Seraphina In The Rain

Night.

Rainy. Damdown Woods.

Dam’s Keep, Damoria.

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Seraphina’s hands shook as she clutched the dagger strapped to her thigh.

She had almost forgotten it. Small. Ornate. Useless against him.

Rain pelted her skin, icy and relentless. Her breath hitched as she darted through the thicket, branches clawing at her like skeletal hands.

Thunder cracked overhead, lightning slashing the sky in blinding bursts.

Run. Just keep running.

“Why run, Butterfly?”

Adolphus’s voice was closer now, dangerously close.

“I’m tired.”

Good. Let him be tired. Let him slow down.

She stumbled, her foot catching on a hidden root. She hit the ground hard, mud slick beneath her palms.

The dagger skittered out of reach, lost in the muck. A shiver ran through her—not from the cold, but from the deep, guttural sigh behind her.

A hand closed around her wrist, iron-strong, yanking her back with enough force to nearly pop her shoulder from its socket.

“Got you,” he murmured, his breath hot against her ear.

Seraphina thrashed, nails clawing at his face. She felt them connect—flesh, heat, the sting of a scratch. He snarled, grip faltering. She tore away, running blind, lungs burning—

A misstep. A gasp. The world spun.

Darkness swallowed her whole.

Adolphus found her crumpled on the forest floor, rain dripping from her lashes. Cold. Too cold. A pang of something twisted in his gut—guilt?

No. He ignored it. Scooped her up. Held her against his chest.

She’s mine. She’s always been mine.

He moved swiftly, the grand stone walls of Dam’s Keep looming ahead. A maid hurried forward, eyes wide.

“Alpha Pri—”

“Prepare a bath. And more blankets.”

The girl scurried away. Inside, the Keep was warm, flickering firelight casting golden hues over polished floors.

Adolphus carried Seraphina upstairs, his grip firm. She barely weighed anything. A slip of a thing. Fragile.

His jaw tightened. She shouldn’t be fragile.

The maids worked in silence, stripping away the soaked layers, wiping mud from her pale skin. Adolphus turned away, muscles taut, fighting the urge to snap at them to hurry.

She needed warmth. Rest.

Me.

He exhaled sharply.

“I’ll be outside,” he muttered, leaving them to their work.

Later, when the maids were gone, he returned.

Seraphina lay beneath thick furs, her chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths. Clean now. Warm. Safe.

He sat at the edge of the bed, fingers brushing against a stray curl clinging to her damp forehead. A foolish act, but he indulged anyway.

She hated him. He saw it in her eyes every time she looked at him.

But she didn’t know the truth.

Didn’t know why he had done what he did.

Didn’t know that, despite everything, he still burned for her.

His throat tightened. His hands curled into fists.

She shivered in her sleep, instinctively inching closer to his warmth.

Her lips grazed his chest, soft and warm against his skin. His breath hitched.

Don’t. She’s exhausted. Let her rest.

With a growl, he pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her, letting his body heat seep into her frozen bones.

She was his mate. And he would do whatever it took to keep her.

Even if it meant seduction.

Even if it meant breaking her.