Текст книги "Fable of Happiness Book One"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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CHAPTER SEVEN

WELL, I’D CONFIRMED IT.

I’m alone.

The bedrooms had been decorated with scrumptious furniture, rich bedding, intricate sconces, and delicate works of art, yet I hadn’t found the slightest hint in any of the twenty suites that someone slept there.

Each bathroom was untouched with fresh towels hanging off chrome rails, soap still wrapped in tissue paper, and taps so perfectly polished I could see my reflection in them. And just like the dining room and its shattered mirrors, each bathroom housed empty frames where reflective glass used to live. No debris existed, so meticulous attention to cleanliness was obvious, but the oddness of missing mirrors sent chills down my back.

Who had done such a thing?

Why?

Did they still live here?

No water marks in the showers, no laundry on the floor, no books on the side tables, no usual clutter of habitation. If someone did live here, they didn’t sleep in the house.

So...where?

Who keeps this place so clean?

My head swam a little, either from the heat, confusion, or dehydration. I’d somehow stumbled into a mystery that I doubted many people knew about, and my questions weighed me down. Curiosity scratched me. I’d hoped I’d find someone to explain the randomness of this home and the apparent attempt at sheltering it away from the population.

It hadn’t wanted to be found.

It’d been hidden away for a reason.

And that reason was driving me crazy.

Sighing heavily, I left the last bedroom—this one decorated in navy and cream with a four-poster bed and a mountain of pillows artfully arranged—and stepped back onto the landing.

The skylight above, complete with its clumps of wildflowers, showed the sun had slipped into later afternoon. If I was going to make it back to my Jeep tonight, I needed to leave now. I’d already left it far too late.

Gathering my hair off my neck, searching for some coolness after sweating in this hot house, I moved quietly toward the staircase. My boots made soft thumps on the gray carpet as I touched the banister and prepared to climb down.

Only...

A noise.

A growl.

The heavy pound of running feet.

Someone’s here!

My heart shot into my throat as a man suddenly exploded through the door disguised as a bookcase and skidded into the foyer. His legs splayed wide, his hands fisted by his sides, his eyes darting everywhere at once. His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, sending sunshine scattering over his body and highlighting a thousand silvery scars.

I sucked in a breath.

He froze as his head whipped up and his dark eyes latched onto me.

Time stopped.

I swear it did.

Every clock in the world paused as he stared at me on his staircase, and I stared at him below me. I drank in every inch of his naked skin. His cock hanging between wide legs. His defined muscles etching with fury and power. He looked as if he’d appeared from the river moments ago with dripping dark hair touching defined shoulders and grass sticking to bare feet.

My stomach quickened. My heart raced. Every inch of me tingled with awareness.

I didn’t know who he was or where he’d come from, but he was the wildest, most furious looking man I’d ever seen.

Swallowing hard, I tried to speak. I licked my lips and pushed away my nerves, my voice quivery and full of guilt. “I didn’t mean to trespass. I—”

He snarled.

A rabid thundering sound that echoed in the marble-encrusted foyer.

And then, he was running.

Leaping up the stairs four at a time. His thighs rippling with power. His cock swinging. His arms coming up as weapons.

A lifetime of safety and living in a tame society left me woefully ill-equipped for a monster rushing up the stairs.

I didn’t understand.

My brain refused to contemplate that this stranger meant me harm.

But my body wasn’t so conditioned.

It still operated on instinct, and it knew.

It knew it was being hunted and needed to run.

Run!

I spun and sprinted down the corridor, racing for a bedroom.

“Stop, please!” I screamed as he leaped the final distance to the landing and gave chase. The strength of his strides shuddered the carpet beneath my boots. “I only wanted—”

He snarled again.

No words.

No warning.

Just a beast about to tear me to pieces for trespassing.

I’d die here in this mysterious mansion in the middle of nowhere.

“No!” I careened into a bedroom, swinging on the door handle as I struggled to shut it. I slammed the door as fast as I could.

I scrambled with the lock.

No lock!

The door exploded inward, bashing me off my feet and sending me sprawling to the floor. He stalked over the threshold. His dark eyes manic and long hair tumbling as if it was a shaggy pelt and he wasn’t human.

I crawled backward, my boots skidding on the carpet, my palms burning. “No, wait. Please. I—”

He stood over me, his nostrils flaring. He glowered at me with such loathing, his entire face bathed in evil. I scurried backward, but he dropped to his knees, imprisoning me between his spread legs.

His hands wrapped around my throat. A heady scent of rivers and woods filled my nose.

I instantly clawed at his wrists, digging my nails into his violent hold. “No, wait, I—”

“How dare you,” he hissed, his fingers looping tighter around my neck, his touch shaking with anger. “How dare you!”

“Stop!” I gulped and gasped, writhing beneath him, slashing at every part of him that I could reach. My fingernails scratched deeply but he didn’t seem to notice or care—impervious to whatever pain I granted.

“Please...” I struggled harder. “Let me—”

His fingers noosed tighter, his eyes flashing with hate.

His entire presence overwhelmed me, taking master of my senses, crushing me deeper into the carpet. His skin was scalding hot. His muscles rock hard. His cock pressed against my belly as he continued to squeeze. And squeeze.

I choked.

I couldn’t breathe.

My eyes felt as if they bulged with pressure, and my arms grew too heavy to fight. I kicked and kicked. My legs danced uselessly beneath him, unable to connect, unable to save me.

“Stop!” I fought until I was too feeble to try.

Get your knife!

I fumbled for my pocket.

I fought against the heaviness, the sluggishness.

My fingers didn’t work properly.

My kicking grew jerky as air retreated from my blood.

I tried again to get my knife.

I couldn’t.

Panic drowned me.

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t beg.

I looked into the face of my murderer and studied the scars on his cheekbones, the lips glistening with hate, the eyes molten with mayhem, and took my last breath as he bowed over me, the tips of his long hair tickling my cheeks, his nose coming so close to mine.

“Die.” He squeezed a final time.

And I did.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

THE SECOND SHE PASSED out, I shot off her and shook out my hands. I couldn’t stop the fire of touching her, of feeling her pulse flicker, of squeezing the life out of her body.

I paced, looking down at the unconscious stranger. A girl who’d appeared out of nowhere and somehow entered my house.

Where the fuck did she come from?

Unable to remove the burn in my fingers, I ducked and checked her condition.

If she was dead, then good riddance.

If she wasn’t, then I had a choice to make.

Slowing my breathing, I waited for a quick kick of her heart.

There.

Faint but steady.

Fuck.

I had a choice then.

But how was I supposed to decide when she wasn’t welcome here? When her very existence threatened mine?

I returned to pacing, dragging my hands through my hair and shoving aside dampness from the river. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. It’d been so long since I’d seen anyone other than my own river reflection that she looked foreign. Wrong. A combined creation of everyone and everything evil that had been done to me.

I stopped and stood over her.

With blond hair spread and tangled on the carpet, arms bent at her sides, and legs wide from kicking, she looked vulnerable and nonthreatening. She was a girl. She couldn’t hurt me.

Then again, my life experience said she could. All it would take was a moment of distraction on my part, a slight give in my wariness, and she could kill me as surely as I could kill her.

I nudged her cheek with my foot.

Her head lolled to the side, but her eyes didn’t open. She didn’t come back to life. She remained utterly at my mercy to either finish the job or devise another plan that didn’t involve more blood on my hands.

Think.

I grabbed my hair again, tugging it, forcing my brain to unriddle this problem.

First, I needed to make sure she was alone. Where one human was, more were sure to follow. Until I knew why she’d come after me and who would come after her, she was worth more to me alive than dead.

I sighed, dropping my arms with a scowl.

The sun had decided to hide above the branches cocooning my valley, and shadows crossed over her face. Her nose was small. Her cheeks round. Her eyebrows the same color as her hair.

She kind of looks like—

Don’t.

I gritted my teeth, shoving the memories away. They weren’t welcome while daylight still existed. Besides, I had work to do. It no longer involved the chores I’d set for myself but ensuring this girl remained shackled and unable to run.

For the first time, I let myself study the room where she’d sought solace. A gold and teal monstrosity with lace on the coverlets and a wardrobe full of expensive gowns. I’d braved each of these rooms to ensure they remained clean, but at no point would I ever sleep in them.

No fucking way.

Chills darted down my back.

I’d been in here too long.

So you’ll leave her on the carpet then?

I sniffed, glaring at her again.

Why the hell did she have to find me? Why did she have to interrupt my life after I’d worked so hard to make it mine?

I couldn’t leave her here. The windows didn’t lock, and the ivy outside meant it would be a simple task for her to shimmy down and vanish into the valley.

Had she come through the cave? That was the only entrance I knew of. Were others waiting for her to return?

My mind raced with questions. Sweat broke out over my skin as fresh anger coursed through my body.

Bending over her, I danced on the edge of just killing her. Of getting it over with so I could pretend this never happened. But as I stared at her blank face, I grew traitorously hard.

For the first time in eleven years, there was a female in this house.

A female who was at my command. A woman I could do anything I liked to.

I could use her.

Hadn’t my needs demanded this very thing? I refused to touch myself, and the desire in my blood had become excruciating. Nature always provided an outlet. Male birds found female birds. Horny coyotes howled until they found a mate to bite and mount.

Maybe that was all this was. Nature giving me what I needed because I wouldn’t take it for myself.

Or maybe she’s a spy. She’s one of them. She’s been sent to destroy you.

My hands balled.

No way.

No way would I let her take from me again. Not now. Not after every-fucking-thing I’d done.

I wouldn’t kill her. Not yet. Not until I had answers on why and how she’d found me. But if I ended up keeping her, she’d almost certainly beg for death. Even now, my belly clenched for something I hadn’t had access to in a very long time. If I kept her, I wouldn’t have the self-control not to take everything I could from her body.

And that knowledge made me rage. Made me hard. Made me hate.

With a growl of scorching loathing, I ducked and slid my arms under her shoulders and knees. Hoisting her from the floor, she didn’t make a sound. Didn’t wake up. Didn’t acknowledge me in any way.

A knife fell from her jacket pocket, striking the bones of my foot.

Fuck.

A compass tumbled after it, rolling under the bed.

I flinched and backed up with her balanced in my arms. My speed jostled her. I froze, searching her face to see if her eyes would open.

She didn’t wake.

Perhaps she wouldn’t. Maybe I’d done irreparable damage, and I wouldn’t get my answers, after all.

Fear filled me as I stalked from the bedroom with the stranger in my arms, leaving her knife that had already hurt me on the carpet.

It wasn’t fear for what I’d done to her but fear of what would happen to me.

What if others came?

I had weapons and was skilled at defending my home, but if they came in a mob? If they arrived for war, my carefully crafted existence would be over.

I glowered at her as I descended the staircase, her weight hardly noticeable in my arms.

How dare you.

How fucking dare you ruin my life.

I hated her.

I downright despised her.

My cock twitched as I reached the foyer, the heavy length hitting my thighs as I headed toward the back of the house and the hidden door beneath the staff staircase. My balls throbbed as a whiff of her scent invaded my nose. She smelled like leaves and earth. A musty combination that laced the air in the valley, thanks to living in a jungle of ivy and tree branches.

My skin burned where she rested against my chest.

My body tightened, eager to take everything from her.

I wanted her.

I didn’t like her. I didn’t know her. I still planned on killing her, but fuck, the longer I held her, the worse those urges became. The hotter and fiercer my need grew.

I trembled and gritted my teeth, cringing at her closeness.

Get away from her.

Rushing to open the cellar door, I almost dropped her as I pulled it wide. She moaned a little as I tightened my hold.

Christ, who would’ve thought a quiet moan would almost buckle my knees?

My mouth watered. My mind turned black. My cock thickened to excruciating levels.

Tightening my hold again, wishing I could squeeze the life out of her and the disgusting lust out of me, I climbed down another set of stairs. Unlike above ground, these steps were entirely entombed in the dark.

My blood continued to hum with desire as I climbed down, lower and lower. Sixteen steps to the bottom. Fourteen steps to the cell. Ten steps in either direction marked the size of the square dungeon.

A dungeon that lurked beneath a house full of finery, slowly festering with filth and pain.

The air turned stale, the temperature shifting from muggy warmth to dank coldness. My chest burned where I touched her, but my back welcomed the chilly dampness. It helped soothe the chaos inside me. The bloodlust and the violence.

I felt as if I had a fever. I was sick, and I was shaking. I wish she’d never fucking come here.

Striding deeper into the chilly dungeon, I didn’t care about the dark. This place was more familiar to me than any place in the valley.

I didn’t pause to turn on the lights. I’d memorized every divot and imperfection. I rushed to drop her so I could run.

Reaching the wall, I bent and lowered her to the ground. Barely visible, she slumped to the side as I let her go, her shoulder bashing against the floor as she slid into a fetal position. Her head cracked on the concrete.

The darkness was almost absolute. Small slivers of light crept in from the stone where the mortar had crumbled to dust, thanks to ivy roots wriggling their way through the foundation.

But I saw enough to study her. To drink in the youngness of her. The innocence of her sleep. The collar of bruises I’d caused around her white, breakable neck.

I waited.

Eyes didn’t open.

Lips didn’t move.

Hair slipped over her face, obscuring what I’d done.

Straightening up, I fought with myself again.

Just do it.

Get it over with.

The urge was almost unbearable—almost as unbearable as the uncommon feeling of lust.

I wanted both. To touch and to kill. To take and to ruin.

But I fought for patience.

Scanning the tiny cell, I checked the bucket was there, nice and clean from previous inhabitants. The fresh water tap still dripped through the wall, providing hydration. And a scratchy blanket—that was probably woven with thorns and rat hair with how uncomfortable it was—rested neatly folded in the corner.

If she woke, she’d stay alive for however long it would take to get my answers.

And then, I’ll kill her.

I wouldn’t be reckless this time.

I would restrain myself in the lust department.

I would get my answers, and then she’d be gone.

She’s secure and can’t leave.

I can wait.

Needing air, I spun and crossed the ten steps back to the door.

My cock bounced on my thighs in frustration. My heart kicked with age-old hate. And I swung the heavy wood closed.

I locked the padlock and palmed the key.

I sprinted back up the stairs to the sun.

* * * * *

I stayed away for nine hours.

Nine eternal hours where I stood by my window in the dormitory and drove myself to madness, weighing my options. Had she woken? Had she tried to escape? Would others appear from the forest any moment now, looking for her? Why was she here?

What does this all mean?

Was this secret place no longer a secret? And if that was the case, what the fuck did it mean for me and the history still haunting these four walls?

My thoughts collided and spun. My body was on high alert. My nerves flayed to their breaking point. My eyes ached from staring outside so intently, watching every leaf and glowering at every rodent.

I flinched at the smallest movement. The tiniest breeze in the foliage had me tensing and reaching for my butcher's knife. My heart rate never calmed, and shaky anxiety cloaked over the raw hunger in my blood, leaving me short-tempered, violent, and starving.

I hadn’t eaten all day.

I should’ve fucking eaten.

Go then. Cook. Stay strong.

I shook my head, fisting my knife tighter as dusk descended. It became harder to study the valley. No way would I let down my guard. No way would I sleep or eat or even sneeze until I knew where that woman had come from, how she’d found me, and why.

My cock twitched, reminding me of yet another need that I couldn’t forget about.

Knowing she was down there.

Soft and fragile. Imprisoned and mine.

It was enough to drive all sanity out of my mind and throw myself to baser instincts.

She’d trespassed on my turf. She was the one who’d entered uninvited. She was the one who found me, not the other way around. Didn’t that give me a right to take what she’d already taken from me?

She’d taken my privacy, my secrecy, my very way of life.

The least she could do was spread her legs for me.

My belly clenched as my mind filled with writhing limbs and thrusting hips.

Christ.

I clutched the windowsill, digging my nails into the wood so I didn’t reach for my cock and seek out the tingling pleasure it promised. I’d never, not once, given in to the urge. I endured wet dreams as I came in my sleep. I sometimes howled like the coyotes when I woke and thrashed in bed, needing a release. But not once had I put myself out of my misery.

Answers to why I didn’t lurked in the back of my mind. If I dared open those heavily fortified doors and pull out my sordid past, I would remember precisely why pleasure and fornication was the vilest sin on earth.

However, I had enough problems to deal with tonight without torturing myself with the past.

Night fell, blackness swiftly eating up the last remaining light. Creatures turned vocal with the darkness, making my skin prickle as I strained to hear foreign sounds that weren’t welcome.

Were they out there? Watching me watching them? Were they waiting for reinforcements before entering my property?

Unlike the woman below, they might be smart. She’d had no thought to her safety. No respect for someone else’s home. She’d strolled in as if this ivy-smothered building was hers.

My teeth ground together.

Nothing here belongs to her.

It’s all mine.

Looking one last time out the window, I allowed my back to relax, my knife to lower, and my rage to fade.

I supposed, after nine hours of her disappearance, if anyone was out there waiting for her to return, they would’ve given up being patient by now and raided my home. They would’ve appeared with their demands and either gotten killed in the process or succeeded in killing me.

The resident pack of coyotes slinked through the darkness, and a few weasels helped themselves to a drink out of the bowl that I’d placed by the back door for that purpose. Nothing was on alert. No creature acted as if anything was different.

I had to trust that they had better noses than me for sniffing out traitors.

I was alone.

Which meant the time had come.

I had to go back down there.

Fuck.

Dressing slowly now that a chill existed in the air, I hoisted on my ruined slacks and shrugged into the taupe shirt with destroyed cuffs. Pulling my hair back, I secured it at my nape with a rubber band from the study.

Shoving the key into my pocket, I clenched my jaw as I stomped down the stairs, bypassed the kitchen, and opened the cellar door. My stomach growled with discomfort, reminding me once again that I hadn’t given it any food.

Later.

Once she’s dealt with.

Once I have my answers.

My bare feet slapped on the damp concrete stairs, loud in the night.

Even though I’d memorized the cells below the house, I flicked on the lights, wanting illumination to see her, to watch her lies—to do my best to see her truth.

Because one thing was for certain—she would lie.

I’d strangled her, imprisoned her, and now I’d come to interrogate her. She’d hate me almost as much as I hated her. She wouldn’t be cooperative, and I was prepared to do what was necessary to get information.

The moment she’d stepped into my valley, her fate had been sealed. She wouldn’t be leaving here while breathing. And for that, I should’ve felt guilty. Instead, all I felt was absolute authority and obligation to be as merciless as required.

Moving toward the heavy door blocking her cell, I sucked in a breath. I swallowed to lubricate my throat, preparing for words that I hadn’t spoken in sentence strings for over a decade.

Thanks to my lonely existence, I’d embraced more animalistic tendencies. I didn’t talk. I didn’t fuss over my appearance. I’d forgotten what it was like to hold a conversation and be a man instead of a beast.

That was all I was now.

A beast.

A forest dweller who wasn’t fit for society.

And it was all their fault.

The day I was born, a curse was put upon me.

That curse grew up with me from boyhood to man. I had no mark to prove it. No doctor to confirm it.

But I knew.

A blackness had attached itself to me, and I was cursed.

So...what are you going to do with her?

My hands balled as I paced outside the cell where I’d thrown her.

I don’t know.

That was a lie.

I knew what I should do.

I’d told myself countless times.

So...do what you know is required.

I stopped.

I glared at the heavy wooden door, dropping my gaze to the rusty padlock that’d continued its role of imprisonment for far too long.

Get it over with.

I pulled the key from my pocket.

I opened the door.

I stepped inside to face my enemy.

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