Chapter 2: A Savage Hunger

Release me! I was only trying to save your life!

Her voice cracked as she wriggled frantically beneath him. The cold mud soaked through the back of her dress and filled her hair, but the front of her body burned from his heat. He felt like a furnace, a wild beast made of pure muscle and fever.

She pushed her hands against his chest, but it was like pushing against solid stone. Her slick fingers slid against his sweaty, blood-stained skin, leaving smear marks over his broad ribs.

He did not answer her plea. His breath came fast and shallow, rattling deep in his throat like loose stones scraping together. The golden light in his eyes flared brighter, dulling his dark pupils until he looked completely blind to reason. The deep cut on his waist bled onto the blue fabric of her dress, warm and thick, but he did not seem to feel the wound at all.

Instead, his gaze dropped to her mouth. His hand shifted from her wrists down to her collarbone, his sharp nails dragging lightly over her pale skin without breaking it.

"You smell like rain," he muttered. His voice was deeper now, stripped of all rage, replaced by a dark, hungry edge that made her blood run cold. "Like soft soil and sweet water."

"Please," she choked out, her heels digging into the wet grass as she tried to shove his massive shoulder away. "Let me up. You are hurt. You are bleeding into the dirt!"

"The pain..." He gasped, bowing his heavy head until his dark, matted hair fell across her forehead. He let out a low groan that vibrated straight through her ribcage. "The pain in my chest is tearing me apart. It has been burning since I opened my eyes in this darkness. I cannot breathe. I cannot think."

"I have herbs," she whispered, her eyes wide with terror as she tried to wriggle her hips out from under his heavy legs. "They are right there in the dirt. They will stop the burning. Just let me go."

"No herb can fix this," he growled low in his chest.

The fierce, murderous edge in his posture suddenly shifted. The urge to break her neck vanished, replaced instantly by an overwhelming, suffocating weight that pressed her flat into the damp grass. The agony tearing through his veins seemed to quiet down whenever his body pressed closer to hers. The dark, frantic madness in his eyes softened into something far more dangerous.

It was not a desire to kill. It was a primal, desperate hunger.

He shifted his weight, burying his hips tighter against hers. She gasped at the sheer pressure, her hands instinctively grabbing his broad shoulders to keep from sinking deeper into the mud. He was so heavy, so impossibly strong, that every small movement he made trapped her tighter in the dirt.

"What are you doing?" she cried, her breath coming in panicked hitches as her heart hammered against her ribs. "Stop... please, just stop!"

"I need this," he rasped into her skin, his mouth dragging up the side of her neck toward her ear. His words were raw, unhinged, and heavy with an unbearable ache he could not control. "I need to drown this fire before it burns me to ash."

"No!" She slammed her fists against his hard chest, but her blows did not even make him flinch. "I don't know who you are! You are a stranger!"

He ignored her cries, completely lost to the storm inside his own mind. He released her hands, but before she could throw him off, his massive palms slid down her sides, gripping her waist with terrifying power. His broad thumbs dug into her hipbones, holding her locked in place beneath him. He lifted her slightly, pinning her flush against his hard frame until there was no space left between them.

The contact made his breath hitch in a sharp, ragged gasp. The sheer relief washed over his face, clearing the blind rage from his features for a brief, fleeting second. But the relief only fed the dark hunger consuming his blood.

She felt the brutal hardness of his frame pressed against her soft belly. Panic flared wildly in her chest. She grabbed his thick wrists, her small nails digging into his skin, trying with all her remaining strength to pry his heavy hands off her waist.

"Let me go!" she sobbed, tears spilling over her cheeks and pooling in her ears. "I came out here to gather leaves! I didn't do anything to you!"

"You came near me," he whispered, his voice trembling with a dark, intoxicating heat. "That was your mistake, girl."

His head dipped lower, his heavy brow resting against her shoulder. His dark, messy hair brushed against her cheek, tickling her tear-stained skin. The heat rolling off him was suffocating, wrapping around her like a heavy woolen blanket pulled straight from a fire. She could feel his heart hammering against her chest—a fast, violent rhythm that matched the terrifying speed of her own pulse.

He stopped moving for a second, his body trembling violently as if fighting a war against himself. His grip on her waist tightened until it hurt, his large fingers spanning nearly the entire width of her torso.

"I don't remember my name," he rasped, his warm breath fanning across her collarbone, making every hair on her body stand on end. "I don't remember how long I've been dead in the dark... or how long I've been breathing this bitter air. I only know this pain.

"Then let me help you up!" she begged, her voice shrinking to a desperate whisper. "We can go to the village. The elders have medicine

"No village, he growled, the sharp edge returning to his tone. No one can touch me. Only you.

Why me?" she sobbed, her strength slowly draining away under his crushing weight. "Why are you doing this to me?"

He didn't answer with words. He slowly shifted his weight higher, sliding his large body up hers until his face was buried deep in the sensitive crook of her neck. He pressed his face right where her neck met her shoulder, taking a long, deep, desperate breath of her skin. He inhaled as if he were a drowning man taking his very first gasp of air, dragging her scent deep into his lungs.

As her scent filled his nose, a low, primal growl rumbled deep in his chest a heavy, rolling sound that vibrated straight through her bones, making her entire body freeze in absolute terror.