Chapter 3: Defiance and Craving

The mark on my neck throbbed like a living brand as I slipped back into my lavish bedroom on the upper floor of Thornwood Manor.

Dawn was still hours away, yet sleep felt like a distant, laughable concept. I locked the door with shaking fingers and collapsed against the heavy wood, my silk slip ruined and sticking to my sweat-slicked skin.

Cassian’s bite pulsed with dark energy—his Alpha essence already seeping into my blood, making my wolf preen with possessive delight while my mind reeled in shame and insatiable hunger.

I stumbled to the full-length mirror, tilting my head to examine the fresh claim. Two deep puncture marks marred the elegant curve where my neck met my shoulder, surrounded by bruising that screamed ownership.

It wasn’t a complete mate bond—yet—but it was enough. His scent clung to me like a second skin, woody and dominant, overpowering my own. Any wolf who came near would know I had been marked by the Alpha. By my stepfather.

“Fuck,” I whispered, tracing the wound with trembling fingertips. A jolt of pleasure shot straight to my clit, making my pussy clench emptily. Even the slightest touch reignited the fire he had stoked in the studio.

I could still feel his thick fingers stretching me, fucking me with ruthless precision, his bulge grinding against my ass as he fought not to knot his own daughter.

I moved to my ornate writing desk and pulled out the leather-bound diary hidden in the false bottom—a secret confessional I had started the night I first discovered his ritual footage.

The pages were already filling with my filthiest thoughts. I dipped the pen and wrote with frantic intensity:

Dear Moon Diary,

Tonight I let him mark me. Daddy’s fangs in my neck while his fingers destroyed my cunt. I came like a whore, squirting all over his hand, and I would have begged for his knot if he hadn’t thrown me out. I’m going mad with need.

His scent is inside me now. I want more. I want him to film me—bent over, presented, taking every inch of the Alpha who raised me like his own blood. The laws be damned.

Closing the diary, I stripped off the ruined slip and stepped into the shower, but the hot water only heightened my sensitivity.

Every drop felt like Cassian’s tongue. I slid my fingers between my legs again, replaying the scene—his gravelly voice calling me a filthy bitch, the way his cock had throbbed against me through his trousers.

I brought myself to another shuddering orgasm, moaning his name into the steam, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough again.

By morning, I had covered the mark with a silk scarf and applied heavy makeup. At breakfast in the grand dining hall, the tension was electric.

Lady Isolde sat at one end, elegant and sharp-eyed as always, while Cassian occupied the head of the table like the king he was. I took my usual seat to his right, close enough that his presence overwhelmed me.

“Good morning, Father,” I said sweetly, my voice carrying just a hint of mockery as I reached for the fresh fruit. Under the table, I let my bare foot slide up his calf, brushing teasingly against his thigh. His hand clamped down on my knee like a vice, hidden from view, squeezing hard enough to bruise.

“Morning, Evangeline,” he replied, tone perfectly controlled for my mother’s benefit. But his amber eyes flashed a warning that sent fresh slick coating my thighs. “You look… flushed. Did you sleep poorly?”

Isolde glanced up from her tablet, eyebrows raised. “Is something wrong, darling? You’ve been restless lately.”

“Nothing at all, Mother,” I answered, smiling innocently while Cassian’s grip tightened. Under the table, I pressed my foot higher, boldly rubbing against the growing hardness in his trousers.

His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking furiously. The scent of his rising arousal mixed with mine, creating a private storm between us.

After breakfast, Isolde left for a pack luncheon, leaving us alone in the hallway. Cassian grabbed my arm and dragged me into his private study, slamming the door shut and pinning me against it with his massive body. His hand wrapped around my throat, just above the hidden mark.

“You dare tease me at my own table, you wicked little slut?” he snarled, fangs partially extended. “After I warned you last night?”

I met his gaze defiantly, my bad-girl nature surging. “I can still taste your fingers on my tongue, Daddy. I want the real thing. Your cock. Your knot. Stretch your daughter’s forbidden pussy and film it for your precious clients.”

Cassian’s control frayed. He yanked the scarf away, exposing his bite mark, and attacked it with his mouth—sucking and biting until I whimpered. One hand shoved between my legs, finding me bare and dripping under my dress.

No panties. He growled in approval and plunged three fingers deep inside me, fucking me hard against the door.

“So fucking wet for me,” he rasped, curling his fingers mercilessly. “This cunt knows who it belongs to. But I won’t knot you, Eva. Not yet. You’re going to suffer like I am.”

He punished me with brutal precision, bringing me to the edge again and again only to pull back, edging me mercilessly until tears of frustration streamed down my face. My hips bucked desperately against his hand, chasing release that he denied.

“Please, Alpha… Daddy, I’ll be good,” I begged, voice breaking. “Just let me come.”

Cassian finally relented, rubbing my clit with vicious speed as he bit down on the mark again. I shattered, screaming into his shoulder as my orgasm ripped through me, walls pulsing violently around his fingers.

He held me through the aftershocks, breathing ragged, his own cock straining painfully against me.

When he stepped back, his eyes were tortured. “This ends here. Go to your room. Stay away from the basement. If I catch you again, I won’t stop next time.”

But as I left the study on unsteady legs, scarf replaced and thighs sticky with evidence of my sin, I knew I would defy him.

That night, I crept back toward the basement stairs once more, diary in hand, craving the next forbidden taste of my Alpha stepfather.

The pull was too strong. The addiction had already taken root.

And Lord Cassian Drake would soon break completely.