All Chapters of Alpha’s Forbidden Mate: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The bond didn’t calm after the kiss.It got worse.Carolina felt it before she even opened her eyes the next morning.A steady, insistent pull in her chest—like something was tugging at her, calling her forward, refusing to let her rest.Him.She groaned softly, pressing a hand against her sternum.“Seriously?” she muttered.Because this?This was new.Before, the bond had been… there.A spark.A pull.Something she could ignore if she tried hard enough.Now?It felt alive.Demanding.And completely impossible to ignore.Carolina sat up abruptly, dragging a hand through her hair.This was not good.Not good at all.Because she knew exactly where that pull was leading.And she was already moving before she could stop herself.—Xander was on the far edge of the training grounds.Alone.Of course he was.Carolina slowed as she approached, trying to steady her breathing, her thoughts—anything.It didn’t work.Because the second he turned—The bond snapped tighter.Like it had been waitin

The pack didn’t move right away.No one dared.Marcus’s command still hung in the air—heavy, suffocating, final.Carolina could feel it pressing down on her chest as she turned, forcing her legs to move.One step.Then another.Away from Xander.The bond reacted instantly.A sharp, painful pull that made her breath hitch.Don’t.Her wolf resisted.Hard.But Carolina clenched her jaw and kept walking.Because she knew—If she turned around, she wouldn’t stop.Behind her—Silence snapped.“No.”The word cracked across the field like thunder.Carolina froze.Slowly—She turned back.Xander stood where she had left him.But he wasn’t still anymore.His control—Gone.The air around him felt different.Charged.Dangerous.“You don’t get to decide that,” he said.Marcus didn’t react immediately.That was always worse.“You forget your place,” Marcus replied calmly.Xander let out a sharp, humorless laugh.“No,” he said. “I think I’m finally remembering it.”A ripple went through the pack.T

The space between them didn’t exist anymore.Carolina felt it before she even moved.That pull—Stronger now.Deeper.Not just a bond.A need.Her hand was still on his chest, but now she could feel everything beneath it—The steady beat of his heart.The rise and fall of his breath.The tension he wasn’t even trying to hide anymore.“You’re not even pretending to be calm now,” she whispered.Xander’s gaze dropped briefly to her lips—Then back to her eyes.“Didn’t see the point.”Her breath caught.The honesty of it—The way he said it like he was done holding back—It sent heat curling low in her chest.Her fingers pressed slightly into him without thinking.His reaction was immediate.A sharp inhale.A tightening of his grip on her hand.There it was.That shift.Not just awareness anymore—Want.“Careful,” he murmured, voice lower now.Carolina tilted her head slightly.“Or what?”His hand slid from hers—Up her arm—Slow.Deliberate.Every inch of movement dragging heat behind it

His hand left her waist and, with a slow, deliberate slide, tangled in the hem of her shirt. He paused just long enough for her to inhale—a single, tight breath—before he lifted the thin fabric. His palm flattened, grazing up her side, the contact electric in the hush of the room.Carolina arched toward him. His touch was tentative for just an instant—an old habit of restraint—then grew bolder, thumb sweeping beneath the curve of her breast. She shivered.“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he whispered, the words barely shaping the air.She shook her head, voice silent, body answering for her. His hand found her breast, fingers spreading, the heat of his palm striking through the thin cotton. She exhaled—shaky, unguarded—when his thumb brushed the nipple, slow and gentle at first, then pinching just enough to draw a quiet gasp from her throat. The sound seemed to undo him. He bent to kiss the side of her neck, grazing the soft skin just below her jaw with his teeth, not quite biting, t

The morning pressed its way in through the window—a clear, pale slab of light slicing the room in half and falling directly across Carolina’s face. It was the shift in temperature, more than the brightness, that woke her: the air had that cool, dusty feeling that made her want to burrow in. Instead, she blinked against the glow, feeling the weight of the blankets, the heat of the body curled against her spine.Xander had not, apparently, moved at all since last night. He was still bracing her in place, chin tucked between her shoulder and neck, arm a heavy bar around her middle. Sometime in the night, she’d shifted that arm higher, so her hand rested atop his. She let herself hold still, breathing in the scent of him—a little woodsmoke, a little sweat, all wolf and summer.If she stayed like this, she could almost forget why sleep had been so necessary. That the world outside was already spinning up, waiting for her to step back into it. That the shrapnel of what had happened yesterda