RAIDEN ||
There were times when I welcomed my night terrors because they helped make the pain real. They helped to calm me in a sense to know that I wasn't going crazy, that I wasn't hearing his voice, that I wasn't seeing his face for nothing.
Then there were times when they absolutely terrified me. When I felt trapped within my own mind, like I couldn't escape no matter what I did, no matter how I begged or pleaded or cried.
No one could hear me, no one could save me and everything could hurt me. . . Just like it did for those four years of imprisonment.
Dax's favorite. . . Dax's whore. . . Dax's new little toy. . . Dax's black Leopard. . . The one who could endure it all. . . The one who could scream but fight back. . . The one who could take the pain, the whips, the shocks, the experiments, the torture, the drainage, the cells, the tears, the blood. . . The one who never gave up. . . The one who never begged for death.
The one who because of what I thought was my greatest strength pushed me to become the peak of his interest. . . The peak of Dax's interest.
Groaning from the pounding pressure in my head, I sit up and slowly take in my surroundings. Lip trembling as I swallow nervously because I knew exactly what this place was.
The section of forest, the very place that I was captured by Dax Kyles six years ago. I can see the Silver river from where I sit, the shimmering of the moon light illuminating the stream. The density of the forest in this area covered in the fog of the cold night, my body shivering as the chilled breeze brushes across my flesh.
Looking down, I see that I'm shirtless, my spiral markings that laid across my chest and wrapped around my shoulders illuminating a deepened green hue which could only signal one thing.
I was in a night terror and Dax was here.
Somewhere lurking in the shadows, covered by the heavy fog and the darkened atmosphere. He was here and so was I. . . which made this one of my worst night terrors to date.
I could handle hearing his voice when I was conscious because I could shake him away. I could handle seeing his face whenever I closed my eyes because I could open them again and force myself not to sleep.
But here, in my head. . . in a deep slumber that I could never pull myself out of, I never welcomed it.
Never.
"I'm so glad to see that you're finally awake," Dax's voice startles me despite the fact that I knew he was here. "Well not exactly awake but you're here and your eyes are open, so that's good enough for me."
Whipping my head in all directions, I slowly pull myself up to my feet and back up against the nearest tree, heart hammering in my chest as I try so desperately to find the son of a bitch. To brace myself for what was to come from the sick fuck.
"My love," Dax coos. "Is that anyway to speak of me? Of our connection? Your words wound me."
"Fuck you," I spit, eyes still darting around the surrounding fog.
The smell of burnt toast fills my senses as I scrunch my nose up in disgust, Dax's dark magic filling the air as he draws closer.
"You know, Raiden," His voice comes again, a hush of wind to my right pulls my attention, but when I see nothing, no one, I growl, backing myself up even further into the tree behind me. "I saw you at that restaurant, with. . . him, the way you held him, watched him, touched him, the way you almost kissed him."
I frown, taken aback by that. How the hell did Dax know about my date with Dylan?
"How did you-"
"Come now," Dax tsks. "I know your every move, my love and it pains me to know that you've stopped so low to accept a wolf as your mate, especially one as sloppy as that one."
That pissed me off. . . To hear him speak of my blessing so carelessly, he had the utmost audacity to do so.
Pushing off the tree that I'd plastered myself to, I stalk forward through the fog, ducking and weaving around fallen logs, low hanging branches and the many, many tall trees that lined this portion of the forest until I stop at the edge of this branch of stream from the mighty Silver River.
The fog was less dense here as I narrow my eyes at a shadowy figure across the stream, amongst the trees, green eyes glowing back at me through the thickened fog.
I turn my lip up, fists clenching at my sides at what I knew to be him. "Fuck you, Dax, don't you speak ill of my blessing. I do not belong to you and I am not your property."
"I do own you, Raiden," Dax whispers through the brushing wind. "My brandings say so," That's when I watch as he finally emerges from the fog, his very being standing just a stream away.
His brandings?
My eyes travel down to the markings on my chest and shoulders. . . The ones that glowed the same green hue that his eyes had, the same green hue that his dark magic had.
"Do you remember the night that I gave my brandings to you?" Dax questions, his voice causing the urge to breakdown right here at his feet.
I remember everything. . . everything that this man had inflicted upon me, especially that night that he'd forced these brandings on me.
And as if he sensed my hesitation, Dax whistles. The sound forcing me to stumble back from such a gut crippling panic. . . the sound that I've heard for four years of my life that meant eyes on him or punishment would follow.
And my body betrays me, it obeys him in an instant, my eyes locking back onto his and when they do, he sighs happily.
"My brandings that lay across your skin Raiden, don't just lay atop your flesh," Dax explains, his head tilting to the side as he studies me. "They are soul deep, the same dark magic that flows through my veins, flows through yours. We are connected for eternity, our souls permanently tied."
I blink, hating that I had cut that Warlock Maxx off when he was so interested in my brandings. Now his interest in them made much more sense.
"I do own you, pretty kitten," Dax smiles softly and I scoff at the name that he'd so easily uttered. "I own your mind, your soul, your body,"
I flinch when he says that, the many years of our time flashing before my eyes, forces a growl out of me. One so deep rooted, so strong, so powerful that it scares even me. . . I was a fucking cub. . . a cub just coming into his maturity, into his solitude, into his own only for it all to be taken from me in this very section of the forest.
Dax took everything from me. . .
My life. . . My innocence
The first four years of my solitude, my heart, my mind, my urge to fight, my soul, my confidence, my faith and my hope in people to do the right thing.
Dax took it all. . . and he never showed even an ounce of regret for it. All he'd shown was that damned smile, the same way that he wore so effortlessly right now.
"Why are you so obsessed with me?" I ask, eyes never tearing from his. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"
Dax takes a step forward, I take one back. "You were so different, kitten. No matter what I did to you, no matter how many tests we ran, how many times we drained your essence, the pain we inflicted, the suffering, the loss. . . you never stopped fighting me, you never gave up, you never begged for death like the others,"
He takes another step forward while I mirror my last step back. "You peeked my interest, your strength, your determination, everything that you are peeked my interest like no other had done before. You were so different, so beautifully scarred, so beautifully marked by my torment and despite your fear of me, you never stopped fighting me."
Tears brim my eyes but I don't let them fall.
I couldn't let them fall, I wouldn't allow this man another ounce of my pain, another ounce of my anger, another ounce of my brokenly rooted hatred for my past. . . my past because of this man.
"I love you, kitten," Dax smiles softly, calmly gesturing for me to cross the stream and come over to you. "And I miss you, come home with me."
Home.
I knew what he meant, where he meant and that Lab, those tables, those chains, those cages. . . his bed was not my home.
Taking another step back, I scowl. "No and I don't love you, I never did and I'll find a way to escape you just like I did two years ago."
Green eyes glow brighter as I feel his magic flare. My markings burning with his rage. I rub frantically at the skin of my chest before lighting strikes the sky above us, hitting one of the nearby trees, causing me to stumble sideways as I cover my head to avoid the damage it was sure to cause.
"You're lying!" I hear Dax roar from across the stream. "Take it back!"
The crackling of a fire starting from the tip top of the tree that the first strike hit before half of the structure comes crashing down to the ground. I jump out of the way, scrambling for safety as another lighting bolt rips across the sky.
"How could you say that?!" Dax screams, a flash of green energy soaring through the air, hitting the tree right in front of me.
I stumble backwards to avoid his magic as it rips right past my face, crashing into another tree. Another soars through the air, hitting the ground beneath my feet, the earth cracking below from the sheer strength of it.
"You are mine!" Thunder sounds above, another striking force hitting the surrounding trees.
The trees catching fire quickly, the wind caused by Dax carrying the flames as fast as it could spread the damage faster than I could comprehend.
"Raiden!"
Jumping over fallen logs, scrambling out of the way as trees come crashing down to the ground, the sounds of Dax's roars, the thunder above and the lighting striking the surrounding landscape fills the air.
Jumping over another fallen log, I grab hold of a large boulder and hide behind it. The flames of the fast approaching wildfire threatens to take my life as I choke on the fumes. The embers and the sheer power of the flames burn my skin, deeper and harsher the closer they get.
The ground quaking beneath me brings my attention to what lay there and when I look up, my eyes widen as I watch a tsunami crash through the forest.
Scrambling to my feet, I run as fast as I can, desperately trying to avoid being sucked under the pressure of the disaster that could just as easily take my life.
Forcing my legs to move as fast as I could, I cry out for Onyx but he doesn't respond, his tether nowhere to be found brings a new form of panic to my rapidly beating heart.
The sounds of the water quickly approaching behind me forced me to scream, to beg Dax to stop what he was doing. I didn't want to go out like this, to have my heart stop in a night terror without being able to see my Dylan before I go.
"Dax!" I scream, pushing myself to move, just to keep going and not stop.
"Take it back!" Dax screams in response. "Take it back, Raiden! Say that you take it back!"
I don't get the chance to respond as I feel the water hit my back with the force of three freight trains, my body being thrown forward as it swallows me whole. Holding my breath, I fight against the force of it, my body tumbling through the waves, hitting any and everything that the pressure sucks me around.
Desperately moving my arms and legs, trying my hardest to get my body under control, the many obstacles stopping me and I close my eyes and scream beneath the water. . .
I pray to the Gods and Goddesses to just end it all, to stop this, to wake me up from this torture. To have mercy on me, to keep me alive, awake, to give me the breathe that I needed, to give me the strength that I needed to fight this just as they had given me the strength in the past to fight this man's power.
And then it all stops.
Everything just stops.
My body goes tumbling across the forest floor, rolling and bumping into every log, rock and stone that lay in my path as my back crashes into a thicker tree, one untouched by Dax's reign.
I cry out from the impact, my body laying face down on the dampened forest floor. Eyes closed, ears twitching, I hear the leaves crunching beneath the weight of the only other being here.
Then I feel my body hauled up from the ground and set up against the same tree that I'd crashed into. Cracking my eyes open, I give a pathetic attempt at a hiss when I come face to face with the one man that I'd rather die before seeing again.
But here he was. . . right in front of me, face mere inches from mine with that same smile plastered onto his face as his eyes roam across my features, taking me in as he did everytime after inflicting his damage.
Cupping my face as my head falls, I try to push his hands away but they were quickly pulled back down. My eyes following the action to see the roots of the tree that I'd been propped against keeping me quite literally tied to the forest floor.
"Kitten," Dax whispers, my face twists in pain as my eyes betray me once again and lock onto his. "You may be lost right now, you may have gotten away from me once but it won't happen a second time. When I find you, I will bring you home with me where you belong and I will break both of your legs before I allow you to escape me again."
With that, he parts me with a gentle kiss to the forehead as he slowly gets to his feet and begins to walk away. . . Leaving me here tied to the forest floor, back up against a tree and despair deep within my throat as I scream.
I scream because no matter how much time had passed, this man would always plague my life and no matter how strong I thought I'd become, Dax Kyles would always be the one to break me down in a matter of seconds, with a matter of simple actions.
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This one got me! It got me damn it, it got me good! 😭😭😭
Raiden's trauma is something else. Dylan had a hard time too but nothing was ever like it was for Raiden and I'm so glad that I decided to rewrite this story because in the first version, we didn't get enough understanding into Raiden's past and now. . . 😭😭😭😭👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾
Thoughts on this one??
Predictions? Fears? Emotions?
Share them all and don't forget to comment if your felt the urge and vote if you wanted to punch something during this one!
Thanks so much for reading,
Until next chapter,
Byeeeeeeee Bestiessssssssss!!
💋 LYNEA