┌••────── ⊱✦⊰──────••┐

Chapter eight: Waking up

└••────── ⊱✦⊰──────••┘

Warning!
This chapter contains sexual and mature contents, so... Yeah.
Enjoy reading xx
_________________________________________

Luna

There wasn't a movement he could make that I didn't relish, or fear, or feel in the tips of my fingers.

The mere act of him rising from his spot by the pit caused things inside me to expand.

The stillness stretching from his end of the camp to mine made it clear we stood on a precipice. It was up to us whether we jumped or not.

"You came back," Taehyung said.

"I pretended I didn't feel well. I don't know if they believed me," I responded.

Jimin had been in the middle of regaling us with a joke when more primal instincts quickly washed over me. I hadn't gone far into the woods before everyone's voices began to froth together in my head, making it difficult to pay attention. Once the sensation cleared, a single word remained.

Taehyung.

His name bounced from one end of my body to the other, and I had to turn around. Now that I was here, I didn't know what to do.

My palms moistened, and I wiped them against my shirt. Taehyung didn't help the matter by advancing on me.

I stepped back, but he kept coming forward. I wheeled around and began gathering cups scattered on the ground, determined to keep my fingers busy.

His voice trailed me. "Why are you here, Luna?"

"This place is a mess," I squeaked.

"Turn around."

"It wasn't fair to leave you to clean up."

"Forget the mess."

"There's still some meat left. Do you have a place to store it?"

"Stop," he said firmly.

I halted, almost dropping the cups when his chest brushed against my back. If I moved away, he'd stop me physically, which would lead to dangerous things that involved his lips, and my lips, and our lips.

Yet I did not stop him when his arm slid around me, his hand traveling down my neck and over my collarbone, to my chest, hand halting at the neckline of my tunic.

I leaned against him, giving him permission. He pulled the crisscross strings of my tunic, then slipped his fingers underneath the material, pressing his palm against my heart.

The fire popped, embers darting into the air.

"I never expected this," he whispered. "I'm in agony."

"What is happening to us?" I asked.

"I don't know."

I could have argued to myself that his face and lore had me spellbound, but I wasn't foolish. It was more than that.

My predicament and its reducing timeline caused an uproar in my head, influencing me to act rashly. But it was more than that.

I never behaved like myself in his company, letting him teach and touch and taste me, cutting his chin, speaking without reservation, willing to expose every drop of my thoughts, sharing my desires and confronting my fears.

With him, I met the girl I longed to be, brave and confident. He made me feel like his equal. He made me feel safe.

It was more than that. This stranger, who was not a stranger at all, somehow crept through the cracks in my heart. He made me cry, but he also made me smile.

Slowly, I pivoted on my heel, my nails digging into the cups. Taehyung stared down at me curiously. "Why did you return?"

Because you called me here without uttering a word. Because, during our fight today, you made me feel strong. You made me realize that I don't like being pushed around. You made me realize that Seokjin doesn't have to win. You made me want to earn your faith. I came back to tell you the truth, but your mouth is distracting me.

"For you," I admitted.

Those eyes dimmed to an incomparable shade of grey.

"What do you want?"

"You."

He smiled. "And?"

"You."

"I meant what else?"

"You."

Taehyung slapped the cups from my hands. They landed and rolled across the dirt.

He hoisted me against him, crushing his mouth to mine while my arms scaled his chest, hands twisting in his hair.

I moaned into his kiss when I felt his fingers dip into the front of my hose, tracing the slit down below.

He tore his lips away. "Can I have you?"

I nodded. Taehyung slid his arm beneath my knees, swept me up like a bride, and carried me across the camp.

We glided through the entrance to his tent. The glow from the fire bled into the space, making our figures pulsate, half-illuminated, half-shadowed.

He set me down and whipped me around, pulled the neckline of my tunic past my shoulder and dragged his lips across my skin.

The back of my head lolled against him. His mouth assaulted me with knowledgeable kisses that revealed his experience to me like sunlight, and perhaps I would have been jealous to realize I wasn't his first.

But in this moment, I soaked up the warmth of this discovery, because I knew he would make this memorable.

He yanked the tunic over my head and flung it to the side, focusing now on my other shoulder, then behind my neck, circling his lips and tongue over the nape.

His fingers gripped my hips possessively, his breathing quick and hopeful and, dared I imagine, tense. Giving the impression that this was new for him.

Those fingers ascended to the cloth covering my breasts and unwrapped the binding, revealing me in pieces. The fleshy swells, the beauty marks, the dark peaks. He sculpted them into his palms and resumed tasting my neck.

I sighed. Yes, this was new for him. Because it was with me.

I yearned to please him, to let him take my body and harmonize it with his, shy as the thought made me. And so the words spilled out.

"Taehyung, make love to me."

He spun me back around and raked his hands into my hair. "I will."

His feverish kiss commanded me so that I felt the effects behind my ears, in my nipples as well as my heart.

There were so many reasons not to do this, but so many desires banished those reasons and pushed us closer.

We broke apart only long enough for me to pull off his shirt. I craved the weight of those muscles, eager for them to rest upon me, to move against me.

I yearned to lay beneath him and cling to his roving form, to lodge him within me.

Taehyung urged us backward, still kissing me, until we fell together onto his pallet. He eased off my hose, but I stopped him from removing his own breeches, wanting to own and control his nakedness.

Impatient, I hooked my fingers over the waistband and thrust them down until I could no longer reach, kicking them the rest of the way with my heel before they toppled to the floor.

In his presence, I beheld a man for the first time, and my pulse thumped wildly at the sight.

Dark eyes curtained with lust. The planes of his torso and abdomen flushed pink. His center so firm and male, ready for me.

He grinned, knowing this was a novel encounter for a girl such as myself, and I could tell the effect this had on him. His own primal gaze painted over me.

The apex of my thighs became pliant and wet, and he stiffened even more. He knew I was a virgin. I knew he was not.

"You honor me, my lady," he said, his voice deep at the end—that's his distinct way of talking.

He crawled toward me and reunited his finger with my body, twirling the moisture inside me and strumming the nerves, bringing my girlish fantasies to life, hunting for my gasps.

Preparing me, I realized as the pleasure braided tightly in my lower back.

I was still moaning uncontrollably and writhing against him when he withdrew. I made a noise of protest that, for some reason, caused his lips to twitch. He kissed my hot temple.

"Soon," he said. "Very soon."

My thighs welcomed him as he secured himself between them, rewarding me finally with the bliss of his chest against mine, crushing my breasts as he lined himself up. He braced his weight on his forearms.

"Keep your eyes on me," he said.

We watched each other. Our mouths fell open as he eased inside me, filling me little by little. He rounded his hips, sumptuously slow, laboring to stretch me with each movement.

I hiked up my knees, allowing him to grind deeper, turning us into an extension of each other. His amorous pace became a very good ache.

Until the moment he flexed his hips, snapped them forward, and broke me. The burn split me in two. I clenched my teeth.

Taehyung stopped and kissed me, wiping the slate in my mind clean of pain, because his kiss was my life.

His mouth intoxicated me. It formed a ring around my thoughts until nothing else existed but blue and the flapping of the tent's canopy and the wandering orange light from the outside fire. And I was lost.

At one point, the world spun, but I did not pause, too locked within his kiss to concern myself with the shift in atmosphere, whimpering as his tongue scooped up my own and our bodies tilted into each other.

It wasn't until another spark flickered through me that I opened my eyes. I realized that Taehyung had rolled us over, positioning me on top of him. And that he was moving inside me. And that he had been for a while.

It no longer hurt. Indeed, I felt the change, my wetness coating him, the way he crushed me to him and slipped in and out of me. The position was easier, enabling me to find my own comfort.

"Ride me," he said, urging me to sit up, which I did carefully, awed by the power of seeing him there before me, hands splayed on my thighs, offering me dominion.

Flattening my palms against his chest and using it for leverage, I tentatively rocked back and forth.

The upward pump of him, and his groan, and the sensation these things produced all merged together into a cry from me. A cry that bred many more.

"You slay me, Luna," Taehyung gasped. "Tell me I'll recover from you."

The way he looked up at me, vulnerable, pleading almost, sent shivers of delight and desperation through my blood.

I could not give him an answer. The only way to be truthful about what this boy did to my consciousness was to make him fly with me.

I feasted on him, swift and bold like something sprung from its cage. Taehyung forgot his request. Like allies in an endless race, we surged ahead, our groans primitive and untamable.

In my gluttony for more, I glanced down and watched us collide in a dizzying rhythm, him disappearing and reappearing, the rise and fall of our coupling.

"Yes," he breathed. "Watch us. Watch with me."

"I have never seen anything so..."

He nodded, understanding. And so we watched ourselves. I memorized him. The bunching of his stomach muscles. The fine hairs on his forearms.

The "ouch" he released as I fell forward and bit his shoulder to keep from sobbing.

He flipped us over again. My open limbs caught his body. My arms wound around his neck, and I yielded the power back to him, allowing him to cover me, his passionate thrusts burying me into the blanket.

He laced our fingers together and raised himself higher. I chanted many things, his name and yes and please as he jutted forward and pierced through my walls.

I watched him burst, and I joined him, and he closed his mouth over mine to swallow our screams, sealing them between us like a promise.

______________⛓️______________

The next morning started out innocently. He cradled me from behind, nibbling the back of my neck and rousing me from my sleep. It progressed to torture.

My eyes rolled to the back of my head and, with a sigh of defeat, I craned my face over my shoulder, accepting his kiss. Unaware until the last second that he'd used his knee to create a gap between my legs.

I started. "What—"

"This," he said, and then locked his body to mine, thrusting up and sheathing himself in me. In that position, I buried my face in the pillow to stifle the noise and sang for him over and over and over.

When I woke up the second time, he was smiling at me, wide awake and satisfied.

I would do anything for you.

The thought came without hindrance. It was the same reason I returned to the camp last night. My family and home had always come first.

Somehow, Taehyung had gotten in the way of that, steered me to a place where everything but him became secondary. I made the decision to sacrifice whatever I had to, including myself, to keep him safe.

Maybe I'd underestimated him. Maybe we could find a way to fix this. He'd been outwitting Seokjin for a long time now. He was clever. Maybe there was a way to be free of the king and still feed and protect Busan. Maybe I'd have the chance to put an arrow through Seokjin's heart—if indeed, he had one.

There was one solution: I had to tell Taehyung.

But there was one problem: I had to tell Taehyung.

"Hi," he said, staring down at me.

I sat up, securing the blanket to my chest. "Hi."

Taehyung toyed with my earlobe and grinned like…well, like a boy. "I want to spend the morning with you."

"I have to tell you something."

"I'll teach you archery—"

"We have to talk first."

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes," I answered without thinking.

"Give me a minute. We'll talk when I come back." He rubbed his nose against mine, planted a brief kiss to my lips, and jumped from the pallet, grabbing his pants.

The sight of his naked form in broad daylight sucked the breath from me. I hadn't seen much of the world, but there could not be anything sexier than the slant of his hip bones. They pointed to the very center of him, the source of last night's ecstasy. I would never get enough of him.

He noticed me staring and winked, shirtless and energetic and gifting me with an intimate introduction to 'Taehyung In the Morning'. Then he disappeared from the tent.

I panicked, wringing my hands so much that my fingers were in danger of falling off. Grabbing his tunic off the floor, I pressed it to my nose, inhaling him, praying he wasn't about to despise me. I draped the tunic over me. The arms hung past my wrists.

Ten finger-chewing minutes must have gone by before he returned, hiding something behind his back and looking more playful than I'd ever seen him. "Turn around," he said.

Taken off guard, I indulged him without objection. He sank onto the bed, lifted me, and straddled me on his lap. "Open your mouth," he murmured.

I did as I was told. Sugar and tartness burst into my mouth, and I swooned, recognizing the taste. My eyes popped open at the little red ball of fruit perched in his fingers. A strawberry. Taehyung had a cloth full of them in his other hand.

"Oh, my," I said. "Where did you find these?"

"There's a patch not too far from here. I knew you'd like them." He fed me another berry and kissed me as I ate.

"They taste better on you," he said, licking the juices off my chin, his mouth beginning its descent down my neck, drugging me.

I arched away from him. "Taehyung, wait. This is important."

"All right." He set the berries beside us and got comfortable, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me flush against him. He tipped his head back to look at me. "What is it?"

I stared at his chest. "I lied."

He froze, confusion ticking across his face. "About what?"

I shook my head, but it was no use. Grief clogged my throat, preventing me from continuing, and I sensed him realizing the gravity of my silence. A harsh breeze pounded against the tent.

"About what, Luna?" he asked slowly.

"I lied to you. I'm not here to join your gang. I'm here to trap you."

He jerked away, and his hands dropped from my back, landing like rocks on my hips. "That's not funny," he warned.

The tears came before I could stop them. "It's not a joke." I gasped between sobs. "My first night here, when you tied me to that tree, Jisoo turned up."

"No."

"I thought she was there to free me."

"Don't."

"But she came to deliver a message from Seokjin."

I told him. The events flooded out of me, and the more I spoke, the faster everything came out, the quicker I wanted to get it over with. To move on from Taehyung's confusion and jump right into whatever awaited me next.

When I finished, I felt relief. I'd rid myself of the secrecy, and there was nothing left between us except silence.

Then terror. Because Taehyung's hand was locked around my throat. "Look at me," he said.

Doing so was my destruction. This wasn't the same Morning Taehyung from moments before. His features had coiled, his body folding in on itself, shrinking back to who he'd been when I first met him.

Those dark brown irises latched onto me, rummaging for an excuse for what I'd done but finding nothing, the truth crystallizing in front of him. I had betrayed him.

Groggy, sleepy voices bloomed from outside. I heard Jimin yawn.

Taehyung released me and got out of bed, stalking to the opposite end of the tent. The muscles of his back slumped, reflecting pain, then shifted, turning jagged as cliffs. I'd lost him.

"Get out," he said.

"Taehyung." I leapt off the cot and tried to touch him, but he kept batting me away. "Taehyung, please. I'm sorry. I—"

"Get. Out!" he roared. Not waiting, he snatched my arm, jostled me across the tent, and flung me across the threshold.

I landed in the dirt right beside four pairs of feet. A moment of shock followed as Taehyung's band took in the sight of him half-dressed, and me clad in nothing but his tunic, my legs exposed, my hair in a nest due to his eager fingers. Evidence of what we'd done.

Jimin was the first to move. "God's sake, Tae." He rushed to my side to help me up. "What the devil is wrong with you?"

I wobbled but managed to stand upright. My head hurt. A twitch of remorse flashed across Taehyung's face. He hadn't meant to hurt me, but he steeled himself against any sort of atonement. I didn't blame him.

"She's an imposter," he seethed. "She's planning to bring us to Seokjin. She's nothing but a lier!"

He unveiled my crimes with me standing before his friends, bare and probably a whore in their eyes. My humiliation was absolute.

A harrowing quiet followed his testimonial. Until one by one, the people who'd become my friends, who'd snuck up on me as Jimin once said, leveled their gazes on me. Revulsion. Loathing. I'd done irreparable damage.

"You bitch!" Jieun launched herself at me, but Jungkook caught her just before her claws reached my face.

I bumped into Hoseok, but he pushed me away as if venom tainted my blood.

Jieun's arms flayed in my direction. "You lying bitch! I will kill you. I. Will. Kill. You!"

Jimin just eyed me like a doleful, disappointed parent, perhaps remembering our discussion by the fire. "Let her talk." He turned to Taehyung. "Tae, everyone has a story. Let her say her peace."

I had the feeling Taehyung would rather turn Jieun loose on me. Yet he nodded. They all stared at me, but it was too late. They'd made up their minds.

I was already stripped of my dignity, so they must know I had nothing left to lose. I forced myself to stand tall. I would not coward under their judgment or my failure as a human being.

"Seokjin was going to punish Busan," I said.

Jungkook's stance slackened. I went through the tale again. It tamed them, but the betrayal outweighed my motivations.

Taehyung didn't waver, disregarding my need to protect my own, to the point where I resented him.

After what happened between us, did he not feel the slightest bit subdued by my predicament? Had our night together not proven that he meant so much more to me now? Did he think everything with him was pure fabrication?

I tried to catch his eye, but it would have been easier to catch one of his arrows with my bare hand. Once again, they tied me to a tree.

____________________________

They huddled around the fire pit, talking in low voices as if I weren't there. At least Taehyung had had the compassion to let me dress before restraining me, handing me my red velvet gown from the day of my capture. Jieun had reclaimed her clothes. She let rage get the best of her sense and tossed the garments into the fire, as if indirectly burning me at the stake. Jungkook spoke rapidly, slapping his knuckles against his palm to enunciate whatever point he tried to make.

Were they thinking along the same lines as I? Now that I'd confessed, I settled a very big part of the responsibility to protect Busan in their laps.

There existed only two options. One, to do nothing. In which case Seokjin would retaliate against Busan and, if Taehyung's gang merely cast me aside instead of killing me, use me to guide His Majesty to their camp anyway.

Or two, do something. In which case failure was likely, and Seokjin would still retaliate against Busan. And execute Taehyung and his band of thieves.

I couldn't stand them deciding how to handle the situation without including me. Busan was Jungkook's home, but it was mine, too.

"It's a trifle hard for me to help you if you won't untie me," I called out.

Four heads looked up, all except the most important one. I willed Taehyung to look my way. A muscle flexed in his jaw.

"Who gave you permission to speak?" Jieun said.

"You'll need me in some capacity, I'm sure." I squirmed against the restraints. "Do be aware that the choices are limited. Verily, we shall all come to the same conclusion."

"We'll see about that," Jungkook snarled.

"Any plan you fancy will require careful orchestration, and it will require my aid. I must be seen to uphold my end of the bargain if Busan is to be spared. Thus, I am essential. Small but essential."

Jieun slapped the handle of her axe against her palm. "Oh, I gather, I can make you smaller."

"Well, in order to plot, you'll need to concentrate quite hard. And I confess, I'm in the mood to sing. I trust that won't disturb you."

Jieun growled.

"And I won't cease until you fetch me from this tree," I said. Clearing my throat theatrically, I sang as loud as possible.

In spite of himself, Jimin's lips twitched.

Taehyung stabbed the ground with an arrow.

Once I finished, I started all over again, then swallowed my words as Taehyung jumped up and stormed toward me, carrying his weapon. I forced myself to continue, my voice quaking.

He stopped a foot away from me. "Enough, Luna."

I didn't listen to him.

He strung the arrow so fast that I didn't have time to flinch. The tip pressed against my heart. In the backdrop, I saw the rest of his group rise unanimously.

Taehyung's arms shook and I sensed a war raging inside him. I persisted, not caring if our witnesses heard me.

"Last night was real. It was greatest thing I've ever done." I swallowed, holding nothing back. "I love y—"

He pressed the arrow into my chest and shook his head, cautioning me to stop, but I refused. "I love you, Taehyung."

Hurt flitted across his face, but he covered it up quickly. He relaxed his weapon and untied me.

"What are you doing?" Jieun cried.

"She's invested. This is all about Busan for her. As long as its welfare is at stake, she's not going anywhere," Taehyung replied as I rubbed my wrists.

He leaned in and whispered, "Never say those words to me again, Luna."

My chest hitched. I opened my mouth to protest when a childlike shriek hit the air. It was then that we noticed Hoseok was gone. He returned a second later, strutting out of a bush and dragging a little body behind him.

"Jisoo!" I ran to my friend and clasped her against me, assuring her that nobody would hurt her.

"Ah. Look what we found. So is this poppet your accomplice?" Jimin asked. "Rather scrawny."

Jisoo glanced at the foreign faces surrounding us before focusing on me. "Luna, you told them?"

"I had to."

"Why?" she demanded. "Luna, did you help these people rob a carriage six days ago?"

My brow furrowed. The king must have heard about that from the aristocrat we'd ambushed. "You knew I had to help out if I wanted to…"

If I wanted Taehyung's gang to trust me.

Jisoo teetered on the verge of tears. Foreboding gripped me. Why was she here?

"Luna, Seokjin knows you're smart. He wasn't surprised, but…he heard that you saved Taehyung's life."

I was grateful Jisoo was here to remind this group of that. I hadn't saved Taehyung merely to play a role. I wanted to protect him.

"So what?" I asked.

"The king wants ensure that you don't stray." She broke down again. "I'm sorry." Sniffling, she withdrew a pouch and dropped it in my hand.

My fingers shook as I overturned the contents and let them fall in my palm, revealing a note sealed with His Majesty's royal emblem. A message from Seokjin.

I appreciate your loyalty. This is just in case we've misunderstood each other.

And my sister's Busan bracelet. Spotted with blood.

________________________