Chapter 186: Put Me on a Leash

Ivy’s POV

His arms were still wrapped around me, our chests rising and falling together, skin slick, hearts trying to catch up with what just happened. My cheek rested against the solid wall of his chest, the sound of his heartbeat thundering like a drum that refused to quiet.

For a long moment, we just breathed. Nothing else. Just being.

Then his hand came up, trembling slightly, and stroked my hair. His voice was rough when it finally broke the silence.

“I’ve been searching for you,” he whispered, the words jagged, as if they cut his throat to say them. “Gods, Ivy… I’ve been so scared. I tried to break out of the darkness, but I couldn’t do that without you.”

I lifted my head, meeting his eyes. He looked broken and beautiful all at once, his gaze wild but clear now, and shining with tears.

“While I was trying to find you, I lost myself,” he said, his voice breaking under the weight of his own words. His jaw tightened, but his lips trembled, betraying the storm inside him. “I don’t remember much of what happened while I was gone. Just fragments. Pieces. I was so… lost without you. I searched for you in every shadow, every silence, but every time I thought I was close, I was already too late. Always one step behind.”

His eyes burned, haunted, as though he still heard the echoes. “The darkness… the shadows… they wrapped themselves around me, chained me from the inside. I fought to break free, to reach you, but their whispers never stopped. They told me I had to kill you. That I should end you with my own hands.”

He swallowed hard, his voice cracking. “So I did the only thing I could…I held them tighter, crushed them against me, so they couldn’t touch you. So I won’t hurt you.”

A single tear slipped down his cheek. Then another. And then he couldn’t stop them.

My chest cracked open.

“Leo…” My hand cupped his face, wiping at the wetness that only kept coming.

“Promise me,” he rasped, voice breaking. “Promise me you’ll never leave me again. Tie me down if you have to. Put me on a leash, drag me with you wherever you go…I don’t care. Just don’t leave me again, Princess.”

Despite the ache in my heart, a laugh bubbled out of me. I laughed softly, through my own tears. “A leash, Leo? Really?”

His lips quirked, the ghost of a smile breaking through the storm on his face.

And then he kissed me.

It was softer than before, almost reverent, but laced with heat that quickly grew wild again. He rolled us, his body hovering over mine now, his weight a delicious anchor pressing me into the mattress.

“Now that I’ve had a taste,” he murmured against my lips, his eyes flashing with hunger, “my craving just got bigger.”

A shiver tore through me.

He kissed me again, deeper, then trailed down, biting gently at my neck, dragging fire across my skin. His mouth worshiped its way down, his fangs grazing the swell of my breast before his lips closed around it. I gasped, my back arching off the bed.

“Leo—” his name broke from me, half a cry, half a moan.

But he wasn’t done. His lips trailed lower, past the rise of my stomach, until heat blazed between my thighs. My body jerked when his tongue found me, probing deeper with each stroke.

Pleasure splintered me apart, wave after wave, until I thought I would drown in it. My cries filled the room as he worked me open, relentless, devouring me like I was the only thing keeping him alive.

He gripped one of my legs and lifted it, hooking it over his shoulder to reach deeper. My body writhed, my hands fisting the sheets.

And then…without warning…he lifted the other leg too. My breath hitched.

Before I could process, he thrust into me again, filling me, stretching me, sending sparks exploding through my veins. This time there was no gentleness…only hunger, only raw need. He drove into me harder, faster, each slam against me shaking the bed, shaking me to my core.

And I loved every bit of it.

The room filled with the sound of us…my moans, his groans, the slap of skin against skin.

And then he turned me, my chest pressed into the sheets, his hands gripping my hips like he owned me. He plunged into me from behind, the angle deeper, rougher, hotter than anything before.

I cried out, gripping the sheets so hard they nearly tore. For my first time, I should’ve been scared and asked for a slower pace. But that wasn't the case.

Somehow, my body knew exactly how to take it, how to match him, how to embrace both the pleasure and the pain.

It was… royal. Like a throne we built together in fire and flesh.

I lost count of how many times we shattered, how many times the world exploded into white heat and dragged us down again only to break us apart once more.

Minutes? Hours? I didn’t know. Time stopped existing.

Until finally, we collapsed, tangled in each other’s arms, slick with sweat, our bodies trembling but utterly spent.

I rested against him, his arms tight around me, his lips brushing the top of my head. My fingers traced idle patterns across his chest as his heartbeat slowed against my ear.

“What happened to you, princess?” he asked quietly, his hand stroking down my back. “Where were you all these while? Who do I need to kill?”

I sighed, my throat thick, my mind heavy with everything I had regained. The memories, the pain, the survival, the truth.

And slowly, with his warmth holding me, I began to tell him.

My own story.

My own rollercoaster of adventures.