The air cracked as the whip was brought down once more upon my flesh, trickles of blood carving their paths down my back like rivers through a forest.

I let out a grunt through gritted teeth, the whips tails splaying, their leather teeth biting deep into my skin filling me with the grief of their bitter sweet kiss.

-But I held my ground, never screaming.
Never once relenting.

I would give them no satisfaction, no cry for help that would please their sick and twisted minds.
-Because one day, one day I would kill them all.

The rope they'd tied around my wrists rubbed against my flesh, leaving angry red marks and staining parts of the rope a vile shade of red.

"Give up Amelia, you're done." One of the men hissed, landing a blow to my side with his heavy boot, I heaved and spluttered, falling on my side and struggling to regain the ability to breath through the mix of blood and bile on my tongue.

"Fuck you." I spat, thick beads of both blood and sweat running down my forehead, mingling into one.

"I said, you're done! Give up!" He roared, letting the whip land a violent kiss against my skin once more, the pain was the only thing that kept me from letting go and fading into the darkness and temptation of rest.

"Never."

***

I watched over the horizon as the sun sang it's final song, casting its last light overhead of the bronze baked clouds, filling them with its golden light as I swung my legs idly over he edge of the pack house roof.

I had always enjoyed sunsets, the way the light dwindled in the sky and the first twinkle of the stars began to show in the sky.

"Beautiful, isn't it."
A deep voice rumbled from behind me, my body instantly reacting with being started by spinning around to face the beautiful intruder, a blazing fire in my eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I spat, turning my back on the man to face the faintly glowing light once more.

"I come here most nights to watch the sunset." He said quietly, moving to sit next to me on the verge of the roof, close, but not so that we were touching.

-too close, but somehow...not close enough.

I didn't respond, did he really come here most nights, or was it all just a ploy?
-if so I would have to find a new place to watch the evening's last lights.

"I never got to see the sunsets in the asylum." I whispered, more to myself than anyone.

I felt him stiffen besides me, his muscles tense and fists clenched white,

"You should never have been in there in the first place." He growled, turning to face me but I kept staring straight ahead into the horizon.

"That's where you're wrong Alpha." I interjected, my eyes following the movement of a lone bird, its black silhouette soaring against the amber sky.

"I deserved it all."

I looked over to see Hades with his jaw clenched tightly, the sun casting its golden hue upon his face, emphasising the every contour and plane, the hollows of his cheekbones, the sharp line of his jaw.

"Lies." He spat, his lip raising slightly to expose the snarl of his white teeth, "Its wasn't your fault."

"You don't even know the story." I chuckled, a hint of frustration making its way through the mask.
Why didn't he understand?

I was crazy.
-Dangerous, even.

"Tell me then." He said quietly, his voice barely audible, and his eyes following the rise and the falls of the distant trees, studying their silhouettes.

I sighed, I wasn't about to reel off my life story, because he didn't deserve to know me like that.
-Nobody did.

"A silly little girl was once told that silly little lie, but eventually, that lie was repeated enough times and she became everything that they had ever said that he was. Then that crazy little girl lit a flame, and burned an orphanage to ashes, so they called the bad men in white jackets to take that silly little girl away, they threw her in a luni-bin.
Life was hard there for the little girl, but she grew up fast.
Bad people did bad things...But she was bad too, -still might be.
But she did what she needed to survive."

Hades was silent for a long moment before speaking,
"Bad people do bad things, but sometimes good people do bad things too." He said, but he didn't understand, couldn't possibly understand what it felt like to be like this, or maybe he did?

"Maybe." I mumbled, the sun was slowly disappearing behind the thick tree line, the stars twinkling their first dance.

I looked over to see Hades' eyes fixed on me, his brown eyes like a pool of emotions that were a complete mystery to me, I was usually good at reading people, but this man never ceased to confuse me.

He lent forwards, his face only mere inches from mine. Part of me screamed to pull away, to run away as far as I could until my legs could carry me no more.

My eyes wandered to his lips, and it was me that closed the short distance between us, our lips meeting for the first time.
Hades responded instantly, pulling me closer to deepen the kiss.
My hands wandered to his hair, entangling themselves in the silky black strands, pulling them taught which caused Hades to growl lowly against my lips.

His hands glided up my back, moving to fist my hair as he pulled me up and against him, almost aggressively. My body fused to his body, as he pulled me onto his lap, he pulled on my hair causing my neck to be exposed to him in a submissive manner, but in the moment I didn't care, as he trailed lingering kisses from my jaw to where his mark lay, suckling on the skin and occasionally grazing it with the tips of his canines, a breathy moan escaped my lips as he did so, which only seemed to further fuel his fire.

I rolled my hips into him, feeling his hard member beneath me. That caused him to growl and his grip on my hair to tighten, exposing more of my neck to him and sending an abundance of shivers down my spine, as I rolled myself against him once more.

"We have to stop." He mumbled against the skin of my neck, but it didn't listen, instead I crashed my lips upon his to silence him.

He responded instantly, pushing his tongue deep into my mouth, as our bodies took control, in a mindless haze of pleasure.

"Stop." He growled, pushing me off of his lap, my body instantly feeling cold and yearning to feel his touch once more.

"What's wrong?" I asked hurt, did he not want me?
Did I even want him?

'Yes.' My wolf hissed. 'He is our mate.'

I ignored her, instead focusing on Hades who was breathing heavily, his muscled chest rising and falling rapidly in a bid to control his wolf.

"My wolf, he wants you, and I wouldn't be able to control him if we didn't stop."

***
Anyways...
Don't forget to vote and comment!
-🍟