24. Nora

24

NORA

Alec bundled me in his coat and carried me back to the tower. I expected him to leave me, but instead, he carried me up the stairs to my bedroom. He sat me down on the bed and crossed the room to the bathroom. I heard the faucet turn on.

“I think we’ll both fit,” he called as hot water filled my bedroom room with steam.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He peeked around the doorway. “Cleaning us up…” He let out a hum and his gaze sharpened. “You’re not a quick fuck, Nora. If I wanted that, I would have taken a trip out of the university. You cannot escape me.”

His eyes . They watched me with the same hunger I’d seen from the monster. My throat felt dry. “You can leave.”

“I’m not leaving you,” he said. “I’m rough, possessive, obsessive. But I… Can I not take care of you?”

The vulnerability in his voice made me wonder if this was the same man that had just chained me up and fucked me. I let out a soft laugh, and shook my head, looking out the window. The greenhouse sat in the distance, darkness clawing at its glass walls. My body ached, especially where he had bitten me. But it was a good ache, one that left me feeling satisfied.

He wanted to take care of me.

What did that even mean? After everything that just happened, it was absurd. Yet I couldn't control the way pleasant warmth spread through my chest.

He crossed the room to me. His fingertips grazed my jaw as he tipped my chin up.

“I will never leave you,” he whispered.

“What if I want you to leave?”

He gave me a grim smile. “Then kill me. Now, come get in the bath.”

“If you insist,” I said, fighting a smile.

He held out his hand, and I took it as I rose. The coat he’d wrapped me in slid to the floor. His breath shuddered as he drank me in.

“You unnerve me,” he murmured.

I stepped closer to him and slid my hand up his chest. His heart beat rapidly beneath my palm, heat radiating from him.

He closed his eyes and went still. His soot black lashes were long, shadows spidering down his cheeks. I’d never seen a peaceful expression on this man’s face until now. Was this the Alec who had drugged me and dragged me out into the middle of the forest?

It was dangerous to see this side of him. This was the part of him that could make me care.

I yanked my hand away as if he’d burned me.

He was still a sociopath, I reminded myself. He was a monster that only appeared as a man, and far more difficult than the real monster.

I slipped around him and went to the bath, stepping into the hot water and slowly sinking down. I groaned as I settled in on one side.

Alec stood still for a few more moments before joining me. Our legs tangled together, but the tub was large enough for us both. It was perhaps the best part about this tower aside from the bookshelves.

He reached over and turned the knob, turning off the water before it could overflow. The two of us stared at each other, and a silence fell over us that was comfortable.

Out of everything that happened, this was the most shocking. I wasn't sure what that said about him or myself, but being in the same bath felt intimate.

He leaned back against the edge of the tub as I studied him. He had no right to be as beautiful as he was. I was certain that everyone had to dream about him; about his dark shoulder length hair, well kept moustache and short beard, dark brows, and lean sinewy muscles.

“How is your bite?” he asked.

“It…” I trailed off and slid my hand up to it, feeling the tender, raw skin but finding no pain or blood. Not even a scab.

The bite was healed.

What the hell?

How was that possible?

“Alec,” I whispered. “It’s healed.”

He didn’t say anything, instead letting out a dark hum.

Had he even heard me?

“Alec?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“Did you hear me?”

“About what?”

“The bite,” I said. “It’s healed.”

He didn’t look at me. His eyes were glazed over, his attention far away from me. My fingers itched to make notes as I studied him. I’d never seen him like this .

Who was the man in front of me? Certainly not the astute botanist.

I leaned forward and shocked myself by dipping my hand beneath the water and closing it around his cock. He lifted his head, his eyes finally meeting mine as I started to stroke him.

He grew hard, a grunt leaving him as he thrust into my palm, the water sloshing over the side of the tub.

My cheeks flushed as I kept stroking. He leaned forward, his mouth crushing mine. His tongue dipped into my mouth, teasing mine gently as I stroked him faster.

He let out a raspy moan. “You’re ruining me.”

“It’s vengeance for you corrupting me.”

His fingers knotted into my hair and he yanked my head back. He kissed down my neck, even over the bite he’d given me himself. Tremors of pleasure fluttered through me and all the logical thoughts left.

Suddenly, he lifted me. He stepped out of the tub and carried me to my bed, kissing every part of me as he splayed me out. I whimpered and had a moment of guilt where I wished he had vines.

Where I wished he was the monster.

What is wrong with me?

He kissed down my stomach as he parted my legs, his tongue circling my clit. I gasped, arching against him as I reached down, holding his mouth to my cunt.

He pulled one of my thighs against the side of his head and I moved the other, trapping him as my voice rang through the room.

My eyes shut as his tongue circled and then dipped lower, pushing inside of me.

His tongue feels longer. Rougher.

Was I imagining things?

I gasped, bucking against him as it drove inside of me, curling deeper. Hot pleasure shot through me and I came hard, squealing as I gushed out. He clasped his mouth over my cunt and swallowed, two fingers thrusting inside of me as he drank from me.

“Fuck,” I rasped.

Alec let out a low, monstrous growl. When I looked down, I fought a gasp as his eyes flickered, if only for a moment.

“Alec?” I whispered.

He went still and then breathed out, moving up my body until he was hovering above me. He pressed his cock against me.

“Take me.”

He thrust in with ease, the two of us moaning together. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him close as he pumped into me. He pressed his forehead to mine, grunting as he fucked me harder.

“I can’t get you out of mind,” he groaned. “You’ve poisoned me, Nora.”

He drove into me harder, snarling as he curled his fingers into the sheets to either side of my head. The fabric ripped as his cock pulsed inside of me, a roar leaving him as he released inside me.

Being full of his cum satisfied me on a deep primal level. The heat of him gushing inside of me, the way our breaths mingled. I kissed the base of his throat, pressing my face against him.

What is he?

I needed to know.

“Let’s finish our bath,” I whispered. “And then you can leave.”

He reeled back slightly with a scowl. “Leave?”

“Yes,” I said. “I want to sleep.”

He pressed his lips together from my abruptness and slowly pulled out of me. The rest of our time together passed quickly and mostly in silence, although I could almost hear his thoughts brooding.

Once he was dressed again, he stood at the foot of my bed, staring at me. I was clean and smelled of fresh lavender soap, lying naked and sprawled out.

“If the Dean finds out about us, he’ll fire me,” I said.

“He won’t. He is completely riddled with grief currently. I think he’s the least of our concerns.” He sounded more like himself now.

I nodded in agreement.

I didn’t want him to go, but I needed him to.

“This has only delayed his death for tonight,” Alec whispered.

He meant the monster. All I could do was nod. He left quickly and I heard the door to the tower slam shut.

I should've fallen asleep, but all I could do was think about all that had transpired over the last few days. After all of the strenuous activity with Alec, my body was relaxed. But my mind wouldn't stop.

The bite. His eyes. The growls . I sat up and studied the sheets, seeing how the fabric was torn.

Some called Alec a monster. Some called him a god. I wondered if they were right.

The sun started to rise outside, Sunday upon me. I stared at the ceiling, thinking about the things he said to me. Thinking about what Bianca had talked about. And then the questions that Alec asked me, and the answers he refused to give.

I hadn’t seen the real monster since our night together. I refused to let myself go down the path that maybe he hadn't been real. I’d seen the marks on my body, and I hadn't been able to create any of them. I had been ravaged by vines. I've been ravaged by a beast. I'd welcomed him into my bed, inside of me, and I would do it again.

Evidence.

I had my evidence.

How was everything connected? That was the puzzle. My brain was desperately trying to piece it together. I wanted to understand what The Hunt wanted with me. Spared. Spared from death, was my assumption. The book had shed some light onto The Hunt, but nowhere within those pages answered the biggest question I had.

Why?

Why were they sacrificing people? What did they want?

The dinner party came to mind once again. I needed to recall whatever had happened that night.

Do I?

It was a rhetorical question. A small voice that carried a warning that I didn't want to hear. I was logical, empirical, and able to sift through my emotions to pick up the grains of truth.

Yet there was a wall around that particular night.

The history of St. Thorn University was violent and bloody. It had twists and turns, an underground of egotistical violent bastards who wanted power. And from what Jacob had told me, there were folds within the society itself. There were tiers that you had to prove yourself to become a part of. Even the Dean himself had mentioned where this history began. I’d thought the idea of this being built on a fae hill was absurd but now that I knew such things could be real, it made me wonder how it connected to all of this.

If The Hunt went after monsters, why did their book have information on how to sacrifice a human?

Was my own monster going to kill me?

When my friend had approached me about working at this university, I’d been fairly hesitant. My life had just become more comfortable in London, and while I had felt aimless, I still appreciated the fact that now everyone in my family was gone, there were no expectations upon me. I owned everything.

But, I was a scientist at the end of the day. I needed to hunt down knowledge. As a psychologist, I sought to understand our minds. What drove our instincts?

What drove the monster’s?

Our minds were nature's most amazing creation. The lines often blurred between reality and fiction, and sometimes the most amazing thing was that the truth was far more creative than any wild tale a storyteller could spin.

Instincts and primal urges drove us all as a species. I wanted to understand how the environment affected our minds, affected our decisions. If I took a step back from the last few weeks and looked at the decisions I made, many of them had been questionable.

What was wrong with me?

Monsters were real, that was what was wrong with me. Much of what I knew to be true was a lie. Now that I knew what hid in the dark, would I ever go back to the way that I lived? Would I ever be able to walk down the street and not wonder if something was lurking there, waiting to devour me?

I wasn't scared. Not of the monster and not of Alec, who was clearly not human. I suspected that he didn’t know what he was, given his drive to eradicate monsters. But, he could be lying to me.

I wanted to know more about him. Was his mind attempting to protect him? If so, how did that work? It was as if he couldn’t hear me when I told him the bite had miraculously healed.

Would it be wrong of me to try and break him?

“What do I do?” I whispered to myself.

I couldn't walk away from this .

I couldn't walk away from the monster.

I couldn’t walk away from Alec.

He had marked me tonight as his. As theirs .

Something clawed at the corners of my mind. My breaths quickened and I stood up, going to my window to stare at the greenhouse. The first rays of sunlight reflected off the glass.

He’d been able to navigate the tunnels and the forest in a way that wasn’t human. The bite, his eyes, his growls, his…

Evidence.

All of the evidence pointed to the truth. A deep, dark secret that would possibly shatter the man I’d trusted my life with.

I returned back to my bed, thinking about everything over and over. Alec, what are you? Eventually, my eyes began to drop. My thoughts never stopped until I drifted into darkness, only to sink into those dark dreams that were full of fire and demons.