Chapter 021

They froze mid-strike, like predators catching the scent of prey.

Oh shit.

My whole body went rigid, my nails digging into my palms. It was impossible not to know what they’d caught—what I’d given away without meaning to. The air between us thickened, almost alive with the heat of it.

Daemon’s smirk came first. Slow. Wicked. His lip split from Draven’s earlier blow, but he still licked the blood from his mouth like the taste only amused him. “Well, well…” His voice carried easily across the training ground, teasing, cruel. “Look what we have here.”

Draven’s expression was darker, harder to read. His chest rose and fell in steady, controlled breaths, though his gaze pinned me like a weight, silver irises flickering with something sharp, hunger, restraint, maybe both.

Darius didn’t speak. Didn’t move. His opponent dropped his guard for a second, confused, but Darius’s eyes never left mine. They burned, unblinking, like he was trying to peel back layers of me with nothing more than his stare.

I swore my knees might give out under the intensity of it.

Beside me, Maris stiffened, finally noticing what had shifted. Her chatter stopped cold, and I felt her hand graze my sleeve in warning. She didn’t understand, not fully, but she felt it too. The sudden, feral pull in the air.

Daemon laughed, low and taunting. “Careful, brothers. You’re going to frighten the poor girl.” His eyes flicked to me, glittering with promise. “Or maybe that’s exactly what she wants.”

Heat climbed my neck, my cheeks burning. I wanted to deny it, to scream it wasn’t true, but my body betrayed me, trembling under the scrutiny of all three of them.

Draven took a step forward. Just one. Enough to make the wolves around the pit shift uneasily, as though some unspoken boundary had been broken. His gaze never left me.

Darius finally moved, turning slightly toward his brothers, his voice low but edged with steel. “Enough.”

Daemon only chuckled again, wiping sweat from his brow, his grin refusing to fade. “Touchy, touchy.”

The moment stretched too long. Every breath I took seemed louder than it should, every heartbeat a drum in my ears.

I dropped my gaze at last, tearing it from theirs, praying they couldn’t see how badly my body was betraying me.

But I knew better.

They could smell it.

My arousal, they could smell it

And no amount of lowered eyes or clenched fists could hide me now.

Darius’s shadow swallowed me whole before I could even think of stepping back. His hand clamped around the side of my neck—not crushing, but firm enough that my breath stuttered. His face was close, his scent all earth and storm.

“What are you doing here?” he snarled, voice a razor scraping over my skin.

I swallowed hard, my throat straining against his grip. Words tangled on my tongue. My body screamed to shrink away, but the heat coursing through me kept me rooted, dizzy.

And then Daemon moved.

He circled like a wolf scenting a cornered doe, his smirk sharp enough to cut. His eyes dragged down me with deliberate slowness, his chest rising with a deep inhale. “Gods, you reek of it,” he murmured, almost reverent. “Sweet, desperate little thing…”

The air left my lungs in a strangled gasp when I felt it, his fingertip grazing along my waist, feather light, teasing. My knees weakened, shame and arousal twisting cruelly inside me. I knew, knew, my wetness was betraying me, sliding down my thighs.

Darius went rigid. His grip didn’t loosen, but his jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might crack. His eyes locked on Daemon, and for the first time, I saw it, that silent battle carved into the planes of his face. The dark Alpha who commanded with an iron hand… faltering.

Daemon leaned closer, his voice a sinful whisper meant for me alone. “She’s trembling, brother. She wants this.”

“Let me go,” I whispered, choking on the plea. “Please… don’t do this. Not here.”

My words trembled in the charged air, but Daemon only chuckled, cruel and smooth.

“Then where, little wolf?” His teeth grazed the edge of a grin, hot breath fanned my neck. “Tell me, where is perfect? So I can tear off this lace from your pretty body and have my way with you.”

The words shot straight through me, leaving heat and humiliation tangled in my chest. My thighs pressed together instinctively, uselessly.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Darius roared, his grip on my neck tightening as his body snapped taut with fury. The sound cracked across the training ground like a whip.

All around us, the shirtless men—wolves who had moments ago been sparring, turned toward the spectacle. Some froze mid-motion, others whispered among themselves, the air buzzing with tension.

Daemon only smiled wider, wicked satisfaction painting his face. His hands lifted mockingly in surrender, though his gaze never left mine. “So protective. So greedy. Careful, brother. You might break her before the rest of us get a chance.”

My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I thought it might shatter.

“You will not fucking touch her!” Darius growled at Daemon she just simply took it as a means to provoke him more.

“That’s not how this works brother, and you know it. Stop trying to deny something so clear to plain sight.” He said, gripping by waist, my back lurching backwards to his thighs , where I very much felt his erection on my lower back.

My nipples stood at the sensation. I pressed my lips together, trying to keep the moan in my throat from escaping.

Darius’s fingers dug harder into my neck, not crushing, but enough that pain bit into my skin. My breath hitched, my nails scratching uselessly against his wrist.

“Darius… please,” I gasped, my voice trembling so low only he could hear. “You’re hurting me.”

His eyes flickered at the words, a crack splintering through the storm in his face. But he didn’t let go. His chest heaved, muscles coiled so tight I thought he might snap, and then Daemon’s laugh cut between us like a blade.

“Hurting you?” Daemon taunted, circling closer again, the sun catching on the sheen of sweat down his chest. “No, little wolf. He’s claiming you. Isn’t that what you want? To be owned?” His eyes gleamed, cruel and hungry. “Or maybe you’d rather I be the one to show you what that feels like.”

“Back. Off.” Darius snarled, his voice edged with a primal warning that made even the men around us stiffen.

The air vibrated with danger, wolves bristling, watching. Daemon’s smirk deepened, but before he could push further, another shadow crashed into the tension.

“Enough!”

Draven’s voice cracked like thunder, cutting through the growls and silence alike. He strode forward, his eyes burning like molten fire, shoulders squared with the authority of a man who had no need to raise his voice twice.

The crowd of shirtless warriors parted instantly, heads bowing slightly as he passed, but his fury never wavered from the two in front of him.

Darius’s grip slackened, though his hand still lingered on my throat as if he couldn’t bring himself to release me fully. My chest rose and fell too quickly, each breath a rasp.

Draven’s gaze flicked down, saw Darius’s hand, saw my trembling. His jaw flexed hard enough I thought his teeth might break.

“What the hell are you doing?” Draven snapped, voice low, dangerous. His eyes cut to Darius first, then to Daemon, who only tilted his head with a wicked grin. “Do you mean to tear her apart in the middle of the training ground? In front of everyone?”

Whispers rippled through the ring of warriors. I felt the weight of all those eyes pressing into me, on my flushed cheeks, on the lace clinging to my body, on the tremor still running through my thighs.

Shame scorched me from the inside, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Could only stand there, caught between the three of them as the air grew thick enough to choke.

Darius finally dropped his hand from my neck, though his body still blocked me protectively from Daemon’s reach. He looked torn, fury and restraint twisting across his face in a way that made my stomach clench.

Draven stepped closer, his voice a low growl that only the three of us could hear. “Control yourselves—or I’ll do it for you.”