He didn't fall.
His knees should have buckled. His skull felt like it had cracked.
Light—raw, intimate, wrong—burned behind his eyelids.
His fingers curled into fists.
His tongue refused to work.
He was still standing.
But inside?
Something ancient had blinked.
"Relax," Selene murmured, her voice a velvet whip. "It always hurts the first time."
She sounded entirely too pleased about that.
Aiden gasped.
His right eye throbbed—not with pain, but pressure.
Like a dam sealed for years, now cracking, something primal pressing out. His vision distorted.
He blinked.
And the room…
Changed.
It was subtle at first.
The velvet curtain nearest him shimmered, and beneath it, a rune glowed faintly.
Not inked. Not carved.
Just there, pulsing with intent, like a secret whispered in the dark.
Then Selene—
—changed.
She hadn't moved. But the world around her did.
Her blouse hung open, teasingly unbuttoned, but now he saw more.
Magical etchings on her skin—alive.
Silver lines pulsed like veins, spiraling around her breasts, curling down her thighs, tracing the arch of her foot.
Each sigil danced with raw, erotic intent, glowing brighter where her skin curved, as if begging to be touched.
Aiden staggered, his breath hitching.
His pants tightened painfully.
Selene's violet eyes watched him, sharp and predatory.
"Your Eye is open," she said, her voice low, dripping with promise. "You're seeing Lust Threads."
He tried to speak.
Couldn't.
"They show you who someone really is," she continued, stepping closer, her heels clicking like a countdown. "The magic woven through them. The trauma. The hunger."
The threads behind her twisted, weaving up her spine like wings of silk and sin, shimmering with every subtle shift of her hips.
"Some people's threads are simple. Straightforward." Her fingers brushed his temple, cool yet searing. "Yours?"
The air thickened. His pulse pounded in his groin.
"Your Eye sees everything."
The threads turned.
They writhed—not like string, but like snakes.
They tugged at his mind, his chest, his cock.
Selene's smirk deepened, her lips glossy and cruel.
"Tell me what you see, Aiden."
"I…" His throat was dry. He licked his lips, tasting sweat and desperation. "I see…"
He didn't finish.
Because her blouse fell open.
Not an accident. Not careless.
A deliberate act of gravity and cruelty.
Her breasts, barely contained by black lace, gleamed with silver sigils that pulsed in time with her heartbeat.
The rune between them flared, and Aiden felt it—a phantom tongue licking down his spine, teasing the base of his nerves.
He gasped, stumbling back. "W-What the fuck is that?!"
"That," Selene purred, stepping so close her breath grazed his lips, "is a Lust Trigger Sigil. Only visible to you now. Linked to your sexual aura."
Her scent—roses, sweat, and something darker—flooded his senses. His cock twitched, betraying him.
"Why me?" he croaked.
"Because your Eye… wants it." Her lips brushed his ear, her whisper a spell of its own. "And so do I."
His body shuddered, heat pooling low.
The room seemed to pulse with her, the air heavy with unspoken promises.
"You're not prey, Aiden Kuro," she murmured, her tongue flicking against his earlobe. "You're a hunter who's been denying his hunger."
Her fingers trailed down his chest, stopping just above his belt, where the fabric strained.
"And this," she whispered, "is your first scent of blood."