Ember's POV As everything descended into chaos, the first thing I felt was a sickening heat wrapped around my skin. It wasn't the type to make you sweat and crave for air, no, it was the type to make your skin bleed, it felt more like hot fire burning inside your ribs, like they could melt your bones in just a minute. My body was now weak at this moment, every bone aching inside of me. I couldn't tell if I was still breathing or dead or maybe, in between. But then, his voice rang, making me vaguely aware of my surroundings. Zane. His hot, heavy breath, ragged and brief, as though he had just ran a marathon, as though something inside of him had torn to the point it couldn't be put back together. “Pls…pls don't die now” I heard him whisper under his breath, his voice cracking as he spoke. “Don't fucking leave me, not yet, not now, pls” I furrowed my brows, my eyes opening. I blinked, once…twice, trying to balance the light that pierced into my eyes as the world around me slowl
Ember's POV I still had his taste on my tongue.My legs wouldn’t stop shaking, spread wide on his sheets, breath caught somewhere between a gasp and a sob. My wrists were still chained—loose now—but I didn’t care. My body didn’t feel like mine anymore. It felt like his. Like he’d cracked me open and poured himself into every fucking inch.Zane hovered over me, breathing like he was still starving, even after devouring every part of me.His fingers brushed my cheek, then lower—down my throat, between my breasts, tracing every bruise and mark his mouth had kissed. His eyes glowed faintly, shadows moving across his bare chest like smoke coiling under skin.“You’re not trembling because of fear,” he whispered, voice rough and uneven, lips dragging along my jaw. “Are you?”I shook my head.He smirked, slow and sinful, before sinking his fingers between my thighs again. I cried out—soaked, hypersensitive, desperate—and grabbed his wrist, not to stop him, but to ground myself. But even that
Ember's POV As I stepped inside, the thick scent of blood filled my nostrils, a feeling of dread and nightmare wrapping around my body like second skin. I looked around, scanning the hall, candles lined across the walls, flickering as though they were burning stars, their wax dripping down the walls, giving the illusion of blood dripping. And from the rafters, huge crimson banners hung high, heavy and wet with a strong scent of disgust which made my stomach churn. And as the drums thudded with an intensity that made my heart skip a beat, aroused wolves howled in rhythm, sounding like war cries being sung from the devil's lair itself. And with anticipation of the ritual, the air crackled. This was the Moon Fang Midnight Rite. And I? I was the center of attraction tonight, the one to perform and excite the wolves. They yanked me as though I was an object, as though my body wasn't filled with bruises, still bleeding from the punishments I received yesterday, as though my legs wer
Ember's POV Pain.That was the first thing I felt.Not fear. Not confusion. Not even rage.Just pain.A cold, steady ache that bloomed across every bone in my body like rot.I blinked. Slowly. The ceiling above me wasn’t obsidian, wasn’t laced with breath or fire or the pulsing veins of a living cave. It was stone. Gray. Dead. Familiar.I was back.Back in the fucking Moon Fang dungeon.The floor beneath me was wet. My blood. My piss. My shame. Who even knew anymore? The chains dug into my skin like they missed me. My collar pulsed against my throat, tighter now, like it was angry I’d dared to leave.The cloak was gone.The silk, the warmth, the scent of war and smoke—gone.There were no feathers here. No black wings. No altar made of molten stone.Just me. Cold. Naked. Bleeding.Alone.“He brought me back,” I whispered. My voice cracked, thin and hollow like a dying thing. “He… saved me.”But then why was I here?Why did it feel like being saved was just another word for being claim
Ember's POV I yawned, waking up, a warm feeling engulfing my body. It wasn't fire and the scent of blood didn't linger anymore. But I felt something darker, then something soft and warm wrapped around my skin. I searched beneath me, I was wrapped in fur, real, fur that was coarse and thick and black as Obsidian. And under the fur, was an Obsidian stone and around it were red runes that looked like veins, and it breathed as though it was alive. I was wrapped in soft silk and underneath, I was stark naked, as usual. My body still ached literally everywhere, my thighs clenching and shivering as I moved and my wrists? It was bruised, filled with red, raw blisters that were now bandaged up. I widened my eyes with surprise, raising my hand towards my neck, the collar was still around my throat, but the runes carved by Alpha Magnus over my womb didn't burn anymore, it just pulsed faintly. And the air? It was thick and heavy, almost suffocating but, it had a familiar scent which I co
Ember's POV The walls were breathing.Or maybe I was.Barely.My body didn’t feel like mine anymore. Just torn flesh and cracked bones wrapped in cold skin. The blood had dried. The brand still burned. The collar pulsed in time with my heartbeat—if I even had one left.I was curled on my side, naked on stone, cheek against the place where I once carved hope. That mark was gone now. Covered in black crusted blood.I didn’t speak.Didn’t blink.Until the air shifted.It wasn’t footsteps I heard.It was magic.The kind that didn’t ask permission.The shadows thickened—then peeled away like skin, revealing a shape cloaked in midnight. Not Lucien. Not Zane. This presence wasn’t laced in fury or lust or chains. It was older. Calmer. Something that didn’t crawl or claw for power because it was power.He stepped toward me—slow, deliberate, silent like the grave.“You’ve been carved,” he said. His voice rumbled like thunder low in the earth, old and cold and terrifyingly patient. “Beaten. Bro