~~~~kiara pov~~~~~~
I woke up to the strong smell of firewood and the sharp, metallic bite of cold steel around my wrists.
Chains.
Where the hell am I?
The last thing I remembered was the forest. The storm. That thing I saw,a man stopping me and .....I blacked out
And now here I am in this isolated room.
"You're awake," came a low voice from the corner.
I flinched, lifting my eyes to see who had just spoken.
A man, he was seated not far from me.
His jaw was perfectly sculpted, Tousled black hair curled slightly at the ends, damp from rain or sweat I couldn't tell. And his mouth… full, firm, it could ruin a girl if she wasn't careful.
He wore a dark shirt rolled to the elbows, sleeves clinging to strong forearms, veins running down them like trails of lightning.
The worst part?
He was attractive
Terrifyingly attractive
And he was looking straight at me.
"Who are you?" I asked my voice trembling due to what I am feeling."What the hell is this?"
He didn't answer at first.
"I am Arman." he said, finally his voice deep, low, the kind that slid under your skin and stayed there.He drew his chair closer to me.
"I had been waiting for you all night."
He tilted his head, studying me like I was a puzzle.He drew his face closer to me,I could smell him, mixture of chocolate. His deep grey eyes fixed on me
"You saw something, didn't you?"He asked his hand cupping my chin painfully.
"You are hurting me."I screamed as he tightened it.
"fuck it."He pushed the chair angrily
"I don't care.I don't care if I am hurting your pretty little face."
He paced around the room like he was in some kind of trace movement.Then he tilted his head, studying me like I was something rare… and dangerous.
Like he wasn't sure whether to keep me or destroy me.
"You will stay here,till I figure out who the fuck you are."He raged.
"No,I..I..have families to go to."I plead
"Then speak up, little witch,"
There was a dangerous glint in his eyes anger, yes, but also something else.
"I'm not a witch," I said shakily.
He scoffed, running his hand through his hair again. It was too much the way his muscles flexed, the way the firelight made his skin glow
This shouldn't be happening.
I shouldn't be looking at him this way.
Not when I was chained up like some medieval prisoner.
But gods, he looked good angry.
His jaw clenched, his chest rising and falling fast. Sweat from the isolated room clung to his shirt, making it transparent in places, sticking to the hard lines of his body.
I dragged my gaze away.
"You think this is about you?" he snapped suddenly, voice cutting through the silence. "You think I enjoy dragging strangers into my home, chaining them like some fucking lunatic?"
"Then let me go!" I shouted.
He stopped walking.
"You saw me," he said again this time more firmer.
I froze.
His eyes locked onto mine, and I felt something inside me shift tighten.
"In the woods.You saw what I became."
"I…" My voice broke. "I don't remember."
"Liar."
His words cut sharper than a knife.
He stepped forward, crouching again in front of me.
"You weren't supposed to see it," he said, voice low.
He reached out slowly this time, like he was holding back some instinct that told him to tear, to break.
His fingers hovered over my cheek.
But then, he stopped fist curling instead.
I watched him war with himself.
Then he stood again and paced, running his hand over his mouth.
"You fucking saw me changing" he said again. "And the second I laid eyes on you, the beast inside me stopped. Just stopped."
That made me look at him.
"What are you talking about?"
He didn't answer at first. Just stared into the fire like it had betrayed him somehow.
"I lose control," he said. " Every goddamn time. I become something else. Something monstrous."
He turned back to me, expression unreadable.
"But yesterday night... when you looked at me... it just stopped."
I blinked. "That's... not possible."
"Nothing about you is," he said, almost too quietly.
He walked to the far corner, picked up a glass bottle, and poured something dark into a heavy glass.
He took a slow sip. Then, without turning around
"Tell me your name."
I hesitated.
"My name?" I repeated, confused.
His voice dropped an octave, so cold it made my blood shiver.
"If I'm going to keep you here, little witch... I'd like to know what to call you."
"Eira."
It barely left my lips, breathy and uncertain. But the moment I said it, his body reacted his shoulders tensing, head tilting slightly, as if the name echoed in a place deeper than the room we were in.
"Eira," he repeated slowly, rolling it over his tongue like he was tasting it.
Then he turned.
And for a second, I forgot I was chained.
He crossed the space between us in three quiet steps. I expected rage. Another cruel grip to the face. But he just crouched again, eye-level now.
This time, there was no anger.
Interesting.He smiled as he lifted the cup filled with alcohol to his mouth.
"What are you, Eira?" he asked softly.
I shook my head. "I told you. I'm no one. Just a girl who got lost in the woods."
His lips twitched into something that wasn't quite a smile. "No one?" he murmured. "You tamed a monster, sweetheart. Monsters don't stop mid-hunt because of no one."
My pulse hammered in my throat. "I didn't do anything."
"Exactly." He leaned in, and I could smell the whiskey on his breath, warm and laced with something sweet. "You just existed."
I looked away, heart pounding so hard it physically hurt.
He stood up again, rubbing the back of his neck with a tired sigh, muttering to himself, "You can't be just human…"
My voice came out before I could stop it. "Why do you care?"
He turned sharply. "Because I'm not supposed to feel anything. Not when I shift. Not when I hunt. Not when I kill."
That word kill landed like a weight in the room.
I flinched.
He noticed.
He took a step back. "But when you looked at me, that thing inside me… it stopped clawing. It watched you instead."
I swallowed. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying," he exhaled slowly, "I think the part of me that's cursed… might be drawn to you."
I stared at him. "Drawn? Like... you think I'm some kind of anti-beast"
That made him laugh. A low, broken sound. "I don't know what the hell you are, Eira. But you're not leaving until I find out."
He moved toward the fireplace, pulling a key from his pocket. My eyes tracked it immediately.
"I'm going to unlock the chains," he said without looking at me. "But if you try to run"
"You'll kill me?"
He glanced over his shoulder. "No."
That surprised me.
He knelt again and began to work the lock on my left wrist.
"I'll catch you."
The chains loosened with a quiet snap.
Then the other.
I didn't move, my wrists sore and red.
"You're free to walk around the mansion," he said, standing and sliding the key back into his pocket. "But the gates are locked. And the woods… well." He smirked, just slightly. "You've already seen what waits in there."
I rubbed at my wrists. "Why even let me go at all?"
He leaned against the wall, arms crossed.
"Because I don't want you as a prisoner, Eira."
He looked me overcold, calculating, and still somehow so devastatingly alluring.
"I want you willing."