Chapter 27

ALPHA PARTHE.

Fuck...

The Gods...

What was she doing to me?

Despite the iron walls I had meticulously built around my damned heart, I found her creeping in—like a slow-burning fire that I couldn't put out, no matter how hard I tried. She was everywhere, consuming me with an intensity I hadn't anticipated, seeping into the cracks I hadn't even known existed.

I was not a man made for feelings. They had no place in me, and I never thought the mate bond could tear through the cold armor I had worn my entire life. I'd overcome so much—loss, blood, betrayal—but this? This was the one battle I wasn't sure I could win. It was maddening.

This was going to be my undoing.

Her skin, the softness of it, was like silk beneath my fingers. Her scent—a heady mix of innocence and desire, weaving itself into my every breath. It drove me to the edge every damn time I got near her. And right now, standing before her, with that thin excuse of a dress clinging to her delicate frame, I was so close to losing the last thread of control I had left.

The urge to rip the flimsy fabric off her, to expose every inch of her soft, untouched skin to my hungry gaze, gnawed at me with a savage intensity. My hands itched with the need to grab her, to push her down onto the bed and take her—claim her in the way my body screamed for, again and again, until she was crying out for mercy, begging for release.

My cock twitched at the thought, hardening with every passing second as my eyes roamed over her, imagining how she'd feel, how she'd sound.

The innocence in her gaze only stoked the fire burning through me, the way she looked up at me with those wide, sapphire eyes, completely unaware of the beast she was tempting.

I had to fucking restrain myself.

She didn't know what I was capable of, didn't understand the depths of darkness she was stirring within me. Luxuria was too innocent for what I had to offer, too pure for the rough, unyielding hunger that boiled just beneath the surface.

She didn't deserve to be torn apart by the monster in me. And yet, the idea of ravaging that innocence—of marking her, breaking her in ways she'd never recover from—drove me to the brink of madness.

The first night I had her... fuck, it had been a struggle. I'd never been gentle. I didn't know how to be. But with her? I had to hold back, had to fight the instinct to claim her fully, to let her virginity shield her from the brutality I carried. I'd respected her, kept my touch soft, careful, when all I'd wanted to do was fuck her senseless, ravage her until she couldn't remember anything but my name on her lips.

I could smell her arousal so much that it was maddening.

It clouded my senses and made my blood pump hotter, faster. I could smell it on her, feel the way her body responded to mine. It was driving me insane, like a cruel tease, dangling what I couldn't take.

But gods, how I wanted to.

I could feel the tension in her body, the way she trembled under my gaze, the unspoken desire radiating from her in waves. She was trembling for me, wanting me just as much as I wanted her, and the knowledge of it only made my control slip further. I could taste it—the desperation in the air, the way her lips parted ever so slightly, her breathing uneven as her body betrayed her innocence.

Every part of me screamed to take her, to cross the distance between us, rip her apart until she was mine in every possible way. But I couldn't. Not yet.

"Or," I whispered, "do you have a problem with that?" I asked her the question that I knew didn't need an answer.

I knew I was testing her. I had intentionally told Odren not to come to me himself. I was going to the Ash Mountain pack myself. I want to see how much Luxuria would defy me when she sees that dimwit in her father's pack.

A part of me wanted her to sin so I could punish her. I desperately wanted that. And that is why she had to go with me to a meeting that surely didn't concern her.

Her plump lips parted in response to my question, and I felt like dipping my tongue into her mouth to have a taste of her.

"No, Alpha," Her voice was like a soft melody to my ears, "I'll go with you." She finally said the words I wanted to hear.

"Good girl..."

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into the flesh of my palms, trying to regain some semblance of control. My cock was painfully hard, straining against the fabric of my briefs, the need to sink into her warmth a constant, throbbing ache.

My gaze roamed her body again, lingering on the curve of her breasts, the soft rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, her nipples hardening against the fabric.

Fuck.

I had to stop.

I tore my gaze away, forcing myself to step back before I did something I couldn't take back. Luxuria didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to be ravaged by the monster clawing at me, desperate to claim her.

But gods, how I wanted to ruin her.

Her innocence would be my undoing.

And there was no stopping it.