FIVE

HERTH.

Every cell in my body was screaming. I was bursting with a rage so pure it felt like fire in my veins.

She rejected me. *Me.* No woman had ever dared.

At the back of my mind, my wolf was a caged beast, clawing at my skull, demanding I pounce. It wanted me to pin her down, sink my teeth into her throat, and claim her until she forgot her own name.

But I couldn't. Not like that. Not yet.

I didn't want a corpse; I wanted her soul to surrender. She had to crave me with the same agonizing hunger that was currently ripping me apart. I wouldn't do something as clumsy as forcing her, I would make her choose me.

Still, the need was a physical weight. As I stepped out of her house, the air felt too thin. I stared at the cars parked in the compound, my knuckles white, fighting the urge to crush the metal into scrap with my bare hands.

I got into my car, and my wolf let out a guttural growl, a mourning sound. It wanted to go back in there and drag her out by her hair. We were addicted. Her scent, the curve of her body, the defiant ring of her voice, it was a poison we couldn't stop drinking.

I didn't understand it. This hunger for a stranger. I wasn't supposed to feel this, not this fast, not this deep. But the craving was a law unto itself, and I was losing control.

I gripped the steering wheel, my fingers digging deep into the leather. I dialed Damien. He was the only one cold enough for a job like this.

He picked up on the first ring.

“She rejected me,” I said, my voice sounding like gravel under a boot.

Silence followed. Then, Damien’s voice came through, hard and incredulous. “What? Does she have any idea who you are?”

“She knows,” I growled.

“The Alpha of the Dark Moon Pack!” Damien added, his tone sharpening.

She knew. And she did it anyway. I didn't care why my body was reacting this way anymore; I only cared about the end goal. I wouldn't stop until she belonged to me, until she was on her knees, broken and submitted, while I took her raw.

“Her brother’s name is Richard,” I snapped. “I want every contract he’s currently working on abolished. Burn them all. I want him asking questions that lead him straight to my door.”

“On it.”

I pulled out of the driveway. My aura was spilling out of me like a thick, black fog. Every car that passed me slowed down, the drivers instinctively sensing the predator in the lane next to them. They honored their Alpha through fear.

But her? She had spat in my face.

My head began to spin. I needed a distraction. I reached for the car safe, fumbling for my drugs, but when I pulled out the tube, it was empty.

*Damn it.*

I needed a refill. I needed Alexis. She had spent years keeping me sane, providing the chemicals that dampened the monster inside me.

I roared toward the hospital and headed straight for her office. When I walked in, she turned, her eyes glazing over as she felt the sheer weight of my presence.

“Alpha, I wasn’t expecting you.”

“The drugs are gone. I need a new set. Now.”

She nodded quickly, moving toward her drawer. “You know that long-term use will eventually lead to your body rejecting the formula, Alpha.” She met my eyes, holding the fresh pills. “You need to find a woman.”

I’d heard it a thousand times. I knew. That was the whole point of finding someone, anyone, whose body didn't make mine ache. I had found her, and she had said no.

The anger surged again. My wolf surged against the cage, wanting to drive back and claim her by force.

“Give me the pills, Alexis,” I growled.

She saw my eyes shift, the wolf bleeding into the iris. She didn’t flinch; she’d seen it before. “Do you need an injection to settle it? Wolfsbane is a temporary relief, but it’s better than nothing.”

I shook my head. “No. I think I’ve found a different solution.”

Alexis sat up, a glimmer of hope in her eyes for the man who had been suffering for twenty years. “Tell me. What is it?”

“A girl. Young. Eyes like stars.”

“You find a girl attractive?” She beamed, stunned.

“No, but she is able to stabilize my wolf. she is young. Too young. And she is Sophia’s friend.” I looked up, my gaze locking onto hers. “I need her, Alexis. But she’s fighting me. I don’t understand why she’s holding back.”

Alexis sighed, leaning back. “Maybe you didn’t ask her nicely?”

I let out a dark, dry chuckle.

*Nicely?* The word was foreign, a sound without meaning. What was I supposed to do? Fall to my knees and kiss her feet?

“She’s hiding things, Alexis. I’ll find them. I’ll strip her secrets away until she has no choice but to crawl to me on her hands and knees, begging me to mark her.”

“Maybe you should try being gentle?”

“Gentle?” I repeated, the word tasting like ash.

“Yes. Take your time. She’s young, Alpha. Women that age demand to be yearned for. They want a gentle love.”

The rage finally boiled over. “Time? I don’t have time! My wolf is screaming to mount her. I want to ram myself into her and mark her until she reeks of nothing but me! Time? Yearning? She is mine!

And things that belong to me do not reject me. They submit.”

Alexis bowed her head, silenced by the aura of the Alpha. I was done listening.

By the time I was finished with her, she wouldn’t just be mine. She would be waiting for me with her legs wide open.

“Alexis, I need you to come with me to her school tomorrow. Dress well, we walk to the school until she realizes what she is missing.”