It was a bright and beautiful morning; the sun was shining in a perfectly clear sky, and the weather was wonderful—ideal for a stroll and enjoying the fresh air outside the palace walls.
But I, unfortunately, was a prisoner of the office.
I was sitting behind the large desk, sipping my coffee slowly, as the open windows allowed the cool morning breeze to drift in.
The place was unusually quiet. I was waiting for "Knight," who was still late. My heart was telling me that this day would not be as calm as the weather outside, especially with everything swirling in my head.
I watched the door with boredom, wishing he would appear quickly so we could start working and move away from this deceptive silence.
Finally, his "Excellency" graced us with his presence after a long wait.
I watched him approach me with a slight smile barely etched on his lips, staring at me as he examined my appearance while I sat at his desk amidst his piled-up papers.
He was trying hard not to release that sarcastic laugh I knew so well, then said in an amused tone:
"Oh, Cyra is going to finish the tasks today? Then it will be my day off!"
He stood before me calmly, so I narrowed my eyes with annoyance and coldness, replying with similar sarcasm:
"And who, in your opinion, will explain to me what I am supposed to do with these papers? Haaah?"
He pretended to think with masterful acting, accompanied by his understanding and artificial humming.
I shouted at him:
"Knight! Stop mocking me and come here; we have a lot of work!"
He approached me, placed his chair directly next to mine, took a file, and began explaining the details.
I stared at him, indifferent to his words which entered one ear and left through the other.
I was entirely focused on his face, his features, and his lips that moved with such flexibility as he spoke.
I felt an overwhelming desire surge through me; I wished I could place my lips on his and bite them hard, feeling all the sensations and emotions that would flood me then.
I cursed myself internally for my perverted thoughts, and for the wild ideas "Cyran" had planted in me.
Knight was still explaining, completely unaware that I hadn't understood a single thing he said. He said:
"And after that, you will sign here."
He looked at me after those words, so I smiled foolishly and said:
"Could you explain to me again? Umm, I didn't grasp anything you said."
He placed the file on the desk and smiled that wicked side-smile of his, leaning back in his chair with coldness.
"No, it's impossible that he noticed me watching him? No, this is madness!".
"What?"
I said with a confusion I tried hard to hide.
He said, staring directly into my eyes, in a calm and amused tone:
"What were you thinking about? Mmmm... where did that little mind of yours go?"
"Oh my God, oh my God, I think he noticed me!"
"No, I didn't see you; rather, I heard every word you said about me, because in your extreme stupidity, you didn't close your telepathy, and you left it completely exposed to me!"
My eyes widened in utter shock.
"Damn it!"
My cheeks flushed with deep embarrassment. I heard him say in a seductive tone:
"If you want that, then it is yours."
I looked at him in surprise, and it wasn't long before I found myself sitting on his thighs, my face directly in front of his.
He grabbed my thighs with both hands, pulling me toward him so forcefully that my chest pressed against his rock-solid chest.
I stared at him with wide eyes that almost popped out of their sockets; I couldn't believe the sudden proximity he had placed me in. His hot breath was touching my skin.
I felt his hands moving with a deliberate and moving slowness. One of them settled on my waist, pressing gently but firmly, while the other rose tenderly to rest on my cheek, his thumb brushing the edge of my cheekbone with a softness that melted my resistance.
He was looking directly into my eyes, with a depth like never before, as if he were reading all my secrets.
He began bringing his face closer to mine very slowly, a slowness that made time stop. His gaze shifted from my eyes directly to my lips.
I felt them begin to tremble faintly—a physical betrayal I couldn't control in response to this dangerous closeness that threatened my balance.
Inside me, emotions began to scramble wildly. A strange mixture of fear, suppressed desire, anger, and sudden longing.
My heartbeat accelerated crazily, drumming in my ears, declaring a state of emergency in my heart.
I was suspended between the desire to retreat and scream, and the greater desire to surrender to what was about to happen.
He drew closer until the final distance between us vanished. I felt the touch of our lips together—a touch as light as the flutter of a butterfly's wing, sending a cold shiver down my spine.
I closed my eyes in surrender, abandoning the last remnants of resistance.
He pressed his lips against mine, merging them into a kiss that began calm and deep.
I clung to his shirt tightly, my fist clutching the fabric near his shoulder. He was kissing me with unbelievable slowness and tenderness, bringing my face closer to him with his hands, which were now in control.
I tried to resist the overwhelming urge to return the kiss; I held onto my anger as a final shield.
But he bit my lower lip gently while still kissing me, a move that reminded me of my last words and his seductive tone. I couldn't resist any longer. The dam collapsed.
I finally returned the kiss, a response that was the beginning of a flood of emotions.
I ran my hand quickly over his solid chest, moving up toward his neck, and held him tightly, pulling him closer to me; I wanted to melt in his arms.
He responded immediately; his kiss increased in depth and passion.
We were exchanging calm kisses that soon turned into hot and wild ones, both of us releasing all our suppressed feelings.
The exchange of kisses was violent and tender at the same time.
I bit his lower lip gently as we finally broke the kiss. We were panting hard, our chests rising and falling rapidly.
We stared at each other in a daze, with eyes wide and full of silent confession of what had just happened between us.
I closed my eyes tightly because of the sparks that ignited throughout my body from our touch and our stormy kiss.
I tried to regulate my racing breath, while my heart was still drumming violently in my chest.
I opened them again as I looked at him, only for my eyes to fall on his lips, which had turned dark red and were slightly swollen from the effect of the kiss.
I blinked several times in shock, realizing that I had returned the kiss of my own free will.
I cursed myself internally for this shameful weakness before his touch and proximity.
He was staring with equal disturbance at the fluctuations of my face and my features, which were changing every second, reflecting the conflict raging within me.
I was truly disturbed, to the point that I felt I was on the verge of losing control over my power again.
I literally felt the heat of my body rising alarmingly, a harbinger of an approaching moment of collapse.
He drew closer to me, releasing his soothing pheromones into the air, trying to calm me down. "Cyra..."
He uttered my name with a similar disturbance, as if he felt exactly the utter chaos occurring inside me.
But his proximity was not soothing; rather, it made matters worse.
"Stop!"
I uttered it with extreme difficulty; the words came out as a hoarse and broken whisper. But he didn't understand my warning; he didn't understand that I was about to explode.
"Cyra, what's wrong with you?"
He said it with clear concern, trying to draw closer and place his hand on me again.
Here, I could no longer endure it. I screamed loudly:
"STOOOOP!"
An invisible force surged from my body—a force that pushed him away from me in a split second, pinning him violently against the opposite wall.
The impact was deafening, to the point that his body left a clear shape on the wall for moments before he went limp and slid slowly to the floor.
The moment he hit the wall, a dense emerald-green aura formed around me.
It was not calm; it was raging and unstable, flashing and flickering like a trapped energy storm. I clutched my head tightly with both my hands, trying to contain the pain and the pressure of the increasing power inside me.
I let out a powerful scream that tore through the silence of the place—a scream that was like the tearing of the fabric of reality itself.
My voice was charged with raw energy, to the point that the glass of the windows in the room could not withstand the pressure and exploded into flying shards, scattering like sharp diamond beads on the floor.
He stared at me in total amazement, his eyes wide with shock and fear. I saw the terror in his gaze.
He tried to approach me again, extending his hand toward me cautiously, but the power surrounding me had another word to say.
It pushed him toward the wall again, pinning him more forcefully this time, trapped between the brute force and the solidness of the wall.
I took a deep and disturbed breath, desperately trying to calm myself.
"Damn me! I am hurting him!"
I whispered to myself between my teeth.
I began repeating inside me like a mantra:
"You must calm down, Cyra, come on, you can do this, you are strong, you must control it, come on, come on!"
I was pressing on my chest, trying to push the exploding energy back to its source, struggling with the beast of power lurking within me before it destroyed everything.
I began to contain the raging power inside me with a painful slowness. It was like pulling a torrential river back to its narrow course by force.
The pain was unbearable; every cell in my body was screaming, refusing to recede, but I resisted it only for him, for his safety.
I felt the agitation of the power gradually decrease; I began to control the wild flow of green energy.
After that, I immediately enveloped myself in a shell of pure fire—a fire that didn't burn so much as it was a protective shield, an isolation between my remaining power and the outside world, so that I would not hurt anyone again.
He was trapped behind my fiery shield; I saw him approach the shell cautiously, concern and fear still dominating his features.
His eyes were exploring the fiery barrier I had built around myself.
I could no longer endure it. The energy had completely exhausted me, and the pain had reached its peak.
My body began to go limp against my will, and I felt dizziness wash over me.
I fell to the ground unconscious, as the fiery shell flickered and slowly faded around me.
And before closing my eyes completely, in the last flicker of consciousness, I saw him raising his hands, trying to break the fiery shield I had placed to protect him, struggling to reach me. Then, consciousness vanished from me entirely.
☆ The Author: ☆
Knight tried to break the fiery shield Cyra had enveloped herself in with his bare hands, but to no avail.
The flames were a true, impenetrable armor. He felt a sudden weakness invading his heart, staring at her with intense fear.
It was her, Cyra, her powers fading before his eyes. She was looking at him languidly, her eyes half-closed in surrender before she collapsed completely unconscious.
At that moment, a calm green aura began to hover around Cyra's fallen body on the floor. The sight of her in this state utterly destroyed Knight; he went berserk.
He wasn't the only one who went mad.
The worst part was that "Dark" and "Black" merged for the first time, uniting despite their usual lack of understanding and mutual hostility.
The sight of their collapsed mate in this scene was the straw that broke the camel's back.
The terrifying transformation began. His claws grew sharp and frightening, and his fangs grew until they pierced his lower lip, bleeding black blood.
His eyes turned a deep crimson red, and their whites became pitch black, with bulging black veins surrounding the eyes.
His physical build swelled massively, his hair turned entirely white, and horns sprouted and branched from his forehead.
He let out a resounding roar that shook the entire kingdom—the cry of a wounded and angry beast.
His massive black wings emerged from his back, so large that the small room could not contain them, tearing through the walls and the ceiling. Black smoke began to emit profusely from his body.
He launched himself with immense force, colliding with the fiery shield Cyra had created. This time, there was no resistance; the shield vanished like sparkling mist scattered in the air.
He was panting heavily, his chest rising and falling loudly and violently.
He was about to approach her, to touch her, but the green aura around Cyra began to rage again suddenly, warning him.
He took a step back, stopping hesitantly. He stared with great concern at the one occupying the marble floor with eyes closed in surrender, unable to approach for fear of hurting her.
Then, her body began to float in the air slowly, rising from the marble floor. The green aura that was hovering around her began to spin in a terrifying and rapid way, like a stormy vortex of energy.
Suddenly, with a massive and abrupt force, the aura pierced her entire body.
Cyra groaned with sharp, agonizing pain; a muffled cry escaped her as she absorbed the new power dwelling within her.
The aura disappeared inside her body, and she stood on her feet with a strange stability and confidence before the transformed and shocked Knight.
She raised her head toward him slowly, with a look that made his eyes widen in amazement and fear.
Her eyes were now like glowing green emeralds—no whites, no pupils, only the luminous green color.
She began to approach him with deliberate slowness. He took two steps toward her, opening his mouth with the intention of saying something, but she stopped him.
She did not move her lips, but the voice pierced the room like a deep and majestic echo—a voice that was not hers, but the voice of the ancient entity that inhabited her:
"I am not her. I am the one who chose her, and she is the one who received me. I am peace, and I am also destruction. If you use me well, I am indeed hers and she is mine. I am the heart of the forest, and she is my legend that I have been waiting for for thousands of years."
This entity stopped speaking, staring at him with piercing looks that did not miss their target. She approached him more, standing directly in front of him.
"A being like no other will be born, rare. Everyone wants her because of her destructive power. The heart of the forest will choose her to be its guardian and assistant in a mission for this world, which is to bring peace. War will break out for her sake—a war that will annihilate all beings if it does not stop. She is the chosen one, she is the legend, she is Cyra."
She stared at him and raised her hand slowly to place it on his cheek, smiling a calm and reassuring smile:
"You were in a test, and you have passed it. You are worthy of her."
She whispered near his injured and slightly bleeding lip:
"You are her guardian demon."
He was staring at her in silent shock, trying to process the vast amount of information thrown at his ears.
At that moment, the glow of her emerald eyes faded. The entity vanished, and Cyra returned to her normal self.
She wavered on her feet; the effort had exhausted her completely. She was about to fall, but he quickly extended his hands and caught her with both arms, pulling her to him with great concern for her condition.
Soon her strength returned to her, and consciousness returned to her natural eyes. She pushed herself back slightly to stare at him with a mix of surprise and curiosity.
The surprise soon turned into shock and wonder as she contemplated his entirely new form. The handsome human Knight had disappeared, replaced by a majestic and terrifying being.
She looked with curiosity at the full transformation, raising her hand very slowly, daring to touch his large and branching horns.
Then her hand moved to touch the edge of his massive black wings which were still extended.
She blinked several times in amazement, her mind grasping the situation.
Suddenly, she burst out laughing with childish excitement, thoroughly enjoying what she saw before her as if she were in front of a rare masterpiece.
As for Knight, he was staring at her in surprise at her actions.
"Doesn't she fear me? This terrifying sight of mine?"
he wondered to himself. But he soon sighed with deep relief; she was finally fine before him, and that was what mattered.
He heard her cheerful voice saying to him, widening her eyes with innocent curiosity:
"What is this, Knight?"
He knitted his brows with slight annoyance at her question, his tone carrying some bitterness:
"I know I have become a terrifying monster."
He said it in his voice which had become
hoarser and heavier due to the transformation.
Upon hearing his new voice, she gave a wide smile that looked somewhat like a deranged one:
"Monster!!??"
"My God! You are handsome as hell! Ah, finally I see your true demon! Even your voice has become more provocative!"
She said it impulsively and without thinking, driven by her excitement.
Knight was stunned by her unexpected response for a moment; he couldn't believe what he heard.
A hoarse, muffled bout of laughter overcame him. He pulled her to him lightly, raising one eyebrow with his usual wicked smile:
"Oh... really?"
She realized what she had just blurted out in her excitement and blushed immediately. She pouted slightly, trying to escape his mocking gaze:
"Please don't start."
She buried her head in his solid chest, inhaling his strong scent. She felt comfort and complete safety in his arms, as if everything were alright.
I said while still embracing him, enjoying the usual warmth:
"What shall we do now?"
I was fully aware of the matter, for my consciousness was present and I heard everything "The Heart of the Forest" said.
I was not completely unconscious.
He pulled away from me slightly, looking at me with eyes carrying many worries.
"You already know."
I nodded to him calmly, confirming my knowledge of the weight of the mission placed upon our shoulders.
He sighed deeply, exhaling air from his lungs with clear desperation, as he said:
"I think Lauren can help us with this."
I nodded to him again, agreeing:
"Yes, Lauren has a general knowledge of history from the oldest eras until now."
He moved away from me, returning to his usual human form; his handsome features reappeared, but his clothes were completely torn from his previous violent transformation. He began to think aloud:
"I think I heard my grandfather talking about an old book that speaks of a legend... I don't know exactly what it is, but it exists somewhere in the family's private library in the palace."
I stared at him with great surprise:
"Really? Here? This makes it a bit easier for us!"
He turned to me, his tone carrying concern again:
"But you must rest now; you have exhausted your energy."
I looked at the semi-destroyed library around me, the shattered glass and scattered papers everywhere.
I didn't care about his talk of rest.
I began gathering the scattered papers and files quickly, and I beat him to the outside of the room while shouting with excitement:
"Come on now! Bring what is left and let's go to our room! We have to finish it today, did you forget?"
I heard his sigh filled with despair at my reckless actions, but I didn't care.
I smiled, remembering the kiss that had just happened.
His lips were like wine that melts and numbs every cell in my body. If the kiss was like this, then what about... Aaaaa! Stop it Cyra, with these perverted thoughts! Damn you, Cyran!
I heard her amused laughter at my different thinking about Knight.
I felt the heat in my cheeks rising again; I quickly made sure my mind was completely closed from Knight's telepathic meddling before I sighed with relief.
I placed the files on the desk in our room. The wait didn't last long, as he entered directly, placing what remained in his hand and heading toward the dressing room to change his torn clothes.
We started our work immediately. After moments of confusion, I finally understood what I had to do, even if it was after I got a slight headache from the pressure.
But it seems my headache passed to him. Every minute I was asking:
"About this? And why this? And must this be done? And I think this is it and not that!"
I was literally asking about everything, anything, and sometimes nothing, exhausting every ounce of patience he had.
When we finally finished the work, he sighed with deep strength and relief, rubbing his temples hard with his forefinger and thumb:
"I need a painkiller."
I smiled foolishly and stupidly, fully realizing that I was the primary cause of this headache and pain.
I jumped quickly and brought him a painkiller pill from my private drawer, and with it a glass of cold water. I placed them on the table before him lightly:
"Take it."
I said it briefly. He stared at me for a moment with a look in which I read a mixture of gratitude and exhaustion, then he swallowed the pill all at once.
He leaned back on the sofa in complete comfort, closing his eyes, placing his hand on his forehead to block out the dim light in the room.
"Thank you, Cyra,"
he said quietly, his voice more relaxed now.
I smiled with overwhelming joy; I felt satisfaction and happiness just hearing the word "thank you" from him.
Inside me, "Cyran" was dancing in a joyful celebration; our mate had finally thanked us...