6

Chapter 6: The Beast in the Cellar

The ride back to the estate was a blur of speed and suffocating silence. Kaelen did not look at me. He drove like a man possessed, his knuckles white on the leather steering wheel, the engine roaring in time with the fury radiating from his body.

I sat huddled against the passenger door. My silk dress, the one that belonged to Seraphina, felt like a costume of shame now.

We skidded to a halt in front of the mansion. It was dark. The lights were off, save for the porch light that cast long, skeletal shadows across the driveway.

Kaelen was out of the car before the engine died. He ripped my door open.

"Get out," he snarled.

I stumbled onto the gravel. "Kaelen, please. I didn't poison her. I was with you—"

"Silence!" His voice cracked like a whip. He grabbed my upper arm. His grip was bruising, fingers digging into my flesh with enough force to leave marks. "Do not speak her name. You tried to kill her. You tried to clear the path to my bed by removing her."

He dragged me up the steps. We didn't go through the front door. We went around the side, to the heavy iron door that led to the basement.

My blood ran cold. The Cellar.

"No," I gasped, digging my heels into the dirt. "Kaelen, please! Not the Cellar! It’s for rogues! It’s for traitors!"

"And what are you?" he hissed, shoving the key into the lock. The mechanism groaned, unused for years. "You are worse than a rogue. You are a parasite living in my house."

He kicked the door open and hauled me into the darkness.

The smell hit me first. Damp earth. Mold. Fear. The stairs were steep and stone. Kaelen didn't walk me down; he marched me, his hand a vice on my arm, forcing me into the bowels of the earth.

He threw me into the furthest cell.

I fell hard onto the cold concrete floor, scraping my knees. The impact knocked the wind out of me. I rolled over, gasping, looking up at him.

Kaelen stood in the doorway. The single bulb in the hallway cast his face in shadow, turning his gray eyes into two pits of glowing, predatory gold. He looked monstrous.

"You stay here," he commanded, his voice devoid of humanity. "You stay here until the doctors tell me she will live. If she dies, Elara… you will never see the sun again."

The iron door slammed shut. The lock clicked.

I was alone in the dark.

Hours passed. Or maybe days. Time did not exist in the dark.

I huddled in the corner, shivering. The black silk dress offered no warmth against the subterranean chill. I hugged my knees to my chest, trying to stop my teeth from chattering.

I thought about Seraphina. She had won. She had staged the perfect crime. If she survived the "poison," she would be the victim, and I would be the villain. If she died… Kaelen would kill me.

But it was not fear of death that consumed me.

It was the memory of Kaelen’s kiss against the glass window. The way he had devoured me. The way his soul had recognized mine, even if his mind refused to accept it.

A sound echoed in the hallway.

Heavy footsteps. Slow. Deliberate.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

The lock turned. The heavy iron door swung open with a screech.

Kaelen stepped inside.

He had removed his suit jacket. His white shirt was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He held a bottle of whiskey in one hand, the amber liquid sloshing against the glass.

He looked wrecked. His hair was wild, his eyes bloodshot. He smelled of alcohol, rain, and a rage so potent it tasted like copper in the air.

He kicked the door shut behind him.

"Stand up," he said. The words were slurred, heavy.

I scrambled to my feet, pressing my back against the rough stone wall. "Is she… is she okay?"

"She lives," Kaelen muttered, taking a long swig from the bottle. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "The doctors stabilized her. It was wolfsbane. A concentrated dose."

He took a step toward me.

"She is fighting for her life upstairs," he whispered, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl. "And I am down here. With you."

"Why?" I breathed.

"Because I can't stop shaking," he confessed. He threw the bottle. It shattered against the opposite wall, glass raining down like diamonds. "I look at her pale face, and I feel nothing. No panic. No fear of loss."

He stalked toward me, closing the distance in two strides. He slammed his hands against the wall on either side of my head, trapping me.

"But when I think of you down here," he rasped, leaning down until his nose brushed mine, "my blood burns. I want to tear you apart for hurting her. But my wolf… my wolf wants to reward you."

He inhaled deeply, dragging his scent glands over my neck.

"You smell like victory," he groaned. "You smell like mine."

"I am yours," I whimpered. "Kaelen, look at me. Not the servant. Not the twin. Me."

He grabbed my chin, forcing my head up. His eyes were wild, warring between hatred and an obsession that terrified him.

"You are a witch," he accused, his thumb rubbing roughly over my lower lip. "You used magic to twist my desires. You made me hard for you while my wife was dying."

"It’s not magic," I cried. "It’s the bond!"

"Shut up!" he roared.

He crashed his mouth onto mine.

This was not the kiss in the penthouse. That had been desperate. This was punishment. This was war.

He bit my lip, hard enough to taste blood. I gasped, opening my mouth to protest, and he invaded me. His tongue swept through my mouth, claiming every inch, demanding submission.

I should have fought him. I should have pushed him away.

But my body betrayed me. The moment his taste hit my tongue—whiskey and dark chocolate and Alpha—my knees turned to water. I whimpered, clutching his shirt, pulling him closer.

Kaelen growled into my mouth, a vibration that went straight to my core. He hated my response. He hated that I tasted so good.

He moved his hands down my body, rough and demanding. He gripped my hips, his fingers digging into the soft flesh through the silk.

"You like this," he snarled against my lips, his voice dripping with disgust and desire. "You like being the whore in the cellar, don't you?"

"I like you," I sobbed, arching into his touch.

"Dirty little liar."

He spun me around, slamming my chest against the cold stone wall. The impact knocked the air from my lungs.

"Kaelen!"

He didn't listen. He grabbed the back of my dress. The silk tore. The sound of ripping fabric echoed in the small cell.

He stripped the dress down to my waist, exposing my back to the damp air.

But the cold didn't last. Kaelen pressed his hot, feverish body against my back. He pinned me to the wall with his weight, his hips grinding against my buttocks with a rhythm that was purely instinctual.

"You marked me," he whispered into my ear, biting the sensitive cord of my neck. "Now I mark you."

He didn't wait. He didn't prepare me. He was driven by a primal need to own, to conquer the thing that was tormenting him.

He lifted my skirt. His hand found me.

I cried out as his fingers brushed against my most sensitive spot. I was slick. So wet it was humiliating. My body had been preparing for him since the moment he walked through the door.

"Look at you," he hissed, his fingers exploring the wet heat of me. "So ready. So eager. You really are a witch. No innocent woman drips like this for a man who locked her in a dungeon."

"Please," I begged, my head falling back against his shoulder. "Kaelen, please."

"Please what?" he taunted, his voice rough with lust. "Please stop? Or please wreck you?"

He didn't wait for an answer. He freed himself.

I felt the hard, hot length of him press against me.

"This changes nothing," he warned, his breath hot against my ear. "I still hate you."

And then he thrust into me.

I screamed.

It was too much. He was too big, too intense, filling me completely, stretching me to the limit. It wasn't gentle lovemaking. It was possession. It was an Alpha claiming his territory.

Kaelen groaned, a low, guttural sound of pure ecstasy. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, his hands gripping my hips to hold me in place as he began to move.

Each thrust was a declaration of war. He pounded into me, driving me against the wall, stealing my breath, my sanity, my soul.

"Mine," he growled with every thrust. "Mine. Mine."

I couldn't think. I could only feel. The friction was unbearable, electric. Every nerve ending in my body was on fire. I reached back, digging my nails into his shoulders, matching his rhythm.

"Yes," I cried out, the pleasure building in my belly like a tidal wave. "Yes, Alpha!"

The title made him snap.

He increased the pace, his movements becoming frantic, animalistic. He bit my shoulder, leaving a mark that would bruise. He was lost in the haze of the mate bond, forgetting Seraphina, forgetting the poison, forgetting everything but the feeling of being sheathed inside me.

"You feel so good," he choked out, his voice broken. "Why do you feel so fucking good?"

The climax hit me like a lightning strike. My vision went white. I clamped down around him, my body convulsing in waves of pure bliss.

The feeling of me tightening around him sent Kaelen over the edge.

He roared my name, gripping my hips so hard I knew there would be fingerprints tomorrow. He thrust one last time, deep and hard, burying himself to the hilt, and poured himself into me.

He held me there, pinned against the wall, trembling as the aftershocks racked his massive frame.

For a long moment, there was only the sound of our ragged breathing in the dark.

Kaelen stayed inside me, his forehead resting against the back of my head. His heart was pounding against my back, beating in sync with mine.

Slowly, the haze began to clear.

I felt his body stiffen.

He pulled out of me abruptly.

I stumbled, my legs weak, clutching the wall for support. I turned around, pulling my torn dress up to cover myself.

Kaelen was backing away. He was fixing his clothes, his hands shaking violently.

He looked at me. His eyes were no longer gold. They were gray. And they were filled with horror.

He looked at my swollen lips. The bruise forming on my shoulder. The mess on my thighs.

"What have I done?" he whispered. The words were a ghost in the room.

He looked at his hands, as if they were covered in blood.

"Kaelen…" I took a step toward him.

"Stay back!" he shouted, stumbling until his back hit the iron door. He looked at me with pure revulsion. Not for me, but for himself. "Don't touch me. Don't you dare come near me."

"It’s the bond," I said softly, tears streaming down my face. "You can't fight it."

"I can," he snarled, though his voice lacked conviction. "I have to. I am a married man. I am an Alpha. I do not rape prisoners in my cellar."

"It wasn't rape," I whispered. "I wanted it."

"That makes it worse!" he yelled. "It makes us both monsters!"

He fumbled for the door handle, desperate to escape the scene of his crime. He yanked the door open.

"Kaelen, don't leave me here," I begged. "Please. Not in the dark."

He paused in the doorway. He didn't look back.

"The dark is where we belong, Elara," he said, his voice dead. "Because if I let you into the light… I will never let you go."

He stepped out.

The heavy iron door slammed shut.

Click.

The lock turned.

I slid down the cold wall, my body still humming with the memory of his touch, my heart shattering into a million pieces.

He had claimed my body.

He had taken my soul.

But he had left me in the dark to rot.

And then, I felt it.

A tiny flutter in my lower abdomen. A warmth that hadn't been there before. It was too soon for a human baby. But for a wolf? For a fated mate?

I placed my hand over my stomach.

The Alpha had left me. But he had left something behind.

Something that would change everything.