CONTENT WARNING: Mature content ahead.
This chapter contains intense mating heat, sexual tension, blood, violence, and dangerous loss of control.
Read with discretion.
The feeling scared her because it did not feel like a normal thought.
It felt like claws inside her blood, dragging her toward a scent she had been ignoring since the moment she met him.
Now it was burning.
Odette stood on shaky legs.
Between her thighs she was soaked — hot, slick, and aching so badly it almost hurt to walk.
Every step sent another pulse of need through her core.
Her inner walls clenched around nothing, and a broken whimper slipped out before she could stop it.
She was dripping down her own thighs.
The feeling was humiliating.
It was agonizing.
She followed his scent deeper into the shelter like a moth to flame.
Rauvan was asleep.
Or close enough to sleep that he did not move when she entered the darker part of the shelter.
Rauvan lay on a thick hide near the inner stone wall, one arm bent behind his head, white hair spilling over his broad chest and shoulders.
His hide skirt had ridden low on his hips, exposing the deep cut of muscle that disappeared beneath the fabric.
One powerful thigh was exposed, thick and corded.
Even at rest, his body looked dangerous — all hard lines and coiled power.
His body looked even larger like this, not standing over anyone, not killing, not commanding, just lying there with all that muscle and power resting like a beast that only pretended to be asleep.
Odette stopped.
Her breath caught.
This was the male who crushed a baboon’s skull with one hand.
This was the male who silenced Vasha with one look.
This was the male who carried her out of Thorn Hollow like she weighed nothing.
This was a monster.
So why did he look like that?
Odette bit her lip.
Was she losing her mind?
Of course she had not noticed he was this good-looking before.
She had been half dead.
She had been covered in mud, blood, fear, and pain.
She had been trying not to die.
Now she noticed everything.
His throat.
His mouth.
His hands.
His thighs.
The heat inside her grew worse.
She took one step closer.
Then another.
The dark saber-tooth markings across his chest and stomach rose and fell with each slow breath.
He looked like sin given form.
Like something that could ruin her and she would thank him for it.
Odette’s mouth went dry.
She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as another cramp of need twisted low in her belly.
Her nipples were tight and sensitive against the torn fabric.
Something in her kept pulling her toward him, and every bit of sense in her head was being drowned by it.
She knew this was wrong.
She knew she should turn around, crawl back to the hide, bite her own hand if she had to.
But her body did not care.
Her body only knew that Rauvan’s scent made the burning a little less painful and a lot more dangerous.
Her clit throbbed with every heartbeat.
She needed him.
Needed his hands.
Needed his weight.
Needed him to fuck the fire out of her until she couldn’t think anymore.
She climbed over him before her mind could talk her out of it.
The moment her weight settled on top of him, Rauvan’s eyes snapped open.
For one suspended second, he didn’t move.
Odette didn’t give him time to think.
She crashed her mouth onto his, desperate and clumsy, kissing him like she was drowning and he was air.
Her hands pressed flat against his hard chest as she ground down against the thick length she could already feel beneath his hide skirt.
She was so wet that the fabric between them grew damp instantly.
A high, needy sound tore from her throat.
“Odette—” Rauvan’s voice was rough, almost broken.
She didn’t stop.
She couldn’t.
The heat was painful now — a deep, gnawing ache that made her want to cry.
She rolled her hips again, whimpering against his mouth when the friction dragged over her swollen clit.
“Please,” she gasped, pulling back just enough to speak.
Her eyes were glassy with need.
“It hurts— Rauvan, please— I need you.
It hurts so much.”
Her voice cracked on the last word.
Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes from the sheer intensity of it.
She was trembling on top of him, thighs shaking, slick dripping down onto his hide skirt.
She had never felt anything like this.
It was too much.
It was consuming her.
Rauvan’s hands flew to her waist, fingers digging in hard enough to leave bruises.
His cock was rock hard beneath her, thick and insistent against her soaked core.
A low, dangerous growl rumbled from deep in his chest as her scent flooded his senses — sweet, desperate, his.
The Direflow slammed against his ribs so violently he almost lost control right there.
His eyes darkened to near-black.
For one terrifying, exhilarating moment, he almost gave in.
He wanted to flip her onto her back, rip the remaining hide from her body, and bury himself inside her until she screamed his name.
He wanted to knot her.
He wanted to mark her throat with his teeth.
He wanted to fuck her until the only word she remembered was his.
But then she whispered it again, voice small and broken:
“I don’t know what’s happening to me… please make it stop.
It hurts.”
Those words cut through the haze like ice.
That was what saved them.
Those words.
I do not know what is happening.
Rauvan’s eyes sharpened through the heat.
She was awake, but not clear.
Her body had been pushed into something it did not understand.
Her scent was pulling him, yes, but her mind was still tangled in fear, fever, healing, and whatever Maeruth had given her.
If he touched her now, he would be no better than every male she already hated.
Rauvan’s jaw clenched so hard a muscle jumped.
His claws pricked her skin.
With visible, painful effort, he forced himself to pull back.
“Odette,” he rasped, voice wrecked.
“Look at me.”
She tried.
Her eyes were unfocused, pupils blown wide with lust and pain.
He moved fast, before she could kiss him again.
One precise strike to the side of her neck and she went limp in his arms.
Rauvan caught her against his chest, breathing hard.
Her scent was everywhere — thick with arousal and need.
His cock was still painfully hard, straining against his hide skirt.
He closed his eyes and pressed his face into her hair, inhaling deeply.
The Direflow purred in satisfaction at having her in his arms, even like this.
He hated how good it felt.
He hated how much he wanted to keep her there.
Rauvan stood with her in his arms and carried her back to the front of the shelter.
He laid her on the hide, covered her with another piece of fur, and stared at her for one long breath.
Then he turned and walked out.
Outside, the night was quiet.
Too quiet.
Rauvan shifted.
His human body tore into beast form in one smooth, terrifying movement.
White fur burst over muscle.
His spine lengthened.
His claws struck the ground.
His saber teeth curved down from his mouth, long and pale.
His beast form was not the size of an ordinary saber-tooth beastman.
It was massive.
Far larger than any normal beast male had the right to be.
The ground seemed smaller under him.
His shoulders nearly brushed the lower branches.
His pale blue eyes glowed in the dark, and when he exhaled, every nearby guard lowered their heads and backed away without being told.
Rauvan rarely shifted fully.
Now he sprinted into the forest.
The trees shook as he passed.
Vasha stood in the shadows, watching.
Her golden eyes narrowed into slits.
Look at him, she thought viciously.
Running off into the forest like a beast in rut because of that weak little bird.
The image of Rauvan carrying Odette burned behind her eyes.
She imagined wrapping her hands around Odette’s throat and squeezing until those amber eyes went dull.
The thought sent a dark thrill through her.
She won’t last.
I’ll make sure of it.
This was the first time she had ever seen Rauvan shift fully, and the sight was terrifying, but also beautiful.
He was extremely large in an unusual way.
She never thought she would get to see it, but now she had seen it for the first time.
And why?
All because of a rotten bird female.
She had not seen what happened inside, but she had felt the air shift.
Any strong beast could.
Something had moved through the resting ground like heat before a storm.
Then Rauvan had come out with that look on his face and changed into his full beast form.
Her nails dug into her palms.
It was because of Odette.
She knew it.
Jealousy clouded her mind so badly that for a moment, she forgot every warning her father had given her.
Rauvan was gone.
The shelter was quiet.
The hollow female was alone.
This was the perfect chance.
Vasha stepped toward the shelter.
One step.
Two.
Her claws were already out, gleaming in the low light.
She was picturing it — slipping inside while the hollow female was weak and alone, dragging her out into the trees, and making it look like she tried to run.
Maybe she’d cut her open.
Maybe she’d leave her body where Rauvan would find it.
Either way, the problem would be solved.
Then Karesh appeared in front of her.
He did not speak.
He only stood there, large and silent, blocking her path the same way he had blocked her before.
Vasha’s lips peeled back from her teeth.
“Move.”
Karesh looked at her.
“Move,” she growled again, lower this time.
“Or I will make you.”
Karesh sighed.
That made her even angrier.
He ran one hand through his dark hair and looked toward the forest where Rauvan had disappeared, then back at Vasha.
His face showed nothing, but his eyes looked tired in a way that made Vasha want to claw them out.
“No,” he said.
Her claws slid out.
Karesh did not move.
For a long moment, they stared at each other.
Then Vasha forced her claws back in, turned sharply, and walked away before her rage made her do something that would get her killed.
Karesh watched her leave.
Then he looked toward Rauvan’s shelter and let out another slow breath.
Ever since that hollow female entered the war-pride, everything had shifted.
And none of them knew yet whether she had come to save them or ruin them.