Red Rage🌶️

‘December 15th, 2017’

‘Lumen’

Eve

I woke up in a room I’d never seen before, wearing the same clothes I’d worn to the Equinox Assembly. My head was still pounding, and my memory foggy.

~What happened? How did I end up here?~

I looked around. It seemed like a normal guest room, and that was when everything started coming back.

The Assembly.

The pyromancer.

The Morgans’ home, burned to the ground.

And Raphael. Marking me.

My hand flew to my neck, and the second a finger made contact, I could feel the tenderness of the mark.

It sent a shiver through me, as I remembered the way he’d kissed my neck, the way he’d scraped his teeth against my sensitive skin.

But then I groaned, a wave of rage coursing through me.

He had ~marked me.~

As more anger filled my veins, my head started pounding again. I was still exhausted.

That was when I noticed my purse, hanging on the back of a chair across the room. ~The vials.~

I climbed out of bed and walked over, taking the first vial out. It was filled with blood. The pyromancer’s blood.

Without wasting another second, I unscrewed the cap and swallowed the liquid, relishing the metallic taste.

I reached for the second vial and downed that one too. Then the third.

I could feel the pyromancer’s blood entering my bloodstream, sending a burst of energy through my system. I had been running on empty for a while now.

Sure, the R21 pills helped, but nothing compared to the real thing.

And I hadn’t drank any blood in months.

Now that my head had stopped pounding and my energy was back, I was ready. Ready for what?

Well, to bite off the head of Mr. Alpha of the Millennium, for one. He had some answering to do.

I took off, out of my room and down the hall. I passed Reyna, who was walking from the other direction.

“Hey, Eve, can I talk to you for a sec...”

“Not now, Reyna.”

I didn’t pause, just kept trying to sense which room Raphael was inside of. As soon as I was close to the room at the end of the hall, I sensed him.

I barged through the closed door.

There he was, lounging on the sofa, watching television. Like he’d done nothing wrong.

When he saw me, he started to say something, but before he could get a word out, I was marching over to him and landing a massive slap across his cheek.

Immediately he jumped up, growling. “What was that for?”

“For marking me! I ~told you~. You DO NOT have my consent! And still! You took advantage of my exhaustion. You used my weakness against me.”

“That wasn’t weakness,” he scoffed.

“What?” I snapped.

“That was strength. What you did last night, Eve. ~How~ you did it. That was sheer power. And it was the goddamn sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. So, yeah, I marked you. I marked you so no other man in this city could look at you and think they have a chance.”

~Fuck.~

~The man had a way with words.~

But still, he’d gone against my explicit warnings! He knew exactly what I didn’t want, and it was this.

I’d told him I wanted nothing to do with him, that I hated him, and instead, he makes me his for the mating season?

~What is wrong with him?~

Being marked not only meant that everyone would know my personal business just by catching a glimpse of my neck but it meant that Raphael would see me as his. And that was the furthest thing from the truth.

I wasn’t his, not for a season, not for a goddamn day.

I belonged to nobody.

To myself. That was it.

And he… he thought he could just make me moan and change my mind! Make me ~want~ to be his!

Heat was running strong inside me, and it was again like my anger was fighting with my arousal. Because I was mad, obviously, but I also couldn’t help but remember how good it felt to be kissed by him.

To feel his teeth scraping against my soft skin, to hear his growl.

I took in his smoldering eyes, his unshaven face, and I felt my hunger for him grow.

~Fuck.~ I wasn’t sure my anger could win this round.

“You’re not really mad,” he said softly, coming toward me and resting his hands on my waist. But that was all it took for my anger to revive itself.

“Oh, I’m fucking mad,” I responded, pushing his hands off. “Who do you think you are? You just think you have the right to do anything you want to anybody?”

“You’re overthinking it, babe,” he said, again coming closer to me. “I want you. Hell, I ~need~ you. I can’t stop thinking about you, your body...” he growled, his hands returning to my waist and yanking me close.

My body screamed for more.

~Closer!~

“Stop touching me.”

“Fine, no touching. Let’s just talk,” he said, pulling me down to the couch.

“Fine.”

We were close to each other—so close—and I could feel the warm breath that came every time he exhaled. “Tell me what you are,” he said.

I looked at him. Really looked. And decided if I couldn’t tell him the whole truth, I could at least throw him a piece of it.

“I’m immortal,” I said. “I have missions, many missions. But I operate by myself. Always have, always will. That’s why we can’t… I can’t be involved. It would slow me down, and I won’t let that happen.”

After a moment, he nodded. “Thank you. For finally telling me why.”

I sighed, relieved. Maybe now he’d keep his hands off me.

But then his palm moved to my thigh and rested there, his fingertips gently scratching the fabric of my pants. “But you know, I’m not gonna stop trying.”

And then he was kissing me.

~Really~ kissing me.

He picked me up and forced my legs around his hips. And immediately, I could feel his hardness pushing into me.

It was like he was always ready, like he knew my hunger was screaming out for him and he was ready to feed it.

The fire was burning so strongly, so deep inside of me, that everything I had just said seemed to go out the window.

I was more than turned on. The energy I’d gotten from the pyromancer’s blood had made my heartbeat race with new speed, my desires even hungrier than before.

~Fuck~, I thought as he threw me onto the bed.

He was kissing down my neck, and when his tongue trailed over my mark, I felt like I would explode.

It was so tender, so sensitive, that the slightest tongue flick sent my whole sex spiraling with pleasure.

He took the straps of my tank top in his mouth and slid them down with his teeth, growling as he removed each one.

Then he was kissing across my collarbone, down my chest. His fingers made his way to my breasts, teasing around my nipples before squeezing them.

“Mmm,” I moaned, my eyes squeezed shut.

I knew this was bad. I knew I should stop, but the fire inside me wasn’t satisfied, not yet.

And when his lips dropped to my breasts, leaving kisses on my skin and then taking my nipples and sucking, I still needed more.

Nothing was enough.

The last time I’d felt so good, so fucking turned on, had been centuries ago. When I was just a girl...when I was… it dawned on me.

I pushed him off me immediately.

“NO!” I screamed at him, sliding my shirt back on and storming toward the door.

“What…” he yelled, confused, hurrying to beat me to the door.

“MOVE,” I ordered, his large body blocking my exit.

“Tell me what just happened.”

“Just… stay away from me! You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t want me, you don’t need me, and I don’t need any of this!”

“Eve!” he thundered. “What the hell just changed? Talk to me, tell me what—”

“You want me to ~tell you~ something? How about the fact that this is irresponsible! This is childish, and I don’t need it, and if we keep going at this rate, another Snow will come into this—” I stopped myself, mouth slamming shut.

I couldn’t believe I’d almost just… And now he was looking at me, searching my face for answers. “Another Snow? What does that mean?”

It was too much—her name on his lips, my rage, the way I lost control.

I could feel power surging through my veins in a way that was new.

I shut my eyes.

The pyromancer’s blood. It must be his powers, the way they were settling into mine.

~Control it~, I commanded myself. But my head was starting to pound again, and then the whole building started to shake.

I could feel the power rattling inside my veins, and I knew the building was shaking because my body couldn’t restrain it.

I had to get a hold on my power— I needed to control it, or else…

“Eve?” Raphael asked, looking around. “What’s—”

“I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE.”

I heard a growl and the muffled sound of human becoming wolf.

I opened my eyes. Raphael had shifted. There he was, in full wolf form.

But I didn’t have time to appreciate him. Because before the building could quiver again, he whisked me out the window and away from the Pack House.