RONAN

I pull my hoodie over my head when I hear a knock on my office door. I rise from my seat and approach the door, unlocking it. Janice stands there, her head lower than usual. I think she's expecting me to explode in anger. But I've only been exploding with sexual frustration. Bursting in bed beside Hazel until my lap is covered in my cum. Hell, my balls are ready to release again. My bed will never be peaceful again. Not while Hazel sleeps beside me.

"Sir, your visitor has arrived at the gates."

Walker is here.

"I'll receive him myself."

She lifts her head slightly, surprised. "The sun hasn't set yet, my lord. The servants are still working and wandering the halls."

"It's not like they haven't seen me. There's not much of a secret anymore, Janice."

They didn't see my face, but they know I'm male and rabid for Hazel.

"As you wish, sir."

I close my office door and walk down the hall, taking the populated route. I notice how servants jump out of my path and wonder if they heard the screams coming from the prison. If they have realized that Hazel is untouchable.

I walk outside. It feels strange feeling the sun's rays penetrating my black hoodie. I never wander outside the estate unless it's to go to the town. I can feel my servant's eyes as they peer through the windows and watch me. No one ever approaches the gates as I am doing. Crossing them is forbidden.

The guard standing by the gate greets me and stands tall.

"Open the gates," I order.

He digs into his pocket for a large key that has only been used a few times since this estate was established. His fingers tremble as they insert the key into the rusty, unused hole. Metal creaks and wanes, and he spins a handle that slowly opens the stiff wooden doors.

Another hooded figure stands before me. Walker. His hood is a dark crimson color. I can imagine his twisted smirk underneath the cotton hood.

"Where's my fucking whiskey?" He asks, his voice raspier than when I last heard it.

"Fuck you, Walker."

He crosses the gates, the nearby guard staring with wide eyes as one freak becomes two. In the few times that Walker visited, he came at night, so no servants saw him. I can understand the shock.

"Come. I will show you to my office," I tell him.

We walk beside each other, our footsteps oddly in sync. I suppose there are some things drilled into us during our time in the military that cannot be erased. We're still soldiers.

The halls are clear this time, as if servants took shelter when they saw me prowling around. Walker and I quickly make it to my office, where I shut the doors and gesture for him to have his fill of the alcohol on the cart in the corner of the office.

I lock the door and throw my hoodie off, revealing my tousled hair and scarred face. Walker does the same. For the first time in months, I maintain eye contact with another human that doesn't flinch.

"You're so fucking ugly. I'd hate to wake up to that face," he says.

I'm sure Hazel would hate to wake up to my face, too. That's why I didn't sleep beside her last night. She seems to be attracted to my body, but it would gut me to see her cringe away from my face. Could I ever kiss her without my hoodie? Who would want to set their lips on such a grotesque face?

"Look in a mirror, Walker," I tell him. "So tell me about your estate."

He nods. "I found a wire in my bedroom. A maid must have set it. I have a rebellious group of servants that want to leave, but not empty handed. They want some of my money before they skip the wall once and for all."

"How did you find all of this out?"

"An anonymous letter."

Hmm, I thought I had problems, but Walker takes the cake.

"And how will you fix this?"

He shrugs. "Some torture goes a long way. I'll find out who the group is and banish them, but I wanted you to know the coordinates of my vault in case anything happens to me." He reaches into his pocket for a piece of paper.

My eyes widen. In all the years we've been estate lords, we have never shared such information. Our vaults are hidden in the estates, loaded with enough precious jewels and gold to support generations. There are also documents about the top-secret military experiments conducted on us.

I flick my hand. "I don't want that information. You deal with your own fucking estate. I have my own to deal with."

He unfolds and thrusts the paper into my hand. It's a hand-drawn map. "You're the only family I have," he says.

"Then start one. Settle with the maid you're obsessed with."

We've had this conversation before. Walker is willing to start a family and risk passing on our biological curse to his children. He thinks our genetic power can be used for good. I disagree. I think whatever was pumped into our blood during the experiments should die with us.

He frowns, a vein in his forehead throbbing. "Not her. I can't ruin her."

"Ruin her?" I reply. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"The anger problems, the insatiable hunger for sex. That's why we need to have three mistresses at a time. Because we're sick. No single woman would be able to keep up with that. So no. I won't ruin her."

Guilt chokes me as I think of Hazel's face. Smiling, laughing. She's young and full of life. But Walter is right. No single woman would be able to keep up with my lust and rage.

"Why do you look away, Ronan?" Walker asks, sounding pissed. "Don't fucking tell me that you..."

"Yes," I interject. "A young maid skipped the walls a few times and I didn't banish her. Instead, I got attached. Now I'm pretending to make her my woman and keeping her in my bedroom so the estate can't touch her. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, and I don't need your criticism. Let me figure out my mess on my own."

He looks horrified, as he should. I've always been the more level-headed lord between the two of us. Walker sometimes lets alcohol get to him. Meanwhile, my only vice is Hazel.

He runs a hand down his face. "I don't think there's enough whiskey in this office to calm me. For fuck's sake, Ronan. You're going to burn this place to the ground if you keep playing favorites by protecting this girl."

"I told you to spare me the criticism. I'm not going to banish her. I'd throw away the key to my own estate before I did that. Now get me a glass of whiskey and shut up."

We drink together for an hour, trying to drown our stress. But there is too much to do. I welcome him to stay the night, but he refuses. Claiming that I might smother him with a pillow now that I have a map to his vault.

We laugh and embrace, before pulling our hoods over our heads and returning to the real world. The world where we must hide our monstrous faces and secrets.

It's late at night when I retire to my chambers. The hall's darkness is comforting. But my peace thickens and becomes tension with every step I take.

Hazel must be in bed. The same bed I desecrated by masturbating beside her. A gentle glow of a lantern seeps out from under the door. I take a deep inhale, trying to calm the tension in my body, but my cock stirs awake, having the opposite effect.

I exhale with frustration and shove the doors open. My eyes instantly find Hazel, who startles and shoves something beneath the sheets.

I enter my bedroom and close the door behind me. Then I walk to the foot of the bed. Hazel stares at me with wide eyes. She wears her nightgown, a small strap hanging off her right shoulder. Her hair is in a bun. A gentle breeze coming from the open window blows a lock of hair around the nape of her neck. I vaguely register that the windows haven't been opened in years. In another situation, I would be angry at her for opening them. But I can't get my mouth to work. Can't get my eyes to move or my legs to walk. The only part of my body that's functioning is my hardening dick.

How is she so beautiful? So stunning?

"Um... welcome back. I already brushed my teeth, so the bathroom is all yours. Not that it wasn't yours. I know you're the lord of...never mind."

It seems like sexual tension has a chokehold on her, too.

I clear my throat. My voice comes deeper than usual as I ask, "what are you hiding beneath the sheets?"

She shrinks back into her pillow before picking the hem of the sheets and pulling it over her head until she's completely covered.

I lick my lips and step forward. It's time to go hunting.