NOEL I did it. The chains slip free and hit the floor with a dull, metallic clang. The skin of my wrists underneath are raw and tender. But that’s the last thing that I need to think about, right now. Blaise. I slowly shift up from the chair that I was sure that I had been chained to for at least three days. Or maybe it had already been a week. I had no way of telling— there wasn’t a single window in the room to tell day and night apart. Time had just blended into nothingness while I was here. Damian Rouge had only been here once. And I pray, as I softly rest a trembling hand against the doorknob. It slides open smoothly when I twist. He’d underestimated me. The door swings open, so quietly. It opens to a dark hall. My amber eyes flicker, already too adjusted with the darkness. It’s night. I can tell, with the familiar darkness that had descended all over wherever this place was. I needed to find Blaise and get the hell out of here. But where? And at first, I exp
BLAISE Forget it. The snow is cold and pristine to the touch as I run, my paws brushing up a quiet track next to Noel’s slightly larger ones. Snow starts to fall, in a light flurry. The air is sharp, deeply seasoned by winter. It hurts to run. Noel notices and slows down for my sake. He doesn’t stray an inch further from my side, his amber eyes warm and gentle on me. When I accidentally trip over a thick tree root that had been covered by the snow, he quickly latches onto my scruff and pulls me back up to my feet. “Just a little more, Blaise.” He licks the scar on my face affectionately. And the warmth makes my legs nearly give out from underneath me. A part of me had still believed that I was back in that birdcage, my throat raw from singing and completely exposed to a pair of vivid scarlet eyes. “Just a little further.” The snowfall turns heavier. And we run. Neither of us know where we are going, but we just continue. Even when the trees get thicker and that there i
BLAISE It hits home. I feel the crunch of bone underneath my blow. It is the strongest blow that I have ever dealt anyone in my entire life, and I’m certain that I’ve done it. That the plan I’d thought would have zero chances of working had actually worked. The Rouge Alpha goes slack. He collapses heavily onto the cave floor, and Noel looks up at me with a surprised look in his amber eyes. The rock slips from my fingertips and lands with a heavy thud on the ground. I see the blood wetting his fur. “Noel!” “I’m fine.” He laughs, as I kneel over his wolven form. He licks my cheek, pretending like I hadn’t seen the way his expression had squeezed together with the pain when he had tried to get himself up. I throw both arms around him, burying my face into his chestnut fur. He coughs. “Are you sure—Are you sure he’s dead?” I look back. Damian Rouge is a cold, motionless figure on the ground. Blood slowly pools around where his head is. I wait a few heartstopping seconds, but
BLAISE “Shh.” He eases my hands back away from the collar of my shirt. But I’m so conscious of the marks that has been etched into my skin, for life. Where Damian Rouge had ravaged me and had left nothing behind. They are so horribly ugly, a flaw that I’d carry forever. I wouldn’t be a single bit surprised if he never wanted to look at me again, with that permanent reminder branded onto my throat and collarbone. Yet he can’t keep himself an inch away from me. He lifts me onto his lap. The warmth that surrounds me is so gentle that I feel the corners of my eyes sting with tears. A part of me still doesn’t believe that I’m safely back here again, away from the Rouge Alpha and his violence. “Sh.” He murmurs when I open my lips. “Don’t say a word, love.” “Your voice is still recovering.” Then he kisses a line down the scar on my face, his fingertips clasped around my chin. His lips press against mine then break. He shifts downwards, and I can barely hold down the wince when I
NOEL Save your breath. We’ll talk once we’re back at Shadow. His words revolve in my mind in an unending film. He’d told me to come to his room the moment that the Pack Healer had finished with me. Now I’m trudging down the halls, my steps even heavier than my heart slowly sinking down my chest. He had sounded mad. No, furious. He hadn’t said a single word to me the entire time he had brought me back to Shadow. I quickly touch my throat, wincing at the white bandages that climbed high up to my chin and covered the entire mass of my right shoulder underneath the loose folds of my shirt. I looked like I was trying to camouflage myself into the snow. I breathe, then come to a stop in front of a window. His room would be just around the corner. Taking a deep breath, I turn to the window and give myself a sharp scan. The glass reflects a weak, malnourished wolf, limbs a bit too lanky and amber eyes glowing hauntingly against pale cheeks. I quickly give my cheeks a couple of
BLAISE His lips are hot. I don’t know how that can be even possible. His tongue runs over my skin, and it takes all of me to press down a moan as I arch into him. He kisses the exact spots that he had kissed and marked me against my will. He reaches for the neckline of my dress, slipping it lower on the curve of my shoulder to expose my entire neck and the top curves of my breasts. “Tell me if it hurts.” He marks me. And a deep moan bursts from my lips before I can even stop it. His touch feels like fire against my skin, yet it feels so pleasant that I want more. My breaths run wild as he marks me a second time. Then a third. A fourth. The air itself burns. The pain and humiliation that I had felt while Damian Rouge had forced himself onto me slowly fades away in the back of my mind, replaced by pure lust and pleasure. I can’t believe how different it feels. Nothing is the same. “Command me when to stop, Blaise.” “Because I will not.” The sound of him undoing the but
Of how Ezra met Noel EZRA"I'll help."My eyes flicker down from the balcony towards the ground three stories below, at the sound of a delicate voice. It's the distinct voice of an Omega, soft and weak in the winter wind. An Omega, still out and wandering like a fool when there were only ten minutes left until the start of the Blood Hunt.He smiles at one of the lower-ranking, elderly wolves in the Shadow Pack, reaching out with both hands to slip the heavy load she carries onto his own arms.Nine minutes, now.Does he not understand that—"I have to go really soon, because of the Hunt." The golden-haired omega whispers, and my brows furrow as he quickly asks her where she stays. She points at the edge of the small houses near the Center Palace.I expect him to make an uncertain expression. There would be no chance that he would make it to the Forests in time for the brutal warriors to not find him."...okay!"My eyes ripple as I watch him hurry ahead. Even still, he continues to lo
Special Spinoff: Blaise and Christian OneShot"Perhaps I am the oasis.""You come to find sanctuary in me, but I am really the mirage who tears you apart."________________________________BLAISEI do not know the time.The seconds fall through my mind, like sand pouring through a torn cloth. Hours and days mean nothing to me.All I know is the sun.It tears down at me, filling up the skies with its light and heat. The sand glows a deadly gold, the shade of the eyes of a cobra before it lunges at its prey.I'd run out of food a long time ago.My canteen of water is down to its last drop.I'm going to die here.The cloth around my mouth and nose is already full with sand. I taste it everywhere— on my lips and in the air I breathe. I feel as if I'm losing my ability to speak, with each step I take.Every step I take.I just want to give up.For what was I doing this for? It was painful, more than words could ever describe. I wanted to rest. Give up, and let the sands bury me in their ar