34. Sunlight
Haera
The soft gentle touch of awareness filtered into Haera’s body. Slowly, carefully, she uncurled, stretching her arms to the wall behind her and extending her legs as far as they would go in a long stretch. She let her thoughts swirl for a while, before finally sitting up. The sunrise was beaming into her room. It was Mynphes – the start of a new woux. It’d been two woux since Theos rescued her.
Trudging into the shower room, she stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror on the back of the door while cold water poured down in the shower.
This was the first time she’d ever woken up with her whole body and mind completely peaceful. She ran a hand through her curls, separating them carefully as she bit down on her lip. Gentle surges of awareness fluttered in her heart. The bond was active, and wherever Theos was, he was feeling peaceful too. She breathed a sigh of relief as she climbed into the shower.
The hunt Theos had arranged for her had been magical. Watching the world around them shift had been incredible. Feeling the swathes of pleasure pour into the bond after he’d watched her take down prey had been euphoric. The burn of her constant arousal was becoming unbearable. She was used to exercising restraint. With the reality of being unsafe, she had become an expert in denying herself. She denied herself sleep, food, the prey drive, the play drive, grieving her father’s death, everything. All the demands of being alive had faded into the background of her soul the dahy she’d been raped. Survival always trumped living. Living was a luxury. Staying alive was a necessity.
Now, the opposite was happening to her. She could feel the process unfurling beneath her skin as surely as she could feel her chest rise and fall with each breath. Her survival drives were fading into the background. Live. She wanted to live . She felt it in the ways that not only hunger for food consumed her, but the primal instinct to hunt overcame her every limb. It was there, etched into the way her body unwound while she slept, no longer constantly on guard, even when she slept alone. It was there in her dreams – she still missed him, more than she would ever know how to convey, but she no longer dreamed of her father’s ghastly corpse chasing her, calling her a failure. It was there in the way the visceral memory of her aching body in the dead of winter faded from her bones.
She was healing . From the soles of her feet to the roots and ends of her snow-white hair. Her skin glowed like sunlight had gotten trapped behind it somehow. Theos. He was the light that was healing her. The prey drive was back, and the play drive was calling to her from some deep buried part of her as it resurrected. She was feeling like herself again. And as she remembered the prior dahy’s events as she washed suds from her skin, another drive was surfacing.
It was harsh, choking, and infinitely pleasurable. It grated against all her principles, gnawing at her restraint like hot coals burning through meat. It coiled around her throat, tightening with a pressure that was both invigorating and excruciating. She couldn’t breathe half the time she was in Theos’ presence. Initially, she’d thought it was a matter of nerves – that she was just anxious because of who her mate was .
After yesterdahy, when the bond had trembled and groaned inside her from Theos’ pleasure, she’d finally understood that the pressure at her throat was not fear. The coiling and fluttering in her belly was the mating drive. The ancient force that sought only to bind mates together in a display so carnal that even the gods had to look away.
She pressed her thighs together, warm from the thought of mating with Theos despite the freezing cold water releasing itself from her pipes. She could imagine his hands on her body. His rough palm squeezing her soft throat, knees parting hers so she was bared for him. Heat was spreading through her, but then darkness crowded into the edges of her vision.
Her eyes felt suddenly heavy. Her hearing dulled, the cord between awareness and losing herself to reality straining. Her shoulders sagged, her body slumping forward against her will. Her shrill screams echoed around inside her mind, but her lips stubbornly refused to move. Her internal voice wavered as she commanded her body to obey her. To stand up. Begged it not to shut down. Adrenaline spiked in her bloodstream long enough for her hearing to reengage with her surroundings.
A masculine chuckle wormed its way through the haze until cold recognition burned through her body in raging waves of fear. Her knees buckled. As her eyes closed, the whispered promise sent horror spiralling through the bond .
“I’ve finally got you back, my little kitten. This time, you won’t get away.”
***
The sounds of flesh slapping against flesh pulled her back into consciousness. Groggy and unable to control her movements, she flit back and forth between disgust and shameful pleasure as guttural moans filled the air around her. The smell of sex and sweat formed a rancid cloud that wound into her nose, curling and sinking its teeth into her secret shame. She drifted back into darkness for what felt like only a moment, before a clawed hand circled her ankle where it hung, another sharp claw trailing up the inside of her other calf.
Her limbs were leaden, eyes heavy, mouth refusing to move no matter how she screamed at herself to wake up. The light hold around her ankle grew firm, hiking her legs up onto whatever surface she was on. She tried to clamp her legs together when those same hands spread them so wide that the strain of the stretch echoed through her hips. Nothing happened. Her body refused to respond. A satisfied growl reached her ears from somewhere around her.
“So fucking pretty.” The words slid into her ears like a sloppy wet tongue, sending silent shudders through her. Wake up! She screamed at herself. Wake up! The claw was sliding up her calf again, inching closer to her unguarded cunt. To her immediate shame, a pulse of pleasure grated through her body at the rough scrape against her skin. “Just how I remember it,” the voice growled again. Fear threatened to send her to an early death. Zyadon. She would recognize his voice anywhere. Know his crazed desire anywhere. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
Claw gave way to a finger as the frantic pace of flesh slapping together around her increased. The hand swept up, and he grunted with obvious pleasure as he pressed his finger through her folds. Her body jerked away as the bond suddenly re-engaged, thrumming to life with full force. It screamed in protest, sending adrenaline through her body that brought her limbs back to life. Her shoulders tensed as she jerked at the binds on her hands.
Zyadon laughed a little, thumbing her clit slowly as she tried to struggle. Her eyes. They still wouldn’t open. Heavy. Too heavy. Too tired. “I know you can feel me touching you, kitten. I know you missed this.”
The screaming in the bond only increased, and her heart felt as though it would burst from the sudden frantic pace of its beats. She needed to get away. Wake up! Wake up! His pace on her clit increased, his breaths coming in pants. “Watching you struggle while I touch you only deepens my appetite for you.” He rasped. “You struggle so pretty.” He plunged a finger into her, pressing past resistance and curling it to hit the place that made her come undone. “You gonna come for me little kitten?” He purred. Horrified by her body’s response to his touch, Haera screamed at herself again, begging herself to wake up. Her thighs were trembling. Cunt beginning to lubricate and squelch to his perverted demand on her body. “Your tight little pussy made me cum so fast when I used you. It took my breath away.”
Her belly tensed as pleasure shot through her from his touch. “But you got away before I could return the favour. This time, you can’t get away. This time, you will come for me. Your body will give in to my touch. You will feel pleasure from this. You’ll hate yourself for it, but you will come for me.”
Her eyes burned even as they stubbornly refused to open. She fought against her binds even more intensely, and Zyadon’s harsh breathing only increased. The grunting and groaning around her was louder now. “There’s six of us here with you, my little kitten. We’ve been wanting this for so long.” The sound of moans around her grew louder still, and a hand moved down over her face, raking across her belly with rough fingers and sliding over her mound to thumb her clit while Zyadon curled his fingers over and over. “And after I make you come, you’ll be wet enough to take us all at once. Your pretty little pussy is quivering around my finger. You want it don’t you? Come for me. ”
Laughter erupted around her. “Your best friend is here too. She’s just aching to put her mouth on this wet little cunt of yours.” Haera’s heart shattered, helplessness filtering into her attempts to struggle. Weak . She was always so weak . She was always so out of her own control. The memory of her own voice bloomed inside her mind. “What if I’m confused and I need you to take control?”
As she struggled to remember what Theos’ response had been, her body betrayed her, pleasure building deep in her belly. “What do I say then? How do I ask for your control?” Every cell in her body was screaming at the wrongness of it. Theos’ hands. They weren’t Theos’ hands. She only wanted his touch. No one else’s.
Zyadon’s demand reached her ears, rough, demanding. “Come for us.” The pressure on her clit was increasing, strokes getting faster and faster. She was glad her mouth was still frozen in time. The shame of moaning to pleasure she did not want would have killed her. She remembered Theos’ words right then, and for a moment, she hesitated. Would he hear her? Sealed as her mouth was? Would he come? Would he still want her after she’d been touched by another? After her body had betrayed her, again?
She tensed, fighting not to come from the unwanted stimulation. Her entire soul was rending apart. Zyadon’s demand came again. “Come for us. ”
The bond refused to give in, fluttering and surging wildly as it expanded through her whole body, past her doubt, to call out to her mate on her behalf. Sunlight!