Unwanted Desire

Xander's POV

The palace never slept. Not really. Even at midnight, its marble veins carried whispers, echoing footsteps, the restless pulse of wolves pretending at civility, but in my private chamber, silence reigned, thick and suffocating. The kind of silence that makes a man hear things he doesn’t want to.

Like the way Feris growled in the back of my skull. Like the way Edrian’s scent clung to my lungs long after he left a room. That maddening scent of his, i could smell him from a mile and it drives me crazy every fucking time. 

I should have crushed it, I should have driven the bond into the ground the way I did every other weakness by just rejecting him once and for all, but instead, I fed it with my refusal. I ignored him, avoided him, punished myself with restraint… but restraint was beginning to feel like a noose.

And tonight, he was supposed to be here earlier but he was late.

The door creaked open. He stepped inside timidly, dark hair mussed, his frame too thin for the heavy clothes Korran forced on him.

"Your Majesty," he said as he bowed his head. 

“Late.” My voice came out cracked and firm than I expected. I didn't need to shout at him, my voice was rigid enough for him to understand the consequences of his actions because he froze in his track. 

"I'm sorry, your majesty," he swallowed, "I lost track of..."

“Do I look like I care for excuses?” I cut him off, standing from my chair. My shadow swallowed his as I moved closer. "You didn't tell the King you are incompetent for this job."

The wolf in me prowled at the edge, restless and hungry, but I forced it back. Tonight, this wasn’t about the bond. Tonight, it was about teaching him that even fate didn’t excuse disobedience.

“No, Your majesty.”

I moved round him slowly as i watched his shoulders tensed in fear, I moved my fingers down his neck slowly and watched as his body shivered. I let my claws lengthen just enough to graze him. His pulse jumped.

“You want to serve me? You want to survive in this palace?” My tone was low, dangerous. “Then learn punctuality, learn obedience, and learn your place.”

“Yes, your majesty,” he whispered, his voice came out as a moan rather than fear and it made something in me twitch.

I gripped his jaw forcefully and pushed his head hard towards me so that he can look at me. His eyes was too bright, too earnest as they met mine, and Feris snarled. 

Mate. 

I squeezed harder until his sexy pink lips parted with a hiss of pain.

“On your knees.”

The command snapped from me before I could stop it. His body obeyed instantly, sinking to the marble floor. He didn’t even think. The bond pulled at him, dragging him into submission as if his bones were wired for it and the sight of him kneeling there, waiting and looking all vulnerable burned me alive.

I paced behind him, letting the tension coil. Then I kicked his legs wider apart. He flinched but obeyed.

“Hands behind your back.”

He hesitated. I bent close to his ear and let my hot breath brush his neck. “Don’t you ever make me repeat myself, or you will pay for it.”

Slowly, he buckled his wrists behind him and the sight made my cock twitch. I was losing my mind.

Just looking at how vulnerable he looks makes me want to bend him over and fuck his brains out but I pushed the thought out before my wolf snapped at it.

Feris pushed forward, whispering: Take him. Claim him. End this torment.

A low growl escaped my throat as i yanked off my leather belt from my waist. With practiced ease, I looped it around his wrists, tightening until he gasped, or was it a moan, because the sound turned me the fuck on even more

“Too tight?” I asked, mock-sweet.

“No, your majesty.” He swallowed hard.

Liar. The leather bit into his skin, his pulse hammering against it, but he refused to complain. I almost smiled. Stubborn little wolf.

I dragged him by the collar of his shirt until he was pressed against the leg of my desk. His cheek met the cold wood as I bent him forward. He grunted, tried to adjust, but I pushed him down harder.

“Late servants get punished.”

I raised my hand and brought it down hard on his ass. The crack echoed in the chamber. He gasped, jerking forward, but the belt held his hands tight.

“Count,” I ordered.

“W-what?” He froze. 

I slammed my palm down again, harder. His breath stuttered, a broken moan spilling out.

“Count, Edrian.”

“One,” he whispered, shame dripping from the word.

“Louder.” Another strike. 

“One!”

Again. His body jolted against the desk.

“Two!”

I did not stop until he got to six, with his shaking voice, and each number made each time between pain and something else, something that he was trying to choke down and could not.

Before I was finished, his ass was all red under the cloth, and his body was trembling yet straight, as if some part of him could not give way.

I took a step backward, and heaped my breath, every nerve on fire with the desire to take him.

Whimpering, he leaned against the desk 

"Thank you, Alpha." he said

The words hit me like a fist.

Gratitude, for punishment. Submission, for cruelty.

I put a hand on the side of the desk he lay on, and just leaned over his head to a point where he could feel my chest rubbing against his back.

“You think this is pleasure?” I growled, voice rough. “You think pain makes you mine?”

His wolf snarled low, but his lips parted, trembling.

“I… I don’t know. I can’t help...”

I silenced him with a sharp tug on his hair, jerking his head back until his throat was bared to me. His pulse thundered. His lips quivered, parted slightly as though waiting for me to take what was already mine.

My fangs itched. Feris roared.

My mouth hovered over his throat for one dangerous second, one second where I nearly gave in.

But I didn’t. I shoved him away, letting him crumple to the floor.

“Get the hell out,” I snapped, my voice shaking.

He looked up at me with widened eyes and lips swollen from biting down screams. His wrists were all red from the belt. His ass still shook from the blows. And gods help me, he looked beautiful.

“Alpha...”

“OUT!”

He scrambled to his feet, fumbling with the door before vanishing down the corridor. His scent lingered, wrapping itself around me like chains. I slammed my fist into the wall, stone splintering beneath the impact.

You can’t fight this. You can’t fight him. Feris laughed inside me, cruel and certain.

I dragged in a breath, shaking, my body still burning with the ghost of his submission.

I didn’t want him.

I couldn’t want him.

So why the hell did punishing him feel like the only thing keeping me sane?