Chapter 479: Just desserts 1
HAZEL
I reached for the knob. My fingers closed around cool tal, and I twisted.
Nothing happened.
The door held fast, locked from the inside. My breath caught in my throat as reality crashed against expectation. Of course he’d locked it. Why wouldn’t he? He was chained in there with his dead wife’s ghost, vulnerable to anyone who might walk in during heat season.
I pressed my shoulder against the wood and pushed. The door rattled in its fra but didn’t give. My broken plan reford itself in seconds. Force, then. I’d use force.
I stepped back and threw my weight forward. The impact sent pain jolting through my shoulder, but sothing in the chanism gave with a sharp crack. I hit it again. Wood splintered near the lock. One more shove and the door swung inward with a groan of protest, the fra damaged but functional enough to close again if needed.
The scent hit
before I’d even crossed the threshold.
My knees buckled instantly. I caught myself on the doorfra, fingers digging into wood as waves of pure Alpha pheromones rolled over
like a physical force. Sage and earth and sothing wild that bypassed every rational thought I’d ever had and went straight to the base of my brain where instinct lived.
My vision blurred at the edges. Heat exploded through my core with such intensity that I gasped, my other hand flying to my stomach as if I could sohow contain what was happening inside my body. Between my thighs, wetness began to trail down my skin in slow, damning rivulets that I couldn’t stop.
I collapsed to my knees just inside the doorway. The nightdress rode up around my thighs. I didn’t care. I... I couldn’t care. Every cell in my body was screaming at
to crawl to him, to present myself as an offering, and beg to be dominated.
"Who’s there?"
His voice cut through the haze. Rough, strained, and barely human. The sound of it made sothing clench low in my belly.
Chains rattled in the darkness. tal against tal, a sharp sound that should have warned
but only made my body respond with another surge of need so powerful I had to bite back a whimper.
The room was dim. A few lamps burned low along the walls, casting more shadow than light. But I could make out his shape in the center of the space. He was shirtless, with platinum chains running from restraints at his wrists up toward the ceiling where they’d been anchored to the structure itself. His chest rose and fell with labored breathing, his muscles shifting under skin that glead faintly with sweat.
I forced myself to my feet. My legs shook with the effort. I turned and shoved the damaged door closed behind , then threw the lock. The chanism protested but engaged with a click that sounded too loud in the quiet room.
My hand found the light switch. The overhead fixture blazed to life.
Gold eyes t mine across the space between us.
Not green.
Not the forest shade I’d seen before. Pure molten gold that glowed with the kind of primal intensity that belonged to sothing that had stopped being entirely human hours ago.
He blinked slowly. Recognition flickered across his features, faint and struggling against whatever the heat had turned him into.
"Get out of here, Oga."
The words ca out as a snarl. His lips pulled back from his teeth in a warning that should have sent
running.
Instead, I moved closer.
Each step required conscious effort. My body wanted to drop and crawl the rest of the way. I forced myself upright despite the way my knees threatened to give out with every breath I took that filled my lungs with more of his scent.
I circled behind him. The chains gave him limited range of motion, but I stayed just outside what I guessed he could reach. Up close, the effect was worse. His scent wrapped around
like a living thing, seeping into my pores and rewriting my thoughts into single-word commands.
Closer. Touch. Taste. Fuck.
I leaned in before I could stop myself. My lips found the curve where his neck t his shoulder, and I pressed my mouth to his skin. Salt and sage and sothing uniquely sweet flooded my senses. I took a breath through my nose, drawing his scent deep into my lungs until I felt drunk on it.
My knees buckled. I caught myself on his back, hands splaying against muscle that tensed beneath my palms. A sound escaped
that I didn’t recognize, sothing between a gasp and a moan that I couldn’t contain.
"I’m not in control of my faculties here." The words tumbled out of , half-slurred. "But I do know I want you."
He snarled. The sound vibrated through his chest and into my hands where they pressed against him. His eyes flickered from gold to forest green and back again, his animal and human sides warring for dominance. The confusion that crossed his face looked almost painful.
"Hazel?" His voice ca clearer now, more human. "You should be with Lysander."
I pulled back enough to reach the hidden pocket in my nightdress. My fingers found the tissue-wrapped powder and drew it out with trembling hands. The packet felt impossibly light as I held it up between us.
"It’s not Lysander that I want. It’s you I want."
Recognition flashed in his eyes. The gold brightened with understanding and sothing else. Sothing that looked almost like fear.
"You intend to have
take you."
I didn’t answer. I just brought the packet to my lips and blew.
The powder exploded into his face in a white cloud. He jerked back with a choked sound, the chains rattling violently as he tried to turn away. But there was nowhere to go. The powder settled over his skin, into his eyes, and his nose. He coughed and sputtered, trying desperately not to breathe it in.
He failed.
I poured what remained over myself. The powder dusted my chest and shoulders, stark white against the pale fabric of my nightdress. Then I moved in front of him and rose up on my toes to press my mouth to his.
His lips were hot against mine. For one second, he remained still. Then his teeth sank into my lower lip with savage force.
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