CHAPTER TWO
EMBER
I WOKE UP WARM WITH sweat beading my brow.
That was the first sign that something was wrong. I never woke up warm. I ran cool by nature. My body liked to remind me of what I was every chance it got. The second sign was the weight on my wrists.
Forcing my eyes open, I turned my head, a dull ache pulsing at the base of my neck. My arms were stretched wide, metal clamps biting into my skin when I tried to move. Each attempt caused the chain to clink against the stone wall.
I took in my surroundings as much as I could, considering how dark it was. I wasn’t in a dungeon. There was no water dripping from the ceiling, no slime-coated walls, no smell of rotten food and piss.
Yeah, I’d awoken in a dungeon a time or two.
The room was large and circular, with smooth, clean stone walls. A thick rug covered most of the floor, layered in deep red and charcoal black. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I noticed a massive bed against the far wall.
Shackles and chains hung from the ceiling above the bed. I frowned when I noticed the deep claw marks gouged into the stone wall behind the bed. Wait a minute.
Chains, shackles, clawed walls.
This wasn’t a dungeon.
This was a rut room.
Just thinking about what normally went down in this room sent heat crawling up the back of my neck, equal parts anger and something I couldn’t name, something that left me feeling uncomfortable.
Heat licked at my skin. I scanned the room, searching for the source. But there was no fireplace in the room. Even so, I was getting hotter by the minute. Sweat clung to the nape of my neck, a trickle sliding down my spine. My heart thudded, panic creeping over me.
Had those damn shifters poisoned me?
I glanced down at myself. That’s when I noticed they hadn’t only poisoned me, they’d changed my damn clothes. Gone were my tactical gear, my boots, my mask, everything I’d had on when I’d set off on my mission.
In their place was a long-sleeved, black, silk pajama top that dropped to mid-thigh on me. There was a small crown insignia stitched in silver thread on the pocket over my left breast.
From my research, I recognized it as Prince Moon Song’s crest. I was wearing his shirt, and the cool air creeping up my thighs confirmed I was naked beneath it. They’d seen me naked.
“Those wolf bastards,” I muttered under my breath, tugging uselessly at the chains. “If they put one hand anywhere it shouldn’t be, I would saw off their knots and shove them down their throats. Fucking wolv...”
I froze, muscles tensing at the soft creak of a door opening to my right. I turned toward the large stone archway, no clue what lay beyond it, or who the hell was about to step through it. But then it hit me, the smell of mint and whiskey.
My targets.
“Awake already?” Ryung's voice rolled out from the shadows of the archway, his deep voice washing over me, making me feel all weird.
I heard their footsteps, their scents growing stronger as their shadows entered the room. A faint scratching sound came next, flint on steel, then a hiss as flame caught. Seconds later, warm golden light bloomed from a small table near the bed.
The glow spread, lighting up the room, allowing me to see my targets better. There stood Ryung, shirtless, clad in nothing but black pants that hung low on his hips. Just as before, his dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
And just as before, he was gifting me that same cruel smile I remembered from the forest. My gaze dropped to his chest. For a second, I thought I’d seen the dragon tattoo on his chest blink.
Impossible?
Right?
Must be the poison making me hallucinate or something. Next to him stood Prince Moon Song, who was also bare-chested. I guess it was true what they said about wolves: they didn’t like wearing clothing unless they had to.
The prince’s pale hair was tied loose at the nape. I watched as they approached me, their bare feet silent on the thick rug. Up close, away from the snow and pine of the forest, their scents hit harder.
Mint, sharp and cool.
Whiskey, rich and smoky.
I now knew for sure these smells belonged to them. But why was I able to smell these alphas? And why were their scents making my head swim and causing that unnatural warmth in my body to flare hotter?
I clenched my jaw, holding my breath for as long as I could to keep from breathing them in. That didn’t help. Their scents clung to the air, thick as fog. With every inch they ate up between us, the air grew heavier with their scents.
My skin prickled, heart beating faster. I told myself it was the poison mixed with my embarrassment at being chained up in nothing but Prince Moon’s shirt that had me feeling off. I definitely wasn’t reacting to the mint and whiskey permeating the air.
The alphas stopped a few feet in front of me. I hated the way their gazes roamed over me, heads tilting as they took in the chains, the shirt, the way I was pressing my thighs together as subtly as possible.
Prince Moon’s gaze lingered on the crown on my breast pocket for a second, then lifted to my eyes. Those eyes. A normal omega could get lost in eyes like those. Not me. I would not get lost in this alpha’s silver eyes.
Silver?
Wait!
From my research, I learned that both of my targets had black eyes. Why was Moon staring at me with pale eyes? See, this was what I got for half-assing my research and rushing the kill.
I blamed it on my eagerness to finish them off so I could claim my reward. But that eagerness had led to me being captured by two of the most ruthless shifters in the realm.
Epic fail!
Prince Moon’s lips parted. Exhaling the breath I’d been holding, I spoke up before he could, hoping to get the upper hand.
“Which one of you undressed me?” I snapped, gaze moving from the prince to his guard.
They didn’t bother feigning innocence. Ryung’s mouth curved into a slow, infuriating smirk. Moon’s eyes glinted, the faintest hint of a matching smile tugging at his lips.
“We both did,” Ryung admitted. “We wanted to make you more comfortable.”
“Comfortable?” I echoed. “I’m chained to the wall in your rut room wearing your prince’s shirt and nothing else.”
Ryung’s gaze flicked down to my thighs, unapologetically appreciative. “You’re welcome,” he drawled.
Heat shot through my core at the sultry way he uttered those two words. The sensation was so sudden and unexpected that I actually gasped, eyes widening. Ryung took another step forward.
“Don’t come any closer,” I warned, heart trying to beat out of my chest.
“Or what?” he challenged.
He had me there. I jerked against the chains.
“When I break free of these chains, I’m going to...” I went silent when he leaned forward, peering into my eyes.
“You’re going to what? Finish your sentence, pretty little omega,” Ryung whispered, eyes glued to mine.
I found myself unable to look away. His words, pretty little omega, were on repeat in my mind. Of course, I’d been called pretty before. Countless times.
Pretty crazy.
Pretty psycho.
It was the pretty part that counted. I usually ignored the rest. Yet, when this alpha called me pretty, it caused the warmth in my body to spike, spreading from my chest outward in a slow, suffocating wave of heat.
A heat that seemed to sink into my limbs, making me tremble. The longer he stared at me, the more unnerved I became. That heat continued to spread, pooling low in my belly. If I got any hotter, I was pretty sure I’d pass out... again.
And then this infuriating guard licked his lips, and a part of my body did something it had never done before. My clit throbbed, making me squirm. I wasn’t the squirming type. And my clit wasn’t the throbbing type.
Oh, shit.
Was I dying?
Ryung’s smile widened. He knew exactly how his poison was affecting me. I couldn’t think straight because of it. I needed to escape and regroup. Since these wolves had seen my face, they definitely had to die.
But I needed to find an antidote to their poison as soon as possible. I ground my teeth and focused on clearing my thoughts. I closed my eyes and reached inward toward the familiar hum of my magic.
I pictured the chains, the metal, the lock on the wall. I shaped the words of a spell on my tongue, one I’d used before to snap cuffs and melt hinges when steel and brute force weren’t enough.
My power stirred, building inside me as I chanted the spell in my head. I mentally uttered the last word, expecting the sound of the locks clicking open to follow it. Instead, pain sliced through my skull.
I hissed, feeling as if someone had shoved a spike straight between my eyes. The magic slipped from my grasp, dispersing like smoke in the wind. My head pounded, a piercing ache that made my eyes water.
“Well, that answers that,” Ryung muttered, straightening to his full height to tower over me once more.
I opened my eyes, breathing hard. “Answers what?”
The guard’s gaze dropped to my ankle. “Whether the chain works or not,” he said.
I followed his eyes. A thin band of gold encircled my right ankle, snug but not tight, gleaming against my brown skin.
“What the hell is that?” I demanded.
“A Spellbreaker,” Ryung answered. “Forged by a witch who owed us a favor.”
I mentally added that bitch to my kill list.
“While you’re wearing it,” he continued. “There will be no spellcasting, no enchanting, no cute little tricks you witch assassins like to use. If you try to use your magic, you’ll be the one who suffers, not us. Basically, there will be no escaping us, little omega.”
These mangy mutts!
I took a deep breath, held it in for five seconds, then exhaled slowly.
“You could’ve just asked me nicely not to escape,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “I’m very obedient when kidnapped and chained up in strange men’s sex rooms.”
Moon’s eyes darkened slightly at that, something unreadable flickering across his face.
“How many sex rooms have you been in, little omega?” Moon asked, his tone containing a hint of anger.