Page 26

Kael

A low guttural sound rumbles from Kael’s throat. It’s a primal release of his newfound freedom, no matter how fleeting it’s looking to seem, because for some reason, he can still feel Raidon’s presence. He’s lurking, like a lost ghost. He is still close by, too fucking close. But it doesn’t matter. Let him lurk. Let him watch. Let him seethe in silence. Tonight belongs to Kael.

Kael rolls his neck, slow and deliberate, feeling the pull of stiff muscles as he stretches, and works his shoulders. He takes a little joy in savoring the moment where he is no longer a shadow, but a man with a flesh, the hands to do and undo.

He catches the reflection of himself in the mirror, and a smirk materializes on his lips.

Still as deathly handsome as ever. Man, it’s so good to be back.

He smooths a hand over his hair, his fingers threading through the half-bun Raidon has so carefully and predictably put the hair in.

Boring. Always fucking boring, that brother of mine.

“Really, Raidon?” he muses, pulling at the band that holds the bun, tugging it loose until the hair joins the other one let loose, cascading down his back in silken waves. “Can’t you think of something else?”

He clicks his tongue, tilting his head from side to side, waves of icy lurks following his movement. His own preference is much more expressive, not this boring thing his brother has refused to part ways with.

Kael prefers a half-braid on one side, while the rest of the hair spills free on the other side. A bit of chaos, a bit of control. The contrast suited them well. Raidon is still water, a calm wind, and Kael is a raging tide, the storm that comes violently and takes away your peace, your home, and tilts your balance, upends your world.

He is Anarchy, after all. He’s war.

Using his forefinger, he parts the hair at the center. He’s about to start working on the next side—braid about five halfway and leave the rest free when her voice cuts through the moment.

“A-are you okay?”

Her voice is soft and hesitant. The uncertainty in it makes his pulse hum. He knew she was there the moment he took over, alright. Not reacting to her was part of the thrill.

Slowly, he turns, a grin curling slowly across his lips until it turns sharp, wicked…meant to be seen. And when she takes her first step backward, her eyes widening with the first flicker of fear, Kael feels something very close to delight—powerful, coursing through his veins like a shot of heroine.

“Well, hello there, ladybird.” As he takes another step after her, a flicker of recognition settles in his mind like a serpent coiling tight.

He knows her. No, not just the girl his brother has been keeping him locked away for.

No—he remembers her. The girl from the train station who kept blowing into her hideous green sweater. The same girl from the coffee shop—Fitz’s Lit and Brew—who came to ask if he found her book. She’s like a ghost from a past encounter, a memory unburied. Once upon a time, she had been his perfect prey. But the timing had been so fucking wrong and he had to let her go.

Oh, he had wanted to crush her under the weight of his fingers then make her crumble. Make her his.

What are the odds that the girl who unknowingly fell into the edge of his cruel fascination that day is the same one his brother has been desperately trying to smother his existence for?

Wait, what if she’s his after all? What if Raidon was just the tool the universe used to bring her to his doorstep?

Oh, this is perfect.

“Seriously, you’re kinda really scaring me right now.” Her voice shudders as she stumbles out of the bathroom. And he follows her, his steps slow, calculated, like a wolf savoring a hunt before he pounces.

“I have been dying to meet you, you know,” he murmurs. Just one more step and he will invade her little space. “I should have taken control faster if I knew you came all the way here just to see me.”

Her brows furrow. “W-what are you talking about?” she demands, but her voice betrays her. The fear is no longer a flicker. It settles in her wide green eyes, coiling in her throat.

Kael sighs, shaking his head as he leans against the doorframe of the bathroom, watching her. “You’ve been so mean to me, you know. Letting my brother lock me away for weeks like that.” He tuts, tilting his head as if visualizing the best gradient to break her from. “I’ve been tired, ladybird. I’m sure you know what it feels like to be caged. I have…” he leans off the door and takes another imposing step until he’s standing next to her.

He drags his gaze over her, slow, indulgent, heat curling in his voice. “I have been hungry.”

He watches with mild amusement as she stiffens the moment the realization clicks into place.

“I have been starved for so long, thanks to you,” he murmurs, power roaring in his blackened blood as the fear settles deep in her beady eyes. “The least you can do is…” he lowers his head, his lips just mere inches away from her lips. “Satisfy this hunger of mine, hmm?”

“S-stop,” she stutters and before he can blink, she turns around, ready to bolt. But she’s not fast enough. Because one step, and she’s caught—small, fragile, his to break.

“Come on now.” Kael’s head lowers, his face burying between the curve of her slender neck, inhaling her scent. Flowery. Just the way he remembers it.

“Don’t try to run away now.” His fingers lock around her throat, just a little squeeze, not a muscle used and she will fall limp in his arms, eyes rolled back in, lungs empty of air.

“Let go.” She forces out, writhing helplessly in his arms.

“Not tonight, ladybird.” His free hand trails down her exposed arm, and she shivers. She screams no, but her body gravitates toward his electric touch, nonetheless.

Her face darkens, tinged with purple as she thrashes against his grip, the artery in her neck pounding beneath the press of his thumb. He can feel the frantic rhythm, the desperate fight for oxygen. But he won’t let her die. Not yet.

“Please,” she whimpers, a sound caught between a plea for mercy and a desperate cry for more.

He knows her type quite too well. She acts like a fragile little thing, but she doesn’t want soft touches and careful restraint. He bet in the solitude of her darkest thoughts, she craves this—the danger, the forceful taking, the weight of command pressing her down.

She wants to be helpless beneath him, to have no choice as he uses her body the way he pleases. And instead of running, resisting, she will keep coming back. Again and again. Because she can’t get enough of this darkness.

“Tonight.” His voice is a low whisper, a promise laced with something dark. His hands roam freely, unbothered by her half-heartedly attempts to stop him. The resistance she offers is weak, as if deep down, she knows it won’t change a thing.

His fingers, firm and knowing, map out the curve of her body, slipping over silk and skin with a confidence that makes her breath hitch.

She gasps when his large palm squeezes her ass cheek through the silk material of her skirt. But her gasps and whimpers are like fuel to him. They could be protests of fear for her, but in his mind, they’re an invitation, a plea for more.

She wants it. Forget the tear brimming in her eyes. Deep down, she wants to be unraveled by his hands.

She’s so easy and Raidon is so pathetically blind. He sees her as something delicate, untouchable—a saint in a world of sinners. But Kael knows better. Girls like her are usually the darkest.

“What’s wrong with you?” she chokes out, her body shuddering in his hold, pulse erratic beneath his fingers.

He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to. Instead, he bends in close, the heat of his breath caressing her skin before his teeth sink into the tender curve of her neck. Hard. Sharp. A vicious claiming bite that has her crying out, her body jerking against his.

“Tonight,” he murmurs, his lips grazing against the bloodied indent he has made. “It’s just gonna be you and me.”

“Please—” Her plea is cut shut when he flips her, her world titling as she crashes onto the bed. The impact has her bouncing once, twice, her lilac skirt riding up, a careless thing bunched around her waist. A scrap of lace is what remained between her and him, black and soaked through, betraying the heat pooling between her thighs.

He inhales deeply, as a slow predatory grin curls at his lips.

“You’re so wet, ladybird.”

His words slither into her ears, thick with satisfaction, with hunger. Because whether she wants to admit it or not, her body already has.

He climbs onto the bed after her, and she instinctively scrambles backward, retreating inch by inch as if there’s anywhere in this house she can run to.

A slow, devious smile stretches across his lips as he reaches for her. One sharp tug, and she’s yanked forward, dragged beneath him with a startled gasp. His weight presses her into the mattress, his presence swallowing the space between them, until all she can see and feel is him.

“Running?” he murmurs, brushing a finger down the side of her face with a deceptive softness. “Cute. But I’m afraid there will be no running tonight, ladybird.”

A gasp breaks out of her lips when his free hand pushes her thighs apart, his hand wandering deeper until it’s hovering just over her throbbing pussy.

“Don’t touch me.” She is panting, her chest heaving.

“But you’re soaking wet.” His voice is low, taunting, curling around her like smoke. Two fingers slip between her thighs, sliding over the slick evidence of her betrayal, and a sharp breath shudders from her lips. She doesn’t want this.

But truly, she does.

A whimper escapes as he pushes in, fingers curling, dragging a moan from her throat that she fights but fails to bite back.

“For someone so scared, so desperate to run,” he murmurs, watching her face twist in defiance. “You’re making a mess all over my finger, ladybird.”

A hand flies to catch his wrist, to stop him, a futile attempt to regain a sliver of control. But her resistance sparks something sharp in his chest. He is in control. She doesn’t get to stop him.

With one swift movement, he wrenches both her delicate wrists above her head, pinning them hard against the mattress. She gasps, chest heaving, pupils blown wide.

“I could tie you up, you know,” he muses, his fingers pausing inside her. “Chain your ankles and wrists to the bed, keep you exactly where I want you. But I was hoping we could start off on a mutual ground.”

He pulls his fingers out and begins to stroke her heat—teasing, relentless. Her back arches, lips trembling in a wordless plea, but she catches the flicker of resistance in her eyes, the way she still thinks she can fight him. Then his grip tightens around her wrists.

“However,” he breathes, voice thick with warning. “I can just easily change my mind.”

A strangled whisper breaks from her lips as he presses deeper, his fingers plunging into her tight, desperate cunt. Her thighs quiver, muscles tensing, betraying the pleasure winding through her body despite the way waging in her mind.

“I need you to know that you can’t pretend with me.” His voice is steel, his pace unrelenting as he watches her body surrender, helpless against his touch. “Fear turns you on, doesn’t it?” A dark chuckle rumbles in his chest as she shudders, her nails digging into her palm, struggling against the pleasure clawing up her spine. “Yeah, you’re a fucking psycho, ladybird. But that’s okay, I’m a fucking psycho too.”

“Oh god, yes, yes—” Her voice is breathless, ruined, her body arching helplessly into his touch. He watches, enthralled by the way she’s taking his fingers. And he pumps harder inside her, almost feeling the tension coiling tighter inside her chest, hearing her pretty little moans dissolve into desperate cries for more.

His fingers curl against her perfect spot inside her, and she breaks with a sharp cry, her entire body shuddering, thighs trembling as she drenches his fingers.

His grin mirrors pure sin as he slowly pulls out his fingers, raising it to her lips, smearing the evidence across her mouth.

“I wonder if Raidon knows what we’re up to right now,” he whispers, his voice slow and lethal. “That his fragile little fairy is a desperate, needy slut.”

A gasp catches in her throat, her lashes wet with unshed tears, shame, pleasure, confusion—all warring in her eyes.

“Do you think he’ll be angry?” He strokes her bottom lip with his slick fingers, then presses them between her parted lips. She doesn’t resist, doesn’t even hesitate, as her tongue flicks out, tastes herself, her seductive eyes glazing over as she sucks them deeper into her mouth.

“Tell me,” he murmurs pulling his finger out and trailing them along the curve of her breast, “Can you imagine how furious and betrayed he would feel when he realized I fucked this pussy all night long when he has never even had the privilege of laying next to you?”

She doesn’t answer. Because she doesn’t have anything to say. She just watches through lidded eyes, mascara streaking down her cheeks like some haunted, ruined doll, while her chest rises and falls with the remnant of her release.

His hand hovers over the neckline of her top, his fingers hooking around the first button. And with a commanding and unyielding tone, he says, “Take it off.”

He lifts his weight off her, stepping off the bed.

Though hesitant, she sits up and slowly drags the top over her head, her silky breast bouncing free, nipples hard and erect, begging to be toyed with, desperate to be sucked as he fucks her raw and hard.

“Come closer,” he commands, beckoning her to the edge of the bed.

She crawls until her knees are resting just inches away from the edge. Her curious eyes follow the movement of his hands as they travel to his chest, working on his buttons.

“Take off my belt.”

His voice is a dark thread wrapping around her, pulling tight. She shudders, her breath catching in her throat as her gaze flickers to the gleaming buckle at his waist.

Her fingers twitch at her sides, hesitating, uncertainty warring with something deeper—something dangerous and consuming.

“Now.”

The word lashes across her skin like a strike of thunder, and she moves without thinking, her hands lifting, hovering. Her fingertips brush the cool metal of the buckle, but she fumbles, her touch unsteady, slipping once—twice—before she manages to hook it properly. The faint clink of metal fills the charged silence, each sound amplified by the erratic beat of her heart.

Kael watches her struggle, his amusement sharp and heavy, like a predator watching its prey inch closer to the trap. His hands remain at his sides, unmoving, as if testing her resolve. The heat of his body radiates against her face, the scent of his skin—smoke, leather, and something unmistakably male—invading her senses, making her head light.

The belt finally slides free, the leather whispering against the fabric as it drops, leaving his slacks hanging loose around his hips. A single breathless second passes before she withdraws her hands, tucking them against her thighs as if she’s unsure what she’s just unleashed.

“You’re not finished yet.”

Her eyes flick up to his, wide, questioning.

“Take out my cock, ladybird.”

A sharp inhale. Her lips part, trembling as her pupils dilate, shock and hunger tangled in their depths. He sees it, the flicker of something untamed, something she might not even recognize within herself.

She swallows hard, her hands lifting again, this time with a raw, trembling obedience.

A powerful jolt zaps through his veins the very moment her warm hand brushes against his pulsating cock. His eyes squeeze shut, chest tightening, and the muscles in his tapered jaw tic.

“Do you know what you are going to do?” he asks, his voice raspy and strained, as she pulls out his cock, now clearly as hard as a rock, pulsing with veins, dripping with pre-cum.

She stares with a gaping mouth at his size, and a cocktail of emotions leap into her bright eyes. There’s shock, disbelief, uncertainty…and lust.

Her eyes flicker to him. And she can almost see the words sitting on her tongue. But she just stares, waiting for his command.

“I want you to know that tonight is all about you.” He strokes her quivering chin, while his free hand lazily strokes his cock.

She gulps, her eyes flickering to his hand that’s fisted around his length when he teases her lips with the tip.

Her mouth parts, but he pulls away. “No, not that.”

He proceeds to climb onto the bed, a creak of solid wood piercing through the room.

He hovers over her and she pushes her legs from under her knees, lowering on her back.

“Do you know what’s about to happen?” He places a finger on her knee, and with little to no effort, pushes the knees apart from the other.

“Ever since I caught a whiff of you, ever since I realized the only reason I have been trapped lately is you, my sole purpose was to haunt you down, find you, and ruin you.” His voice is a slow drag of heat against her skin, dark and possessive, his words curling around her like a chain. “And somehow, you brought yours to my doorstep. And the journey towards your destruction came too quickly. You know why?” He raises a brow, the pad of his finger brushing over her left nipple. “It starts tonight.”

A whimper escapes her parted lips, her brows pinch together as she fights a moan when drags the tip of his cock along her slick fold, teasing, tormenting as the length pulses in his palm. “I’m gonna fuck this pussy so hard, ladybird. I’m gonna ruin it for any other man.”

He pushes just half an inch inside her desperate cunt, and the sensation—hot and unyielding—rips a loud gasp from her throat, her body arching involuntarily as a shudder racks through her.

His lips ghost over her ear, his breath molten. “You’re going to take my cock like the good girl you’re meant to be.”

“I—I can’t,” she stammers, her voice a breathless tremor, her hands fisting the sheets beneath her as he pushes deeper into her tight pussy.

Her thighs quiver, instinct warring with inevitability. She’s stretched too tight, overwhelmed by the sheer size of him pressing at her entrance.

Kael hums, amused. “You can. And if you can’t, you’re gonna have to learn, until you can adjust to me, until you can take all of me.”

He grips her wrists, pinning them above her head. And then, slowly, deliberately, he pushes inside, inch by inch, forcing her body to yield, to mold around him, to accept him. To become one with him.

Her breath hitches, her lips parting in a silent cry as he stretches her impossibly wide, an intrusion that is both unbearable and intoxicating.

“Oh, god, fuck, you’re so—” Her head tips back, her eyes squeezing shut, overwhelmed by the burning pleasure tearing through her.

“No one else will ever touch you like this.” His teeth graze her jaw, his tongue flicking over the pulse hammering beneath her skin. “No one else will ever make you feel this way. Not even my brother.”

A thunderous moan tears through her opened mouth as her eyes roll back in, her hips thrusting forward as his pace quickens.

“Please, please, please.”

The words tumble from her lips, breathless, desperate—a broken prayer to a god she no longer worships.

Kael doesn’t slow. He doesn’t soothe. He fucks her like he owns her, like he’s claiming every inch of her trembling body with each brutal thrust. His grip is punishing, fingers digging deep into her flesh, branding her with the promise that she will never belong to anyone else but him.

“Oh god, yes, yes yes!”

She’s unraveling beneath him, her body bending to his will, her pleasure laced with something darker, something dangerous. He watches her come undone, watches as her mind fights the inevitable—fights the pull into his world, his filth, his madness. But she will lose.

“You think you can keep yourself from this?” His voice is a low growl, his lips ghosting against her cheek as his teeth graze the delicate skin beneath her eye. “You think you’re untouched by the darkness?”

He drives into her harder, forcing her to feel him, to let him drag her into his abyss.

“No, ladybird. You’re in my darkness now.”

He will break her. He will shatter every last piece of innocence she thinks she has. And when he puts her back together, she won’t be the same. She will be corrupted, tainted, ruined .

“Oh my god. Please, don’t stop,” she gasps, her back arching, her heels pinned harder against his hip, as her nails rake down his spine, pleasure crashing over her.

And the harder he thrusts, watching her unravel beneath him, watching her cry and beg for more of this madness, the more the need to possess and claim overwhelms him.

She belongs to his brother. It is just in his nature to take what belongs to his brother. To ruin, to taint, to break. He just wanted to destroy his delicate fairy and watch her wither.

But now, as she stares into his dark with that list filled eyes, as if he thrusts are everything she craves, as if his madness is everything she needs, he suddenly wants to have her.

He should have her. After all, he was the one that met her first. It was his fire she felt first, his abyss she tasted first. Why can’t he have her instead of Raidon?

“Good girl,” he murmurs against her trembling lips, drinking in the wreckage he’s created. “Now, let’s see how much deeper I can take you, my tattered, broken doll.”

His thrusts grow impossibly deeper, reaching a part she isn’t even aware of within her. He thrusts hard and madly, possessively, dangerously, as if he’s making a promise, staking a claim, trying to carve himself into something eternal.

“I think you were truly made for me, ladybird.” His lips press to her jaw, deceptively gentle, before he drags his teeth down the column of her throat. He bites her skin again—sharp, punishing—until she gasps, her body tensing beneath him. The sting blooms into something hotter, something she should resist but doesn’t. The metallic tang of her blood smears across his lips, and a dark growl vibrates from his chest, reverberating through her.

She’s drowning in him, in the weight of his body, the punishing thrust of his cock, with a hand around her throat, owning her every breath. And when he pulls back just enough to meet her gaze, his eyes burn like fire in the dark.

“Please, don’t stop.” Her voice is wrecked, a breathless plea that only feeds the fire in his veins. She’s clenching around him, her body desperate, greedy, needy, and fuck, it’s perfect.

Kael chuckles darkly, the sound curling around her like a vice. “Not a chance, darling. I am far too gone to stop now.”

His hand moves from her neck to grip her thigh, fingers pressing bruises into her skin as he pulls out agonizingly slow just to hear her whimper, just to see the frustration flicker in her glazed eyes. And then, with a sharp thrust, he’s buried inside her again, forcing a shuddering moan from her swollen lips.

“Fuck, look at you.” His voice is thick with hunger, his pace relentless, punishing. “So tight, clenching around my cock, like that. Oh, God, you’re so fucking perfect for me, ladybird. I will kill anyone that thinks you and I aren’t a perfect match.”

Her moans dissolve into cries, her fingers fisting the sheets, her body writhing beneath him as he fucks her raw. The wet slap of skin, the obscene sound of her drenched pussy taking every inch of him... it’s pure fucking bliss.

“You feel that, ladybird?” He thrusts deeper, rougher, meaner, savoring the way her breath stutters. “Even your body knows. It knows who owns it now.”

And she does. He can feel it in the way she grips him, in the way she chases his pleasure with her own. She was made for him, sculpted to take his madness, to drown in his depravity.

“I have tasted you, ladybird,” he rasps, his fingers sinking into her flesh as he pauses inside her, his cock throbbing against her wall. “I’m afraid I have taken a liking to the sound you make for me, the hunger and madness in your eyes when I’m buried deep inside you, the feeling of you around me. And that’s the fucking problem. Because when I like something, I tend to keep returning for more, and the more I take, the more I possess…” His head lowers between her neck, whispering into her searing skin. “Ladybird, I’m afraid you’re mine now.”