D.O. was waiting outside, leaning casually against the car as he stared up at the sky and he cut such an attractive figure against the twilight, it made her breath catch. She knew the exact moment he sensed her because his entire stance tensed before he glanced her way, a warm smile gracing his face.

She smiled back, feeling her heart jump to . There was just something so intense about the way he looked at her – like he would devour her if given the chance. And more so because she wanted to him to, his ever willing prey.

He seemed to read her mind, his gaze burning significantly hotter. She had to force herself to move towards him instead of taking off like her instincts demanded, to let him chase her, capture her, and claim her.

‘Hey,’ he murmured, deep voice sounding deeper with the growl barely hidden in it. It made a shiver run down her spine, only enhanced when his hand came to rest low on her back, soft lips landing oh so close to her lips.

‘Hi…,’ she responded belatedly, breathless. She felt rather than saw his smile as he stepped back. She took the chance to compose herself while he opened the door for her.

Making up her mind about letting him claim her was clearly not a good idea, for her sanity at least. Her heart was beating so loudly, she could hear it, so of course D.O. could too. And he could probably smell her excitement, if the way his nostrils flared as soon as the door clicked shut was any indication.

She swallowed, feeling heat rise on her cheeks. ‘Shall we?’ he asked after a moment.

She nodded, not trusting her words. She didn’t know where he was taking her this time but it would probably be a nice place with great food.

Or that’s what she initially thought. It fled her mind when he took a turn on the highway, heading out of Oulphesden.

‘Uh…’ She glanced at D.O. cautiously. ‘Where… are we going?’

‘Hm?’ he hummed, not taking his eyes off the road. ‘Just a little spot I know.’ He glanced at her with a smile. ‘You’ll love it.’

Of that, she had no doubt. He knew her well enough to know exactly the kind of places she liked… and that was the problem.

She liked quiet, private spots.

Where it would be just the two of them. Where anything could happen.

She gulped, feeling a frisson of heat travel through her.

Anything could happen.

……………………………………………….

They ended up at an open-air barbecue place just on the outskirts of Oulphesden, just the kind of niche, hole in the wall type of thing Kyra liked. There weren’t many customers, so it gave them plenty of privacy, with a beautiful view.

Over the course of their dates, they’d gotten quite comfortable with each other. Enough to hold hands under the table while they ate. Or rather, D.O. fed her because she was a little too distracted by the sensation of his thumb rubbing over her knuckles.

Now that she had made up he mind about letting him complete the claim, even the smallest touch felt like too much. Although to be fair, it had always been like that. The spark between them was something that went beyond her being in heat or having an unclaimed bite over her neck.

The bite that seemed to throb in response of his touch.

She didn’t know if he noticed but she had stopped taking care to cover it when she was with him. Because a) it turned itchy when her heat acted up, which almost always happened after she’d spent any significant amount of time with him. Lay’s candid explanation of why that could be had made her blush. But more importantly, b) she wanted him to bite her again.

Okay, so she had a thing for him losing control and biting her, sue her.

In her defense, she’d always been into power play and D.O. had dominance rolling off of him in spades. It also didn’t help that he’d done exactly that when he’d given her the mark, so she had plenty of material to fuel her imagination.

Imagination that was running wild now as she stared at his side profile, watching the soft bob of his throat as he swallowed, the plushness of his lips, the defined line of his jaw. It moved like he was saying something, lips curving into a smile. Her own curled in response.

‘-yra?’

‘Hm?’ she hummed, dazed.

‘Kyra…’ He sounded amused. She liked that, liked the pleasing warmth in his voice.

‘You aren’t listening, are you?’

‘No,’ she responded dreamily before his question registered. She shut , feeling a blush rising on her cheeks. ‘I-I mean, yes. I’m listening.’

He laughed, pouring giddiness into her. ‘I was thinking if we could order something warm. It’s starting to snow.’

She looked around at that, noticing that yes, it had indeed started to snow, quite rapidly.

As her body registered the cold, she sneezed in quick succession.

Before she could properly reorient, D.O. had placed his warm upper around her shoulders. ‘Maybe we should head inside.’

She nodded, trying not to act like a creep by sniffing his upper but burying herself in it nonetheless. It was getting quite cold, making her wonder if it had anything to do with Xiumin. It probably did. She followed after him sedately, watching him talk to the sole barkeep, tuning out everything else.

Maybe if she had been paying attention, she would’ve noticed the group eyeing them.

In hindsight, it made sense that the place would be a prime target for ruffians looking to make a quick buck. The restaurant was off-track and pretty isolated, and by the time they stepped back in, whatever stray customers had come in had left already, so it was just the two of them and the old barkeep.

She only noticed D.O’s shoulders tensing a moment before he pounced, moving too fast for her to really see anything. Before she could register anything, he was standing defensively in front of her, fingers wrapped around the throat of her would-be attacker.

The man – boy, really – was struggling to get his fingers loose while his gang stood around in momentary shock. Clearly, they hadn’t expected their target to fight back. Then, one of them made the mistake of pulling out his knife.

Now, Kyra had seen D.O tussle with his brothers before. Baekhyun and Chanyeol loved bugging him and wrestling was one of the Legends’ favorite past times in general, often banding together to try and one-up D.O. It normally ended with them getting bodily thrown around while D.O’s shadows slipped out, scaring them long before he attacked.

It was one thing to see him playfight and quite another to see him actually put his skill to use. Within moments, the entire rag-tag group was incapacitated, even though D.O was clearly keeping himself in check, probably because his opponents were regular humans, and not other Legends.

It was hot.

Kyra fanned herself as his eyes flashed momentarily red, his fingers crushing the weapon like it was toothpick. The guy’s eyes expanded, panic increasing as D.O grinned, the aura of the beast rising behind him threateningly.  

Then, there was the ominous sound of gun cocking and everyone stilled. She looked over D.O’s shoulder to find the barkeep had loaded his shotgun.

‘Get out of here,’ he said calmly, taking aim of the nearest guy, ‘before I call the cops.’

D.O let the man go with a final warning growl and watched impassively as they scrambled out.  

And that was that, apparently, the barkeep offering them free drinks to make up for the scare.

D.O grabbed her hand to lead her to the bar, thanking the old man politely while Kyra had an internal meltdown.  

She was so screwed.

……………………………………………

‘I’m sorry,’ D.O apologized again as he led Kyra to her room, feeling extremely bad that his plan had led his mate to danger. The beast growled inside him, still angry at not being able to break that hand that rose against its mate.

Kyra shook her head. ‘It was nothing… and besides,’ She glanced at him coyly,  ‘you kept me safe.’

The beast preened inside him but he frowned. ‘I shouldn’t have put you in danger in the first place.’

She sighed, tangling their fingers and lacing them tightly. ‘Thank you anyway,’ she told him firmly. ‘Even though it was dangerous, I felt really safe and protected.’

D.O let out a put upon sigh. It was hard not to feel happy when she put it like that.

‘Fine,’ he muttered grumpily.

She giggled softly, rising on tiptoes to peck on his cheek. He returned the kiss, his lips landing on the corner of , so close to her tempting lips.

‘Good night,’ he whispered.

‘Good night.’

……………………………………………………

Raina wouldn’t stop laughing at her predicament.

Kyra eyed her friend balefully. ‘It’s not that funny.’

‘It is though,’ Raina responded, cackling. Kyra poked her side. ‘Airhead.’

‘Mud-stick, Raina countered, blowing her a raspberry and stretching, letting out a languid sigh. ‘It’s so nice to tease you for a change.’

Kyra made a face. ‘Not so nice from where I’m standing.’

Raina grinned. ‘I don’t blame you though… I mean, that does sound very hot.’

‘It was,’ Kyra sighed, feeling a lot like whining. ‘I don’t know how I’ll be able to face him after this.’

‘You don’t have to,’ Raina threw in, wiggling her eyebrows lasciviously. ‘You can face the wall while he-‘

‘Raina!’ Kyra’s scandalized exclamation rang through the room while her friend dissolved into laughter.

‘What? I thought you liked being told what to do-‘

Kyra threw cushions at her, forcing her to double over and protect herself. Her ears felt hot, and it felt like her face was on fire.

‘Go back to Tao,’ she told her sternly, kicking her legs out. ‘I swear you’re getting worse than Tiffany.’

‘Thank you,’ Raina blew her a kiss, taking her advice and leaving her to find her mate.

And now, Kyra had to contend with the stupid ideas Raina had forced in her mind.

Grumbling, frustrated, she tried to go to sleep. It didn’t work though, the itch under her skin worse than ever, especially with her imagination running wild. She couldn’t bring herself to go to Lay either, knowing he would either reprimand her for waiting when she’d already made up her mind, or give even more scandalous suggestions than Raina, anything to get the job done.

After tossing and turning for what felt like hours, she fell into a fitful sleep and landed in a nightmare.

There was darkness, just like the one she’d seen in D.O’s future so long ago, and there was golden light. The darkness was pressing in, clearly trying to get closer to where she was but the golden light held firm, pushing back. As she watched, tendrils sprang from the darkness, gathering around the golden light and covering it up until only the barest specks remained visible before tightening. Kyra’s heart lurched in fear as the golden light all but disappeared, before spikes of gold tore apart the darkness, leaving behind only deathly white emptiness.

Kyra’s sat up, panting as if she’d been running.

After her heart had settled a bit, she tried to think about what she could do. Although the dream was more symbolic than her usual prophecies, she could sense that it had to do with the Legends and whatever it was, it was close.

Looked like she had to visit Lay after all.

…………………………………………