Chapter 3: Marked and Regretted

Inside the predator’s bedroom, the air was still thick with the scent of their midnight sweat and raw intimacy. Shivi, half-submerged in a dream, felt the warmth of the man beside her. She reached out, pulling his large, calloused hand to her face, nuzzling against it like a kitten.

"Don't leave me..." she whimpered, her voice thick with sleep. "I don't know what came over me, but you've claimed me now. You’re mine."

The man, fully awake and watching her with a dark, possessive hunger, let out a low, vibrating chuckle. He ran his hand over her mess of hair, his fingers grazing the sensitive skin of her neck. "I’m not going anywhere, Shivi," he whispered, his eyes scanning her naked, marked body. "You’re mine now. Even if you scream for mercy, I’ll never let you go."

He pulled away eventually, leaving her to sink back into a deep, exhausted sleep while he lay on the other side of the bed, his mind replaying the way she had felt tightening around him just hours before.

The morning sun hit the room with a harsh glare. Shivi’s eyes snapped open, and the first thing she felt was a throbbing ache between her thighs. She sat up, the silk sheets sliding down to reveal her bare chest, covered in dark, angry-red hickeys and teeth marks.

She looked to her side. There lay the stranger—a mountain of hard muscle and tan skin, sleeping naked beside her.

The memories hit her like a freight train. The car. The biting. The way she had begged for him to be harder, faster. "God, what have I done?" she hissed, tears of shame pricking her eyes. She thought of her ex, Anand, the reason she had gone on this self-destructive spiral. She gathered her torn, crumpled clothes, her body stinging with every movement, and slipped out like a thief in the night.

At her friend’s apartment, Shivi was practically breaking down the door. When Anisha and Anandi finally opened it, they gasped. Shivi looked wrecked—her hair was a bird's nest, her makeup was smeared, and her neck was a map of purple bruises.

"I hooked up with a total stranger," Shivi sobbed, collapsing onto the sofa.

Anandi leaned in, pulling Shivi’s collar aside to see the damage. "Holy shit, Shivi! Look at these marks. He didn't just hook up with you; he tried to eat you alive!"

Shivi buried her face in her hands. "I was a virgin! And I gave it to some guy whose name I don't even know! I was acting like a total slut, begging him for more... I don't even know if he used a condom!"

Anandi exchanged a look with Anisha. "Babe, looking at those marks and the way you’re walking? You weren't just 'exploring.' You were getting wrecked. We’re definitely getting a pregnancy kit and some Plan B. We don't need a mini-stranger running around in nine months."

Shivi locked herself in the bathroom and stripped. She stood before the full-length mirror, her breath hitching at the sight of her own body. Her breasts were swollen and covered in finger-shaped bruises where he had gripped her. Her inner thighs were sore, and her neck looked like a battlefield of lust.

She turned on the shower, the hot water stinging the small bites he had left on her skin. As she scrubbed herself, she couldn't stop the flashbacks—the feeling of his tongue, the weight of him crushing her into the car seat, and the raw, stretching fullness of him taking her innocence.

She let out a frustrated moan, her hand instinctively sliding down between her legs, feeling the lingering soreness. "I was like a total animal..." she whispered to her reflection. "I was literally acting like a paid whore on the street. How am I ever going to face him—or anyone—again?"

Anandi yelled from outside, "Hurry up! We have college, and I want to hear every single dirty detail of how that 'beast' handled you!"

What happens when the "Stranger" wakes up and finds the blood-stained sheets empty? And what if he shows up at Shivi’s college as someone she can't ignore?