Chapter 3 Good Host
Skylar
I knew I was dreaming the moment the air turned dark—warm enough to make my skin prickle. Dreams here had weight: silent, sweet, yet suffocating.
I was standing somewhere that was definitely not the academy. A room drenched in purple—walls, bed, curtains, everything wrapped in velvet.
Someone stood in front of me.
He had silver-lilac eyes, tousled silver hair, and… a smile tugging at his full lips—tempting and dangerous.
I didn’t know him. I had never seen him since arriving at Equilibrium.
“Skylar.” His voice slipped beneath my skin like a whisper made of smoke and heat. “You came.”
“W-where am I?” My voice fogged white, like breath on winter glass. “What is this place?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped closer slowly until my heart slammed against my throat.
His hand touched my jaw. Just the tips of his fingers, barely a tease, yet the effect on my body was overwhelming, impossible to resist.
I should have stepped back. Screamed. Done anything other than lean into him like he was the centre of gravity itself. I felt foolish—drawn in, helpless.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
His lips curved not into a smile, but something far more dangerous.
“Elroth.”
The name trembled through the dream like a struck bell.
The next second, his hand slid to the back of my neck—warm, certain, demanding in a way no one had ever touched me before and his lips claimed mine.
The kiss… shouldn’t exist.
It was far too intense for a stranger. Slow and deep, as if he were tasting every secret I had hidden since birth.
I gasped against his mouth, and he accepted the sound like a gift.
Heat spread through me. My wolf instincts and something else I refused to acknowledge twisting together, growling softly, hungry.
“What are you doing to me?” I blinked.
“Enjoying you. You’re a good host.”
“What do you mean?” I struggled, weakly. “Let me go.”
His thumb brushed my cheekbone. “I like you, Skylar.”
“Y-you… like me?” My voice shook.
“Hm,” he murmured against my lips. “Stay with me.”
His kiss deepened. My knees buckled, and I fell back onto the bed behind me. This wasn’t a dream where I felt nothing—quite the opposite. My body responded to every touch he gave me.
I didn’t know when my clothes disappeared. Elroth moved fluidly above me, every motion awakening my desire to welcome him. His hands spread my legs. His face lowered, drawing close to my most sensitive place.
Why couldn’t I refuse him?
“Elroth—hh. I can’t hold it back.”
“Then don’t. Let me into you.”
A soft moan escaped me before I could stop it.
His body was bare too—perfect, made to share heat and sweat. Warmth gathered between my thighs, and instead of recoiling, I waited for him to move closer.
But just as our bodies were about to unite, my final shred of self-control shattered.
I shoved him hard.
“NO!”
He vanished instantly, leaving only my curse behind.
“Come back to me,” his voice echoed without his form. “Or I’ll come to you.”
I woke with my heart exploding like a trapped animal.
**
For several seconds, I didn’t know where I was. All I felt was the ghost of his lips—heat, electricity, far too real to be a dream. My skin still trembled, as if the dream’s air had followed me into reality.
I pressed my fingers to my mouth, then checked my clothes. Relief washed over me—at least time had spared me from doing something I should never have done in a dream.
“Elroth, damn you! Good thing you’re… handsome. Otherwise I’d sweep you straight into the Atlantic and freeze you there. Ugh, what am I even saying?”
But when I dressed and headed for my first class ‘Werewolf Instinct Control’ my heartbeat was still unruly, my skin prickling like someone was whispering my name.
Of course, the universe had a cruel sense of humour, because when I turned the corner—Elroth was there.
Leaning against the wall as if he’d been waiting for me. Silver hair messy, eyes too purple, full lips tilted like he remembered everything I’d done in my dream last night.
Perfect. Anyone want to kill my heart for me?
“Well,” he said softly, pushing off the wall. “Good morning, little wolf.”
No one else called me that—certainly not with a voice that made the words taste sweet on their tongue.
I froze. “How…why…what are you doing here?”
“Passing through,” he replied casually. “And you’re staring at me.”
“I…I’m not.”
“You are.” His smile deepened. “So cute it makes me want to make you my girlfriend.”
A thousand questions burned on my tongue, but I forced my face into neutrality. I refused to let him know I’d dreamed of him. That would be humiliating.
“I’m going to class.”
“Mmm. Off you go.” He walked past me slowly enough that his shoulder brushed mine. Heat struck my body like lightning. “Try not to dream about me during lessons. Too many mortals around.”
“I did NOT—!”
He was gone before I could finish. I exhaled sharply. The real problem was that Elroth had something about him that made me want to keep thinking about him.
Damn it.
