Chapter Twelve
Lucas
I woke in darkness, but it wasn’t the kind of darkness that comforted me. It was wrong. The room around me was my bedroom, but it was twisted, as if the walls themselves were closing in.
I tried to move, but my limbs were heavy. My mind screamed when I realized that I felt paralyzed. I couldn’t breathe. The silence was deafening.
And then, I heard it.
It was only a whisper at first. Soft, melodious, like the gentle breeze brushing against my skin. But it wasn’t the wind. It wasn’t gentle. It was her.
“Lucas…”
Her voice, sweet and seductive, a melody so powerful it made my insides churn. It was all I could hear, all I could feel. Every other sound drowned in the pull of her presence. She was here.
I tried to push her away, to fight her grip on me, but it was like trying to escape the grip of the night itself. I couldn’t move. There was nowhere to escape.
“You will never be free…”
Her words sank into me like poison, making my entire body tremble.
And then, a moment later, I was somewhere else. I wasn’t in my cottage with Annika any longer. I was there, where I least wanted to be, back in that hellhole of a place… my past.
I could smell the blood. I could hear the screams. The stench of death filled the air like an iron taste in my mouth.
I looked down at my hands. They were drenched in blood. It was fresh, sticky, covering my fingers and my palms. I looked up and he was there. A man. A boy, really, just a boy, but his eyes… they were wide, empty, pleading.
A flash of recognition ripped through me. It was him. It was my childhood friend, the one I couldn’t save, the one whose blood oozed though my fingers.
I couldn’t move. My body refused to obey me, but my mind… my mind was awake, painfully so, forced to relive the moment over and over again. I heard him scream. I could see the shifter claw tear into his throat again and again. My own eyes were wide, staring at him in that final moment before… before all ended…
His mouth opened, but no words came out.
I rushed to him, just like I did that time, but I knew there was nothing I could do. I didn’t know the horrors of war yet then. But I learned them quickly.
The blood poured from him, soaking the ground. The world around me spun, and all I could hear was the sound of my heart pounding, thudding in my ears like a drumbeat, louder than the cries of the shifters I had killed, louder than the agony that was storming inside of me.
“You are mine, Lucas…”
The whisper came again. Her voice.
The whisper again. Her voice.
I tried to block it out, but it was like it was inside my head now, burrowing under my skin, making everything feel like her. The shadows that had once been my refuge, my prison, were now hers.
I couldn’t breathe.
“We are the same, you and I…”
The voice came again at me, coming from all sides.
And then, the room shifted again. This time, I was in a different place, a place much darker and colder. The smell of smoke and ash lingered in the air, like burnt offerings. I could hear laughter, mocking me. I could see faces blurred by time, lost to memory.
I was in a graveyard.
A thousand graves.
The ground was wet. Muddy. And I knew without asking. I had buried them. My family. The people I had once loved. People who had trusted me.
The ones I had failed.
And then I saw him again.
My son.
His small form, a shadow in the distance. I reached for him, but the ground swallowed my feet, pulling me deeper, faster, and I couldn’t get to him.
“He is mine, Lucas…”
She was laughing. It was all I could hear. Her voice, echoing through the graveyard, the sound of rattling bones.
“I will take everything you hold dear. Your family. Your soul. Your very life…”
The words wrapped around me like chains, suffocating me, crushing me beneath their weight. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.
She was right.
I was trapped in the darkness of my own making, and there was no escape.
There was no escape from her.
I woke then, suddenly, gasping for air, my heart thundering in my chest. I couldn’t remember if I was still asleep or if I had just experienced something that would haunt me forever. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t shake the images from my head.
The smell of blood lingered in my nostrils. The sound of her laughter still rang in my ears.
“Lucas?” A tender voice reached me. A loving voice.
She was there, kneeling beside me, her hands on my shoulders. The weight of her presence, the warmth of her fingers on my skin, that was enough to remind me where I was, and more importantly, who I was.
I didn’t realize how badly I’d needed her until now.
“You’re here,” I rasped, my voice and my entire body broken.
“I’m here,” she whispered, her eyes filled with worry. Her thumb brushed over my skin, trying to soothe the shaking I couldn’t control. I reached for her without thinking, my hands trembling as I grabbed onto her. She let me pull her closer, like she understood.
“Annika, I… I couldn’t escape it.” The words felt like they came from someone else. “It was her… I saw them. All of them. My past. The people I killed, the ones I failed…”
Her fingers slid into my hair, gently pulling me back, making me look at her. Her gaze was soft, without any judgment.
“You don’t have to carry that alone,” she said, her voice calm and steady, the only thing that felt real in this nightmare.
I closed my eyes, trying to push the images away, but they clung to me. The blood. The bodies. My hands covered in their death. I had promised myself I wouldn’t let the past define me, but it was always there, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pull me under when I wasn’t strong enough to fight.
Annika didn’t speak again. She just stayed there, her hand smoothing over my back, her presence the only thing holding me together.
I was so tired. So tired.
Her arms tightened around me, pulling me against her chest, and I let myself go. Just for a moment, I let go of everything. The past, the terror, the weight of the world pressing down on me. I let myself just be.
I wrapped her body in mine, my hands keeping her close. Her eyes lifted to mine. How I wanted to drown in those depths. I kissed her throat slowly, savoring every single time my lips pressed against her fragrant skin.
She had been made for me, this magical woman. She had been made for loving, for bearing my children, for being mine her entire life. Her fingers slid through my hair, keeping me close.
My lips traveled to her ear, trailing the line of her jaw, then down her neck again. I wanted to kiss her a million times, and then a million times more. She moaned softly, and I loved how she trembled under my kisses, under my touch. I needed her now, more than ever and she knew it.
She adjusted herself in my lap, straddling me and I lowered the strap of her undershirt, revealing a creamy breast. My hand cupped it gently, as I lowered my lips to the pebbled nipple. She arched her back, pushing it harder into my mouth. She was urging me on, wanting more, just like me.
My tongue flicked over the tip, sucking it, playing with it. I wanted to feast on her creamy, pink flesh, just licking and tasting every bit of her, but I could rarely take it slow with her. This time, however, was different.
“You are so beautiful,” I murmured against her skin.
Her fingers in my hair gentled, still keeping me close to her, to her heart which was beating only for me.
Her hand lowered to my boxers. She could feel my cock straining against them already. Then, without looking away for even a second, she slid her panties to the side.
“I want you inside of me,” she whispered back.
I wanted to be inside of her… no, I needed it. I wanted to bury myself deep inside and forget everything, if only for one blissful moment.
Her hand was on my stiff cock, guiding it into herself. I could feel her wet heat above me, drenched. I suffocated a gasp of pleasure as she released me from her grip and instead, cupped my face.
“Look at me,” she purred, as if I could do anything else.
She took me inside, deep, in one go. She was more wet, more wonderful than ever before. She started to rock on top of me, moaning softly, biting her lower lip, not taking her eyes off of me.
She was taking me right into her very heart, into her wet heat. I couldn’t speak. There were no words to say. There was only pleasure to feel, as she was riding me. Her perky breasts moved in rhythm with her body, as her hair spilled down her back. She kept impaling herself onto me, taking me in deeper and deeper.
Every time she moved, I felt her juices dripping down my wet cock, welcoming me back in. She rubbed her swollen clit every time her hips bucked against my body.
A moment later, she slammed her mouth against mine, as her pussy throbbed around me, pulsating with ecstasy. I swallowed her moan into myself, as she slowed down the pace, calming herself, allowing the tidal wave of delight to subside. As her pussy clenched around my cock, tightening around it, I let go.
I held her tight, cumming inside of her, stifling a strangled cry. She held onto me for dear life, as I always knew she would. I gave her my everything, just like I always did, just like I always would.
“I love you,” she whispered to me the only words that mattered.
“My heart is yours,” I replied, kissing her again, softly this time, keeping her close to me, refusing to let go.