💥 This is rough draft and is unedited. Each word is battle-born. Read at your own risk, be kind, and enjoy.

*A Wonder image I generated during character brainstorming.

*Need to catch up? Read here to see what you missed last week. 

🫦 Read with caution. Vikings and spiciness ahead.

💀 💀 💀 💀 💀

Arless Episode: “Urges”

Our groans mix in the morning air as I sink my teeth into the Southerner’s neck. His blood is warm and salty on my tongue, awakening my cursed senses that are dulled by day, making me sluggish. But his blood, warm between my teeth, makes me feel lighter, like I’m floating in a tepid saline pool, and each pull of blood down my throat hits like a drug.

I take another deep dredge of sweet, warm, intoxicating blood and my hands, powerful and impatient, tear his pants to shreds until the hot flesh of his full cock presses against me.

That’s all the invitation my southerner needs before he’s pulling at my jerkin, tugging my tunic from my trousers, and shoving his hands inside as I drain the blood from his neck.

I tell myself I have to stop, if only for a moment, so I can feel him in all parts of me, but as his fingers cup my sex and delve deep inside of me, I cry against his skin with pleasure. It’s been far too long since I fucked someone, and with some of my bloodlust sated, the feel of him wins out.

I unhinge my mouth from his neck and shove him onto the settee, pulling my shirt over my head and dropping my pants until I am completely bare.

In a daze, the southerner stares at me, his eyes skimming over my sex, my breast, but lingering on the faded markings covering my arms. I make quick work of his clothes until he is completely bare, leaving nothing between us but skin as I climb onto him.

The tip of his cock is smooth and swollen, glistening in the daylight, sneaking through the window. I straddle his lap, lowering myself over him without preamble. “You will fuck me, southerner, if you know what’s good for you.” The need in my body thrums so loud, I barely hear myself.

The southerner sits up, groans into my mouth, biting my lip hard enough to draw blood. It sends me into a frenzy, and my thighs work me up and down, his cock filling me to the point of pain—until he can’t go any deeper, and I barrel down on him again. Over and over.

My mouth finds his neck once more, and as his hands press into my back and grab my ass, holding on for dear life, and his blood coats my throat, his length filling me so full I am bursting at the seams, I nearly implode. It’s fast, it’s rough, and the pain feels so good. I fuck him until I have no choice but to unlatch my bite from his throat as I scream.

I see colors and hear a rainbow of sounds. I feel light and airy, and for the first time in days, I feel so powerful—so alive . . . I am happy.

The southerner’s cries of pleasure fill the room immediately after, his come coating my insides, and utterly, completely sated, I laugh in my euphoria and lean my forehead against his shoulder.

“That was unreal,” he rasps, his hands sticky against my sweat-dampened skin. Languidly, I lick the smearing of blood from his skin, humming with satisfaction like a milk-sated cat.

In a sudden rush of warmth and acute pain, my entire body stings with what feels like tiny embers of fire. The muted light is so bright it burns my eyes, the sound of the horses in the barn pounding in my head. It’s too loud. Too close. Too grating.

I spring off from the settee to catch my breath. My thoughts swirl, and my body is pulsing with fire and ice. I have felt the hellfire-singe of Hel’s runes in my skin and the heady warmth of someone else’s blood filling my veins. But this is different. This is terrifying. It is too much at once and overwhelming.

“Are you—” The moment the southerner touches me, I spin around, my entire body vibrating with power.

“Don’t!” I shove him away, scared of what I might do if he comes any closer. A wingback chair scrapes the wood floor as he falls into it.

Squinting against the light, I rush for the door, fling it open, only to run completely nude and untethered into Lucian, whose eyes blaze with anger in the threshold. He’s looking at the southerner in deathly silence.

I push Lucian out of my way and run for my room. For darkness. Whatever just happened was the best moment of my life, and also my undoing. I want to know this feeling, but Hel would not answer our calls when we needed her most, and I know she will not come to me now, the bitch.

Ayyyyeeee...

There’s more Darkborn coming next week!

Until then….

xo, Scarlet

P.S. If you want to read ahead in the Darkborn’s story, you can find more chapters here in my Scarlet Hearts After Dark reader community. 

The places:

💋Learn more about Scarlet St. James

💋Join the Scarlet Hearts After Dark Community

Alter Ego:

❤️‍🔥Learn more about Lindsey Pogue

❤️‍🔥Join Lindsey’s Rogue Reader Community