THE ALPHA WHO DARED TO TOUCH HER

I woke up, choking on smoke.

Not real smoke. His scent.

Kael Thorne's scent was everywhere. In the furs. In the sheets. In the shirt I was still clutching like a lifeline. Pine, cold rain, and that wild male musk that had haunted my dreams all night.

In my dream, he didn't stay on the floor.

In my dream, he got into the bed.

I sat up too fast, heart hammering. The bedroom was empty. The floor where Kael had sat last night was empty. The bathroom door was open. No steam.

He was gone.

And the main door, the door he locked last night...was cracked open.

My blood went cold.

He left me. He left me alone. The Lethal Alpha who promised no one would touch, what was his had left the sacrifice alone on day two.

Then I heard voices in the hallway.

"You can't keep her forever, Thorne. The Conclave demands to see the sacrifice. Is she still pure?"

That was not Kael's voice. That voice was oily, familiar. Alpha Jaxx of the Bone Pack. The one who collected Omega slaves and broke them.

I scrambled off the bed, bare feet hitting cold stone. I was still in my slave dress from yesterday, wrinkled, stained with blood-wine. My hair was a mess. I looked exactly like what I was — a sacrifice that didn't belong in an Alpha's bedroom.

The door pushed open.

Jaxx filled the doorway. He was big, but not like Kael. Where Kael was carved muscle and scars, Jaxx was bulk and fat and cruel eyes. Behind him, two more Alphas. They all stared at me.

And smiled.

"So it's true," Jaxx said, stepping inside. "Thorne is hiding the little wine-spiller in his bed. Look at her. Wolfless. Skinny. But the priestess says she smells like moonlight. Is it true, little Omega? Do you smell like moonlight?"

I backed against the bed. "Get out. This is Alpha Thorne's quarters. He said no one touches me."

"Thorne isn't here," Jaxx laughed. "He was called to the war council. He left his little pet alone. That means you are unguarded property. And unguarded property in Ravager territory gets inspected."

He moved faster than I expected. His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, yanking me forward. His fingers dug into my skin.

Pain shot up my arm. I gasped.

"Let go!"

"Or what? You'll spill wine on me too?" He pulled me against his chest. His breath stank of meat and ale. "You know what we do with Omegas who are about to die? We give them a last night they will never forget. Since you are going to die anyway, you might as well be useful."

The other Alphas laughed. One shut the door behind them.

Click.

The same click Kael made last night when he locked us in. But this time, I was locked in with them.

Terror like I had never felt before flooded me. Real, cold terror. This was not Kael's possessive, heated cage. This was danger.

"Please," I whispered. "Don't."

Jaxx's free hand went to my neck, the same place Kael had held last night. But where Kael's hand was hot and careful, Jaxx's was sweaty and squeezing.

"So fragile," he murmured, tilting my head. "I wonder if you will scream pretty when—"

The door didn't open.

The door exploded.

Wood splintered. The entire heavy oak door flew off its hinges and crashed into Jaxx's back, throwing him off me and into the wall.

I fell to the floor, gasping, clutching my wrist.

And there, in the doorway, stood Kael Thorne.

I had never seen him look like that.

His black shirt was torn at the shoulders. His eyes were not ice-blue. They were not even gold. They were black. Pure black, with a ring of molten gold around the pupil. His claws were fully out — long, black, dripping. His fangs had dropped. Veins stood out on his neck and forearms. His entire body was shaking with rage so pure the air in the room vibrated.

Nox had taken over.

"You," he said, voice not human anymore. It was two voices at once — Kael and his wolf. "You touched what is MINE."

Jaxx scrambled up, blood on his lip. "Thorne, we were just — we were just checking if she was still pure for the ritual—"

Kael moved.

I didn't even see him move. One second he was in the doorway. The next, his clawed hand was around Jaxx's throat, lifting a 200-pound Alpha off the floor with one arm.

The other two Alphas backed against the wall, pale.

"She said don't touch her," Kael growled, each word a snarl. "In my pack, when a female says don't touch, you DON'T FUCKING TOUCH."

His claws tightened. Jaxx choked, eyes bulging.

"Kael!" I screamed without thinking.

Kael's black eyes snapped to me. For a second, I thought he would kill me too. He looked feral. Lethal. The monster everyone whispered about.

Then he saw my wrist. Red finger marks on my pale skin. And the tears running down my face.

Something in his black eyes cracked. Gold flooded back.

He dropped Jaxx like trash. Jaxx collapsed, coughing, clutching his throat.

Kael was in front of me in two steps, kneeling. His huge, clawed hands — the same hands that just tried to kill an Alpha — hovered over my wrist, afraid to touch me.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked, voice ragged, trying to be human again.

I couldn't speak. I was shaking so hard my teeth clattered.

Kael gently, so gently it made my chest hurt, took my wrist in his palm. His skin was burning hot. He leaned down and inhaled over the red marks, and a growl so deep it shook the floor ripped out of him.

"He marked you," he snarled. "He left his scent on you."

Before I could ask what he meant, Kael pulled me against his chest. One arm around my waist, the other tilting my head to the side, exposing my neck.

"What — what are you doing?" I whispered.

"Cleaning you," he said. "I have to clean you. His scent — I can't — my wolf can't stand his scent on you."

His mouth hovered over my neck. I could feel his fangs, sharp, grazing my skin. My entire body went liquid with heat and fear and something else I had never felt before. My pulse hammered against his lips.

"Kael, don't—"

"If I don't, I will kill everyone in this pack," he whispered against my skin. His breath was scorching. "Do you want that, Elyra? Do you want me to kill them all because they touched my mate?"

Mate. He said it again. My mate.

The other Alphas were still frozen against the wall, watching, eyes wide. They heard it.

Jaxx's eyes went wide with pure terror. "Mate? You — you said she is your—"

Kael's head snapped up, eyes black again, fangs bared at them.

"GET OUT!" he roared, the Alpha command so powerful the two Alphas whimpered and ran, dragging Jaxx with them. The broken door banged.

Silence.

We were alone again. But I was in his lap now, on the floor, his arms like steel around me, his mouth still hovering over my neck, his claws tangled carefully in my hair to keep me still.

"Kael," I breathed. "Your eyes —"

"I know," he groaned. "I can't control him when you smell like fear and another Alpha. He wants to mark you. To cover his scent with ours."

Mark. The word sent a bolt of fire down my spine. Every Omega knows what a marking bite is. It's possessive. It's permanent. It's a claim that says TOUCH HER AND DIE.

"You can't mark me," I whispered. "I'm supposed to be pure for the sacrifice."

"I know." His fangs brushed my pulse, not biting, just teasing. I gasped, arching without meaning to, and he growled, low and broken. "Goddess, Elyra, you make it so hard to be noble."

"Then don't be noble," I said before I could stop myself.

His entire body froze.

Slowly, he pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were still black and gold, but now they were filled with something that looked like pain.

"Do you know what you are asking, little laundry girl?"

I was breathing too fast. My wrist throbbed. My neck throbbed where his fangs had teased. My body was hot, too hot, like my heat from last night was coming back ten times stronger because of fear and his scent and being in his lap.

"I don't want his smell on me," I whispered. "I want — I want yours."

For three heartbeats, Kael didn't move. Didn't breathe.

Then he broke.

He yanked me closer and sank his fangs into my neck — not deep, not a true mate mark, but a possessive claiming bite, hard enough to bruise, hard enough to flood my skin with his scent, his saliva, his wolf.

I cried out, but not from pain. From shock. From the wave of pure, molten pleasure that shot from my neck straight down to my core. My back arched, my hands fisted in his torn shirt, and a small, helpless moan escaped me that I had never made before.

Kael groaned against my skin, licking over the bite to soothe it, to seal his scent into it.

"Now," he panted against my neck, his voice wrecked. "Now you smell like me. Now no Alpha will dare touch you. Because now everyone will know you belong to the Lethal Alpha."

I was shaking, but not from fear anymore. The bite throbbed, hot, possessive. I could feel his heart hammering against my chest, as fast as mine.

He pulled back, eyes gold, staring at the red mark he left on my pale neck. His thumb brushed over it, possessive, obsessed.

"Does it hurt?" he asked softly.

I shook my head. It didn't hurt. It throbbed in a way that made my thighs press together.

"Good," he whispered. "Because I am going to have to do it again tomorrow. And the day after. Until your sacrifice. So they don't forget."

Until my sacrifice.

The words slammed me back to reality. 48 hours left.

He had marked me. Claimed me. But he was still going to let me die.

I looked up at him, tears in my eyes, his bite burning on my neck.

"Kael, if I belong to you, why are you still letting them kill me?"

His face — that lethal, beautiful, scarred face — crumpled for a second. He pressed his forehead to mine, his claws gentle in my hair, his breath shaking.

"Because if I don't," he whispered, broken, "they will kill you anyway. And they will kill me too. And I would rather watch you die on that altar knowing you smelled like me, than live in a world where you died smelling like him."

Outside, the war council bells rang. The Blood Moon was closer.

And on my neck, his claim burned like fire.

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