Chapter 14: Monster In Him

I knocked. For a second, I considered turning around. Pretending I had never come here, as if ignorance was still an option. But it was too late.

“Come in.”

His calm and gravelly voice, send a shiver down my spine as I pushed the door open.

My eyes instantly found him. Sitting behind his desk, sleeves rolled up of his black shirt, his veins popping up, dark hair slightly disheveled as if he’d been running his hand through them a lot. His attention lifting fully to me the moment I stepped inside. There were no claws, no fangs, or visible signs of the beast everyone spoke of. Just a man who looked almost relaxed and human.

He looked… harmless.

I wondered if he could read my mind. If he knew what I thought of him and what theories I was making in my head of him being a monster.

I walked in timidly, my steps slower than I intended as I closed the door behind me. I regretted it. His presence over-powered me immediately, heavier than my thoughts. He wasn’t doing anything threatening, there were just papers on his desk and a pen in his hand.

His eyes lit up, curiosity flickering in his eyes as he dropped the pen softly on the papers and leaned back slightly. “What brings you here?” he asked, eyes raking over me as he bit his lips. “My little Amina.”

The nickname he gave me evoked an irrational response. My thighs clenched on their own. I hated that my body reacted before my mind did.

He extended his hand toward me. “Come here.”

Before I could respond, I was walking to him, when I circled the desk and stopped in front of him, his hands were on me, firmly grabbing me, and guiding me onto his lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I stiffened, breath catching, but he only pulled me closer, one arm secure around my waist and he pressed a kiss to the top of my head. I hated how large he looked with me sitting on his lap, my legs dangling off his lap.

“Tell me,” he murmured into my ear. “Why are you here?”

I swallowed hard, and lifted my gaze to his face. Up close, he was worse. The intensity of his attention made me feel transparent, like every thought was written across my skin and Azran could read it and m\]he enjoyed it.

“Is there something?” I asked quietly, suppressing the growing tension in my stomach. “that I should know?”

He lifted his head off my shoulder, his hold on me tightening slightly as he looked into my eyes. “Why the sudden doubts? Do you not trust me?”

I hesitated, biting onto my lips and then forced myself to speak. “We don’t know each other. Trust doesn’t just… happen.”

I expected him to get offended, but instead, he smiled. “Debatable,” he mused. “Then tell me, Kaela. What can I do to make you trust me?”

My fingers twisted into the fabric of his shirt. My heart pounded so hard I was sure he could feel it against the layers of skin and fabrics. “What,” I swallowed and looked up at him hesitantly. “is a hybrid?”

He exhaled slowly, eyes closing for a brief moment. When he opened them again, something strange settled there. “Did Ian say that to you?”

I shook my head quickly, fear flashing through me. I didn’t know what he would do if he learned I’d spoken to Ian. “No,” I lied, avoiding his eyes. “I was just curious.”

He studied me for a long second before nodding. “A hybrid,” he stopped and then spoke again. “Is born of more than one bloodline. A blending of powers, strengths and instincts. It depends though, if both bloodlines are strong, the hybrid is strong. If they’re weak, so is the hybrid.”

“And you?” I asked innocently. “Are you strong?”

He smiled. “Yes.”

“is everyone in your family like that?”

He shook his head. “No. Not everyone. Just me and my…” he paused, jaw tightening. “…brother.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Your brother. Where is he?”

I knew what I was doing when his hold tightened, his patience thinning, I could feel it. In one smooth movement, he lifted me from his lap and set me on the edge of his desk a startled scream tore through my lips, as his hands roughly spread my legs as he settled between them, towering over me, invading my space and leaning in. his hot breath fanning my neck as I panted breathlessly.

“It makes me jealous, you know,” he growled against my neck. “When you ask about my brother while sitting so sweetly on my lap.”

My breath stuttered, as his one hand fisted my hair and pulled my head back. A gasp left my lips as his teeth scrapped the vein behind my ears. I froze in his arms, caught between fear and desire far more dangerous than ever. His forehead rested briefly against my shoulder as he let out a restrained sound before he pulled back enough to looked at me. His hand still fisting my hair.

“Ask your questions,” he looked at my lips. “But choose them wisely. I’ll give you answers, but in return, you’ll give me something.”

So, in his world, knowledge was not freely given but earned.

I didn’t pull away. Though the thought should scare me, but I was not to back down. That was my first mistake. The second was lifting my chin, meeting his eyes with recklessness burning in my chest. I knew the stakes were high, yet I couldn’t bring myself to care anymore.

Fear was still there, yes, it’d been there since I entered his office, but beneath it churned defiance. Curiosity. That dangerous urge to see how far I could push him before he pushed back.

“You asked me to ask questions,” I lifted my hand and did the hideous crime of pressing it against his chest, right where his heart was. “Why do you sound so angry now?”

The amusement that danced in Azran’s eyes, I was not ready for it. So he was ready to play.

He tilted his head, “You mistook my territorial instinct for anger, little Amina.”

“Is there a difference?”

His eyes darkened watching as my hand lowered, and lowered till it reached his belt buckle.

I could feel his restraint flying out the window, like something stretched too think even for a man like to control. It made me bold in the worst way possible. I leaned forward slightly, my legs bracketing him, and my hands resting on his belt buckle as I looked up at him with the most innocent eyes I could look from.

“If you brought me here,” I pouted, blinking up at him. “then isn’t it my duty to give you what you want?”

It felt so wrong speaking like that. This wasn’t me. Wasn’t Kaela I grew up as. For a heartbeat, I thought I had him in control. That men like him could be seduced and taken as hostage. Lust was a man’s weakest point. When a man started viewing a woman’s body as inviting with hunger, it was his downfall, he’d do anything to lay between her legs, to ran his tongue down her thighs, taste the heaven she promised, take from her, show his manliness, and incompetent dominance.

I thought it was the same case with Azran.

But when his grip tightened on my hair, and other hand held onto my bare thigh as he jerked me to him, fingers biting into my needy flesh hard enough to make me gasp and my eyes widen.

His mouth dropped to my neck, and I felt him smiling against my flesh making me surprised. A claiming touch, his breath hot and his lips deliberately leaving heat in their wake.

I sucked in a sharp breath and did the unthinkable. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him closer. I felt his hard-on against my core, through my panties. The edge he left me on this morning returned and I desperately wanted to reach it. I almost forgot the reason why I was here.

“Take it,” I whispered, my voice trembled. “Take what you want.”

I felt him stiffening against me. But it was for a brief second before he chuckled against my neck.

“Oh, little Amina,” He lifted his head off my neck, and is aw the grin curved against my throat a moment ago. His blue eyes pierced through my soul, seeing my tactics. “What you’re really doing is testing me, not offering yourself.”

I swallowed hard.

“And some actions,” he murmured. “Have consequences.”

In one smooth motion, he shifted, pressing me back fully against his desk, his outrageous presence caging me in without crushing me. His mouth returned to my neck, slower now, lower now, intentionally pulling the cardigan off me smoothly, throwing it somewhere, leaving me cold and hot at the same time.

I gasped despite myself as he bit hard on my neck while he grinded his erection against my womanhood.

“Still think you can control me with this sinfully seductive body, huh?” he asked against my skin.

I shook my head weakly, my plan unraveling in real time. Backfiring with intense force.

He pulled back to look into my watery eyes, needy lips parted, and cheeks flushed pink. His eyes burned with something deeper than desire to be alone. “You don’t get to decide what you are to me. When and how I am supposed to take you, is for me to decide, not you. I can very easily pin you down, rip your clothes off and fuck a baby into you. It’s that easy.”

My breath stuttered.

“I brought you here to keep you safe, to give you another life,” he continued, his hand travelling up my thighs to clench around my panty band. “I don’t want to break you. And if you try to provoke the beast in me again,” his thumb brushed beneath my chin, forcing my gaze up. “I won’t be gentle enough to stop halfway. When I take you, you’ll scream, you’ll cry, you’ll beg… but on my terms, on my fucking conditions.”

My heart thundered and I nodded once, breathlessly wanting him to get off me.

Satisfied, he stepped back. Releasing me as abruptly as he’d taken hold, the absence of him felt like punishment all on its own. What was this dilemma, I should be scared of him.

“Go,” he said calmly. “before you unleash the monster in me.”

I slid off his desk, almost stumbling down. My legs clenched tight as I grabbed my cardigan. I almost ran to the door when his deep voice stopped me.

“And don’t dare to lies to me again, Kaela. Next time you lie, I’ll use my hand to make that ass red.”

I didn’t turn to see what kind of face he had on, I just nodded, swallowed and ran out his office as if my tail was on fire.

One harsh truth settled in my chest. I had reminded him exactly how dangerous he could be.