Chapter 11: Intentions

My knees instantly buckled as I slung Kieran’s arm over my shoulder, supporting him as our steps grew bigger and bigger, to escape the stranger’s Red magic.  Thorns from shrubs wounded us, but I did not stop, and did not even let my steps falter.

I need to heal him.  Kieran…

“Wait… Lind…” he mumbled as he tried to remove my arm.  “We have to go back to get Lind—”

“No, you’re already injured! We need to find shelter! He’s locked in the car, it’ll be enough!” I argued before pulling him again.  The Red’s magic would not reach places where they were not invited.

His breath was already ragged.  As a White wolf, we both know that he was far more susceptible to the effects of wolfsbane, as it would act both as a poison and an aphrodisiac on him.  And yet…

He’s still worried about other people.

My eyes made out an outline of a small shack in the middle of the woods.  Without thinking, I dragged him in before I let him lie on the wooden bed in the corner of the room. I locked the door and shut all windows to prevent the Red magic from reaching us.   My trembling hands immediately reached for his shirt as soon as I made sure that we were safe, and prepared to tear it open, when his hand grabbed my wrist.

“No… don’t…’

“I need to see your damn wound,” I reiterated.  “I can heal—”

“No… I can… handle myself…” he insisted, as he tried to get up from the bed.

I clicked my tongue before pushing him down.  “Can’t you listen to me for once, Kieran White? As your Queen, I order you to remove your shirt and let me see your wound.”

I immediately curled my fist as he sneered at me.  In one swift motion, he grabbed me by the neck and pinned me to the bed.  His red eyes were glimmering even in the dark, and I know I should be kicking him hard in between his legs, but…

Damn it, Fluke! Can’t you resist the mate bond just this once?

“Your Majesty, I obey orders from no one.”

I scoffed.  “Oh, really? Then what happened to your oath?”

“My oath did not say that I will obey you, Your Majesty.”

His eyes glimmered as he licked his bottom lip, sending a small fire to start burning within me.  I knew I was supposed to be cautious.  With the stranger’s Red magic and the Black Wolves hunting us down with their military-grade weapons, answering this damn mating call and the deafening howling of his wolf and Fluke should be the least of my worries.

Kieran is under the influence of the wolfsbane.  I should be treating him, not getting pinned down on this old wooden bed like a frog, ready to be dissected.

And yet, despite knowing a hundred ways to make him yield, I only saw my body… obeying him.

Our lips crashed, without an ounce of gentleness.  I have known Kieran as nothing but a brute for the past year that we had been training together, and not once did he feel delicate or capable of being… gentle.

I hated it.  I knew I did.  And yet, in between these damned mating calls, these dangers lurking around, and his cheekily playful biting on my lips, my whole body begged him to be rougher.

I dragged my nails against his shirt, creating long claw marks on the fabric.  In response, he pulled me up, his hand gripping a bit harder on my neck, restraining me from breathing, but loose enough just to make me realize that I was holding my breath.

My breath hitched as I felt his hand reaching under the hem of my skirt, raising higher and higher until it rested on the garter of my underwear.  I bit hard on his lip before pushing him down on the bed and straddling him.

We chased our breaths as I stared deep into his eyes.  I tore off his shirt to reveal his massive wound on his left shoulder, barely missing his chest.  My palm landed on his cheek.  “Snap out of it, Chief.  You need my help.”

Kieran smirked as his hands landed on my hips once again.  “Yes, I do need your help, Your Majesty…”

“Shut it.  The effects of the wolfsbane must be spreading over your body—”

“And how can you be so sure that I’m only acting like this because of the wolfsbane, Hestia Locke?”

“Because… you shouldn’t.  We shouldn’t.”

I stopped breathing once again as I heard Fluke’s overwhelmingly loud mating call in my head.  Kieran’s lips curled even more, fully knowing what was going on.  And as if to tease me, his fingers began to loosen the lace on my gown, which I barely managed to put back after the whole fiasco with Castiel and Augustus earlier.

“Kieran, don’t…” I begged.

“I bet your wolf’s dying for an answer to her mating call,” he whispered, before tugging loose one knot from the lace.  “I can help with that—fucking shit! Asshole!”

He screamed as I pressed hard on his wound, letting blood flow out of the laceration.  I grabbed a piece of fabric from his shirt earlier and placed it on his mouth to make him shut up as I healed his wound.  Blood, sweat, and tears dripped as I sealed the wound before removing the cloth from his mouth.

“Did you have to be that rough?”

“Serves you right, you massive—”

Before I could speak, three knocks on the wooden door of the shack interrupted our argument.  I immediately got off of him and positioned myself behind the door, preparing to attack.

“My trouble, it’s me.”

I peeked through the gap between the wooden boards of the door and saw the stranger, with the still trembling Lind with him.  I immediately opened the door.

“Oh, I thought this little puppy had died,”  the stranger commented as he sat on a nearby chair.  “I could hear his screams from a mile.”

“Please do not antagonize him.  He barely made it,” I lied as I sneakily smoothed the hem of my dress.  “Those Black Wolves my father sent were… well-armed.”

The stranger chuckled.  “And why do you think so?”

I gritted my teeth as I remembered what that Black Wolf told me.  A bounty.  The Heart of the Goddess.

Even I would want to join the hunt if that meant possessing immense power.

The stranger pulled out a piece of paper and gave it to me.  “I heard through the grapevine that Alpha Heron placed a massive bounty on the two of you.  An antique necklace and thirty-five million minted gold coins, in exchange for your heads before the competition begins again.  A tempting proposition, honestly…”

He looked up as Kieran crossed the distance between them in one swift motion and aimed his axe against the stranger’s throat.  Kieran’s eyes darkened as the blade pressed harder on his skin.

“And what would you get by helping us, you filthy Red?  What do you truly want from Hestia and me?"