Toying with temptation
~
Accalia
~

Droplets of water fell down her body and with each, single drop either a sharp inhale or a relieving sigh would fall from her lips.

She wished the water would wash away every ounce of distress Lycus had caused her. The chaos he had created for her.

But that couldn't happen with her being in the same house as him, a distance away and too close for comfort.

As pathetic as it looked, painful as it felt, Cadence and Accalia almost had to beg Gabriel and Nina to let them retire for the night without a hint of watching over them or any control at hand.

Cadence was at the point of smashing the window in and escaping, but Accalia talked her down, dabbling to the side of cooperating with Gabriel. And she knew Cadence, she wouldn't attempt to flee without her.

That icy facade of his faded and he allowed the girls to shower and retire for the night without supervision.

Accalia felt like she was still in a deep and drowning slumber as her eyes reaped with heaviness, a purple set of bags swelled beneath her eyes and detachment clung to her from the previous nights of restlessness.

When her fingers began to prune and her body drank in the steamy heat, Accalia turned the tap off and slid out, wrapping a towel around her.

She wouldn't spare a look in the mirror, she would be more appalled than ever before, beaten and grim-looking. Sparing herself a frightening image, she headed out of the bathroom and secured the towel around her body.

They were both assigned their own room. Cadence was down the hall and proclaimed this outdid the miserable cells.

Accalia thought back to Lycus's intentions, wondering when the facade would fall and unveil the conniving beast she knew him to be. She was always taught to be wary of a person's kindness rather than accepting it.

And Lycus was no man of kindness. Hardly a man at all.

Accalia knew what was expected of her with this type of pairing. Soul tied to someone only elicited a few requirements for mates that held great stakes. Catering and providing for one another, pleasing and pleasuring ...

And despite the Alpha of Alpha's kindness, Accalia wouldn't fathom lowering her guard, not even for a minute.

Reaching for her shirt, a knock at the door sounded through the room and Accalia froze on the spot, her long hair dripping droplets to the floor.

"Come in,"

It must be Cadence, Accalia assumed and watched as the door rattled before opening.

"Lycus," Accalia said breathlessly, tightening the towel around her as he sauntered on in.

His glossy black hair was unkempt, lucent amber eyes were sharp as he took in his mate's appearance. Underneath his black attire was a defined and towering build that wouldn't go unnoticed by anyone.

Accalia was the sacrificial lamb preparing for the slaughter as his watchful gaze never left hers.

"What do you want?" Accalia asked stiffly, trying not to shudder on the spot and do what her head wanted: to run. She would slip on the droplets of water that formed a puddle at her feet.

Lycus's eyes swept down to her feet, inspecting her body and then back to her face, those amber eyes losing their sear and becoming black.

Accalia could have sworn her heart skipped a beat and she swiftly took a step back as Lycus took one toward her. Whatever his black eyes swam with, something sinister, unforgiving, she could only imagine she would have to fight her way out.

If he dares take another step ...

"I have your belongings," Lycus announced to her and it only just caught her attention the bags he was carrying in his hands.

Accalia huffed, cheeks flushing and heart drumming to a slow pace as she watched him place the items on the floor, taking a step back.

She always saw whispers as threats and lycans as monstrosities, but what of werewolves? They were the feral and uncivilized descendants of lycans. Although they were more common than their superiors, they festered like a virus.

With lycans, they crossed the line of humanity and became something else entirely. Beasts. Through inhuman and undoable acts, they became lycans and Accalia found herself suffocated with them, her supposed mate being one.

Accalia thought she was going to pass out with those damning obsidian orbs that never shifted away from her face. It was eerie, almost demonic, the whites of his gaze submerged in blackness and burning flecks of amber shining through the void.

"I see Gabriel allowed you girls to wander," Lycus observed with a sneer. He crossed his arms over his broad chest and Accalia watched his eyes lighten, becoming normal again.

Accalia was tempted to ask why his eyes did that so often but went against it. To do that, meant something she would hate to do with him. Have a conversation.

"We did what we were told, we behaved and held up our end of the deal. You did the same, that's if ... everything is in our bags." Accalia seethed, sending him a suspicious look.

Lycus's mouth twitched before he shrugged. "See for yourself, just don't hold a knife to my throat while I sleep and we should be good."

"Thanks for the idea," Accalia remarked.

She had no intention of maiming anyone, even with Lycus on her list of individuals she wanted dead, she knew better than to make a move like that in this environment. His territory, with his pack behind him and his brother by his side, had a pack of his own.

Accalia wanted to live a few more years.

"The Alphas will be gone tomorrow, my brother will continue to watch over you both, and just for your sake, try not to cross him. Gabriel may look sweet and nice, but his lycan side dislikes troublemakers." 

A mountain rock could have fallen on Accalia and she shielded her face wanting to contort into a waterfall of tears. Distracting herself, she pulled her bruised lip into her mouth and clutched the towel tighter.

"If we're going to be that much trouble, let us go," Accalia had to try. She needed to cave into her blinded hope and see the results she desperately craved.

Was the necessity for Accalia that strong? The need for a mate?

Accalia doubted it. She had to doubt it because there wasn't any other way this was a situation where someone would come out sane. Accalia felt she was going insane even thinking these damning thoughts. The thoughts of staying here forever, locked away in a cage like a bird that couldn't fly again, only being in the air for seconds at a time.

That couldn't happen to Accalia, she couldn't be a bird that couldn't fly, she couldn't be a huntress controlled by an Alpha.

"I'm not letting you go, Accalia. The lycan side of myself is—"

"You have other girls to occupy you," Accalia almost shrieked and thought back to that stunning blonde she-lycan who had an infatuation with Lycus. Melina Thrax. Maybe he felt the same. Why couldn't he have her? She was of lycan blood and had the body and mindset to please an Alpha lycan.

Have anyone else, but not me, Accalia thought to herself. Anyone else...

Lycus shifted on his feet and grew even closer to her with a few strides, the distance between them closing and the heated air becoming suffocating. His presence was smothering and unbearable.

Accalia was tall for a woman, but he still could look down at her like she was a mere human with a heart to rip out and a body to break with ease. He could do it if he wished.

"You're right, I do have other women that can please me, but—" Lycus's voice became deeper, almost foreboding and haunting. "—You're my mate, my future Luna and no longer an enemy to me."

Accalia couldn't help it, she trembled under his fixed gaze and her body stiffened in discomfort. He was getting too close.

"I hunt your kind and you kill mine, simple as that. That's where we stand with each other." Accalia proclaimed, as though those were words recited into her head by fellow hunters many, many times before.

She couldn't risk it to be any more than that. She had to spare no musings on Lycus unless it was to rectify the fact that they were enemies. It would be pitiful if she were to consider anything more. She couldn't even stomach thinking that far into it.

Because if led to anything else, it would leave a spineless attachment on Accalia's part and something Lycus didn't deserve.

A sick attachment with hidden agendas, deception and manipulation.

Accalia wouldn't fall for it. Accalia wouldn't fall for him.

"I don't want you as an enemy, Accalia, but I'll make you one. Your people have had many issues with other lycans but you just started on mine, I'd like to see you continue it. See what happens," Lycus's cut clear and sharp tone made Accalia clench her fingers into fists and avoid his eye.

He was right, the hunters only sought out fights with particular Alphas and Lycus wasn't the one at the top of their list. Simply because he was the oldest and most primal one of them all.

The goal for hunters was to work their way up but only recently did that course shift when she stupidly crossed into his lands.

"You're my mate," Lycus said simply as if the discussion would end upon that fact. "Nothing can change that, not even you or me can do anything about it."

"I don't even know you, besides what I've read and heard about you," Accalia spat, trying not to size him up with anger. "You may be my mate, but that doesn't mean I'll see it that way."

"Then I'll make you see it," Lycus remarked, his teeth baring at her that vaguely showed pearly white canines.

Typical. Such a typical thing for a lycan to say. Lay claim what they deemed theirs and have everyone around them bow down and let it happen.

"That's not how it works. You're a lycan and I'm a hunter, you'll only create hell for me." Accalia said wisely. "Look at what you've done already. I won't come to you easily." I won't ever.

Silence overcame them and they stared each other down, no battle to be won as neither backed down.

This conversation reached its end. A dead end.

"Get out, I need to get changed unless you're revolting enough to want to see that too." Accalia croaked out and moved closer to the bed, puffing out a breath of relief.

Lycus's lip curled and turned on his heel, heading for the door as his shoulders shook with overwhelming rage.

"You're fierce and tempting, Accalia, but know this, you're now bound to the creature you hate. Bound to me and the moon." Lycus muttered to her, a zest of wickedness enriching his voice as he spared her one final look.

"Then I'll make you wish you never met me," Accalia managed to get out and watched as he left, the silence more overwhelming than their exchange.

~

Lycus
~

A bloody and merciless vision of redness led Lycus to his room as he shook with anger, almost wanting to go back into that room and have it out with her again.

Her resistance, his anger, it was a match made in hell and would only invoke the world into chaos.

Of all women, all beauties, it had to be her. A hunter.

A roar wanted to tear from his throat as he made his way to his room that was at the other end of his house. At least that was distancing enough, unable to hear her talk and see her, but even now, her scent evaded his senses. The earthly essence of wood and rose.

Her face branded his head with everything in between, her voice of reason and defiance, actions of battle but softness ... eyes that bled with emotion.

The white towel wrapped around her body, only one piece of material that could easily be shed from her body. Lycus noted how much she was clutching it, wanting her body concealed from him.

Lycus ached to bite her, bite right between her shoulder and her earlobe, marking her his eternally. It would be so simple, he had already played it out in his head, even more so since seeing her in the towel.

Traditionally, lycans and werewolves marked their mates to solidify their union and they did it as soon as possible to honour it.

It happened in a matter of days. Although, it was much more different between lycans and humans. But even more so for a lycan and hunter.

He never expected it for himself.

He didn't expect a lot of things and yet, chaos seemed to fall at his feet, whether he liked it or not.

Lycus's room was beckoned in darkness when he stalked in, slamming the door behind him. The room rattled beneath his hands and he shrugged off his jacket, needing to shed out of his clothes and turn into the monstrosity Accalia loathed.

A cool rush of air bundled around him and Lycus came to a pause, sensing something to be out of place. His window was wide open, the curtain blowing against the nightly breeze and sweeping the room in a fresh coolness.

But Lycus didn't open his window today.

A sudden sensation of two slender arms made their way over Lycus's shoulders and crept up to his face, palms covering his eyes.

"Guess who," a voice taunted into his ear, a streak of lust filling her tone and her lip coming close to his ear.

Other times, in the past, Lycus would have conjured up a grin, but now he was ridden in disgust from the voice belonging to someone he didn't care to hear.

"Melina," Lycus drawled, moving out of her hands and flowery scent before turning to face her. "Creeping through my window, I see,"

Melina Thrax giggled, putting a finger to her lips and gently nibbling. Her tone was light and cheeky. "Being around the Alphas is boring, I wanted to see you,"

There was a precise reason Lycus escorted each one of his guests to his other houses within his territory and it wasn't so this could happen.

Why am I protecting her? Lycus thought. He even went out of his way to protect her bitchy cousin and he couldn't pinpoint why. The beast within him stirred, gripping the invisible bars inside of himself and shaking it with a jarring rattle. That's why ... Lycus concluded to himself.

An unfitting and foreign sensation coursed through him at the prospect of Melina catching a human scent in her already lust-filled senses. What if she found out Lycus's secret? The secret of hiding two hunters and one just happened to be his mate? War would shake his world from the ground up, taking Accalia with him.

This was a decided matter. Melina needed to piss off. For her own good, unless she wanted Lycus's hands to snap her neck. Matter of fact, she most likely wouldn't mind that.

Lycus's domain was nearest to the woods, so he could take off whenever he wanted without ripping his home apart with his bare hands before he took the shift.

Thankfully, Accalia and Cadence, including Gabriel and Nina were at the end of the house with dimly lit halls and fireplaces. Lycus could protect them on the outside of his home, the outskirts being surrounded with spells of protection and concealment by Vaela's doing. That doesn't mean that was the case within the walls of the house.

Lycus could almost smell Accalia even from here.

Damn her.

Lycus couldn't shake off the honey-coloured eyes of Melina Thrax, her stance collected but needy on the inside. She was leaning against the wall now, watching him, the blackness of her tight dress looking nothing but alluring. Forbidding even.

Her scent reeked of lust, searing with desire and her body yearned to submit.

The simplicity of submission came easily for Melina, longing for Lycus's hands to command her body to his bidding and how easily she would allow it to happen.

Temptation loitered the room and would linger hours afterwards.

"So you're bored Melina," Lycus murmured to her and she immediately shifted on her feet, body eager and desperate.

Melina had dark honey-blonde hair, a glow to her caramel skin and pretty eyes. Petite and curvaceous compared to Accalia.

Accalia was beautiful, out of reach and just ... soulful.

And Melina possessed hunger, desire and short-term interest. Something Lycus found himself indulging in a few times in the past. The recent being two weeks ago.

"Want to entertain me?" Melina purred.

Lycus almost laughed at her pathetic attempt at flirting. In the past, it did the job, coaxing him out of his shell just to take a bite and a taste.

"You're the one who came here, Melina, I would've thought you would want to entertain me."

At that, Melina puckered up, body shifting and hips swaying as she etched closer to him.

Her tongue found her red lips and licked them, gaze ravaging and body pulsating.

Of course, she would.

From the first time they met years back for an Alpha meeting, Melina and Lycus became acquainted, and friendly and then used each other whenever it served them.

Melina's Alpha brother didn't take kindly to it but shoved it aside to avoid issues with Lycus who had always done things as he pleased.

"Yes Alpha," Melina flirted.

Lycus hoped he wouldn't be interrupted, just wanting to consume himself in something where he could only forget for a bit, lose a trance of time and lose all sense of reality. Lose his train of thought that led to a destination he didn't want to stop at.

"Once we're done, you leave where you came from, got it?" Lycus growled out. "I can't have you wandering my house after I'm done with you,"

Melina nodded, her cheeks heating up and licked her lips, "I understand, Lycus,"

And so, thirsted for someone he couldn't have, Lycus picked Melina up, her legs wrapping around him tightly as he smashed his lips to hers and all he knew in this moment was that he craved the taste of Accalia's lips and only hers.