We arrived home, and the silence of the mansion was the first thing that hit me. It was a heavy, expectant silence, broken only by the synchronized, ragged breathing of two people who had spent the last hour on the verge of a violent explosion.
I looked around the foyer, my eyes darting toward the empty coat rack and the still kitchen. "Mom isn't home..." I managed to whisper, my voice cracking with a mixture of fear and adrenaline. "She must be out with the committee. We're alone—"
The words were barely out of my mouth before the world turned upside down.
Collins didn't just move; he blurred. In a heartbeat, he had me pinned against the heavy oak front door. The impact made the wood groan, and the decorative glass panes rattled in their frames. He slammed his hands on either side of my head, trapping me in the cage of his massive shadow.
"Alone," he repeated, his voice a low, guttural vibration that I felt in my marrow. "You've been begging for this all day, haven't you? Prowling around that mall, letting that pup touch you, scenting yourself with his weakness just to see if I'd snap."
"You ignored me!" I screamed back, my hands coming up to shove against his iron chest. "You looked at me like I was a stranger! You kissed her right in front of me!"
"Because I am trying to keep us from the gallows, Bella!" he roared, his eyes flashing a brilliant, terrifying gold. The Alpha power rolling off him was suffocating, a thick, musky scent of ozone and ancient forest. "But you... you're a little monster. You want to watch the world burn as long as you're the one holding the match."
He didn't give me a chance to retort. He crashed his lips onto mine with a savagery that tasted of salt and desperation. It wasn't the polite, seeking kiss of a boyfriend; it was the claim of a predator. He forced my mouth open, his tongue invading, sweeping through my territory and demanding total surrender. I let out a whimpering moan, my knees buckling, but he caught me.
He hiked my legs up, locking them around his waist. I felt the rough denim of his jeans against my bare inner thighs, a friction that sent a jolt of electricity straight to my core. He held me there, pinned to the door by his sheer bulk, while his mouth moved to my ear.
"I could smell him on you from the parking lot," he hissed, his teeth grazing my lobe. "Citrus and soap. A boy's smell. Did you think his hands felt better than mine? Did you think he could satisfy the wolf I gave you?"
"No," I sobbed, my fingers clawing at the back of his neck, pulling him closer. "No, Collins, please..."
"Say my name again," he commanded, his hand sliding down to the hem of my dress. He didn't gently lift it; he yanked the silk up until it was bunched around my waist, exposing me to the cool air of the foyer and the burning heat of his gaze. "Call me 'Daddy' again, Bella. Let me hear how much you want your stepfather to ruin you."
"Collins... Daddy... please," I whimpered, the words a shameful, delicious weight in the air.
He groaned, a sound that started deep in his chest and ended against my skin. He buried his face in my neck, his nose dragging across the spot where Williams had dared to touch. With a sudden, sharp movement, he bit down. It wasn't a mate-mark—not yet—but it was a brand. I screamed, my head hitting the door, as his fangs scraped my skin, leaving a dark, purple bruise that would tell anyone who looked at me exactly who I belonged to.
He pulled back, his eyes dark with a primal lust that made my wolf howl in triumph. "He didn't do that, did he? He didn't mark you. He didn't know that every inch of this skin is mine to destroy."
His hand moved between us, his large fingers finding the center of my heat. I was already a wreck, slick and aching for him. When he touched me, I felt my entire body shatter. He was relentless, his movements expert and cruel, driving me toward an edge I wasn't ready for.
"Look at me," he whispered, his thumb catching my chin and forcing me to meet his glowing eyes. "I want you to see exactly who is doing this to you. I want you to remember this when you're sitting at dinner with your mother. I want you to feel me inside you when you're looking at that thing."
"I hate you," I gasped, even as I arched into his hand, my body betraying every word.
"Good," he rasped, a dark smirk tugging at his lips. "Hate me. Fear me. Just never stop wanting me."
He let me slide down the door until my feet hit the floor, but the moment I thought I could breathe, he spun me around. He shoved my face against the wood, my cheek pressed to the grain, and forced my hips back. The position was vulnerable, exposed, and utterly filthy.
"This is what an abomination looks like, Bella," he said, his voice dropping to a gravelly whisper as I heard him undoing his belt. The metallic click sounded like a death knell in the quiet house. "No more secrets. No more games. If you want to be an Alpha's mate, you're going to take everything I have to give."
I felt the weight of him behind me, the searing heat of his skin as he pressed himself against my backside. He reached around, his hands gripping my hair and pulling my head back so he could see my reflection in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall.
"Look," he commanded.
I looked. I saw a girl with swollen lips and wild eyes, her dress hiked to her waist, being held by a man who was supposed to be her protector. I saw the monster and the prey. And I had never wanted anything more.
He didn't use a condom. He didn't use grace. He entered me in one smooth, devastating thrust that made me cry out, the sound echoing through the empty halls of the mansion. He hit my cervix with the force of a hammer, a sensation so intense it felt like he was reaching into my very soul.
"You're so tight," he groaned, his forehead resting against the back of my neck. "So perfect. You were made for this, Bella. You were made for me."
He began to move, a frantic, rhythmic pounding that rattled the door against its hinges. Every time he hit me, I felt the world blur. I was no longer a person; I was just a vessel for his rage and his hunger. The sound of our bodies colliding—the wet, heavy thud of flesh against flesh—was the only music in the house.
I reached back, my hands finding his thighs, trying to pull him deeper, trying to merge our bodies until there was no beginning and no end. My wolf was at the surface now, her gold eyes overlapping mine in the mirror. I could feel the shift threatening to happen, the power of our bond vibrating through the air like a live wire.
"I can't..." I sobbed, my legs beginning to shake. "Collins, I'm... I'm going to..."
"Take it," he growled, his hands moving to my hips, his fingers bruising the bone as he held me still for his final assault. "Take every drop of my sin, Bella. Carry it with you. Let it be the only thing you feel."
He lunged forward, his entire body turning to granite as he reached his peak. I felt the heat of him, a literal flood that filled me to the limit, stretching me and claiming me from the inside out. My own climax hit a second later, a violent, bone-shaking explosion that left me sobbing and clinging to the door handle for support.
We stayed like that for a long time, the only sound the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall and our ragged, wet gasps for air. He didn't pull out immediately. He stayed buried inside me, his heart beating against my back like a drum.
"If you ever go near another male again," he whispered, his voice dark and deadly serious, "I won't just kill him. I'll lock you in my room and never let you see the sun again. Do you understand me?"
I couldn't speak. I could only nod, my forehead resting against the cool wood of the door.
He finally pulled away, the sound of his exit echoing in the silence. He adjusted his clothes with a cold, terrifying efficiency, leaving me shivering and exposed on the floor.
"Clean yourself up," he said, his Alpha mask sliding back into place as if nothing had happened. "Your mother will be home in twenty minutes. We're having pot roast for dinner."
He turned and walked toward his office without looking back, leaving me on the foyer floor, a broken, marked, and utterly satisfied abomination.