Aidan.

Why was she taking so long?

The question gnawed at me relentlessly, looping over and over in my mind as I paced the length of my room. Each step I took was sharp, restless, fueled by irritation that refused to settle. The air felt too thick, too quiet, as though the walls themselves were waiting for her arrival.

Does she plan on disobeying me?

The thought made my jaw tighten. Maria wasn’t foolish enough to ignore my summons. She couldn’t be. I had been very clear, two hours before the Alpha’s gathering. I was certain she would come. She had to. The certainty sat heavy in my chest, mixed with impatience that grew with every passing second.

I stopped pacing briefly, considering storming out of the room and dragging her here myself. The image flashed through my mind, me standing in her doorway, grabbing her arm, reminding her exactly who I was.

But no.

Lowering myself to that point over a rogue wasn’t worth it. She wasn’t worth that kind of effort. If she had any sense left in her, she would come on her own. She just had to.

Turning sharply, I exhaled through my nose and squared my shoulders, already preparing the words I would throw at her the moment she stepped into the room. I would lash out. I would yell. I would remind her of her place and the consequences of keeping me waiting.

The door opened.

The sight of her stopped me cold.

All the fury I had carefully built dissolved in an instant, melting into something dangerously close to relief. My steps carried me toward her without conscious thought, my eyes roaming her face as if checking to see whether she was real.

"What took you so long?" I asked, my voice lower than I had intended as I closed the distance between us. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

She drew in a breath, lips parting to respond...And then my wolf recoiled violently.

The reaction was so sudden it stole the air from my lungs. My senses flared, sharpening painfully, and before logic could catch up, anger exploded through me. The scent hit me, strong, foreign, unmistakable.

Another man.

"Why do you have another man’s scent on you?" I barked sharply, the words tearing from my throat before I could restrain them.

"I—" She tried to speak, confusion flickering across her face, but I cut her off immediately.

"Answer me, Maria," I snapped, my voice rising as my hand closed around her arm, pulling her closer. My grip tightened, not enough to hurt her, but enough to make my point clear. "Who were you with?"

I searched her eyes desperately, looking for denial, for hesitation, for anything that would prove my instincts wrong. But the scent only grew stronger the closer she was, wrapping around me like an insult.

There was only one person I knew who carried that scent.

Noah.

The name hit me like a fist slamming straight into my chest, knocking the air from my lungs. In an instant, everything else blurred, the room, the silence, even the sound of my own breathing, until all that remained was the roaring fire igniting inside me. It spread fast, wild and uncontrollable, feeding on instinct and fury.

Noah.

Was this his doing?

Was he trying to provoke us?

The thought burned hotter. Was this because we hadn’t marked her yet? Because we hadn’t claimed her the way the world expected us to? The way he expected us to?

The audacity of it made my vision darken.

He had no right.

No right to be anywhere near Maria.

No right to look at her.

No right to touch her.

The very idea sent my wolf clawing violently beneath my skin, a low snarl vibrating in my chest as possessiveness twisted into something ugly and sharp. My jaw clenched so hard it ached.

"No... it can’t be..." The words slipped out before I could stop them, rough and disbelieving, more a broken whisper than a sentence. I wasn’t speaking to her, not really. I was trying to convince myself. Trying to crush the image forming too clearly in my mind. "It cannot be him!"

But the more I denied it, the more solid the thought became, sinking its claws into me.

My arm tightened around her without conscious thought, pulling her closer as if distance itself were a threat. My wolf surged, restless and furious, reacting before logic could catch up. Protect. Claim. Eliminate the threat. The instincts screamed so loudly it was a miracle I was still standing there instead of tearing something apart.

The room suddenly felt too small.

Too tight.

Too suffocating.

"Was this the reason you came late?" I snapped, the question cutting through the air like a blade. My voice was harsh, unforgiving, stripped of all softness. Accusation dripped from every word. I needed her to answer. I needed her to deny it. I needed something—anything—to douse the fire consuming me.

But she didn’t speak.

She just stood there.

Silent.

That silence dug under my skin far worse than any confession ever could. It felt deliberate. Heavy. Like resistance. Like guilt. Like confirmation of everything I didn’t want to believe.

My control shattered.

The fragile restraint I’d been clinging to snapped clean in two, and the anger surged forward unchecked. I reached for her arms, my grip closing around them as I pulled her toward me, shaking her once, hard enough to force her attention, hard enough to demand the truth.

My wolf growled viciously inside me, furious and possessive, ready to tear apart any name, any man, any past that dared to lay claim to what it considered mine.

"Answer me, Maria!" I shouted, my voice echoing off the walls. "I am talking to you!"

My chest rose and fell rapidly as I stared down at her, fury and possessiveness colliding violently inside me, my wolf restless and raging, desperate for answers I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear.

"I don’t know what you’re implying, Alpha Aidan," she said at last, her voice trembling despite her obvious effort to steady it, "but who I was with before coming to you is none of your business."

The moment the words left her mouth, something inside my head snapped.

It was as if a tightly wound knot in my mind finally loosened—no, tore apart—sending a surge of raw emotion straight through my veins. Anger. Possession. Fear. All of it collided at once, drowning out reason. Before I could think, before my wolf could be restrained, my body moved on instinct alone.

In one swift motion, I grabbed her by the waist and yanked her flush against me.

Her gasp barely had time to form before my lips crashed into hers.

The kiss was sudden. Forceful. Possessive.

There was no tenderness in it, no hesitation. It was a claim, pure and undeniable, driven by the burning need roaring inside my chest. I felt her stiffen against me, felt the surprise ripple through her body, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. My grip tightened at her waist as I pressed her closer, as though letting go for even a second would mean losing her entirely.

"You belong to me, Maria," I growled against her lips, my voice low, dangerous, vibrating with authority and hunger all at once. "No one else has the right to be this intimate or this close to you."

The words were torn from my soul as I deepened the kiss, pouring every unspoken emotion into it, jealousy, dominance, the unbearable need to remind her of where she stood with me. I felt her hands push weakly against my chest, her body resisting, but the more she struggled, the more my hold tightened, anchoring her firmly in place.

She tried to pull away, tried to turn her face, but I refused to give her the space. My wolf surged, reveling in the contact, in the knowledge that she was here, in my arms, no matter how much she protested.

Only when the fire inside me finally dulled, when my breathing grew heavy and uneven, did I pull away.

She stood there, breathless, her lips swollen, eyes shimmering with a mix of shock and emotion I couldn’t immediately read. Slowly, deliberately, I reached up and pushed a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, the gesture almost gentle compared to what had just passed.

"The earlier you realize who you belong to," I said quietly, my tone firm and unyielding, "the better it will be for you."

I took a step back, forcing distance between us before I did something I couldn’t undo. Turning slightly away, I muttered the next words as though they were already decided, already law.

"You will accompany me to the Alpha gathering."

The thought had formed even before I spoke it, solid and immovable. I didn’t care that the gathering was meant strictly for Alphas. I didn’t care that even the servants permitted to attend were all males. None of it mattered anymore.

All that mattered was Maria.

The idea of her being anywhere beyond my sight, even for a moment, was unbearable. The scent of another man on her skin had ignited something feral inside me, something that refused to be silenced. I needed her where I could see her. Where I could feel her presence. Where no one else would dare to cross the line again.

I turned my gaze back to her, my expression unreadable but resolute.

She would come with me.

And this time, I would make sure the entire pack understood exactly where she stood, exactly who she belonged to.