I’m Sorry, Dear Body

Kira’s POV

But guess what?

He didn’t bleed out. He didn’t choke. He didn’t even flinch.

Instead, his grip tightened, fingers digging deeper into my waist like iron brands, and that moan…God, that filthy, raw moan, rumbled from his chest straight into mine, vibrating through my bones until my knees buckled.

My teeth were still sunk into the thick cord of his neck, tasting salt and something wild, metallic, intoxicating.

Blood bloomed on my tongue, hot and coppery, but it wasn’t pain twisting his features. It was hunger. Raw, animal hunger that mirrored the sudden fire exploding low in my belly.

What the hell is happening to me?

I tried to pull back, to haul some threat, to reclaim control…but my body betrayed me. My hips rolled against his without permission, grinding into the hard ridge straining against his pants.

A whimper escaped me, muffled against his skin. His scent…pine smoke, storm clouds, pure sin…flooded my senses, drowning out reason. The seeds Liana gave me? Useless. Whatever monster was buried inside this stolen body was clawing its way up, snarling, begging.

“Mate,” he growled, voice shredded with need. His hand slid from my shoulder to fist in my hair, yanking my head back just enough to expose my throat. His eyes…molten gold, pupils blown wide…locked on the bite I’d left.

How is that even possible? It was just a bite…when did I draw that mark on his neck?!

Dark blood bloomed around the punctures that have now taken the shape of two moons. My teeth did that?

“You just fucking claimed me,” he growled.

Claimed? The word punched through the haze. I’d meant to punish him, to hurt him the way he’d hurt Liana.

I wanted to fire back with words. To defend myself. But his lips crashed into mine before I could spit venom, devouring my mouth like he was starving.

Teeth clashed, tongues warring, his fangs grazing my lower lip until I tasted my own blood. He sucked it clean, groaning like it was nectar.

I should’ve kneed him in the balls. Should’ve screamed. Instead, my hands fisted in his shirt, ripping buttons free, nails raking down the sculpted planes of his back. His skin burned under my palms, muscles jumping like live wires.

Every touch sent sparks skittering across my skin, pooling between my thighs until I was soaked, aching, empty.

What the hell is wrong with me?

He broke the kiss only to hoist me up properly, like I weighed nothing, my legs wrapping tighter around his waist on instinct.

The bulge in his pants ground against my core, and I gasped, head falling back. He snarled his approval, mouth latching onto my neck, sucking hard enough to bruise. “Mine,” he rasped against my pulse. “You marked me, little wolf. Now I mark you.”

Mark? Like a bite? Why would he want to bite me back? Is he that petty?

No. No, this wasn’t…I wasn’t…

But my body didn’t care about my brain’s frantic denials. It arched into him, thighs clenching, pussy clenching around nothing.

He carried me backward, kicking open a door I hadn’t noticed…his room, maybe, or some forgotten guest chamber. It didn't matter.

The world narrowed to the heat of his hands, the scrape of his stubble, the way he slammed me against the nearest wall hard enough to rattle the building.

Clothes shredded. Literally. His claws…when the fuck did he grow claws?...sliced through my dress like tissue paper. Cool air hit my bare skin, nipples pebbling instantly. I shrieked, half in shock, half in something darker, but he was already on his knees, spreading my thighs wide with rough hands. His gaze raked over me…hungry, reverent, feral.

“Look at you,” he breathed, voice wrecked. “Soaked for me. Dripping down your thighs like you’ve been waiting your whole life for this.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to fuck off, to remind him that Abby hated him…but then his tongue dragged up my slit in one slow, filthy lick, and every thought shattered.

Holy shit.

Pleasure detonated behind my eyes, white-hot and blinding. My hips bucked, chasing his mouth, but he pinned me to the wall with one hand splayed over my stomach. The other hooked under my knee, opening me wider.

He licked again, slower, savoring, circling my clit with the flat of his tongue until my legs shook. I’d never…no one had ever…my virginity was a technicality in my old life, a joke, but this? This was worship and ruin in one.

A broken moan I didn’t authorize slipped out of my throat and I slammed my hand over my mouth.

He growled against my pussy, the vibration making me sob. Two fingers pushed inside me without warning, thick and large, stretching my virgin walls until I burned. He curled them, stroking some spot that made stars burst behind my eyelids, and I came undone…screaming, clenching, gushing over his hand like a fucking fountain.

He didn’t stop. Couldn’t, maybe. His tongue fucked into me alongside his fingers, lapping up every drop, growling praise into my folds. “That’s it, mate. Give me everything. Mark me again…scream my name while you fall apart.”

What the fuck is he talking about? I don't even know his name!

All of a sudden, I was close again, embarrassingly fast, thighs trembling around his head.

My hands found his hair, yanking hard, unsure if I wanted to pull him closer or push him away. The pleasure was too much, too sharp, too everything. My body wasn’t mine anymore…it was his, writhing, begging, breaking.

And then it hit.

Not another orgasm. Something deeper. A blade twisting in my chest, white-hot and merciless. Pain…Abby’s pain…flooding my veins like acid. Memories that weren’t mine; Her so-called mate’s sneer as he called her weak, his mistress’s laughter as they locked her in the dungeons, the way he’d fucked that woman on their bonding night while Abby bled out alone. The rejection. The betrayal. The slow, systematic destruction of her soul until she’d begged for death.

It all came flooding back and I felt like a slut.

It wasn’t my pain, but it was in my body, in my bones, howling beneath my skin. It clawed up my throat, choking me. My vision blurred…tears or blood, I couldn’t tell.

“Get away from me!” I screamed, the sound ripping out raw and ragged. I shoved at his shoulders with strength I didn’t know I had, nails gouging bloody furrows down his back.

He staggered, eyes wide with shock, but I was already scrambling away, naked and shaking, curling into the corner like a wounded animal.

“Don’t touch me…don’t you fucking touch me. Ever!”

He froze, chest heaving, cock straining against his torn pants, lips glistening with my release. The mark on his neck pulsed like a heartbeat, but his face…God, his face was wrecked. Guilt, horror, desperate want warring in those golden eyes.

“Abby…”

“That’s not my name!” The words burst out before I could stop them, hysterical and cracked. I clapped a hand over my mouth, but it was too late. His head snapped up, nostrils flaring like he could smell the lie.

“What did you say?”

I couldn’t breathe. The room spun, walls closing in. Something magnetic thrummed between us, sparking and electrifying, but all I could feel was her pain…Abby’s pain…looping like a noose around my neck.

He took a step forward, slow, hands raised. “Talk to me. Please. I know I fucked up…I know I hurt you…but this, us, it’s real. You felt it. You marked me.”

“I felt nothing,” I lied, voice shaking. “Get out.”

“Abby…”

“OUT!” My scream cracked the mirror across the room. Glass shattered, raining down like ice. The king flinched, but didn’t move. His claws flexed, then retracted.

For some bizarre reason, I could tell that he wanted to chase, to claim, to soothe. But the man…the king who must have realized too late what he’d broken…stayed rooted.

“I’ll go,” he said finally, voice rough. “But this isn’t over. You’re mine, whether you want it or not. And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving I’m worthy of that bite.”

He backed toward the door, eyes never leaving mine. Something pulled at me, like a rope or bond snapping tight, but I dug my nails into my palms until blood welled. When the door clicked shut, I collapsed, sobbing into my knees.

“What is going on?” I asked into the empty room.

But no answer came. The taste of his blood lingered on my tongue, the ache between my thighs a brand I couldn’t erase. I’d bitten him. He’d tasted me. And somewhere deep inside, something cracked.

This wasn’t punishment.

This was war.

And I’d just fired the first shot.

But at what cost?

The pain ebbed slowly, leaving me hollow. I curled tighter, rocking, whispering to the ghost in my skin.

“I’m sorry, Abby. I’m so fucking sorry for letting him do that to your body.”

I need to get my head straight into the game

I needed answers. About the prophecy. About why her wolf was bound, if that's even a thing. About how to use this connection…this curse…to destroy him the way he’d destroyed her.

And when I did?

I’d make him beg.

Just like she had.

The thought should’ve terrified me. Instead, it tasted like revenge.

Sweet. Bloody. Mine.

And when I'm done with him, I'll be going for my fake family next.