Chapter 9: The Hunger~

The Lycan Enforcer ~

~ANNABETH'S POV~

The climb up the mountain felt eternal. But Kael carried me with a terrifying ease, his heart beating steadily against my ear, a sound that mocked my own unsteady pulse. As we ascended the higher rough peak, the air grew even thinner, smelling of ancient stone and frost. The sprawling glass mansion below shrank until it was nothing more than a spark of light in a sea frozen snow.

Up here, the world felt dead. Only the wind howled, whipping my tangled curls across my face.

We reached a sheer cliff face where a heavy, metal reinforced door was built directly into the living rock. Kael didn’t need a key, he pressed his palm against a cold stone slab, and with a low, mechanical groan, the door swung inward.

He stepped inside, and the door hissed shut, sealing out the mountain wind. The silence that followed was absolute.

It wasn't the silence of an empty room, it was the silence of a sanctuary, or a tomb. The air was warm, heated by hidden vents, and thick with the scent of cedar and incense and something else I couldn't make out mixed with Kael’s scent, undiluted and overwhelming. It filled my lungs, making my head light as the heat of the room began to thaw the frost on my skin.

Kael finally set me down. My bare feet sank into a rug made of thick, velvet rose fur. The room was circular, carved out of the mountain. A massive bed sat in the center, draped in layers of cream silk and wolf pelts. There were no windows, only high flickering candles that cast long, dancing shadows across the ancient Lycan weapons mounted on the walls.

I took a shaky step back, clutching his cardigan closer to my chest. "Why are we here? Is this also your house or is this your new prison for me?"

Kael didn't answer immediately. He began to peel off his black suit waistcoat, tossing it onto a leather chair. Then, his hands moved to his tie, jerking it away with a predatory flick of his wrist. He looked at me, and my breath caught. His eyes were no longer the icy blue of the Enforcer, they were a glowing silver that seemed to vibrate with a life of its own.

"In the house, you are a target for everyone's curiosity, I didn't think it through before bringing you there." he said, his voice dropping into a low, melodic growl that seeped in my very bones. "In here, there is no threat, There is no 'pet.' There is only the Lycan and the human woman who was destined for him and who in her cute little mind thinks she can outrun or escape him."

He stepped toward me. I backed away until the backs of my knees hit the edge of the massive bed but I tripped and fell back onto the silks, scrambling to sit up, but Kael was already there. He didn't pounce, he loomed. He placed his hands on the mattress on either side of my hips, caging me in.

"You smell of forest snow," he whispered, his face inches from mine. "You smell of it's damp and that rogue wolf's hunger. I want it off you."

"I don't belong to you," I choked out, though the heat radiating from his body was making it hard to think.

"The bond says otherwise, Annabeth," he murmured. He reached out, his thumb tracing the line of my lower lip. His touch was electric, a jolt of pure sensation that traveled straight to the pit of my stomach. "Do you have any idea what it felt like? Standing in that forest, smelling your fear and watching as you dared surrender to that worthless wolf?"

He leaned in closer, his nose dragging across my jawline to the sensitive skin behind my ear. I let out a sharp but muffled breath as he inhaled deeply.

"Strawberry and lavender," he groaned against my skin. "It’s like a drug. A sweet, agonizing drug that makes me want to forget I’m the law and give in to all my desires."

His lips brushed the shell of my ear, and a traitorous shiver raced down my spine. My body was betraying me. Every human instinct told me to run, but the strange, ancient pull of the mate bond I've so much heard of, was anchoring me to the bed. I felt a heat blooming in my chest, a heavy, honey like ache that made my limbs feel like lead.

Kael’s hand moved from the mattress to the back of my neck, his fingers tangling in my dark curls. He pulled my head back gently, forcing me to look up into the bluish silver fire of his eyes.

"You're shaking," he whispered.

"I'm... I'm cold."

"Liar."

He moved his other hand to the hem of the oversized t-shirt, his knuckles skimming the skin of my thigh. The contact was searing. He began to pull the fabric upward, slowly, torturously. I should have fought him. I should have reached for the knife he had taken back. But as his hand moved higher, his palm cupping the curve of my waist, all I could do was gasp.

His touch was both a brand and a balm. Where his skin met mine, the terror of the woods began to fade, replaced by a desperate, hungry need. I reached up, my fingers digging into the muscles of his forearms, not to push him away, but to steady myself as the room seemed to tilt.

Kael let out a low growling sound, a purr of victory, and lowered his head. When his lips finally met mine, it wasn't a kiss, it was a claim. It tasted of darkness and desperation. He tasted like he wanted to consume me, to pull me into his chest and keep me there until our hearts beat in a single, human Lycan rhythm.

I melted into the silk bed, my back arching as he moved over me, his heavy weight a comforting anchor. His hands were everywhere, mapping my skin, cupping my breasts, tracing the bruises on my body, his touch turning the pain into a throbbing, electric heat.

"Annabeth," he breathed against my lips, his voice thick with a hunger that terrified me. "Tell me to stop. Tell me now, or I will never let you go."

I looked up at him, my vision blurred with desire. I saw the monster. I saw the Enforcer. But I also saw the man who had found me in the forest. The man who had just saved me from being torn apart. Kael.

"I... I can't," I whispered.

Kael groaned, a sound of pure, tortured longing and hunger. He buried his face in my neck, his rock hardened manhood poking at my center, his teeth grazing the pulsing vein in my neck. I felt the sharp, stinging pressure, the promise of a bite, but he didn't break the skin. Instead, he left a trail of hot, wet kisses that made my head spin.

~~~