Chapter 172: Wet dreams
[ Autumn’s chamber - Skarthheim ]
Autumn paced.
The chamber was too quiet, the air felt too thick.
Moonlight spilled through the window, painting the floor in a ghostly hue as she dragged her fingers along the sill, her gaze locked onto the distant flicker of torches in the freaks’ camp.
That freak... he was out there...
She didn’t know why the thought unsettled her so deeply.
With a sigh, she pulled the rocking chair closer and sank into it ,letting the rhythmic creak of wood against stone fill the silence. Her eyelids grew heavy. The exhaustion of the day pressed down on her.
Just a moment. Maybe just a breath.
She didn’t realize she had drifted until she felt it on her...hands.
Warm...as if claiming...sliding over her collarbones from behind.
Broad and rough fingers traced the delicate dip of her throat before trailing lower...making it slow, deliberate.
A shiver raced down her spine.
Before she could react, those arms tightened, yanking her up from the chair in one fluid motion. Her back collided with a hard chest, the heat of him searing through her thin nightgown.
Was it... the freak?!
But...no.
The scent was wrong. The ’feel’ was wrong.
Yet when she tried to pull away, a gloved hand fisted in her hair, tilting her head back, exposing the frantic pulse at her throat.
"Shhh," a voice murmured...smooth, dark... but the freak didn’t talk.This was definitely someone else.
A masked face pressed into the curve of her neck, lips brushing where her jugular vein throbbed. Teeth grazed, not biting...just teasing the fragile skin. Then she felt a slow, wet drag of his tongue.
Her breath hitched.
His other hand palmed her ass, pulling her flush against him, letting her feel the hard...the prominent ridge of his arousal through the layers of fabric.
"You are thinking too much,pretty little wolf, " he purred, voice like smoke, fingers tightening in her hair. "I can feel it. The way your heart is racing... the way your body tenses." A rough squeeze of her hip. "You don’t want to tense up for me, do you?"
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
He chuckled.It was low but dangerous. Then one hand slid around to her front, tracing the dip of her waist, the swell of her breast...not rushing...not at all frantic...just savoring the seconds.
"I could make you forget," he murmured, lips brushing her ear. "Make you ache in ways he never has." His thumb circled her nipple through the fabric...so slow...so torturous. "Would you like that, little queen? To forget everything but my hands on you?"
Her thighs pressed together, but he didn’t miss it...the way her body betrayed her.
"Mm. I thought so."
His fingers slipped beneath the neckline of her gown, calloused skin scraping over soft flesh as he cupped her throat...his grip just shy of painful.
"Let me hear you," he demanded. "Let me feel you shake."
And despite herself...she did.An involuntary moan left her and her body had goosebumps all over.
Autumn’s breath came in shallow, uneven gasps as his fingers tightened possessively around her breast...and his fingers massaged them slowly...squeezing and releasing in a sultry rhythm. The sensation sent a bolt of heat straight to her core, and she bit down hard on her lower lip to stifle the whimper threatening to escape.
This was wrong.She knew it...
But her body didn’t seem to care.
The stranger let out a dark chuckle, his breath hot against her ear as his free hand slid down her stomach, fingers tracing the dip of her navel before slipping lower, beneath the hem of her nightgown.
"Hhhmmm! Sexy! You are already so wet for me...huh? " He murmured, voice thick with satisfaction. "And you haven’t even seen my face yet."
She shuddered, her fingers digging into the arms of the chair as his touch ventured further, teasing the inside of her thigh.
Run!!! Her brain screamed... but her body seemed paralyzed!
When she tried to shift away, his grip on her hair tightened, forcing her head back against his shoulder. His teeth scraped the shell of her ear, sending another jolt of electricity down her spine.
"No escaping," he growled. "Not when you are like this. I know you want it."
This time, Autumn saw his eyes... silver... sparkling... yet lifeless somehow.
His fingers finally found her dripping entrance.
He stroked gently through the fabric...her slick folds...with agonizing slowness. A choked sound escaped her throat, her hips jerking involuntarily against his hand.
"There it is," he purred. "That sweet little betrayal of your body..." He pressed a single finger inside her, just enough to make her gasp. "Tell me, does he know how responsive you are right now? How easily you melt when someone takes control?What would he say if he did? What would he do? "
She squeezed her eyes shut, her nails biting into her own palms.
She knew she should fight. She should scream.But somehow she could not.
His touch was temptation personified.
His fingers worked her with unnerving precision, curling just right to drag a moan from her lips despite herself. " Mmmm! "
"That’s it," he coaxed, his voice dropping to a rough whisper. "Let go. You don’t have to think. Just feel."
His thumb pressed on her clit...slow...damn maddening...while his other hand kept her pinned against him, his erection pressing insistently against the small of her back.
She was losing.
And worse...she was making no effort to stop this assault!!!
And then suddenly she was toppled over her bed and rolled over...
Then the man was over her, on all fours... Autumn breathed rough as he nuzzled down and then spread her legs with his knee and pressed her wet core...pressed hard till she involuntarily moaned and arched... Her heart was shrieking... but her body was not in her control...
"No!!!" The word finally trembled from Autumn’s lips. Weak and even though unconvincing,it did come forth.
But the masked man only chuckled, a dark, velvety sound that curled low in her belly. Something moved inside her lower abdomen.
His knee pressed harder between her thighs, but instead of closing her eyes,she forced them open...and saw his silver eyes glinting like polished steel in that dim light.
"He took my life...my hope...my future...," he murmured, dragging his gloved fingers up the inside of her thigh, "Now listen to me carefully!" He gave another thrust forcing sensation through Autumn’s sensitive insides." I am now going to return the favour... I am going to take everything he holds dear... right up to his soul!!"
Her breath hitched as his touch skimmed higher, teasing the damp fabric at her core. He pulled it hard and then let it go... let it slap her over stimulated clit hard!
She arched off the bed, a broken moan slipping free before she could bite it back.
No. No, this was not pleasure... this was a bad desire...illegitimate... illegal...
But her thoughts shattered as he leaned down, his lips ghosting hers.
"You are dripping for me," he growled, voice rough with hunger. "And we both know you would easily come on my fingers before I even got them inside you."
Her hips jerked at the filthy promise, her traitorous body burning for his touch once more.
She squeezed her eyes shut, nails digging into the sheets. "Stop..."
"Stop?" He nipped at her earlobe, sending yet another jolt of heat straight to her core. "Then why were you grinding against my hand?"
She hadn’t even realized she was doing that.
A whimper escaped her as his fingers finally...finally...slid back beneath the thin barrier of her underclothes...tracing her slick folds once more.
"Fuck," he hissed, his own breath turning ragged. " That bastard has always been blessed...always...yet he never was worthy of any of it...never...."
And then there was a sharp knock at the door.
"Autumn? Princess?"
It was a lady...
The man above her froze.
For a heartbeat, the world hung suspended...her pulse pounded, her skin feverish, his fingers still pressed against her aching, throbbing flesh.
And then, with a sudden forceful stroke that nearly made her scream, he pulled away.
"Next time," he whispered, pressing a searing kiss to her inner thigh before vanishing into the shadows, "I won’t stop...and I will make you surrender...I will come for your soul...He does not deserve you, darling...not at all..."
The door creaked open just as the last trace of him disappeared.
And Autumn was left...shaking, breathless, and utterly undone.
She gasped...as her eyes fought to open...her skin still tingling from the phantom touch of those silver eyed hands.
For a disoriented moment, she could still feel the heat of his body, the rough scrape of his fingers...
Slurp!!!
A wet, eager tongue dragged up her cheek.
"Ugh...Cerberus!" Finally her eyes snapped open.Another slurp. " Cerb, no! Sit,boy!"
She shoved at the massive hound’s snout, wiping drool off her face with the back of her hand. The beast panted in her face, tail whipping back and forth but he did follow order and sat down, his big paws planted on the bed.
"Princess! Princess, wake up!" A maid’s voice, muffled through the door. "It’s time for the Hunt!"
Cerberus barked, loud enough to rattle her skull, then licked her again for good measure.
Autumn groaned, dragging herself upright. Her body still hummed with the remnants of that lewd dream...that voice, those hands...but the reality was far less seductive.
Her hound yowled impatiently, nudging her thigh with his nose before trotting to the door, looking back at her as if to say, "Move your ass."
She exhaled...sharp...running a hand through her tangled hair.
Just a dream?! She tried to dismiss it all...
But as she swung her legs out of bed, her skin still burned where he had touched her.
And deep down, she knew... It didn’t feel like just a dream anymore.