"The Alpha heir didn't request. He commanded."
I barely had time to gather my scattered notes and textbooks before Darius's shadow fell across my desk like an eclipse blotting out the sun. The Advanced Pack Dynamics classroom buzzed with excited whispers as fifty pairs of eyes tracked his every movement, but one sharp look from him silenced the room so completely that I could hear the ancient building settling around us.
His dominance rolled out like smoke from a wildfire, suffocating and inescapable, pressing against every wolf in the room until the weaker students visibly shrank in their seats. The scent of his barely controlled power filled the air—pine forests after lightning strikes, winter storms held back by will alone.
"Now." He repeated the word like it was a death sentence, voice pitched low enough that it seemed to vibrate through the floorboards beneath my feet.
Pride rooted me to my chair for a heartbeat too long, every stubborn instinct I possessed screaming at me to refuse his high-handed command. I wanted to make him stew in his own arrogance, to remind him publicly that he'd forfeited any right to order me around when he'd rejected our mate bond in front of half the Academy.
But his presence pressed heavier with each passing second, waves of Alpha authority making it difficult to breathe properly. My wolf trembled beneath my skin, torn between the instinctive urge to submit to our mate and the wounded pride that demanded I stand my ground.
With my spine rigid as tempered steel, I gathered my books with deliberate slowness and rose from my seat. I ignored the way every pair of eyes in the classroom followed our exit, ignored the excited whispers that would undoubtedly spawn a dozen new rumors before lunch break ended.
The heavy oak door slammed shut behind us with a sound like a gunshot echoing through the stone corridors. Darius didn't lead me far—just to the nearest empty training hall, a cavernous space with polished wooden floors that had absorbed the sweat and blood of countless combat drills over the decades. Afternoon sunlight streamed through tall windows, illuminating dust motes that danced in the air like tiny spirits.
The space felt hollow and expectant, heavy with the lingering energy of wolves who had tested themselves against each other within these walls. The faint metallic tang of old blood mixed with leather and determination created an atmosphere that made my skin prickle with awareness.
When the door clicked closed behind us with ominous finality, Darius spun around to face me with predatory grace. The casual mask he wore in public had been stripped away completely, revealing the raw Alpha underneath—all sharp edges and barely leashed violence.
"Stay away from Gideon." Each word dripped with fury so pure it seemed to crystallize in the air between us. His voice was tight, controlled only by the thinnest margin of self-restraint, like a dam holding back a flood through sheer force of will.
His dark eyes blazed with golden fire at the edges as his wolf strained dangerously close to the surface, transforming his handsome features into something wild and untamed. The supernatural energy radiating from his powerful frame made the very walls seem to hum with tension.
My chest burned as the mate bond yanked painfully in response to his commanding tone, but I refused to bow beneath the weight of his authority. Instead, I lifted my chin in open defiance, letting every spark of rebellion in my blood ignite into open flame.
"Why should I?" The words came out harder than I'd intended, carrying enough steel to make him blink in surprise. "Why should I listen to anything you say when you've made it crystal clear you don't even want me?"
The silence that followed my challenge cracked through the training hall like a whip splitting the air.
His jaw tightened until I could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin, nostrils flaring as though he couldn't quite believe my audacity. For a moment, I caught a glimpse of something that might have been hurt flickering in those storm-dark depths before it was buried beneath layers of Alpha pride.
"This isn't about want." The words sounded like they were being dragged from somewhere deep in his chest.
My laugh was sharp enough to cut glass, brittle with all the pain I'd been swallowing since his public rejection. "Isn't it? You made yourself very clear yesterday, Darius. I'm weak. I'm unworthy. I'm nothing but a charity case who doesn't belong here. So why do you suddenly care who I choose to spend my time with?"
A growl rolled from his throat—low, dangerous, primal enough to make the ancient stone walls vibrate with its force. The sound bypassed my conscious mind entirely and spoke directly to the wolf cowering inside my chest, making her whimper with confused longing.
"Because he's poison." His voice carried the absolute conviction of someone who'd seen darkness up close and personal. "Because Gideon Wicke will use you until there's nothing left but empty shell, and then he'll discard you without a second thought."
My wolf clawed desperately at my ribs at the rough timber of his voice, every instinct screaming at me to close the distance between us and seek the comfort that only a mate could provide. But I gritted my teeth and planted my feet more firmly on the polished wood, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing how much his proximity affected me.
"That's not your concern anymore." The words tasted like ash on my tongue, but I forced them out anyway. "You gave up any right to worry about my welfare when you decided I wasn't worth claiming."
His eyes burned hotter, pupils dilating as his wolf pressed against the barriers of his human control. His broad chest rose and fell in an increasingly ragged rhythm, like someone fighting to breathe underwater.
"You think this bond is something you can simply ignore?" His voice dropped to a harsh whisper that seemed to scrape along my nerve endings like claws on stone. "You think you can pretend it doesn't exist just because the timing is inconvenient? You feel it just as much as I do, Elara. Every pull, every ache, every moment when your wolf cries out for mine."
The words hit me like a physical blow, making my heart stumble against my ribs before racing to catch up. But my wounded pride wouldn't let me acknowledge the truth he'd spoken, wouldn't let me admit that he was absolutely right about the agony of fighting our supernatural connection.
I shook my head sharply, dark hair whipping around my face. "I'll survive it. I always survive."
Something in my tone must have triggered his wolf, because suddenly both our supernatural halves surged forward at once, as if answering each other across the space that separated us. Heat radiated between our bodies like a forge fire, making my skin prickle with awareness and need. The air itself seemed to thicken until breathing became a conscious effort.
My wolf howled inside my chest, throwing herself against the fragile mental walls I'd constructed to contain her, claws raking desperately as she fought to close the distance to her mate. His dominance slammed against my pride like waves against a seawall, an irresistible force meeting immovable object, begging wordlessly for my submission even as I refused to give it.
For one terrible, breathless moment that stretched into eternity, we both teetered on the edge of losing control completely. I could see the exact instant when his human restraint began to fray, could smell the sharp spike of his arousal cutting through the leather and dust scent of the training hall.
And then Darius moved.
In a single fluid motion that showcased his supernatural speed, he had me pinned against the cold stone wall of the training hall. His powerful body caged mine completely, trapping me between immovable rock and the heat of his chest. His breath came hot against my cheek, carrying his scent deep into my lungs where it settled like a drug I couldn't metabolize.
His large hands braced on either side of my head, fingers spread wide against the ancient stone as if he needed the solid contact to maintain any semblance of control. Our wolves snarled and howled inside their human prisons, aching for contact, for the physical claiming that would ease the constant torment of being separated from our other half.
My chest rose and fell hard as I stared up into his face, close enough now to count the individual gold flecks in his dark eyes. The air between us crackled with electricity, like the moment before lightning strikes, and I knew with crystalline certainty that we were both one heartbeat away from crossing a line that would change everything.
Then, with a shudder that ran through his entire powerful frame, Darius wrenched himself backward. His hands dropped away from the wall as if the stone had burned him, his body retreating a full step as though distance was the only thing standing between us and complete catastrophe.
His gaze lingered on my face one last time, blazing with everything he refused to say aloud—desire and regret and a longing so deep it made my soul ache in recognition.
Then he turned on his heel and stormed from the training hall, leaving me pressed against the wall with knees too weak to support me properly and a heart that felt like it might beat right out of my chest.
The mate bond pulsed between us like a living thing, stretching but never breaking as he put distance between us, leaving what felt like claw marks across my very soul.