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10k words chapter! Comment like crazy or I'm not updating lol

Also if you're rereading don't comment spoilers

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"I feel underappreciated, Cyrus. You don't know how to treat a lady," I whined.

He arched his brow. "How should I treat you?"

"Like this." I fused my mouth to his, kissing him hard. He tangled a hand in my hair and tugged, reminding me who the more dominant was, and then he took over the kiss, urging me into him. His tongue plundered my mouth just as I wanted his cock to plunder my body, but for some reason, he was holding himself back. He was so tense it was like he was bracing himself for some kind of impact. Breaking the kiss, he buried his face in the crook of my neck and I took his scent deep inside him, let it flow over me, and centered myself on him.

"What?"

"Tell me the price, Wild one."

The movement at the corner of my eyes drew my eyes to the trespasser invading our privacy. Estella. It was Estella. She looked as lifeless as I last remembered. Shocked to the core, I watched the trail of black fluid running down her nostrils and from one corner of her mouth. Her eyes were pitch black with no iris. Her fingers were bony and her wrists slit open — dripping with blood. Black blood.

As a shiver of fear spread the length of my spine, I took a step back, shielding Cyrus from her.

She vanished into the thin air before her maniac laughter reverberated from behind. I had enough time to turn back to just look at her knife piercing into Cyrus's heart and not enough time to fight back the raw ugliness of her rage. Slipping into the dark throes of rage and hurt, I clutched her neck, determined to choke her. It was the feeling of fur under my palms that jolted me awake. Cold sweat trickled down my skin as I tried to break free of the horror and anchor myself in reality.

As tremors in my body spread apart and faded, I searched the black hole that was my memory. After Juniper left, I refused to eat or drink or even let them give me a saline, which exhausted me pretty quickly and I vaguely remember passing out and later my memory took a leave of absence.

Now, every muscle in my body ached, my head throbbed, and my skin felt as if it had been bathed in acid.

Seeing a man's silhouette at the doorstep of the balcony, I realized it was Cyrus and relief made me sag into the mattress. The bed lamp illuminated enough of the room that I could make out this was Cyrus' house. Not the apartment. This was the new house Cyrus and Tyrone brought together a few months back.

Footsteps approaching the bedroom door sent panic firing through my nerves. Cyrus ambled into the room, probably to turn on the lights.

"Don't turn on the lights," I whispered.

"I have only known people who are scared of darkness." The voice of a dazzling diamond and stubborn resistance rose goosebumps on my skin.

Cyrus Hudson was here. This was real. I was out of the prison. He had come in search of me.

"I'm repulsed by my own reflection," I said as I leaned back on the headrest of the bed, exhaling a heavy sigh. "And you should be too."

"Drag yourself out of the pity well, Wild one," Cyrus, ever the logical one, shook his head. "I have never been repulsed by you." After a short pause, scrutinizing me in the dim bed light, he enquired, "Who did that to you?"

"I did it." I jerked my chin.

The reprimand in his voice was unmistakable. "Why?"

Reprimand.

𝐅𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 [𝟏𝟖+]Where stories live. Discover now