Filed to story: My Kidnapper Is the Wolf King
We hurtle through darkness once more.
We land in a pile on the floor. Grass tickles my cheek. The scent of summer floods my nose-flowers, and woodlands, and baked earth. I clamber from beneath Blake and raise my head. I breathe in sharply.
About one hundred meters ahead, a woman sits in front of a vast, moonlit lake. She has long wavy hair, and wears a baggy cream dress. A small girl is curled against her side, and the woman strokes her head. The full moon and infinite stars are reflected in the surface of the water.
My heart swells, then tightens. My throat is thick. I don’t remember this exact moment, but I know my mother brought me here.
Turn around,
I will her.
Turn around.
She’s talking, but the words sound muffled. I push myself up and walk toward her. Blake strides past me. I grab his arm, and my fingers curl around his bicep. This isn’t his memory to intrude upon. I don’t want him here.
He shrugs me off and keeps walking. There’s something determined in his eyes. The voices get louder, but no less jumbled. I hurtle into his back, and this time, I take him to the ground with me. We hit the grass with a loud thud. My mother should be able to hear us. She doesn’t turn.
Turn around,
I will her.
Let me see your face.
Blake pushes himself to his knees, and I pull him down. I crawl over him to get to her before he does. This is important. The weight of this moment hangs in the air. Blake feels it too. He grabs my ankle and drags me across the earth.
Mother!
I have no voice. I elbow Blake in the side, and a soundless grunt escapes him.
Get off me!
What is she saying to you?
He looks like he’s shouting, but no words come out.
What did she say?
We’re so close now we should be able to hear her. I can smell the water. I can see the kinks in her red hair, and the threads in her cream dress. The ground starts to shake and a crack appears between us.
No!
I reach out, and my fingers almost touch her back.
She starts to turn.
The floor disintegrates, and Blake and I fall through it.
***
I’m too hot. Something hard and heavy pushes me down.
My eyes peel open. It takes a moment for my vision to adjust, for my mind to make sense of what is happening. Blake lies on top of me, and his arm is caught beneath my torso. His gentle breaths warm my ear.
We’re at the foot of his bed. The fire flickers in front of me. The pages Blake stole are nothing but ash. The warmth I felt when I saw my mother cools. There is nothing soft inside me anymore. I slam my elbow into Blake’s gut and he makes a low sound before rolling off me. I fall off the foot of the bed.
I land on the sheepskin rug “You snake! You treacherous snake!”
His legs hang off the end of the bed, and he plants his bare feet onto the floorboards. He stares up at the ceiling. His bare chest moves up and down deeply. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, but I feel a thread of his frustration wind around my own.
I stand up. I’m trembling. Shaking. There’s a tornado in my chest and I can’t contain it. I’m fed up of his games. I’m fed up of being used. I’m fed up of answers being concealed from me. He had no right.
“Break the bond,” I snarl.
He pushes himself upright. “No.”
“I will make you pay for this, Blake.” I step closer to him. “I will haunt you. Every waking moment, I will make you feel me. Every dream, I will be there. Every moment of joy that you manage to feel in your sad little life, I will turn it into darkness. Break this bond, Blake, or I swear to every goddess, I will consume you until there is nothing left of you. I will ruin you. I will coil myself so tightly around you that you will beg me to release you, and still then, I will not let you go.”
He rubs his face with both hands. “You already haunt me, Aurora.”
“Then let me go!”
“I cannot!”
“Why?”
He leans forward and he clasps his hands together between his thighs. “I suppose I should tell you the truth.”
Chapter Two
I
‘m racing down a dark endless prison corridor. I’m a crumbling statue, and vines of shadow coil around my arms and legs. Damp cells, metal scalpels, and hearts dripping black blood flash before my eyes.
I’m sprinting through a forest at night. My dress snags on branches, and thorns dig into the soles of my feet. I don’t know if I’m running toward something, or running away, but if I stop, I’ll die.
Callum’s blurry face appears before mine. “What’s wrong with her? Is it the bite?
“
“It’s her wolf.
“
Blake sounds like dark silk and it cools my burning bones. “Aurora, darling.
” A palm presses against my clammy forehead, and the beast that rages in my chest settles. “Look at me.
“
I peel open my eyelids and jerk back.
Blake’s pupils dilate until they are empty black holes, and his mouth curves into a cruel smile that is too big for his face. He laughs. Harsh and cold and endless.
I know what you are,
I scream inside my head.
What?
Monster.
The darkness takes me once more.
I’m trapped in a cold dark space, and there’s water as black as pitch up to my waist. A great beast carries a rabbit in his maw as he runs through a dilapidated chapel. A whip tears through my flesh as male laughter shatters my eardrums. A woman cries amid a snowstorm.
Feral amber eyes peer at me.