VAELThe scent dragged me from my chambers like a chain tightening around my spine. It hung heavy in the air—at first faint, like blood steeped in dark wine, but growing stronger the closer I came to the dungeons. His scent. Raw and unclean, saturated with salt, shame, and something darker, something twisted.Desire.Twisted, muted, tangled in guilt—but desire, all the same.I already knew what I’d find before the heavy iron door creaked open. Still, the sight struck something raw inside me.He hung from the wall, wrists cuffed in iron, arms stretched above his head, body bowed with exhaustion. His tunic clung damply to his thighs, stained dark where shame had soaked into the fabric, a silent testimony to what his body had betrayed in the dark, alone, dreaming.The flickering torchlight caught the slow rise and fall of his chest. His head hung low, silent. But I saw the way his breath hitched, the trembling of his fingers, the stiffening of his spine. He knew I was there. Knew I was w
Last Updated : 2025-07-15 Read more