Run.

That was the only thought screaming through Fiona's mind, loud enough to drown out the frantic pounding of her own heart in her ears.

Twigs whipped against her face, leaving stinging marks, and the sharp thorns of the dense undergrowth of the forest tore mercilessly at her dress.

The fabric of her dress ripped with every desperate step she took, but she couldn't stop. She couldn't even breathe.

How was this happening? The last thing she remembered was the terrifying sensation of falling. She had been taking pictures of the horizon from a cliff and then the edge of the cliff crumbled beneath her feet.

She was so scared since it was such a high cliff. Right, she should even be dead. But instead, she had woken up on a flat surface, in this suffocating, pitch-black forest, only to be instantly hunted.

Behind her, the growls of the things chasing her grew louder, closer, and terrifyingly unified.

They weren't animals, but they weren't human either. They were massive figures with glowing eyes with animal ears and tails, tearing through the bushes and effortlessly breaking branches that she had to fight to push past.

"Stop running, female!" one of them barked, his disgusting voice terrifying her and at the same time, making her skin crawl. "There is nowhere to hide! We have your scent-it is already engraved in our senses!"

Another beastman let out a mocking, echoing laugh from her left, intentionally flushing her forward like prey into a trap. "Run all you want! You cannot wash your blood from our noses! This forest belongs to the beasts!"

They all let out cackling laughters they echoed throughout the first, frightening her even more.

'It's a nightmare,' Fiona wept internally, her vision blurring with tears as she pushed through a wall of briars. 'Wake up. Please, just wake up.'

She had no choice but to believe it was a nightmare, but the pain was too sharp, the cold air too biting for it to be a dream. Every gasp of air she took was thick with the musk of the monsters closing the distance.

But then, if it wasn't a dream, how did she get here?

Suddenly, her foot caught on a massive, hidden root. With a sharp gasp, her body flew forward, rolling heavily over the dirt and dead leaves.

She heard a crack that seemed to have come from her bones and what followed was the agony and pain rolling up from her ankle.

She had broken her ankle.

Fiona screamed in pain, dragging herself backward on her elbows, her breath hitching in her throat.

It was over. The shadows of the monsters descended upon her, blocking out what little light filtered through the canopy of trees.

The feral beastmen stepped forward, completely surrounding her in a tight circle. They were snickering, a sickening chorus of wet chuckles as they looked down at her fragile, trembling form.

One of them slowly licked his upper lip, a thick string of saliva hanging from his jagged teeth. "Look how she shakes," he sneered, his bloodshot eyes fixed on her pale skin. "The scent of her fear makes it even better. Let's see how sweet she tastes when we devour her."

"I get the first bite," another growled, stepping closer, his long claws flexing in anticipation. "My inner beast is begging for this."

Fiona collapsed back against the dirt, entirely helpless, paralyzed by the danger radiating from them. They were going to tear her apart. In her absolute desperation, a silent, weeping plea tore through her mind. Someone... please, anyone... save me. Just save me.

The beastman with the bloodshot eyes reached out a clawed hand, his fingers mere inches from her trembling shoulder but then froze and everyone went silent.

An oppressive, aura flared out of nowhere, freezing the beastmen in place and crushing the air straight out of Fiona's lungs.

The sheer pressure of the aura made the earth itself seem to tremble.

From the deepest, darkest part of the forest came a low, incredibly deep growl.

It wasn't a roar yet-just a primal, vibrating rumble that traveled through the soil and shook the very roots of the trees. The effect of this growl was felt right away.

The feral beastmen flinched violently, their snickers dying in their throats. The beastman reaching for her was completely frozen, his claws trembling as a sudden terror washed over his hideous face.

Whimpering like beaten dogs, they immediately scattered into the darkness without looking back, valuing their lives far more than the prize they had just cornered.

For a single second, Fiona let out a shaky breath. Saved. Someone-or something-had answered her prayer.

But the suffocating pressure didn't lift. It grew heavier.

Her eyes darted frantically into the thick shadows ahead. A sudden glint of silver caught the moonlight-it was the sharp, lethal gleam of two fangs.

Horror immediately flushed over Fiona anew. She scrambled backward, kicking up dirt, trying to use her uninjured leg to push herself away from whatever was approaching.

"N-no... stay back..." she whimpered, her voice cracking as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.

The silhouette stepped out of the shadow of the ancient trees.

For a moment, her breath seized, paralyzed by the sheer contradiction walking toward her.

It was a man, completely naked, possessing a pale, flawless physique that looked as though it had been sculpted from marble. Yet, he was undeniably a beast.

Extending from his tailbone was a thick, powerful tail covered in shimmering silver scales that brushed heavily against the forest floor. Atop his head, nestled in silver hair, were two magnificent, curving silver horns.

When he looked down at her, she felt the world shrink. His eyes were a piercing, luminous emerald, the pupils narrowed into dangerous, reptilian slits. He was breathtakingly handsome, but he exuded an aura of pure, lethal dominance.

Danger. The word echoed in her mind and a terrifying chill ran down her spine.

"S-stay back! Please!" she stammered, her hands scraping against the dirt as she tried to retreat.

The dragon beastman didn't utter a word. He simply closed the distance, bent over and effortlessly scooped her off the ground.

Before she could process the warmth of his skin, she was flipped upside down and thrown carelessly over his broad, muscular shoulder like a bag of potatoes.

"Let me go! Put me down!" she screamed, her small fists hammering against his back, her legs kicking wildly. "Please, let me go." She cried but the movement flared the agony in her broken ankle, making her sob, but she didn't stop fighting.

The man stopped, his silver tail lashing once behind him. His voice, when he finally spoke, was a deep rumble that vibrated directly against her chest.

"Female. You shall be my sacrifice."

The word struck her like a physical blow. Sacrifice. Like... 'the' sacrifice?

The horror of the moment intensified, a suffocating feeling that threatened to make her pass out.

She was being abducted by a monster and she was going to be slaughtered. Eaten alive by a monster in a beautiful human shell.

She wept openly now, her fingers clutching blindly at nothing as the towering trees blurred past them.

It didn't take long before the dark forest gave way to a massive stone den. The air inside was warm but thick with the scent of ozone, like the forest air after a rainfall.

Without a shred of gentleness, he tossed her down. Expecting the hard, cold stone of a butcher's block, Fiona braced herself, but instead sank into an incredibly soft, plush bed crafted from layers of thick, luxurious furs.

Before she could even try to roll away, his heavy, pale body loomed over her. He pinned her down, trapping her beneath his massive frame. His emerald eyes burned down into her brown ones, his breath hot against her skin.

"Female... your blood," he murmured, his voice dropping to a low, primal growl.

His gaze drifted down to her hands, which were scraped and bleeding from her frantic race through the woods. He reached down, grabbing her wrist with a strong grip, and lifted her bleeding palm to his lips.

Slowly, his tongue flicked out, licking the red drop of blood from her skin.

A shudder ran through his massive frame. The emerald slits of his eyes narrowed to needle-like lines, a flush of dark color rising to his pale cheekbones.

He looked as if he were losing his mind, entirely consumed by a sudden, intoxicating rush of instinct.

'He finds it delicious,' she thought in absolute panic, her heart hammering against her ribs. 'This is it. He's going to drain me.'

But then, he leaned down closer, his silver horns brushing against her tangled hair, his voice strained as he fought to keep his feral nature from swallowing him whole.

"Many females have lost their lives as my sacrifice," he growled against her neck, his sharp fangs grazing her skin just enough to make her gasp. "But neither of those females carried the scent you carry. And their blood... tasteth not like yours either."

He pulled back just enough to look into her terrified eyes, a dark, wicked smirk pulling at his lips.

"Let us see if you can withstand my curse... when I give you my mark and we mate."

The word echoed in the quiet cave, leaving Fiona completely frozen.

'Mate?'

Her mind spun into utter confusion, temporarily stalling her terror. Wasn't this the part where he tore her apart? Where he ate her alive? Why were they suddenly talking about a mating path?

Looking up into the eyes of the dangerous dragon beastman pressing her into the furs, the reality of her nightmare truly set in.

She was trapped.

But she didn't want a mark or to mate with a monster.

She just wanted to go home.

The plush furs beneath Fiona offered no comfort to her confused and terrified state.

The massive weight of the silver-scaled dragon beastman pressing down on her was suffocating, pinning her into the bed, giving her no room for escape.

Panic clawed at her throat as his emerald eyes bore into hers, his fangs grazing the sensitive skin of her neck.

Every instinct she had screamed that she was about to die. She had to fight.

Gathering every ounce of strength left in her trembling body, she wrenched her good leg back and kicked upward with all her might.

Her foot connected right between his thighs and hit his most prized jewel.

The dragon beastman stiffened, a low, shocked grunt escaping his lips, followed by a hiss. His grip on her faltered for a second as he recoiled from the sudden blow to his penis.

It was the only chance Fiona was going to get. Gasping for air, she scrambled backward across the plush furs, dragging her body toward the edge of the large bed, desperate to reach the cold stone floor of the stone cavern and get away. She might not get far with her broken ankle but she would have to. She just had to. Her life depended on it.

But the moment her feet hit the ground, she tried to put weight on her injured leg and a white-hot spike of agony shot up her leg from her twisted ankle.

She buckled, a sharp cry tearing from her throat.

Before she could hit the floor, a heavy, clawed hand clamped around that exact, throbbing ankle.

Fiona screamed as the dragon beastman yanked her backward with terrifying ease, dragging her across the furs until she was flat on her back once more. He lunged, slamming his body over hers, his hands pinning her wrists roughly above her head.

"No, no, get away. Get away from me._ she cried but then her body stiffened as she caught his eyes.

The beautiful emerald of his eyes was entirely gone and had bled into a blinding, feral crimson.

"Female," he growled, his voice deep, vibrating with pure fury that shook her very bones. "You will pay for your transgression against me."

Fiona saw this and wept, her eyes closing tight as she turned her head away, waiting for the final, devastating blow. She braced herself for the nightmare to turn into an outright slaughter.

And then it happened. The dragon beastman exposed his sharp fangs and dug his teeth into her collarbone.

She gasped, her eyes flying open as his fangs sank deep into her flesh, but it wasn't the bite of a monster trying to rip her apart, it was a deliberate bite with one goal in mind. He was marking her.

At first, the pain was blinding. She thrashed against his grip, a choked sob catching in her throat as she feared he would bite her like that all over her body and suck her blood dry before he even tried to mate with her.

But within seconds, the pain began to transform into something else. A strange, unnatural warmth flooded from the bite mark, rushing straight through her veins like liquid fire.

It wasn't the kind of burning sensation that destroyed, but a thick, heavy heat that made her entire body heat up and flush.

Her skin grew hot to the touch, a deep crimson tint spreading across her trembling shoulders, cheeks and chest.

Above her, the dragon beastman waited, his jaw still locked onto her skin, his feral mind bracing for the inevitable.

This was the moment. This was the exact moment where every single female before her had failed. His mark carried the weight of a violent, chaotic curse.

The previous sacrifices had choked on their own blood, screaming in agony as their bodies rejected the dragon's primal energy, dying within seconds.

That was the pattern but he never stopped searching so he could find a way to keep his curse at bay.

Right now, he was waiting for her to stop breathing. He was waiting for her heart to fail or for her to cry out in agony.

But none of that happened.

Fiona wasn't choking. She wasn't screaming. Instead, her small body was trembling beneath him, her skin radiating a beautiful, burning heat that perfectly absorbed his chaotic energy.

She was reacting positively to the mark. She was enduring it.

Slowly, the dragon pulled his fangs from her skin, a string of red blood staining his lips but he licked it up with a swipe of his tongue. He stared down at her flushed, breathing form in absolute disbelief.

The raging, suffocating pressure in his chest even began to calm down. For the first time in years, the screaming madness of his feral beast fell completely silent, quieted by the sheer presence of the human girl beneath him.

She withstood it.

A dark, possessive triumph flared in his chest. He had finally found her. A mate strong enough to carry his curse. A mate who could finally bear his heirs.

But just as he began to relish the sudden, miraculous calm of his inner beast, something else shifted deep within his blood.

The silence didn't last. The quiet in his veins suddenly erupted into a completely different kind of chaos. The feral beast within him roared back to life with a ravenous, maddening hunger that was entirely new.

His crimson eyes narrowed into tight, dangerous slits as he looked at her flushed face, her panting lips, and the fresh blood pooling at her collarbone.

Simply marking her wasn't enough. It hadn't put his beast to rest at all; it had only fed the fire. The scent of her, the taste of her blood, the heat of her body reacting to his mark-it was an addiction he couldn't fight.

He didn't just need to claim her. He had to devour her.

[Warning: This chapter contains sexual coercion, as well as explicit sex scenes. Readers discretion advised]

The fire from the dragon beastman's mark was spreading too fast across Fiona's body.

It rushed like liquid through her veins becoming a heavy, and intoxicating heat that completely melted away the chill of the cavern.

Her logical mind wanted to scream, wanted to pull away from the monster pinning her down and hide, but her mind was losing its grip on logic.

The panic in her chest turned into a desperate, frantic need to escape the suffocating fever burning her from the inside out.

'What is wrong with me?' Fiona's mind fractured in panic as the heavy haze took hold. 'Why is my body heating up like this? What did he do to me?'

Every breath she took was shallow, her lips parting as she panted against the warm air.

Above her, the cold, pale skin of the dragon beastman felt like an oasis to someone dying of thirst.

Unconsciously, her small hands stopped hammering against his chest. Her fingers clutched at his broad shoulders instead, pulling him closer, desperate to press her burning skin against his cool frame.

The dragon beastman watched the transition through narrowed, dangerous slits. The crimson in his eyes flared, burning with a ravenous satisfaction as he felt her resistance crumble into primal necessity.

He knew exactly what the magic of his mark was doing to her fragile mind. It was a cruel, beautiful coercion, and his inner beast roared in triumph as she began to react proactively, seeking him out for relief.

He leaned down, his silver hair brushing against her flushed cheeks, his thick scaled tail lashing heavily against the plush furs.

"Yes, female," he growled, his voice deep, and rough, vibrating through her and sending a shudder straight down her spine. "Seek me. Only I can put out this fire."

Suddenly, his large hand clamped onto the collar of her dress and ripped the fabric down the center.

The remaining threads of her clothing were torn away, scattered carelessly over the edge of the bed. The cold, biting air of the cavern hit her bare skin, but it did absolutely nothing to calm the raging fire inside her.

If anything, the chill only made her crave his body more, her body pushing off the furs as she instinctively sought his cool skin.

But the dragon beastman didn't give her a chance to breathe. He lowered his heavy frame, his mouth locking onto her chest as he sucked fiercely on her breast, his tongue and lips claiming her nipples with a possessive, consuming hunger.

Fiona whimpered, a ragged gasp catching in her throat as the intense friction of his tongue swiping over her nipple sent a jolt through the fever haze clouding her mind.

Her fingers tangled into his silver hair, pulling him closer, entirely enslaved by the overwhelming sensory overload.

Driven by the unyielding madness of his beast, the dragon beastman didn't pause for gentleness. He had never been well-versed in taking care of a female's body; his world was one of raw dominance and survival.

Without prepping her or waiting for her body to adapt, he parted her thighs and shoved his already hard and throbbing cock directly into her already wet pussy.

A sharp, agonizing scream tore from Fiona's lips, cutting straight through the heavy haze of the magic.

Her body stiffened in pure shock as a barrier ruptured, a brief, blinding pain temporarily cutting through the heat in her veins.

"S-stop... Hold on for a second, ngh."

The dragon froze inside her, his crimson eyes widening slightly as he felt the tight resistance of her body. He hadn't expected it. In the Beast World, females were rarely untouched by the time they reached a beast of his status.

A sudden, profound realization settled into his primitive instincts: she had been a virgin.

A surge of fierce, dark pride erupted in his chest. A savage growl rumbled from his throat, his grip tightening on her hips as he looked down at her tear-stained, flushed face. She was completely untouched. She belonged to him from the very beginning. She was more than just suitable to be his sacrifice; she was perfect to be his mate.

With his pride fully ignited and his beast demanding dominance, he began to move, pushing his cock past her broken hymen. It had stopped hurting and once again, Fiona was filled with the desire to put out the fire burning in her.

The dragon beastman pulled out, and then thrust back in, earning a gasp, wrapped in a moan from her lips. And thus, he began his heavy, relentless thrusts.

Fiona's world completely spun out of control. Tears streamed down her temples, but any lingering pain was quickly being swallowed by a terrifying, wicked pleasure.

The movement of his cool, powerful body moving against hers felt amazing, striking deep relief through her body and tremors through her lower abdomen. It felt amazing, what he was doing to her.

But then, guilt began to tear at her sanity. No, stop, I shouldn't want this... I shouldn't be feeling this way! she screamed at herself internally.

Yet, her body betrayed her, arching into his touch, desperately seeking more of his thrusts that was making her lose her mind.

She couldn't think straight. All she could do was let out embarrassing moans, her hips slamming up to meet his hard thrusts until she was no longer herself. Until she was what he called her. A sacrifice. A mate.

In the middle of the chaotic haze, just as she felt herself drifting on the edge of consciousness, he suddenly gripped her chin.

He tilted her head up, forcing her to look into the burning depths of his crimson eyes. His chest heaving, his fangs bared against his stained lips.

"Your name," he demanded, his voice strained as he fought to keep his beast from completely swallowing him whole. "Speak your name, female."

"Fi... Fiona..." she gasped out, the name tearing from her throat in a breathless sob as another wave of intense heat washed over her.

A dark, wicked smirk pulled at his lips, his grip on her jaw tightening just enough to anchor her to reality.

"Fiona," he rumbled, the name sounding ancient and dangerous on his tongue. "Remember it well. Remember Nadir-the beast who has claimed you."

Nadir... Such an ancient and powerful name. This was the name of the monster who was devouring her.

Fiona hips buckled again as she felt an orgasm about to crash over her body. In that moment, her walls clamped against Nadir's cock and he grunted, his grip on her hips tightening until they left bruises.

"Greedy Fiona," he growled as he felt her walls clamping even harder, as if trying to suck the seeds out of him. "Be patient. I will feed you my seeds and you shall bear my heirs."

Heirs? Fiona was confused, but she wasn't given time to think as he lifted her hips up, kneeling up on the bed as he began to thrash his cock into her, forcing open whatever blocked walls were stopping him from bottoming out inside her.

Her eyes widened, the intensity of his thrusts sending her over the roof and the orgasm tore through her, throwing her into a spasm state, squeezing him even harder and then came his climax.

"Take all of it, Fiona," he growled, his voice rumbling heavily in his chest as he gave one final thrust and plunged inside her, spilling his seeds completely inside her.

Fiona was panting, shaking, tears spilling from her eyes. What just happened?

But she was exhausted, her mind and body were completely worn out. The most she could do was wish that all this was a nightmare and she would wake up on her own bed.

But the nightmare was far from over. The heat began to flare again. It did not relent even after taking the dragon's seeds. Her body began to burn up again and she began to reach for Nadir.

Nadir was also still high in his mind and just as he had gone limp, his cock rose in full glory inside her, stretching her walls.

"We shall spend a long night together, Fiona." He said as he began to thrust again, pounding into her relentlessly.