Chapter 40 Vane
VANE
The Hunt is short. Too short.
I track her through the darkness, following the crack of branches, the rustle of leaves, the sharp inhale of breath she can't quite control. My cock strains against my jeans, harder than steel. She's always been mine to chase, mine to catch, mine to claim.
I find her pressed against an oak, chest heaving, eyes wild in the moonlight filtering through the canopy. Beautiful. Feral. Perfect.
“Found you, wildflower.”
She tries to run again, but I'm on her in a heartbeat, spinning her around and pinning her against the rough bark. Her hands come up, pushing against my chest.
“Vane, wait—”
“Say your safe word.” My voice comes out rough, animalistic. “Red stops everything. Yellow slows me down. Say them if you want me to stop.”
Her pupils dilate, those amber eyes going molten.
Instead, she bites my shoulder through my shirt, hard enough that I feel her teeth even through the fabric.
A growl rips from my throat. I capture her wrists in one hand, pinning them above her head while my other hand yanks down her leggings and underwear in one savage motion. The cool night air hits her exposed skin as I press my hips against hers, grinding my erection into her.
“That's how you want to play?” I bite down on her neck, sucking hard enough to mark. She gasps, arching into me. “Fine.”
I release my cock with my free hand and lift her against the tree, positioning myself at her entrance. She's already wet, even as she struggles against my hold. I thrust inside her in one brutal stroke, burying myself to the hilt.
“Fuck!” She cries out, her back arching off the tree.
I don't give her time to adjust. My hips snap forward again and again, each thrust driving her against the bark. Her hands still pinned above her head, she can't move, can't escape, can only take what I give her.
“This is what you wanted?” I growl against her ear, my teeth grazing her lobe. “Running from me so I'd chase you down and fuck you like an animal?”
Her nails dig into my forearms where I'm gripping her thighs, holding her up against the bark. The leverage lets me drive deeper, harder, hitting that spot inside her that makes her whimper.
“Yes,” she gasps, and I don't know if she's answering me or just lost in the sensation. “God—”
“Not God.” I bite down on her shoulder, tasting salt and earth. “Me. Say my fucking name.”
“Vane.” It comes out broken, desperate. Her legs wrap around my waist, heels digging into my ass, pulling me impossibly deeper. “Please—”
“Please, what?” I slam into her, the tree bark probably scraping her back through her thin shirt. The thought should bother me. It doesn't. Neither does it seem to bother her. “Use your words, wildflower.”
“Harder.” She throws her head back, exposing the long column of her throat. “Make me feel it tomorrow.”
Something feral rips through me. I adjust my grip, fingers digging into the meat of her thighs hard enough to bruise, and give her exactly what she asked for. Each thrust punches the air from her lungs. The wet sound of our bodies meeting fills the night air, obscene and perfect.
“You think you can run from this?” I lean back just enough to watch where we're joined, watching my cock disappear inside her again and again. “From me?”
“No.” Her walls clench around me, fluttering. She's close. “Never again—fuck, right there—”
“That's right.” I capture her mouth in a brutal kiss, swallowing her moans. “You're mine to chase, mine to catch, mine to fuck against trees in the middle of nowhere because you need it just as much as I do.”
She breaks the kiss with a gasp. “Yes, yes, yours—”
I can't get enough of her, not like this—wild and desperate against the tree. The terror of losing her again claws at my chest, demanding I take more, claim her so thoroughly she can't even think about running. I need to see her completely at my mercy, need to fuck the fear out of both of us.
“On your hands and knees,” I growl, pulling out and letting her feet touch the ground. “Now.”
She collapses to the forest floor on her hands and knees, trembling.
Dead leaves and dirt cushion her fall as she positions herself, ass in the air, looking back at me over her shoulder with those amber eyes.
Moonlight catches the wetness on her inner thighs, evidence of how much she loves getting fucked by me.
“Look at you,” I say, dropping to my knees behind her, running my hands over the perfect globes of her ass. “My beautiful wildflower, getting fucked in the dirt like an animal.”
I slap her ass hard, leaving a red handprint. She yelps, pushing back against my palm.
“More,” she begs.
I grip her hips and drive into her again, harder than before. The new angle lets me go deeper, hitting places that make her sob with pleasure. Her fingers claw at the earth, gathering dirt and leaves as she tries to anchor herself against my thrusts.
Leaning over her back, I wrap my hand around her throat, applying pressure to the sides—cutting off blood flow but not air. Just enough to make her light-headed, to surrender control completely.
“This is what you needed?” I tighten my grip as I pound into her. “To be hunted down and fucked like the prey you are?”
She can't answer, can only nod frantically as her pussy clenches around me. I feel the telltale fluttering, the way her thighs start to quake.
“That's it,” I encourage, maintaining the pressure on her throat. “Let go for me.”
Her entire body tenses, then convulses. She's shaking violently, her orgasm tearing through her. I pull out completely just as she starts to gush, her release spraying across the forest floor, soaking the leaves beneath us.
“Fuck, look at that,” I groan, watching her body expel everything in powerful waves. Before she's even finished, I slam back into her, chasing her next climax immediately.
Her body still trembles from that last orgasm when I pull the small vial of lube from my pocket. Always prepared. Always planning for exactly this moment.
“Vane—” She looks back at me, eyes wide with realization.
“Every part of you belongs to me.” I pour the slick liquid between her cheeks, watching it drip down. “Even this.”
My thumb circles her tight hole, applying gentle pressure. She whimpers, pushing back against the touch despite herself.
“I'm going to breed this ass,” I tell her, working one finger inside. “Fill you so full of my cum that you'll feel me with every vibration of my bike on the drive back.”
“God—”
“And then I'm going to plug you,” I add a second finger, stretching her carefully. “Keep my seed inside you where it belongs. A reminder that you don't run from me. Not ever again.”
She's panting now, forehead pressed to the dirt, back arched beautifully. I work her slowly, methodically, adding more lube until she's ready. My cock throbs, desperate to replace my fingers.
“You're the oxygen in my lungs,” I murmur against her spine as I position myself. “The blood in my veins. You think you can just leave? Might as well ask me to stop breathing.”
I line my cock up and push forward, breaching that tight ring of muscle. She gasps, body tensing.
“Relax, wildflower.” I hold still, letting her adjust. “That's it. Take what's yours.”
I sink deeper, inch by inch, until I'm buried completely. The sensation is overwhelming. She's shaking beneath me, little whimpers escaping her throat.
“You feel that?” I pull back and thrust forward, establishing a rhythm. “Feel how perfectly you take me? This body was made for me. Every hole, every inch of skin, every breath you take—mine.”
My hand snakes around to find her clit, circling the sensitive bundle of nerves while I fuck her ass. Her moans grow louder, uninhibited in the darkness of the woods.
“No one else gets this.” Each word punctuated by a thrust. “No one else touches you, tastes you, fills you. You're sewn into my skin, written in my bones, carved into my fucking soul.”
Her walls clench around me as she nears another edge.
“Come for me.” I pinch her clit, increasing the pressure. “Come with my cock buried in your ass.”
Her entire body goes rigid. A scream tears from her throat as she shatters, clenching around me so tight I see stars. The sensation drags me over the edge with her.
“Fuck, Lia—” My hips jerk forward one final time as I empty myself inside her, filling her exactly like I promised. Pulse after pulse, I pour everything into her until I'm completely spent.
I stay buried inside her, both of us breathing hard. She's trembling, barely holding herself up on her hands and knees.
“Stay there,” I order, pulling out carefully.
She whimpers at the loss, her body trying to clench around nothing. I watch my cum start to drip out, marking her as mine. Reaching into my other pocket, I pull out the emerald plug I grabbed before leaving the penthouse.
“Told you I was going to keep my seed inside you.” I press the plug against her stretched hole, working it in slowly. She gasps, her fingers digging into the dirt. “There. Perfect.”
The plug sits snugly, a beautiful contrast against her skin. I help her up, pulling her leggings back into place. She sways on her feet, exhausted and thoroughly fucked.
“You're a monster,” she whispers, but there's no heat in it. Just acceptance. Maybe even affection.
“Your monster.” I turn her to face me, cupping her jaw.
Dirt streaks her cheek, leaves tangle in her hair, and she's never looked more beautiful.
“The one you chose when you signed that contract. When you let me claim you at the Hunt. When you fell in love with me fifteen years ago and never stopped, no matter how far you ran.”
Her eyes fill with tears, not from fear or regret, but something else entirely.
“I need you to understand something.” I press my forehead to hers. “When I said you're the oxygen in my lungs, I meant it. You leave, I suffocate. That's not romantic metaphor bullshit. That's reality. My reality.”
“That's insane.”
“Yes.” I don't deny it. Can't. “Insane,” I agree, brushing dirt from her cheek with my thumb.
“Obsessive. Possessive. Unhinged.” Each word is a confession I don't bother to hide.
“I'm not going to wake up one day and be a different man, Lia.
I'm not going to stop tracking you, stop watching you, stop needing to know where you are every second of every day.”
She doesn't flinch. Just watches me with those amber eyes that have haunted me since we were seventeen.
“I tortured a man tonight,” I continue, because she deserves the truth laid bare. “Cut off his fingers one by one. And I'd do it again tomorrow if it meant keeping you safe. I'd burn Ravenwood to ash if someone tried to take you from me.”
“I know.” Her voice is steady despite the tears tracking through the dirt on her face.
“But here's what else is true.” I capture her face in both hands, forcing her to see what I've never shown anyone else.
The part of me that isn't violence and darkness.
“When you left fifteen years ago, you took pieces of me I didn't even know existed.
Pieces I've been trying to get back every day since.
Not because I wanted to possess you like some object, but because without you, I'm just—”
The words stick in my throat. Vulnerable isn't a language I speak.
“I'm just the monster,” I finally manage. “With you, I'm more. A man that maybe doesn't deserve you, but who is capable of love so fierce it would make gods jealous.”
She's crying openly now, silent tears mixing with the dirt streaking her skin.
“Fifteen years, wildflower. Fifteen years of loving you from the shadows.
Watching you build a life I couldn't touch, with people who couldn't understand.” I press my lips to her forehead, breathing her in.
“I'm never going to be normal. Never going to be the man your parents probably dreamed you'd bring home.
But I'm the man who's loved you through every version of yourself—the girl who ran, the woman who came back, the one who pretends she doesn't need this as much as I do.”
“Vane—”
“I love you.” Simple. True. “Not despite the fucked up way we fit together, but because of it.”
She reaches up, tracing my jawline with dirt-smudged fingers. “I do love you, Vane.” Her voice breaks on my name. “I think I always have. But this—what I saw tonight—I need to think. I need time to process.”
My chest tightens. Time. Distance. These are the weapons she's used against me before. Fifteen years' worth of time and distance nearly destroyed me.
“Process back in Ravenwood,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. “I understand you need space. If you need to go back to your penthouse, that's fine.”
Her lips twist into something between a smile and a grimace. “What, the penthouse you can see into from your windows?”
My jaw clenches. She's not wrong. Every inch of that apartment is visible from mine—by design, of course.
“Just stay somewhere in Ravenwood,” I manage through gritted teeth. “I can't have you away from me, not again.” I don't say what happens if she tries to leave. I don't have to. We both know I'll follow her to the ends of the earth if necessary.
She studies my face for a long moment. I wonder what she sees there—the monster or the man? Or have they become so intertwined that there's no separating them anymore?
“Okay,” she finally says. “I'll stay at the Ravenwood Inn for a few days. Just to clear my head.”
Relief floods through me as we start walking back toward the parking lot. The woods are eerily silent around us, as if nature itself is holding its breath, watching our drama unfold. Her hand brushes against mine as we walk, not quite taking it but not pulling away either.
I've spent fifteen years plotting every detail to bring her back to me. Now that she's by my side, I realize the hard part isn't catching her—it's keeping her without caging her completely. Giving her just enough rope not to hang herself with it.
But not enough to run.