2. Trick or treat

(Faye) 

I kept biting my nails as Owen stared at me with a frown. "She will be alright, but if you keep biting your nails, you won't be," he said with a smile as he sat down next to me, wincing as he looked at my bitten nails. 

"I am worried about her." 

"And I am, too, but you know her. Nothing is going to convince her. She has to do what she has to."

"I know she had been doing things on her terms since she was a child, and it made her... kinda stubborn."

"Kinda?" Owen winked, and we laughed together and some of the tension in my stomach reduced.  

"Okay, very stubborn, but we are all in this together, and I wish she won't recklessly run into things," I said, taking in a deep breath.

Vera and I had been friends for a long time. No. We were more than friends. We were sisters. And I knew she would be the one I would go to if I had to bury someone, and she would come to me. But sometimes, it worried me, the way she thrived on danger. 

Sometimes I had a feeling that she was trying to fill some kind of emptiness, but I knew she would go berserk if I even mentioned this. 

He stood up. "I will bring you something to eat," he said. He had been just as much a brother to me as Hayden was. 

"Thanks Owen, you are the best," I said as he walked away. I grabbed my notepad and started to draw. When I was not stealing shits, I spend my time drawing shits, again.

I wasn't good, but I liked the peace it brought me. I closed my eyes with a sigh, hoping once again that Vera is fine.

***

(Vera)

“The nerve!” the dragon prince breathed out. If he had shifted, he would be breathing fire now.

He looked down at me, his eyes dangerous, menacing. And it shouldn’t have made me feel the cyclone of pleasure deep in my belly, but damn it did.

Ezra will not be pleased about this.

"But I am very pleased.” Nova was excited. No, she was beyond excited to have met her mate. Me? I was gobsmacked. I didn’t want a mate, especially not the same guy I had once stolen from.

He stood there, taking deep, deep breaths. “You freaking, impertinent, vile creature from the bottom of hell. You deplorable-”

Uh-oh. The prince doesn’t look too happy.

"Can you blame him?” Nova sighed deeply. ”And because of you, I can’t taste his deliciousness.”

I knew what delicious things I wanted to suck at, oh. But-

I should be running away now. My brain should instinctively look for a way to escape as it usually would do, but right now, none of it was happening. My brain was a fuzzy, blurry mess.

I felt like my common sense had evaporated to leave a f*cking vacuum in my head. I stared at his beautiful body, my breath leaving in a freaking gasp. My heart raced like a wild steed, untamed.

Damn, he was glorious. This wasn’t the prince I knew, the gangly, soft-eyed teenager. Time had been excessively generous to him, and that was my punishment.

He was made up of sinful, erotic dreams that one would dream at the edge of the insane nights, made to destroy a person’s self-control with just a look from those smoldering eyes. And he did. Mine.

Five years ago, too, he did the same thing. Maybe our bodies recognized the mate bond even then, before our dragons.

Usually, dragons will find their mate at nineteen, but sometimes the attraction would be there even before the mate bonds were forged.

“What? What is wrong? What is going on? Sir?” I blinked at him innocently, and licked my lips as I scanned his marvelous body, and my mouth watered, so were my other parts south of the border.

Damn. I am going to hell for this.

From his dark midnight black hair, to his breathtaking eyes made of broken emeralds and stars, to that magnificent body made to touch and fūck until all your fantasies were fulfilled, oh, no. Not seventeen, at all. I had seen the pictures of him, blurry ones, in the gossip columns, but the reality was immensely better.

“What is wrong? You know exactly what is wrong, Vera.” He bared his teeth at me and I wanted those teeth nibbling my freaking breasts like they were a plate of imported Wolven cheese.

The quick shot of lust rippling through my body. Oh, nobody was going to deny how much I wanted him, especially not me, when my panties were getting wetter with each passing second.

“Just take a step and you can taste those succulent lips. You know you want to... Oh, his lips look so damn tempting. Remember that kiss we can’t forget?” Nova was a freaking shameless hussy, but so was I.

"He looks like he wants to kill me, Nova. Not kiss me.”

“But he can’t resist you. You know he can’t. You are his mate.”

Mate. That was another problem I had to deal with another day. Today, I needed to get the hell away from here. I had already missed the element of surprise. Now I had to form a solid plan.

“I don’t understand half the shit that comes out of your mouth.”

“Do you think that I am playing here, you little Ifrinn from hell?” He bared his teeth, looking like a shark, and even that aroused me.

This freaking man was made to tempt women to sin. I wanted to sin and then pray for his forgiveness. Even the most innocent woman would have the most illicit thoughts with a look from him and me... I was nowhere close to innocent. Well, growing up on your own, fighting to survive in a world full of powerful beings... It could corrupt your innocence.

“Do I look little?” I breathed out, and his eyes went to my breasts, marvelously showcased in that blue dress, and his green eyes darkened to the point they almost looked black as night.

He licked his lips as a soft moan left his lips, and I wanted him to lick me. Lick all of me. Especially, my p*ssy drenched in my desire for him. Maybe he could use his dragon’s tongue, long and warm and delicious, sneaking inside-

F*ck. What is wrong with me?

I had a boyfriend. The one I dearly liked. And also, I wasn’t a mate material. I knew that. I had always known that the first moment my dad walked out on me and my brother after my mom died, but looking into the Prince’s darkening eyes, I had a hard time thinking about the reasons why I eternally wanted to stay untethered. Unmated. Single.

Ezra was only a pitstop. I knew he would soon find his mate, and I wasn’t averse to that idea. He needed his happiness. Just because I didn’t want a mate didn’t mean he had to be the same.

"Nova, I need to find a way to escape. Not thinking about finding a way to make him lick me. Help!”

My stupid dragon wasn’t helping, though. She was, for God’s sake, wagging her tail like a freaking puppy who wanted her belly tickled.

"And you want your p*ssy tickled. We all want what we want,” Nova said with a devilish smirk.

“What the hell are you doing here again? You think you can get away with this, the second time? You insolent- you- The audacity!” the prince was blustering.

Oh, I must have done quite a number on him before. I was a little bit proud of that. He was too trusting back then. Naïve. I didn’t even have to do anything. He did three by fourth of my job for me without me even asking.

“Take a deep breath. This isn’t good for your health. You must be mistaking me for someone else.”

“Yeah, you are concerned about my health?!” he scoffed. “How dare you come back after the things you did? I will have your head for this...” the prince was breathing heavily, his face flushed in his anger, his eyes flashing.

"Ooh, delicious. I would like to have a bite of him.”

“Nova, leave the f*ck alone. You can’t have him. Not when he looks like he wants to roast us alive.”

“Will you, Prince? Have my head?” I leaned closer to the prince with a smirk.

It was hard for me to be this close to him, without throwing myself at him and begging him to handcuff me as I had done to him and take me against the wall, hard--it was the freaking mate bond, I promise.

It was like someone was mind fūcking you. All the nerves were firing and every pleasure point in my body was getting activated.

And the fūcking joke was... we weren’t even touching.

He took a quick step back, as if he was afraid of me.

“I mean, do I know you? Do you know me? I have never met you before.” I blinked at him, giving him one of my most innocent smiles, but the prince was not falling for that. “I thought- I thought-” I licked my lips and pouted.

For a second, his eyes fell to my lips, and they darkened in his desire. Of course, the prince would rather kill me than kiss me, but the mate bond, oh, it was some powerful shit. No running away from that curse. And it was a curse.

I knew how much of a curse it was.

He closed his hand around my throat, making sure he didn’t hurt me. He pushed me against the wall, his eyes like a cyclone forming in the emerald seas.

“You can flash that poisonous smile and blink those evil eyes all you want. I know who you are, Vera, Vee, whatever the hell you call yourself, you little thief.”

“Well. Hello to you too, prince. Nice to meet you again.” I mean, I must have been unforgettable. So there was nothing else to do. No point in pretending anymore.

“Nice? Nice. You stole the most precious family heirloom, and you left me half-” He stopped halfway, and a flush adorned his cheeks, making my stomach clench in need.

“Naked. You were okay naked back then. But now... oh, I want to see you. With nothing on your body.” My mouth, my biggest weapon, and sometimes, my biggest enemy, too. Now it was both.

He gulped.

Maybe he hadn’t completely changed. Oh, I liked that.

And I needed an escape plan, and I already had one, something quite handy.

The Sun God had blessed me with that escape plan even before I got caught.

I will have the crown.

His hand was still around my throat and I didn’t mind it one bit.

“Time has been good to you, huh?” I smiled as I traced his stiff jaw with my fingers. So stiff.

“What the hell are you playing here? What the f*ck is-”

I grabbed his collar in my hand and slammed my lips against his. He went instantly quiet and a soft moan left his lips. His hands caressed my body softly, and I felt like I was transported back to the day when I was seventeen. Five years, and still...

My heart raced as his hands toyed with my skin, and it was like nothing I had ever felt in my life.

He pressed his body against mine, and oh... I could feel his hard muscles on my soft, soft curves. His hands left my body, and I wanted to beg him to put it right back on. Oh, hell, this insanity was tempting, addictive.

But I couldn’t afford to get caught, not right now.

Now, for the job at hand...

Wait, where the hell is it?

“Are you looking for this?” He pulled away with a dangerous smile on his face as he waved the handcuff to my face. “I think you are slipping, thief. Same trick, the second time, too? Do you think I will fall for that? Once again? How stupid do you think I am?” His voice was a deep, raspy growl.

He quickly snapped the handcuffs on my wrist when I was distracted and looped the other to the window, snapping it closed, as if he had been doing this a million times before. The final click was so final.

Oh, the bastard was not caressing me. He was stealing my f*cking handcuffs, and I had let him distract me.

“The surprises keep coming!” Nova moaned. ”But I am all for them.”

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