Page 18

AVA

M y body is pressed against Kairon’s warmth.

It feels surreal—comforting and terrifying at the same time.

I fight the urge to bury my face in his shoulder, to surrender to the strange sense of safety he offers.

Instead, I pull back slightly, enough to see his face.

The firelight dances across his features, revealing shadows of conflict lurking behind his eyes.

“Why did you save me?” I ask quietly, unsure of where this question will lead. The weight of it hangs heavy in the air between us.

His response is sharp, cutting through the haze of vulnerability. “I would’ve let you die long ago if I could.”

The words hit me like a slap, igniting confusion and hurt. My heart races—not from fear, but from anger and disbelief. “So why didn’t you? You could’ve walked away.”

He turns away, muscles tensing as he shuts down. I can almost hear the doors slamming shut in his mind.

“No,” I press on, frustration bubbling beneath the surface. “You don’t get to act like this doesn’t matter! You pulled me out of that pit—you risked your life for me! Why?”

His silence feels deafening. I push myself up, standing tall despite the tremors still coursing through me from our earlier encounter with that creature.

“Why do you care so little?” My voice rises, fueled by irritation. “Is it because you think I'm weak? Because I’m just a human?”

Kairon stands abruptly, towering over me as if he can intimidate my emotions into submission. “You are weak,” he snaps back, voice low but laced with fury.

“Coward!” I yell back without thinking. “Hiding behind this facade of strength while you stand there looking down on me!”

He steps closer, invading my space with an intensity that sends my heart racing in a different way now—anger clashing with something else entirely.

“I’m not hiding!” His voice booms in the small shelter. “You don’t understand what it means to survive out here! You’re too busy wallowing in your own pity!”

“Maybe if you had any empathy at all,” I retort fiercely, hands clenched into fists at my sides, “you wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss anyone who isn’t like you!”

“Oh, that's rich! Isn't that what you and your kind do at the IHC? Attack anything different from you?" He presses forward. "And empathy?” He laughs bitterly. “What do you know about survival? About loss?”

Each accusation feels like a blade between us—wounding yet undeniably real—and the distance we once shared fractures further into something jagged and raw.

My heart pounds in my chest, fueled by the heat of our argument.

“You think you know me? You don’t know a damn thing!”

I snap, and before I can catch myself, my hand swings out, connecting sharply with his cheek. The sound echoes in the small space.

Kairon’s eyes widen for just a second—then they darken, rage flickering like wildfire. In an instant, he closes the distance between us, his grip firm around my arms.

Before I can even process it, he kisses me. It’s fierce and consuming, igniting something primal inside me that I can’t suppress. My back hits the rock wall with a dull thud as his hands lock around my body, holding me in place.

I should push him away. I should fight back.

But I don’t.

Instead, I melt into the kiss, heat flooding through every part of me. His lips are rough against mine—hot and heavy—and I gasp against him as his hands begin to roam beneath the fabric of my tattered uniform.

Every nerve awakens; every heartbeat pulses with reckless abandon.

A low growl rumbles through his chest. One hand twists in my hair, wrenching my head back. The other slides down to the torn waistband of my pants, tearing the fabric in one brutal motion. Cold air hits my thighs. His breath follows—hot, uneven.

“ Softer ,” I hiss, even as my hips jerk toward him.

“No.” His voice cracks like a whip. “You don’t beg for soft.”

He shoves me downward. Knees hit the stone floor. My palms brace against his thighs, shaking—not from fear, but the raw, jagged charge between us. His cock juts thick and heavy in front of me, the scent of him wild and musky. I glance up, catching the faint red glow of his eyes.

“ Do it. ”

The command pulls a whimper from my throat. My tongue swipes up the length of him, tasting salt and bitterness. He hisses, thumb pressing into my cheek. “ Open. ”

I take him deep, gagging as he thrusts into my mouth. Tears blur my vision. His grip tightens, holding me still as he rocks deeper, groaning. “Look at me.”

Our eyes lock. Shame burns in his gaze, raw and unguarded. It doesn’t soften the pace.

When he pulls back, spittle strings between my lips. He yanks me up, spins me, slams my chest against the cave wall. Moss scrapes my cheek. “This what you wanted?”

“Fuck y?—”

His hand clamps over my mouth. The other hooks under my thigh, lifting my leg high. No warning. No mercy. He drives into me with a snarl, stretching me taut. Pain bleeds into blinding pleasure. My scream muffles against his palm.

“Louder.” He removes his hand, fingers curling into my hip instead. “Let the jungle hear you break.”

I bite my lip, blood blooming.

He laughs, breath ragged against my neck. “Pride won’t save you here.” A sharp thrust punches the air from my lungs. “ Moan. ”

I do—broken, gasping. He fucks me like he’s carving revenge into my bones. Each snap of his hips blurs the line between punishment and worship.

“Kairon—!”

His name spills in a sob as heat coils, snaps, rips through me. He grunts, forehead pressed between my shoulder blades. Teeth sink into my skin as his rhythm staggers.

And still, he doesn’t stop.

The cave air sizzles with the musk of sweat and storm as Kairon’s hands snake under my thighs.

He hoists me up like I weigh nothing—one brutal motion slamming my back against the damp stone wall.

My torn tank top snags on the rock, exposing my breasts to the fire’s amber flicker. His breath hitches.

“Look at you,” he rasps, clawed thumb swiping over my peaked nipple. “Still pretending you’re in control.”

I dig my heels into his hips, but the sting only makes his cock twitch against my core. “Fuck your ego, Vesh. Just?—”

He doesn’t let me finish. Spins me mid-air, my palms scraping moss as he bends me over a low boulder. Rain sheets beyond the cave mouth. His teeth find my shoulder while one calloused hand spreads me wide.

“Beg properly.”

“Go to hell,” I spit, arching despite myself as his free hand circles my clit.

He chuckles—dark, fractured—and slams home without warning. My scream bounces off the walls.

“That all you’ve got? Pathetic.” Each brutal thrust jolts me forward. “I felt you shake when I kissed you. Taste yourself on my tongue and lie again.”

Claw marks bloom on my hips as he yanks me back onto him. I bite my wrist to muffle the keening noise clawing up my throat.

He rips my hand away. “Louder. Let the whole jungle hear how their precious officer breaks .”

Another snap of his hips. Stars burst behind my eyelids.

“Kairon—!”

“Say please .” His palm cracks my ass cheek.

“Burn first,” I gasp.

He growls, fingers knotting in my tangled hair. “Pride’s a luxury, girl. You can’t afford it.”

The angle shifts. Deeper. Crueler. My thighs quiver as the coil inside me fills me to the point of splitting.

“ Please —”

The orgasm tears through me raw, vicious, wringing a sob from my chest. He doesn’t slow. Doesn’t care. Just grunts like a beast as he flips me onto my back, drives back in.

“Again.”

My nails rake down his scarred chest. “Bastard— can’t— ah!“

He pins my wrists, leans close enough to share air. “Say it.”

Our eyes lock. His pupils drown in desire. Fuck it.

“Please… don’t stop.“

He snarls, pace turning punishing. I see his control fracture—feel his rhythm stutter—before heat floods me in thick, pulsing waves. His head drops to my sweat-slicked collarbone. A shudder runs through him.

Silence, save for the storm’s dying rasp.