Chapter 41 41

Chapter 41 41
I don’t remember how long I was there. With him. 

One moment, he had his hands all over me, or his shadows. I don’t know. I can’t remember. He made me cum again and again— and he made sure to taste everyone. I don’t think he ever came. I don’t think he ever plans to. 

It was almost as if… almost as if Kael Veyne was trying to learn every mark in my body. Every tell. Every single way I break. 

And then nothing.

When I wake, the horns are gone. The tail too. My skin is my skin again— pale, human-passing, wrong— but I can still feel them, like they’re hiding right underneath the surface. Waiting for him to come. Wanting him. 

I'm dressed.

That's the first thing that registers as wrong. Someone put clothes on me. Not him— he would have left me naked. Would have woken me up with his dick inside me again, his hand around my throat. 

His voice in my head. 

‘Keeper,’

That was his new favourite word. That was all I had become to him. 

I sit up too fast. The room spins, my stomach lurches, and for a horrible moment I think I'm going to be sick all over the floor but nothing comes up. Just dry heaves that leave me shaking and spitting bile.

And then someone walks in. A familiar face. I can’t remember it. And I know I don’t want to. 

Where is he? Where is Kael?

“Baby—”

“Stay the fuck away from me!” My own voice doesn’t sound like the way I think it should. It’s rough and hissy as I pull the bedsheets under me and curl it into my body, my eyes flying around. “Where is he? Where the fuck am I?”

This… this man in front of me has a face that I think I should know. He has gold hair and strangely colored eyes and he looks too perfect to be in this… cellar that I’m clearly trapped in. 

And I’m not his baby. I’m taken. 

I’m someone else’s. 

“You’re safe, love,” The strange man sounds kind. He’s coming towards me with his arms out like I’m some dangerous thing, his eyes deceivingly gentle. “And I know what you’re looking for but he’s not gonna hurt you anymore—”

The scent hits me first. Warm bread. Honey. It’s soft. It’s soothing—

Pheromones, something in me snarls, he’s trying to use his pheromones on you!

“Stop it!” 

The words fly out of my mouth with a viciousness that wrecks through my whole body. He stops, his eyes widening as he stares at me before I snap again, “Don’t fucking use that on me or I swear—”

“Riven—”

“That is not my name!”

“Then what is your name, baby?”

My name… my name…

The thought plays over in my head as a strange sensation starts in my chest. Like something is sucking through my thoughts, digging into my chest and pulling out everything that it can. Leaving nothing behind. 

My name… my name…

“Kael?” The name is the one thing I know as I come off the bed, my head staring at the ceiling and searching around. Everything is strange. Nothing makes sense. And I am… I am very scared. “Kael!”

“He’s not… he’s not here. Darling—”

“Stop!” My head hurts but I put my hand out, setting a distance between him and I. The ache in my chest worsens, like I’m losing more of whatever is supposed to be powering me. Like I’m… like I’m dying. 

Baby, where are you? The thought flies through my head before I can stop myself. Because he can read my thoughts right? He knows I’m here. He knows—

“Why is it so bright here?” I feel sick. It’s too hot. Too cold. I feel naked. I need something… bigger to cover me. To hold me. To—

I march to the walls but the man is grabbing me. I scream, kicking hard as I try to push him back. His pheromones lash out again— I don’t fucking know what it is but i hit him with the back of my head, striking him on his nose. 

I hear him curse but before I can I move away, he’s grabbing me and throwing me to the bed, his voice going an octave lower, “Sit fucking down, Riven!”

My heart's racing, my eyes moving to the switch on the wall. To the door. I feel like I’m going to pass out. Why is everything spinning? “That isn’t… that isn’t my name.”

“But it is.” His eyes go soft. Worried. It does something to me because I know those eyes never go sad. Because those eyes… those eyes are always proud. And arrogant. And— “Do you really not remember me?”

But I do, don’t I?

The emotions on his face. I can tell what it would normally be. I know it. It’s somewhere, in my head. It’s somewhere… “I… please… please, let me… let me see him. Just… just for a little bit. I promise, I’ll… I’ll just—”

“He left you here. He…” Abandoned. That’s what he’s thinking. That’s what is in his head. But he doesn’t say that. Not when he sees the look on my face. “We’ve been so worried, Riven—”

“Cain? Fuck. Cain. You know you’re not supposed to be here.”

That voice—

My head looks to the door, and there’s someone else. He’s big. And tall. He looks like he can crush me in a heartbeat. And he’s angry. Angry at the man— at Cain. 

He sets the tray in his hands on the table at the door, his voice quiet, “We need to have a talk. Go outside.”

“He shouldn’t be here alone,” Cain is looking at him now. “Aidan… Aidan, something is wrong with him. He can’t… he can’t remember—”

“Out,” Then as if he doesn’t mean for it to happen, his voice goes soft, “Please, Cain.”

The second the door clicks shut behind Cain, Aidan’s full attention lands on me. 

He doesn't move toward me. Doesn't try to use pheromones or soft words. He just stands there, his massive arms crossed over his chest, watching me like I'm an animal that might bolt.

And I will. If I didn’t think he’d crush me. 

“Stop shaking.” His voice is low. His jaw tightened. “You will go into shock at this rate. Calm down.”

I want to tell him to fuck off but when I look, down at my hands, he’s right.

My fingers are trembling against the bedsheets with tremors that I can't seem to stop no matter how hard I clench my fists. My whole body feels wrong— too sensitive, like someone peeled back my skin and left every nerve ending exposed to the air.

It hurts. My chest hurts. “Where is he?”

Aidan's jaw tightens more. “We don’t… know. He left you at the entrance of the… building. The Academy. He also can’t get in here. The lights in the cellar leaves no shadow so he can’t. And… and the entire place is now being covered so he can’t.”

“He doesn’t… he doesn’t know that. Listen, he gets mad—”

“He knew.” His voice stays quiet. “He knew.”

“No.” The word tears out of me before I can stop it. “No, he wouldn't— he wouldn't just—”

Wouldn't he?

The thought slithers through my mind like poison. 

He left you. He used you and left you. You're nothing to him. You were always nothing to him.

“Stop,” I whisper. To myself. To the voice in my head that sounds too much like my own. “Stop it.”

“You should eat.” Aidan says, “And take a shower. You… you need it.”

Then he leaves. 

And the voices attack.