Chapter 6

Morwenna’s POV

  The doors shut behind me with a heavy boom that made my heart tremble.

  His chambers was unlike anything I'd seen before... covered in red blood and had ancient carvings

  The fire in the fireplace  was  warm,  casting shadows across the room. It smelled like pinewood smoke, steel and something more- Him.

  Leofric stood near the fireplace, turned half away from me, like I was the least of his concerns . But I felt his awareness in every inch  of his body, every breath he took.

I waited, unsure whether to speak, move, or even breathe too loudly.

Then his voice almost like a whisper,  broke the heavy  silence.

“Come closer.” He said

My bare feet touched the cool floor, each step more terrifying than the last.

I stopped several paces away, keeping space between us.  I needed that space to breathe.

“Take off the cloak,” he said, without turning.

I paused , then unfastened the rough cloak they’d thrown over my shoulders in the breeding chambers.

It slipped from my body and settled at my feet, leaving me in the thin, sleeveless shirt, barely decent, completely vulnerable.

Only then did he turn.

His golden eyes landed on me, his eyes filled with fury and anger.

But there was something else beneath it, something i couldn't quit place.

He studied me, looking over slowly as if he could strip me of what little will I had left .

“You defy me again and again,you go against my will,"  he murmured. “You test my patience, girl.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“You did,” he snapped, as he took a step forward.

“You always mean to. You let that little pup Aedric touch what’s mine. You whispered to him like you hadn’t already been claimed.”

“He came on his own. I didn’t summon him.”

“But you didn’t stop him.”

His voice was calm now. Too calm. The kind of calm that came before a storm.

“Tell me, Morwenna,” he continued, circling me like a wolf in the woods. “Do you still want him? Do you still dream of him at night? Does your body still remember the way he held you?”

I clenched my jaw but said nothing.

That silence seemed to add to his anger. He moved closer, slowly but deliberately.

“And yet,” he whispered , “you tremble for me.”

I hated that it was true. I hated how easily he knew me .

I hated that his presence, troubled my thoughts and made my heart drop.

I tried to stand still. But his hand lifted and trailed along the edge of my jaw, down the line of my throat, and I shivered.

His thumb moved quickly along the fresh wound at my collarbone—his sigil.

I winced, the pain was still fresh.

He watched my reaction with interest, then leaned in. “Did it hurt?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Good.”

He ran his finger lower, then over the top of my chest, until my body shivered under his touch.

“Do you know what this mark means?” he asked, his voice low.

“It tells the world you belong to me. Not as a queen. Not as a mate. As my breeder. A vessel. A legacy.”

He paused, letting the words sting.

“Do you hate me for it?”

I looked in his eyes . “Yes.”

He smiled then, " I want you to.”

His hand dropped, and he turned from me, pacing toward the fireplace.

He stared into the fire as though the flames held answers to questions he couldn’t ask aloud.

“I’ve had dozens of women sent to this chamber,” he said, almost absently. “Most of them broke within days. Many cried. Some begged. Some tried to take their own lives.”

I swallowed hard.

“And you…” he continued, still watching the fire.

“You lookat me like I’m the one in chains.”

I said nothing.

He turned back, his eyes filled with anger

“What makes you different, Morwenna?”

I lifted my chin. “Because I remember who I was before you branded me.”

“Who you were doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It matters to me.”

A moment of silence passed.

He moved toward me again, but slower this time.

“I could have taken you the moment you entered,” he murmured. “Claimed you fully, made you carry my heir. No one would have stopped me. No one could. No one can ever."

My pulse raced , but I refused to look away.

“Then why haven’t you?” I asked, my voice steadier than I felt.

He lifted his hand again, not to touch, but to hover just above my skin, his  fingers trembling as if fighting themselves.

His eyes locked with mine.

“Because I don’t want your body screaming in fear,” he said softly. “I want it trembling in need.”

My lips parted as i tried to speak, but no sound came out.

“I want your mouth begging,” he continued, “not to be spared… but to be touched. To be taken.”

“I want to see you fall apart. Not from pain. But from wanting me.”

I tried to speak. Tried to breathe. But nothing.

But his words were fire and his closeness made my thoughts blur.

And still—I did not beg.

I did not yield.

He pulled back, finally, watching me with something like rage and desire  inside him.

“I don’t understand you,” he muttered.

“You don’t have to.”

He stared for a long moment, and I thought—just for a moment there was something wounded in him.

A man behind the monster.

But it vanished as quickly as it came.

With a sudden motion, he turned away from me, his cloak following behind me.

“Enough,” he growled.  “You may leave.”

I stood, frozen. Unsure of what he meant.

“You’re letting me go?”

His voice was low, but clear.

“For now.”

He reached for the heavy curtain near the balcony, pulling it back with force, revealing the dark mountains beyond the glass.

“But don’t mistake this for mercy, Morwenna.”

I backed away slowly, each step heavier than the last.

“Your strength interests me,” he said, still not looking at me. “But don’t confuse that interest with safety.”

I quickly held the handle of the chamber door as I turned to leave.

Then his voice came again.

“You will beg for me. I want you to."

And I realized that he meant it.