead of panicking, I feel completely calm. It's like a memory from another life resurfacing. I know what I'm supposed to do, how to move, and where to put my hands. A deep, thumping pressure in my belly makes me delirious for his touch. I crave it. There has never been anything like it.
Suddenly, he pulls away, yanking himself off of me, leaving me heaving for my next breath and cold without his weight.
"When you want me, you know what you have to do." He smirks, the blood from his wound dripping everywhere.
"W-what?" I sputter, sitting up frantically.
"You have to beg me for it, little bird.
Beg me and I'll give you everything you want. I'll make you come until your body gives out from exhaustion. I'll fuck you until you can't remember your own name. All you have to do is beg."
With that, he turns, casually jogging up the steps before looking over his shoulder.
"There will be a dress waiting in your room. Change into it. We're going out."
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