Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
ALEKSANDR
Deadman’s Forest
Fourteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds later, my headlights flashed into a secluded part of the forest surrounding the cliffs.
Why am I doing this?
Why?
Why?
Why am I helping her again?
My mind screamed warnings at me. I knew she would walk away after she got what she wanted.
She never stayed long, staying true to the pact we made just over three years ago.
But like a snake to a charmer, I was drawn into her dangerous dance, never able to quite let go—but also never getting too close.
This time was different, though. The change was tangible, like the shifting of tectonic plates under the Earth’s crust.
Lenochka needed something more from me this time.
Kind of like you needed her all these years you brooded alone?
More than just a quick, dirty fuck or a firm slap to her arse.
More than just the calming of our combined presence together, an effect we have always had on each other, and one we both hated.
No, this time she was after something. A truth that I felt down in my bones when she had called me desperate for help rather than choosing to call someone else, and I wouldn’t stop until she finally told me what.
Until she finally relented. Until she became mine again.
Except this time, the world would see what happened when a king bowed for his queen.
Throwing the car in park, I stepped out into the darkness to announce my presence. “Lenochka! Where are you?” I yelled into the dark. Her whimpering cry floated through the darkness. “Follow my voice. I’m right here…waiting for you. I’m here. I’m here.”
The sound of crunching leaves and snapping twigs grew louder and louder, in tune with rapid footsteps, ones that sounded frantic, yet subdued, and not at all like the fiery Printsessa I had always known.
“Aleksandr! You’re here,” she whispered, sounding much louder in the silence she had just stepped out of. “You’re here,” she repeated, almost like she thought I might not actually show. “You came.”
“Did you think I would not, Printsessa?”
“I wanted to believe…” Her voice was hoarse as she diverted her eyes, avoiding direct contact with mine.
“Show me your eyes, Lenochka,” I rasped. “Bring those pretty violet eyes up to me.”
A small whimper escaped her as she silently stepped up to me, her juniper and pine scent filling my nose even under the smell of sweat and dirt. My hands flew to her hips instinctively, my grip tightening subconsciously as she raised her chin.
Even now, there was a flicker of inner steel and fire under the haze of the fear—or adrenaline—she was recovering from as she locked her still haunted eyes to mine.
Eyes that held a glimmer of tears she desperately tried and failed to hide.
Pulling her in close until she was all I saw.
“Now breathe with me. Breathe, pretty girl. You’ll always be safe with me. ”
Seeing her like this, feeling the all-encompassing trust she still offered me had a primal need surge within my blood, had it heating me all the way to the depths of my soul.
A demand to make her finally submit, to cede that tightly gripped control to me in the basest ways one can for another human being.
Yet static also flooded my head at the sight of her in disarray, the threads of panic slowly disappearing from her gaze and turning into something heated, dangerous. Threatening.
This woman left me bleeding, black heart in my hand, and my knees raw on the stone steps in front of my house two years ago as she walked away from a life I had outright prostrated myself over for her to accept—choosing safety and protection until her time to step into the role The Guilda would demand of her.
Her refusal to believe in me—in us. To not stay with him, the boy we all had sworn to protect, burned like acid as I stared down at her.
Venomous beauty dipped in tragedy. A deadly storm was waiting to strike, intent on leaving destruction in its wake.
Lenochka's chest rose in rapid breaths as she stilled, feeling the awareness of a predator preparing to strike.
Of a hunter locking in on its prey. I stood there, my thoughts spiralling as my mind replayed the way she had hurt me in the past, the way her claws had felt digging into me when we gave into our lust. How her hands and mouth had felt wrapped around my cock as she proved over and over that for her, I would always be weak…
Ultimately, how she had broken me when she had chosen to leave.
Bitterness coated my tongue as I thought of the years I wasted pining after her—of the times I still watched from afar, hoping and waiting for her to regret her choice. Something that never came yet was still a fever-dream I found myself praying for at my lowest points.
“I’ll always come. I’m here.” My heart pounded as I thought of what she might have done. Of who she had been with or of the events that led her to needing me. I ran my hand down her back as I held her tight to me. “I’m here. What do you need?”
Her betrayal still tasted like ash on my tongue, even so I would always be a willing prisoner to her violet gaze, in the way her skin flushed and her pupils dilated as her body primed for the games we had always loved to play.
I would still come when she called, day or night, at the drop of a hat…
no lie in the world could keep me from making sure she was safe. Alive.
I could not make myself regret a thing…
Thud.
This. This was the feeling I had missed every second of every goddamn day.
The way we orbited one another with an instinctual push and pull.
The tug and release of a soul that had been split in two.
The burn of feelings neither of us felt safe to admit, even though she had called me tonight in a time of need.
Knowing that she would always be my priority, even if she was not mine for the world to see.
A hint that the safety she had once felt with me was still there, even if it was buried deep.
Her knowing and me accepting that if she called, I would come. No questions asked.
Thud.
Thud.
My heartbeat escalated, my blood pumped viciously, and excitement vibrated through the air so thick it felt tangible between us as I bent my head to whisper in her ear. I waited as those eyes dilated more and her breath stuttered, watching the pulse in her throat jump and pause.
Thud.
“I waited for this, Printsessa. For you to come calling.” My tongue darted out, tasting the saltiness of the sweat coating her skin. “For you to feel the burn.”
Her exhale was sharp, distinct in the silence the forest had fallen into since she came running, crashing into me. “The need.”
Whimpering, she gripped my shirt, pressing her body into mine as she unconsciously rubbed against my hardening length.
My cock jumped, sensing—no, knowing—what would come next.
The uptick of her breaths, the raised hairs along her arms…
the haze of lust clouding those eyes that had ensnared me for years.
“Aleksandr, please…”
My nose trailed her throat as I breathed in her scent.
My lungs expanded as if they were taking their first full breath of air in years, even as my heart cracked, knowing this peace would not be one to last. It felt like coming home after a long time away, of being seen again amongst the dark of a starless night.
The way she melted into me, forcing me closer, her face pressed against my chest as her arms locked around me.
Mine came up to hold her tight, instinct driving me to ask why she was here or what had occurred, yet my thoughts warned me to wait.
To take this moment and just breathe in this overwhelming sense of peace.
Feelings that I had long thought were buried rose again, boiling my blood until I felt my beast prowling within. Eager to hunt, to chase. To claim this woman once again.
“Please, Aleks. Please…” Lenochka's voice steadily became stronger. Her fire for life returned right before my eyes. I could see her walls rebuilding as she prepared to beg for what she wanted of me tonight. Of what she needed–a loss of control. Her release.
“You know the rules, Printsessa.” Backing her up, I peered into her eyes to ensure she was of a sane mind. That she had clarity. That she wasn't back in that headspace that scared the utter fuck out of me. “You need to give me the words. Explicitly.”
My pulse thundered, echoing like a war drum in my ears.
Thud.
Consent. I needed it before we could play this game again.
Thud.
I waited for her to decide, knowing that the fine line of hate and love would unravel tonight—at least for me.
If she chose to continue this dance, I would no longer allow her to walk away.
If she chose to play, she would go in knowing it would end with her pussy soaking as I fucked her into oblivion.
I would follow her into Hell obediently, tethered to one another even in death.
Thud, thud, thud.
Like you ever stood a chance, my brain screamed at me.
Meanwhile, my heart warned me she was likely already placing her most dangerous chess pieces on the board.
I would likely not be able to endure the outcome if she ultimately chose to walk away from me, again, if she chose to permanently cease our never-ending test of wills.
Insanity was defined as repeating a choice time and time again, believing a different outcome would be achieved, even while the same results played out repeatedly.
Her choice here would determine if I had already slipped over that bladed edge, if I just held onto a fool's hope that one day she would, in fact, choose me.
A sharp nod, fire-filled eyes, and a cunning smirk were the answer I had waited for. That same feral heat ignited in my veins.
“I want to feel again, korol.1 I need to feel…”
“What are you asking for, Printsessa? I need your words.”
“I want you to hurt me. I need to be chased.”
Her words lit a fire in my blood, stoking a flame that only she was able to ignite—one we found purely by accident on a night similar to this three years ago. A flame I was all too eager to spark again if her submission was my prize. Looking down at her, I grinned, baring my teeth.
“Is that all you want, Printsessa?” Dragging my fingers down her cheek, I watched her pupils expand.
Her pulse beat rapidly as I voiced what I needed to know.
My dick already swelled in my sweats, anticipating what her response would be.
“Do you remember our safe word, pretty girl? Remember what to do or say to get me on my knees for you?”
“Da, Aleks.” Her lashes fluttered as she exhaled the words that sent a liquid fire through my veins. “Zmeya.2 I remember.”
“You didn’t answer my question, pretty girl. Is this all you want?”
Audrey hesitated briefly, long enough to give her away. I already knew what she was going to say before she formed the words in her mind.
“No, I want to submit. Chase me into the dark, Aleksandr, and I don’t want you to stop even when I say no.”
It was like she had set a bomb off inside my brain.
Had ignited dynamite but cut the fuses right before the end of the wick.
Everything in me heated as the monster that hid inside cracked its eyes open and locked onto its prey.
Grinning fully, I paused before replying, weighing my words as the primal instincts we both shared bit and clawed at the building tension between us.
“You know what to do now, Lenochka…” I whispered, barely above a breath.
“Run.”
1 Korol (Russian): King
2 Zmeya (Russian): Dragon/Serpent