Chapter 140 Heat

Chapter 140 Heat
[Cedric]

Pain was my first sensation. A searing, white-hot agony where silver met skin. I tried to move, but my hands and feet were bound with what felt like chains—silver chains. The realization sent a fresh wave of panic through me as I blinked away the haze of unconsciousness.

Darkness surrounded me. The cramped space and the rumbling beneath me told me I was in a car trunk. How long had I been there? The last thing I remembered was confronting Margaret with Lana, then... darkness. My head pounded with each heartbeat, and my body felt unnaturally weak. Something beyond the silver was suppressing my strength—some kind of toxin, maybe?

"Lana..." Her name escaped my lips in a hoarse whisper. "Why?"

I reached for our mate bond, that invisible thread connecting us, but found only a cold emptiness. The absence hit harder than any physical pain. What had happened to break our connection? Or was she blocking it somehow?

The car stopped abruptly. I tensed, preparing for whatever came next. Light flooded in as the trunk opened, and I squinted against the sudden brightness. Lana's face appeared above me, her expression cold and distant—a stranger wearing my mate's features.

"Welcome back," she said, her voice devoid of warmth.

She dragged me from the trunk with surprising strength, and I recognized the building—her luxury apartment complex in the city. She pulled me through the lobby toward the elevator. The doorman and security guard stared straight ahead, their eyes glazed over, completely unseeing. Mind control? I'd never seen Lana use that ability before.

When the elevator doors opened to her penthouse, the scent hit me first—blood, fear, and pain. The apartment I'd spent those intimate nights in had been transformed into something from a nightmare. Her once-elegant living room now resembled an interrogation chamber, with strange tools arranged neatly on what used to be her dining table.

"Hope you like my new decorating," Lana said, her smile not reaching her eyes.

She dragged me to the master bedroom, which had been converted into a cell. Silver restraints hung from the walls. She secured me to the bed, the silver burning into my wrists and ankles. I gritted my teeth against the pain.

"What are you doing?" I managed to ask.

Instead of answering, she turned and left. Through the open door, I caught glimpses of other rooms. Each had been transformed for a single purpose: torture. I saw hunters—at least five of them—scattered throughout the apartment. Some hanging from the ceiling, others locked in cages. Each wore the same pendant—a crossbow and silver knife crossed.

A hunter struggled against his restraints as Lana approached him. "You monster!" he shouted. "We will have our revenge!"

Lana laughed—a sound that chilled me to the bone—before sinking her fangs into the man's neck. She drank until he went still, her eyes locked with mine the entire time.

Days blurred together. I remained bound to the bed, the silver continuously weakening me. Each day, Lana interrogated the hunters: "Tell me where your leader is hiding." Each day, more died, and more appeared.

By the third day, I noticed changes in her behavior. Her movements became more agitated, her eyes constantly shifting. She left more frequently, returning with new "prey"—more hunters. As a werewolf, I recognized these signs immediately. Heat. It was her time, and finding a mate had triggered it fully—a primal, overwhelming urge that consumed werewolves periodically.

"You're in Heat," I observed quietly as she stalked around the room, her movements increasingly predatory.

She didn't respond with words, just a low growl that vibrated through the room. Her fingernails elongated, leaving deep gouges in the wall as she passed. Her breathing was heavy, irregular. Whatever control she normally maintained was slipping away.

The fourth day brought a dramatic shift. Lana returned, her eyes nearly black, her pale skin radiating unnatural heat. The temperature in the apartment plummeted, frost appearing on the windows. Her presence was electric, charged with primal energy. She killed two hunters in quick succession, not even bothering to interrogate them.

Then she turned toward me, her gaze feral and hungry in a way that had nothing to do with bloodlust. The Heat had taken over completely. I felt it pull at me through our bond, my own body responding despite the silver weakening me. The mating instinct was powerful, undeniable. Even bound and in pain, I couldn't fight my physical reaction to her.

"Lana," I rasped, my voice rough with both pain and the growing urge I couldn't suppress. "Untie me. Get rid of these hunters. Let's... let's give in to this. Together."

Her head snapped toward me, her dark gaze locking onto mine. A low, guttural chuckle escaped her throat, and a predatory smirk curled her lips. "Who said I need to untie you?" Her voice was a dangerous purr, dripping with raw need as she stepped closer, the air between us crackling with tension.

Before I could protest, she was on me, her movements swift and deliberate. Her hands tore at my clothes with inhuman strength, and her lips descended, hot and demanding. She took my cock into her mouth, her actions aggressive and unyielding, the wet heat enveloping me in a way that sent shudders through my traitorous body. My mind screamed in protest, but the sensation was overwhelming, each stroke of her tongue pushing me closer to a precipice I didn’t want to cross. Shame and anger burned hotter than the silver at my wrists.

"Lana, stop," I growled through gritted teeth, fighting against both the chains and my own instincts. "This isn’t right. This is... this is rape."

She pulled back for a moment, her eyes glinting with a mix of Heat-driven lust and cold fury. "Rape? You betrayed me before, Cedric. From now on, you’re nothing but a tool for my desires." Her voice was sharp, cutting through the haze of instinct, before she returned to me with even more ferocity. She climbed over me, her body pressing against mine as she took control completely, her heat wrapping around my cock in a way that was maddeningly perfect despite my resistance.

The tight, slick grip was too much, every thrust driving raw pleasure through me even as my mind recoiled. My body betrayed me fully, the tension building uncontrollably until I couldn’t hold back any longer. A guttural groan escaped me as I came, the release crashing through me in waves of unwanted ecstasy, leaving me trembling and hollow with shame. Her actions remained wild and unrelenting, driven by both Heat and a need to dominate. My protests were drowned out by the storm of her will, my body caught in a war between bond and betrayal as she took what she wanted without mercy.

Afterward, she left again, muttering about needing "more prey" to hunt, though I knew her slaughter of hunters was driven by hatred, not the Heat pulling at her wolf side.

The cycle continued. Hunt, return, torture, repeat. The apartment filled with more hunters, some alive, some dead.