CHAPTER THREE: THE KIND AT MY DOOR

The forest exploded with the sound of snapping timber and guttural snarling. Shadows detached from the dark treeline, surging toward the estate masked rogues, their eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

"Inside! Now!" Cassian roared.

He grabbed Elias by the wrist, his touch searing, a bolt of violent electricity shooting straight through Elias’s veins. The sheer magnitude of the mate bond crashed over them, thick with raw instinct and the suffocating scent of dark cedar, ozone, and unbridled Alpha power. Elias gasped, his father grabbing his mother and retreating deeper into the estate as Cassian slammed the heavy double doors shut, throwing the iron bolt into place just as bodies smashed against the exterior wood.

The house trembled. Outside, steel clashed against steel as Cassian’s royal guards met the assault.

Cassian turned, shoving Elias back into the dim hallway, pinning him against the wall. His broad chest rose and fell heavily, his eyes completely consumed by the blackness of his inner wolf. The black military coat he wore made him look impossibly broad, imposing, and lethal.

"You're a fool for coming back here," Cassian growled, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that reverberated directly in Elias’s chest.

"And you're a hypocrite," Elias breathed, his heart hammering violently against his ribs. The fear of the attack was instantly eclipsed by the suffocating, intoxicated pull of the man towering over him. "You pushed me away. You rejected me."

"I lied!" Cassian snapped, stepping so close their bodies brushed. The heat radiating off the king was scalding. Cassian slammed one hand against the wall beside Elias’s head, leaning down until his lips almost grazed the shell of Elias’s ear. "I rejected the title. I rejected the political nightmare. But I could never reject this. My wolf has been losing its mind since the moment you stepped into that ballroom."

Cassian seized Elias’s chin, forcing him to look up. Their eyes locked, and the raw, dangerous lust in Cassian’s gaze made Elias’s breath hitch.

"You drive me insane, Elias," Cassian whispered dark and thick.

Without waiting for a response, Cassian’s mouth crashed onto his.

The kiss was brutal, possessive, and entirely devoid of gentleness. It was a collision of suppressed hunger and territorial rage. Elias let out a sharp gasp, which Cassian immediately claimed, sweeping his tongue inside, tasting him deeply. Elias wrapped his hands around the collar of Cassian’s heavy coat, pulling the king closer, surrender burning through his pride. The taste of Cassian spiced, dark, and utterly dominant flooded his senses, wrecking every defense Elias had spent the day building.

Cassian groaned, a primal, low sound that echoed off the high ceilings. He gripped Elias’s waist with bruising force, hauling him upward until Elias’s feet barely touched the ground. Elias wrapped his legs around Cassian’s hips instinctively, pressing his heat directly against the heavy, agonizing hard ridge pressing through Cassian’s trousers.

Outside, a beast slammed against the front door, the wood groaning but inside the corridor, the world narrowed to the searing friction of their bodies.

Cassian broke the kiss, trailing his lips down Elias’s jaw to the sensitive skin of his throat. He nipped harshly at the pulsing vein there, sucking the delicate skin into his mouth until Elias threw his head back against the wall, arching into the touch with a loud, shameless moan.

"Cassian..." Elias gasped, his fingers tangling wildly in the king's dark hair. "We... they're outside..."

"Let them burn," Cassian growled against his neck. He ripped open Elias’s shirt, sending buttons skittering across the hardwood floor.

His hand, broad and calloused, slid over Elias’s bare chest, flicking a sensitive peak before dragging down over his flat stomach, dropping lower to squeeze tightly over the aching swell between Elias's thighs. Elias gasped violently, his hips bucking blindly into Cassian’s palm.

"Look at me," Cassian demanded, his voice thick with authority.

Elias forced his heavy eyelids open, his vision swimming with tears of pleasure. Cassian was staring at him with a predatory, possessive intensity, his thumb stroking forcefully through the thin fabric of Elias's trousers, friction building a white-hot agony of need.

"You are mine," Cassian growled, pressing his hips hard against Elias's, letting him feel just how thick and unyielding he was. "Ancient bloodline or not, claim or no claim... your body knows who you belong to."

"Show me," Elias whimpered, completely undone, all anger forgotten as the mate bond burned away his sanity. "Claim me, Cassian."

Cassian’s eyes flashed a lethal amber. He unbuckled his sword belt, letting it drop to the floor with a heavy clatter, his large hands immediately reaching down to tear at the fastenings of Elias's trousers. He shoved the fabric down Elias's thighs, exposing his flushed, bare skin to the cool air of the hall before instantly covering him with the overwhelming heat of his own body.

Cassian slicked two broad fingers with his own mouth and drove them ruthlessly inside Elias in one fluid motion.

Elias cried out, his back arching off the wall, his nails digging deeply into the leather of Cassian's shoulders as his tight heat stretched around the intrusion. Cassian didn't wait; he scissored his fingers inside him, finding the deep, sensitive core of Elias's prostate with punishing precision.

"Ah! Cassian!" Elias gasped, his hips twitching uncontrollably against the king's grip, completely helpless beneath the assault of pleasure.

"You like that?" Cassian dark-talked into his mouth, thrusting his fingers deeper, relentlessly working Elias open while his thumb rubbed ruthlessly over the leaking tip of Elias's bare shaft. "You belong to your King. Say it."

"I'm... yours," Elias sobbed out, pleasure tearing through his nerves in waves as Cassian added a third finger, stretching him wide, preparing him with brutal efficiency. "Cassian, please... now."

Cassian pulled his hand back, leaving Elias empty and aching, begging aloud. In one fluid, desperate movement, Cassian freed his own massive length, the thick head glistening and dark with pre-cum. He positioned himself at Elias's dripping entrance, gripping Elias's thighs and holding him pinned against the wall.

Cassian leaned in, his breath hot against Elias's trembling lips. "Hold on to me."

With a single, powerful surge of his hips, Cassian buried himself fully inside Elias.

A sharp, breathless scream tore from Elias's throat as his body stretched to accommodate the massive size of his mate. The intrusion was overwhelming, intense, and exquisitely deep. Cassian froze for a fraction of a second, his muscles taut as iron, groaning heavily as Elias's tight walls clamped down around him like a vise.

"Fuck, Elias..." Cassian choked out, his hands bruising Elias's hips.

Then, Cassian began to move.

He pulled back nearly all the way before slamming back in, establishing a relentless, punishing rhythm that rattled the picture frames on the hall walls. Every deep, hard thrust hit Elias's sweet spot with terrifying accuracy. Elias was lost, tossing his head back, crying out Cassian's name with every impact of their hips. The sound of wet friction and heavy skin slapping together echoed louder than the chaos outside.

Cassian drove into him mercilessly, his wolf taking total control. He bit down on the crook of Elias's shoulder, marking him temporarily with his teeth as his thrusts grew faster, deeper, and completely wild. Elias wrapped his arms around Cassian's neck, riding the wave of agonizing, intoxicating pleasure, his own hand reaching down between them to pump his own throbbing shaft in sync with Cassian's brutal pace.

"Look at how you take me," Cassian growled, pulling back just to drive in to the hilt, burying himself so deep Elias saw sparks behind his eyes. "You were made for me."

"Yes... ah!... Cassian, more!" Elias sobbed, his internal muscles squeezing Cassian tightly, driving the Alpha over the edge.

Cassian's thrusts turned frantic, short and deep, hammering into Elias with possessive fury. Elias's toes curled, his entire body shaking violently as the intense friction pushed him over the brink. With a loud, shattered cry, Elias came hard between their stomachs, his release spurting hot against their skin as his inner walls clamped down hard on Cassian's length.

The feeling of Elias's climax milking him was too much. Cassian growled softly, a deep, guttural sound of triumph, and with three final, devastating thrusts, he buried himself to the root and came inside Elias, hot waves of his seed filling Elias deep within.

They hung there together, chest to chest, both panting heavily, sweat slicking their skin as the intense pleasure slowly ebbed into a throbbing, intimate warmth. Cassian kept Elias lifted, his forehead resting against Elias's, their breaths mingling in the quiet dark of the hallway.

Suddenly, a loud crash shattered the front doors, splinters flying into the foyer.

Cassian’s eyes snapped open, returning to a sharp, deadly black. Slowly, he pulled out of Elias's trembling body, a low, murderous growl building in his throat as he set Elias down, adjusting his pants and reaching for his sword on the floor.

He turned toward the shattered entryway, stepping in front of Elias, his blade drawing smooth and sharp from its sheath.

"Stay behind me," Cassian commanded, his voice dripping with lethal power, fully restored and deadlier than ever. "Now... let's see who ordered my mate's death."