Offered to the Triplet Alphas

[Xanthea]

A thousand thoughts raced through my mind in an instant as his silence grew heavy with an unspoken warning. A warning cautioning me to stay as far away from him as possible.

A crippling gravity radiated from Asher with a force that sent a sudden, inexplicable weakness through my knees.

The darkness around him grew denser with every breath I forced into my lungs. As if my very breaths were awakening the grim shadows that slowly stirred to life.

Even with all the warning signs, I was drawn to his darkness, to his danger. Ignoring the brutal chill that shot down my spine, I took a step closer to him.

I knew love was a sin in hell, but my soul was already damned and my heart hellbound. If treading in pain was my only fate, then I wanted to tread towards him - towards my demon lords. Taking a deep breath, I braced myself.

"Asher," I called. "Please look at me."

He gritted his teeth, a low, threatening growl rumbling from his chest. A cold sweat stung across my skin as I struggled to resist the instinct to step back.noveldrama

My fists tightened as I swallowed hard, fear coiling in my gut.

The tension curdled the air between us, seeping into my bones. I knew beyond his control was nothing but chaos.

But no matter how stormy his aura became, he would always be my refuge. Because without him... I wasn't just losing my mind - I was losing myself.

I knew my confession wasn't as sincere as I wished it to be - my thoughts closer to the fear of isolation than love, and my intentions entirely selfish. But I trusted him more than I trusted myself, and all I wanted was for him to stay. "Please talk to me, Asher," I pleaded.

"There's nothing left to say." Although his voice was calm, there was a slight tremor in his words and breaths. "You've already made your choice."

My heart hammered against my ribs, turning more anxious at his words.

Was it love, or was it just the aching need to escape the suffocating isolation? I couldn't tell. My mind was at war with my body, but my soul craved his presence.

So, when he strode toward the door, panic surged through me.

Stay.

Stay.

Make him stay.

"There are voices in my head! Voices that are not mine," I blurted out, licking my parched lips.

I didn't know why I felt like I had to say this now, like if I didn't, I'd never get another chance.

Once I made sure he wasn't leaving, I took a deep breath and continued.

"Ever since I woke up... my mother's memories haunt my mind in a never-ending loop. I see Ezra and Raven go through all that pain again and again. One moment, I want to run to Ezra and beg for his forgiveness and the next I am terrified to even face him."

The boundaries between my thoughts and my mother's had blurred so painfully, I couldn't tell where I ended and she began.

"I keep having compulsive, disturbing thoughts. Sometimes, I have to repeat my name, over and over again, just to remind myself that I'm still Xanthea. But sometimes even that doesn't work, so... I call your name..." My voice, breathless and soft, faltered with each word.

"I know love might hurt me more than it heals right now. But of all the truths I need to accept about myself, this is the one I want to admit first: I'm in love with you... Asher."

I was about to take another step toward him when my body froze, petrified by an icy surge of danger.

My eyes widened as shadows billowed from Asher's frame like dark flames. Crackling through the air, they swirled across the room in all directions before they shot towards me.

Flinching back, I shut my eyes, crossing my hands before my face defensively. I waited for them to attack me, but they stopped inches away from me. My breaths turned into shaking pants, my chest heaving as I lowered my hands. The predatory shadows circled around me like a pack of wolves waiting to devour their prey.

Asher's overpowering scent flooded the room, drugging my senses, and for a moment, I inhaled him so deeply that I wanted my soul to be nothing but him.

I raised my hand, reaching out to touch the flickering shadows.

For a fleeting moment, there was a stark silence. But as soon as my fingers grazed their icy phantom touch, a current of sparks zapped through me, electrifying my veins with a dangerous heat.

"Fuck it!" I heard Asher grunt through his clenched jaws, and then everything went pitch black.

I remember seeing his fists loosen before the shadows consumed me, and I blacked out for a few seconds.

When I came back to my senses, I opened my eyes to Asher straddling my hips. His light grey eyes darkened into onyx black as they pierced right through my soul. His drunken gaze was wild, dark with hunger, something primal brewing behind them.

My breath stalled in my lungs, racing as violently as the pulse pounding against his shadow restraints.

I tried to move, but his shadows kept me pinned to the bed. Their icy tendrils slithered over my skin, swirling and tightening around my wrists, ankles, and throat, leaving a trail of feverish shivers wherever they touched.

I parted my lips but before I could utter a word; his lips crashed against mine, a bruising kiss that had my heart skipping beats.

I furrowed my brows, moaning and writhing, unable to keep up with his fervent demand. I sunk deeper and deeper beneath his weight, the suffocating and the burning breathlessness.

His tongue dominated mine, claiming my mouth with an intensity that wiped all thoughts out of my mind. He devoured my every moan, my every gasp, charging my body with a longing to hold him, to wrap my arms around him, to pull him closer, but his shadows held me back.

The kiss became fiercer, deeper, his shadows branding every inch of my body with their touch. They slipped down my spine, curled around my thighs and trailed up to my breasts, their teasing touch grazing my skin.

They circled my nipples, tormenting them until they hardened beneath the thin fabric of my white nightgown, every brush igniting a fresh wave of heat through me.

I arched my body against his, and right then he tore himself away from me. We gasped for air, inhaling each other's desperate, ragged breaths.

"You're such a sweet manipulator, Starsoul," he whispered into my ear.

A wave of restless nausea hit my chest at the sound of him calling me 'Starsoul.'

Propping himself on his elbows on either side of my face, he lifted himself from me. His grey eyes gleamed with amusement as they studied my reaction.

I stared back at him, tensing my brows.

"You say you love me, but your thoughts don't match your sweet, tempting words." Asher's voice was hoarse, yet dangerously calm, as though he had reclaimed the control he had lost just moments ago. "Asher?"

"My love is the only manipulation that can work on Asher," he said and I widened my eyes, my heart assaulting against my ribs. "Even with everyone around him, Asher has lived a lifetime of isolation. Give him a little love and he'll be on his knees, begging for more."

A shudder coursed through me, guilt stabbing into my chest like a sharp pang. Hearing him recite my thoughts out loud just made them even more disturbing.

Clenching my jaws, I turned my face to the side, averting my gaze. My chest heaved, the weight of his accusing scrutiny pressing down on my conscience.

I wanted to deny it, but the truth was those thoughts were indeed one of the many compulsive ones that haunted my mind. Though I refused to acknowledge them as my own, I couldn't escape the guilt of having them when I confessed. "I warned you... I can feel your thoughts and guess what, wife? You're right..."

"That's not me," I whimpered. "I can never-"

"I know it's not you. It's your mother who won't stop fucking with your mind, so... let me fuck her out of your system."

"Ungh!" I bit down on my lips as his shadow's touch became more profound between my legs. It felt as though their tendrils had transformed into fingers, pressing firmly against my burning clitoris.

His shadows slid my panties down my legs before they slithered inside me, their icy caress igniting a sinful euphoria in the depths of my core. The tendrils spread across my insides, reaching places, tormenting and teasing hidden, sensitive spots that made my toes curl.

I threw back my head, gritting back the whimpers. The sensations surged like wildfire, consuming me entirely. I arched my hips, breathless and desperate. Every flicker of their touch just fuelled the flames of pleasure waiting to explode inside

me.

I tried to squeeze my thighs together to cope with the arousal, but Asher made his shadows part my legs wider.

"Asher... uh... please... ah!" My voice cracked, a mix of desperation and pleading.

"Please, what, wife?" he asked, his tone hoarse with dark amusement.

"I-I... ah!" My words dissolved into a gasp as his shadows slid deeper, fingering me harder, rubbing my clitoris with a maddening pressure.

"You want my cock inside you? You want me to fill you with my cum? You want my shadows to seal my cum inside you until you swell with my pups?"

A choked moan tore from my throat as I nodded frantically, my mind went numb as my mouth agape from the build-up.

Without warning, he thrust two fingers into my mouth, pressing down on my tongue with a roughness that made me gag, tears stinging into my eyes.

"I'll need words." His voice was low and commanding.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" I cried, my words muffled and slurred around his fingers.

"Do you want me to fuck all my hatred inside you?" he asked, holding my gaze.

I hesitated, my breath stuttering, before I whispered, "Y-yes..."

"Then I promise you, your villain will fuck you better than any hero ever did. Fuck love stories. Who wants to hear fake 'I love yous' when 'I hate yous' are so much more sincere and passionate? Right, wife?"

He glared at me, withdrawing his fingers and his shadows all at once, freeing me from all restraints but leaving me with an aching emptiness.

Tears burned into my eyes as I shook my head, rising on my elbows.

"Asher... my love for you isn't fake. I... have no control over my thoughts. I-I didn't mean-"

"I don't care." His words sliced through mine, his eyes cold. "I don't need your love. I need you. And I will have you, whether you like it or not."

My stomach churned, and I stared at him, trying to comprehend the distant yet possessive look in his eyes.

"Your thoughts. Your words. I don't care if you mean them or not. Even if your words are nothing but lies, I want to hear them again and again. Lie to me, wife. Keep lying to me until... your petty lies turn into pretty truths." He said, sliding his hands up my legs, lifting the hem of my gown to my waist as he crawled between my legs.

"It wasn't a lie. I don't know why-"

His palms slid up my waist, his thumb teasing over the curve of my breast as he roughly shoved me back onto the bed.

"Told you, I don't care. Lie? Truth? Love? Hate? Doesn't matter anymore." Leaning over, he licked my ear. "Just one fuck and it will all be over. One fuck and your mother will be erased from your mind, your body, your heart. And then..." He lifted my hand in his, kissing Ezra's ring on my finger. For some uncanny reason, an unsettling feeling took over me.

I curled my fingers, scared that he might take it off.

"No. Don't-"

He forced the ring off my finger.

A tendril of his shadow took the ring from him and placed it in the drawer of his nightstand.

"Asher, give it back! What are you doing... AH!"

A sharp pain pierced my ring finger, shooting like a current all the way to my spine as his shadows penetrated into my skin like needles. I could feel them twisting excruciatingly through my flesh and bone.

It felt as if someone was carving on my finger with the pointed tip of a dagger. As though his shadows were engraving something deep within my very bone.

"Ugh-"

Asher clamped his hand over my mouth, stifling my screams and sobs. Tears streamed from the corners of my eyes as I clenched the bedsheet, my body shivering with the intensity of the pain. "Don't worry. I will return the ring to you when you are worthy of it again."

It hurt.

It fucking hurt!

My free hand clawed desperately at his clothes, begging him to stop.

I gritted my teeth, a muffled cry escaping as I threw my head back, the pressure easing when his grip on my mouth loosened.

"Once I throw your mother out of you... I'll carve myself into you, deep in your blood, deeper in your bones, until the only pain left inside you is mine. Not your mother's. Not my brothers'. Mine." He growled darkly. Panic and pain were the only sensations I could process as he showed me my throbbing ring finger.

My eyes widened, breaths breaking into incomplete gasps.

His shadows had carved his name 'Asher' across my finger. It looked like an ancient spell tattooed like calligraphy. There was no blood, but it hurt as though my bones had been scraped raw from the inside. He kissed my finger again and tears trailed down my eyes as another wave of pain coursed through me. I bit my lower lip, stifling a groan as he cradled my finger against his cheek and palm.

"I'll be the only trauma in your veins, the only nightmare behind your eyes, the only shadow that will ever haunt your soul. I promise, I'll be your ruin, not your mother," he said.

His shadows withdrew from my body as he wrapped his arm around my waist. Lifting me off the bed, he pulled me against his chest. I held his shoulder as he made me straddle his hips. "Your mother has already ruined many lives. I won't let her claim one more." Something ominous flickered in his eyes. "Let's go..."

I looked at him, confused. "W-where?" I sniffled.

"To visit your mother's grave," he said, "for one... last... time."