Predator

Part Sixteen✔️

"What?" She almost groaned out and looked at him expectantly.

He remained silent, assessing her with those blazing eyes before he spun around and continued to walk. This action angered Grey.

"Tell me the truth." Her voice was calm but on the inside she was raging. He continued to ignore her and started to walk after him with slow steps. "Just tell me the truth, Alexei!"

Everything happened so fast it took Grey a moment to even register what had happened. Her feet were no longer touching the ground and she was shoved against a nearby wall with a hand around her throat, fiery eyes glaring up at her. Her body hung limply before her hands snapped up to claw at his hand that held her throats in a vice-like grip. Her short fingernails did nothing against his smooth skin.

"Where did you hear that name?" He spat, his voice so low it gave Grey the chills. With no answer from her, he repeated it again, this time louder and with a tighter grip on her neck.

She gasped out, trying to let oxygen bless her lungs but nothing came in and no breath came out. Grey was struggling underneath his grip, trying to kick him and claw him with any strength she possessed in this weak state. She was no match against a beast and they both knew this. When his hand loosened its grip just enough for her to breathe, he watched her with a glare as she regained her composure and her breath.

Grey then stared down at him with challenging eyes as she laughed a husky laugh so humorous it almost scared the beast. "Kill me. Do it, I dare you." He snarled at her. "Why don't you do it, Alexei?"

She used his name as a taunt, smirking down at him with such a darkness in her eyes, he froze. "Kill me, Alexei. I have nothing to go back to. I have nothing here. Just put me out of this endless torture. Be kind for once in your life and kill me." Her last words were emphasized by each syllable.

But there it was again, that crackling of electricity in their veins, on their skin and in the air. The bond hit Alexei at full force, almost knocking all the breath from his lungs. It overtook his senses and a moment of weakness struck him as he tried to make sense of what was happening to him. And all that beast inside him needed was a moment.

So as Grey closed her eyes after watching those eyes turn from blue to almost black, she prepared for the death she'd been so greedily awaiting. She craved the sweet release that death would bring, when she'd finally return home and see her mother again. She welcome death with open arms.

But death would never greet her - not yet at least - and as Grey breathed in what she thought was her final breath, it happened.

Her feet touched the ground and the hand that was once on her throat was now holding her waist in a impossibly tight grip while the other was placed on the back of her head. But the most shocking thing of all, the thing that made her eyes shoot open was the feeling of lips upon hers.

Her eyes were only open for just a split second before they were fluttering shut again as she got lost in the kiss. The feeling of the bond and him taking over her. Her hands moved on their own accord, snaking around his broad shoulders to rest one on his back and the other to get tangled in his hair. The kiss was needy, harboring something that could only be described as lust.

In the middle of it all, there was a salty taste that originated from Grey's tear ducts, rolling down her cheeks to where their lips were locked. He pushed against her lips, his body flush against hers, his tongue sliding along her own in every kiss.

A gasp left Grey's lips as he pulled away, looking at her with wide eyes that held something she'd never seen in them before, and quickly disappeared down the same stairs Maksim did what felt like ages ago. With a shaky breath, Grey brought her fingers to her swollen lips that still tingled and buzzed from that electricity between them.

What just happened? She wondered and wondered but nothing that made any sense came to the front of her mind and she was left clueless - and secretly a little turned on - to let her thoughts drive her insane.

With a shake of her head, she wiped away the tears on her cheeks. Hell she'd just received the best kiss of her life but she still cried. Maybe it was due to the fact that she liked it, she liked the way she felt when he touched her and she knew she shouldn't. She knew she should fear him, cower and try to run but it was what she felt deep down that kept her here - not the fear of the cursed forest or the cursed brothers - no, she was here for him, even if she didn't want to be. Fate had already decided it.

She was shaking as she left the hallway and traveled down the stairs and out the front door, grabbing a random coat hung by the door on the way. She was breathing heavily, struggling for air as she stopped outside and stared up at the afternoon sky for a second as if all the answers to her problems would be up in the clouds.

She then looked out at the trees in front of her and decided it best not to travel in there; she didn't want to return inside either so she ventured around the back of the castle. Slowly walking past the side that was ruined and crumbling to the ground, walking past bushes of thorny roses and more tall trees.

Around the back, not much was different aside from the giant, willow tree that leaned a little too far to it's right in front of the forest. A thin layer of frost covered the long tendrils, making them look like beads of crystals dangling from the tree's thick branches. Grey approached the tree with hesitation, her fingers gingerly touching the frozen leaves as if they might break under the slightest bit of pressure. They looked as if they would make music when clinked together by even the softest gust of wind. They looked like something out of a dream.

Moving under the tree, she leaned her back against the trunk and scooted down until the cold snow was against her bottom. She let her head fall back against the trunk, her eyes admiring the melting snowy wonderland, as her long legs stretched out in front of her and she wrapped the coat tighter around her, just now noticing the scent that lingered on it.

She knew it was his.

Alexei.

How the name flowed on her tongue made her shiver and how it seemed to fit him so well. The way he'd reacted when she spoke it, it was if she called him something horrible, but it was just his name. He was no longer the beast, no longer khishchnik to her. No, he was now Alexei, the predator. For no matter what she learned about him, he'd always look at her with those predatory eyes that she could never get out of her head. And now, not only did his eyes haunt her every thought, but his lips still lingered on hers, that tingle still buzzing in her veins. She had thought he hated her, he wanted her blood - he'd said so himself - yet she was still very much alive and breathing and he was over here kissing her. Kissing her and leaving her with feelings she shouldn't have, instead of killing her and burying her in the ground that matched the coldness of her body.

And that seemingly ever-present thought crossed her mind once again: what's happening to me?