05: Temptation

KAEL

They were true mates, and they both knew it. And yet, when I looked at them, there was nothing resembling joy.

The mating ceremony should have been a celebration, but their hollow eye contact made it feel more like a funeral.

Where there should have been sparks, there was only smoke. Where there should have been wide-eyed eagerness, there was only dull weariness.

True mates were supposed to burn. They were supposed to look like two halves of a flame meeting again after years of searching. But my son and my goddaughter looked like strangers forced to share the same air for an agreement made between their parents, rather than the Moon Goddess.

It unsettled me more than I wanted to admit. They could fool others, but I was smarter and always several steps ahead.

I knew my son. Damian had never dated anyone, never kissed or touched, never tested his charms on pack girls the way others his age did, at least not that I was aware of. That alone should have made him grateful. He had always said he was waiting. Waiting for what the Moon promised. Waiting for the right one. And now he had found one— not just anyone, but the girl I believed was the right choice for him, the one he was betrothed to. What more could he possibly want?

Damian was blessed with a true mate who could make any man’s head spin. Flesh and bone and gods above, she was extremely breathtaking, though even that word felt like an understatement for describing such finesse. A true mate like her was rare. Her body was a contradiction: curves that could tempt a saint to sin, and lips so pink they promised softness without even touching.

Forgive me for saying it about my own son’s mate, but I can’t deny what I saw. And you can’t blame me, either. The last time I summoned her, she showed up in a thin, see-through singlet, her nipples pressing against the fabric as if begging to be noticed. It took every ounce of dignity not to really want to imagine what they would feel like in my hands. It wasn’t entirely my fault that my eyes lingered.

My son should have been grateful. But Damian stood beside her as if she were nothing more than a burden tied around his neck.

What kind of man lets his cock harden while describing his son’s mate? What kind of father feels heat coil in his gut at the thought of touching what should belong to his heir?

I was so fucked up describing my son’s partner like this and worse, my hand drifted to the swelling between my legs.

My wolf snarled inside me, pacing in my chest, torn between shame and hunger. He didn’t care about bloodlines or morals— he never did. He cared about flesh, rut, scent. Horny bastard.

“Damn you,” I muttered under my breath, never ashamed to speak to my wolf out loud.

I had sent for Sera earlier. I wanted a private conversation with her and how well she has been coping. But Sera hadn’t come. Minutes stretched into nearly an hour, and still, she didn’t arrive.

For an Alpha who hated to be kept waiting, she was testing my patience far too much.

But what else should I have expected from a child raised in the city, far from the laws of our kind? She didn’t understand obedience. She was probably pushing me and wanting to scrape my knees, challenging the authority she would one day bow to in the end.

Sera was trouble wrapped in silk and stubborn to the bone and too damn fearless for a girl her age.

Part of me admired that. Part of me wanted to snap it out of her. And part of me who wants her around—damn me to hell—didn’t want to scare her at all. Part of me wanted to see just how far she could push before it finally broke her.

I was tempted to take out my misbehaving cock and stroke it until release.

The wolf in me stirred, restless and unashamed. He wanted. He hungered. He whispered that no one would dare enter these quarters uninvited, that I was safe to do what I pleased, to release the tension clawing through me.

My brain couldn’t take the lead, because my hands were faster.

I sat back in the leather chair behind my desk, unfastened my belt, dragged my shorts lower, and slipped past the boundary. My cock sprang free, heavy, swollen, and thick, as my palm wrapped around it. If I hadn’t freed it, I swore it would have torn through the fabric on its own.

An Alpha reduced to this— stroking himself over a forbidden, defiant girl who could never belong to me.

Maybe that was where it all began— my downfall, my shame.

Never in my life did I think I’d stoop this low alone in my quarters, stroking myself like some desperate wolf cub.

A growl rumbled low in my chest as my hand moved with a hunger that wasn’t mine alone. Heat pulsed through me, slow at first, then faster as my breath grew ragged. My eyes slid shut. My head tipped back.

And, saints forgive me, I thought only of her.

My hand moved faster, tighter, my hips thrusting up into my fist. Precum slicked my fingers, and the scent of arousal thickened the air. My wolf howled, triumphant in his sin, savoring every second of my downfall.

I groaned, louder now, unable to hold back as I grew more aggressive. The sound echoed off the silent walls of the Alpha’s quarters raw, primal.

I thrust harder, back and forth, my dick began to grow until my hot release spilled out.

A sharp clearing of a throat snapped me out of my ecstasy.

The haze shattered instantly, the sound splitting the air like a blade. My body went rigid, every nerve recoiling as though burned. I hadn’t even heard the door open.

No. No, no, no. I had fucked up.

My eyes widened, locking on hers, my heart hammering against my ribs as though it wanted to escape.

And of all souls in this wretched world, why her?

She was the last person alive who should have ever seen me like this.