2 - Two Years Ago: Thade

Two Years Ago - Thade’s POV

Summer in the Year 514

It’s late at night, the hours starting to stretch towards the morning. I should be fast asleep, my body aches, muscles burning from exertion. But despite the storm that’s raging over the city, I can’t sleep. Thunder cracks and rolls, shaking the tiles of the barrack roof overhead. Through the thin walls that separate my small rooms from the next Knights, I can hear Iron snoring.

I kick back in my chair, staring at the window and the flash of lightning bleeds across the sky in electric blue. There has to be a way forward, I know that there is. I just haven't found it yet. I push my fingers through my hair. My body is tired from the long journey back from Boren. After twelve days camping on hard and dusty ground, I was ready to fall into bed. Any bed.

As a Knight, I can use a room at the Barracks whenever needed. They’re collections of long low buildings at different points in the city, and when I arrived to drop off Iron, I was too tired to face the journey through the summer crowd lining the city streets. The desk gave me the room next to Iron’s and I thought I was ready to collapse, but the second I stepped through the door I knew I wasn’t going to sleep.

The lightning rolls again, crashing down over the city with the rain that came faster than a riptide. There’s a face a the window. Pale, fleeting. I blink, staring at the open curtains and blink. Maybe I’m starting to lose my mind. Why would someone be standing outside in the downpour? I shake my head, dismissing the idea. Then there’s a knock on the door.

I stand, watching the door. It’s late. Far too late for visitors and no one knows that I’m here. There’s another knock, loud, insistent and the last thing I need, is Iron waking up. He was injured on a bandit jump three days out from the city. He’s the reason my troop has been riding through the nights and racing to get back to Soln. To get him to a healer before infection can set in.

I cross the floorboards, ignoring the way they squeak under my weight. The door is shaking on its hinges and I’m pissed off now. Whatever drunk trick one of the recruits wanted to play, they’re going to learn the meaning of trouble. I grip the handle, tearing the door open wide and she falls in. Her hand lifted to pound against the door she’s off balance and crashes forward. Her pale green eyes are wide, surprised as she bounces off the door and drops.

I could catch her. I see it all in slow motion as her lips part in a yelp, her shoulder twisting her body to the side as she tries to catch her fall. She’s soaked through. A simple blue is plastered against her shoulders and the curve of her breast. Her skin shimmers and if it wasn’t for the fact she was falling, I’d say I’d never seen someone who looked so much like a goddess. All beautiful curves and creamy skin. The wolf within me awakens.

I move faster than I ever have. I thought about not catching her, because my entire body has jolted. As though I’ve been struck by the lightning outside. Touching her is dangerous, but there’s nothing I can do to stop myself from reaching out. My arm slides beneath hers and I steady her fall. I can feel her sudden breath against my cheek and it sets me on fire.

‘Oh!’ She blinks as she stumbles, half crumpled forward with my arm beneath her chest and looped under her arm. I can feel her breasts pressing against my bare forearm and I feel like a teenager. I pull her up, setting her back on her feet. She’s taller than most, curvaceous and the rain that’s covered her is pooling in the centre of her neck then running in a distracting line down between her breasts. My wolf is rising within, I want her. It growls and sends a shockwave through me.

‘There you are, miss,’ I pull away from her. Dropping my hands to my sides as though I’ve been burnt. I stare at her, what is this intensity? Why is it hitting me now?

‘I’m so sorry,’ she straightens up, her cheek flushed as she meets my eyes for a second. Her eyes are green, I’m sure of it. But I didn’t light any candles and without the flicker of lightning, it’s hard to see her in the perfect detail I’m desperate to imagine.

‘No harm-’ I wave her apology away, taking control of my Wolf. I peer at the door. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, has just fallen, damp and enticing into my room and into my arms. Maybe fate has been kind and there’s a reason I couldn’t sleep tonight. My frustration at waking Iron has vanished. Blown away like a cobweb in a hurricane. ‘I’m just…’ I can’t help the small smile that pulls at the corner of my mouth. I want her. I want her and it’s hard to stay focused on stepping back and giving her space as she looks around, confused. ‘I’m just confused as to why you wanted to break my door down?’ I touch my tongue to the edge of my teeth.

She pulls her bottom lip into her mouth, her eyes squinting slightly in the darkness. The lightning flashes behind her once more and my body responds. Hard and aching. I’m going to have this woman. I’m going to see her lips swollen from my kisses, and Iron be damned. I’m going to have screaming in desire beneath me.

‘Because it’s raining,’ she answers as though it’s the simplest explanation in the world. She’s standing up straighter, staring at me once more. I can see the rapid rise and fall of her chest and I love the way the water is soaking more and more into the flimsy fabric of her chest.

‘It is raining,’ I can’t help but grin, the silliest smile I’ve ever worn, because truly I must have been blessed by the Otherworld tonight. ‘But I don’t know your name, and I didn’t think anyone knew that I was here.’

‘Why would they know you were here?’ She tilts her head to the side, that same squint teasing a light line between her eyes.

‘To send me a whore who’d brighten the shit storm of a season I’m having,’ I reach out, touching my fingers to the edge of her face as the door eventually swings back on it’s hinges and closes behind her. We’re left in the dark and she yelps again. The sound is soft, and sweet. Almost innocent.

‘T-the wh-’ her words are mumbled, her lips trembling as I shake my head.

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