"Get away from me, you beast!" I screamed, my eyes shooting open with a jolt. Dawn's pale light barely pierced the darkness of my cramped room, but it was enough to show me the utter desolation of my surroundings.
Rats scurried across the floor, their beady eyes reflecting my terror. A shiver ran down my spine, but it wasn't from the cold, nor the fear of the creatures sharing my hovel. It was from the lingering memory of the nightmare that had plagued me for four years.
It was all still a toss-up. I didn't have the luxury of dwelling on momentary discomfort, not with a whole buffet of more pressing issues waiting for my attention. But seriously, I could do without feeling like I'd lost control over my own body.
It's like déjà vu all over again—always the same. That Alpha, that insufferable, arrogant Alpha, looming over me like he owned the world. Like he owned me. His smug face, his overpowering presence, it was all too much. And then there were those relentless, piercing eyes, filled with a kind of hunger that made my skin crawl.
"You remember the deal, if I catch you, you'll carry my pups till you can't even waddle anymore." His words are so annoyingly infuriating even in my head. "You don't have to worry about anyone hurting you, My tiny demoness! It'll only ever be I, who'll hurt and I will do that slowly!"
A few droplets of water slid down my face, reminding me of the sticky sweat coating my body. With a sharp whimper, I scanned the dimly lit room, my heart still pounding from the nightmare's grip—it blew my gut when I realized I didn't remember an inch of the room I was in.
"Not again!" I groaned.
Four years since the Alpha, Wei Zhang, ripped everything I ever loved from me. Four years since my husband, Emperor Agustus, abandoned me to this fate. Four years of dreaming of the day I would have my revenge.
But what do I end up doing?
"Did I seriously end up in your bed again?" I practically growled, feeling like a she-wolf. It's become a weirdly regular occurrence since I set foot in Xi City.
I can't help but wonder if there's something in the water or maybe the air here that's causing this.
"What can I say?" Vik chuckled in my ear hoarsely. "You are like obsessed with my cock so much!"
"Get away! You must have seduced me like you've been doing all this time!" I pushed at his naked chest and rolled over.
That's when I noticed it.
Again?? I blinked supporting my weight on my elbow. In my hand, I held the fourteen-hundredth white tulip, a silent gift left each morning for the past four years. Numerous traps lay in wait, but the admirer remained a mystery, the flower their only message. No note, no confession, just a single bloom, a testament to their unwavering devotion or could it be a storm approaching me?
I closed my eyes and I couldn't help but wonder.
"Who sent these flowers? And what secrets did they hold?" Vik asked. His voice was still raspy while the mystery added a thrilling tension to the quiet mornings, a constant reminder that even in exile, I was not forgotten.
"Could it be Alpha Wei Zhang? Naah! If he'd found you he would have made you live through your nightmares."
"I think I told you to get away?"
I swear, I don't think I've even slept with my own mate, the emperor, this much! Four years had come and gone, but healing felt about as likely as finding a unicorn in the backyard. I mean, these scars on my soul might as well be tattooed on in neon ink but the way I have been behaving recently, especially after Alpha Wei Zhang caught me and gave me another chance to go back and kill him...God, my goody-goody serpent mom would have had a heart attack!
In the grand scheme of bitter reminiscing, I haven't only welcomed any form of distraction, I've practically begged for it. And if that distraction promises even a hint of pleasure? Well, sign me up!
In the stillness, memories swirled like a tempest, demanding recognition, refusing to stay in the past.
The wolf, now a rather bedraggled figure, grumbled in his exhaustion, propping himself on his stomach. Our night of passion had been nothing short of primal, leaving us both spent and breathless.
"Come on, seriously? Can you just tone it down a notch? Why're you always too loud, hotty?" Vik rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed.
I couldn't help but chuckle, the absurdity of the moment punctuating the lingering intensity. "Well, forgive me for not planning my nightmares around your beauty sleep," I retorted, a playful glint in my eye. "Now get up! I have to be at work before nine."
He shot me an amused look, the tension of the night's events giving way to a shared moment of levity. "Fair enough! BTW where do you work at nowadays?" he conceded, a wry grin dancing on his lips.
As we lay there, wrapped up in sheets and fits of giggles, a peculiar shift in the atmosphere caught my attention. Maybe, just maybe, our connection was more than a random collision of worlds. It seemed like the prelude to a story, one sewn together by scars and murmured promises of redemption.
"Umm…What's the last you remember?" I admitted, my fingers tracing aimless patterns along his abdomen as I tried to retrieve the elusive memory.
"Four months back, at Tiffany's?" A sly grin played on his lips.
"You keep a tab of our hook ups?" I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yeah! You're my favorite out there! I am having what even the Alpha of my region couldn't have."
"You are one of his warriors. Aren't you scared that he'll destroy you someday? Talking about it…you never told me your rank, Vik."
"Rank?" His handsome face quirked an eyebrow, sending my heartbeat into overdrive. I mentally chided myself.
"What if I am the Alpha?" He winked, making my palm halt and hover just above his heart. The mere mention of the monster is enough to snap the bitter memories back. I wanted to rip his heart out and squeeze life out of him.
"You aren't! You can't be!" I hissed through clenched teeth.
'No! I can't be this lucky to get my hands on you so easily! You can be anything but that evil incarnation of that devil. I will kill with my bare plan.' I can never forget his face.
A chuckle escaped my last night's dinner, laced with a hint of amusement, "Not a fan of the great wolf, are we?"
The words hung heavy in the air, igniting a spark of defiance within me. How could I be?
But then I remembered Vik, the omega warrior, was the reason I still breathed.
Four years ago when I was drowning in the river, chased by Alpha Wei Zhang's ruthless warriors, it was Vik who pulled me from the icy depths, offering refuge in his small home. He was an anomaly, an omega granted the mantle of a warrior in his father's stead.
Initially, our connection was a mere flicker, two souls sharing the warmth of a crackling fire. But as he confessed his unwavering belief in my cause, his gentle understanding thawing the frost around my heart, I found myself opening up, revealing the depths of my pain.
The first time we touched, under a sky ablaze with stars, remains a hazy memory, lost to the blur of emotions that night but it was a collision of gratitude, vulnerability, and a flicker of something more, something primal and irresistible.
Now, with Vik's fate hanging by a thread, my own heart felt like it was teetering on the edge of a precipice. The amusement in his voice, the very notion of anyone questioning my love for him, ignited a fire within me. I would move heaven and earth to save him, to prove to everyone, and myself, that our bond was unbreakable, forged in the fires of adversity and illuminated by the light of a thousand stars.
"Get a grip on yourself, Sera!" I scolded my racing thoughts, still navigating through the foggy remnants of the night before.
"Relax…I'm just still that ordinary warrior, Vik! Omegas don't get promotions that easily. Though if I do hand you people over—"
Vik winked.
My brow furrowed as I sifted through the cascading memories. "That's right," I snapped, "But won't they kill you for sheltering us first? Oh, no! What'd that monster for an Alpha do?" I feigned thinking. "Yeah! He'd chop your head off and hand it on display."
Vik's face fell.
"He ain't that ruthless you know." He retorted in whispers.
It wasn't only the hatred that seethed inside me, but also the absurdity with which my mate's betrayal had turned my life completely upside down. He was the reason behind my miseries and ruins. Who'd ever know better than me?
"You are lucky I like your dick so much," I breathed on his neck, watching him shiver. "I would have chopped your neck off if I didn't."
During the day I despised the wolves and the brutal reality they embodied in the strongest terms. But as soon as the sun set, another Seraphine emerged — lost in a world of chaos where boundaries blurred and passion raged in the steamy, hazy nights.
With a wry smile, I shrugged my shoulders and backed away.
"I think we should never meet again!" I gave him a tight smile. "You should leave now." I wasn't bitter. And if the mated wolf is warming beds of, let's say even the enemies, his mate has to suck for real!
Serpents 1
Wolves 0
Vik dressed and left at record speed, while I effortlessly wrapped myself in my work clothes that protected me from prying eyes and judgmental stares. I glided through the magnificent halls of the guesthouse, a place that was more of a gilded cage than a sanctuary. As I stepped into the twilight, I disappeared like a shadow, leaving the luxury behind for another night of secret temptations.
"Last night before I set up on vehemence again!" I sighed, making a thousand-and-one promise to myself.