Chapter 12 The Cruelest Part
Althea was utterly confused.
She was the daughter of a traitor, taken by the Alpha King as a hostage, claimed as nothing more than his breeder. She had expected cruelty, humiliation and a cold prison. But instead, he had marked her, saved her life, and now he touched her like he craved only her.
Althea had prepared herself for the worst. She believed he would be disgusted by her… that he’d simply take her, cold and silent, without even meeting her gaze. Without a kiss. Without concern. Just power, just dominance.
But now…
He was licking and suckling the finger he’d used inside her core, groaning low in his throat as if savoring something rare. As if he tasted something good. Her face burned crimson.
She didn’t know whether to be horrified or… flattered. No man had ever looked at her like this. No one had ever wanted her like this.
‘Right… I’m his mate,’ she reminded herself.
It was the mate pull. The mate bond.
Gavriel was caring for her in the way fated mates typically do, possessively and instinctively. She had heard stories growing up about how werewolves become territorial over their destined mate, how desire turns primal, and how reason can blur in such moments.
The Alpha King was no exception.
And yet… something in her whispered that it wasn’t just instinct. Not entirely. There was something deeper in his eyes. Something he wouldn’t say aloud. But whatever it was, it was dangerously addictive. And it terrified her just how much she wanted more of it.
Yes, he claimed her body and soul, but she couldn’t say it was by force. Not when her body responded so willingly. Not when every touch sent shivers down her spine and awakened something she had never felt before.
She wasn’t disgusted. She wasn’t angry. If anything… she had enjoyed every bit of it.
Why?
Before she could think more of it, she was startled when Gavriel had suddenly ripped her clothes apart so easily, leaving her naked beneath him. Then he hovered over her and hungrily captured her lips in a kiss.
He left her lips only to trail kisses along her jawline, then down her neck to her collarbones, licking and suckling, making her body arch in response. She ended up grabbing his hair when he licked and suckled one of her nipples, while caressing the other mound with his hand.
“So good,” he hummed as he alternated between licking and sucking. Then he moved lower, kissing her belly, and before she knew it, he was already between her legs, gently parting them wider for him.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a panic, her voice breathless.
“I want to taste you here fully, Althea,” he said, his voice low and hungry.
“Gavriel,” she rasped his name the moment she felt his lips inside her thighs.
He was making her experience something wild, pleasure with no end. Her hips arched as he licked her folds, trailing his tongue along the sensitive line. Althea felt like she was going mad, jolts of electric sensation coursing through her entire body.
“Mmm,” she moaned, no longer able to suppress it, not when he was lapping at her most private part like it was a delicacy.
Her toes curled when he suckled on her little nub, circling and flicking it with his tongue in turns.
“Don’t hold back, my vixen. I want your body trembling,” he murmured before sliding his tongue into her opening, thrusting deep inside her. The sensation was too much. She clutched his hair more tightly as her head swung from side to side, overwhelmed.
And with just a few more thrusts of his tongue, her body convulsed in complete surrender. The dam broke, her release flooding his mouth. She was still trembling as he licked her relentlessly, as if tasting something vital to his very survival.
This Alpha King was likely overwhelming her with too much pleasure! Then he crawled on top of her and kissed her, letting her taste her own essence.
“Hmm, so good, right?” he murmured against her lips.
She gasped when he suddenly thrust his full length inside her.
“Still so tight,” he growled, pushing hilt-deep until Althea felt like he was stretching her beyond her limit. There was a sting of discomfort at first, but as he began moving in and out of her, it slowly faded, replaced by a growing wave of heat and pleasure.
Before she realised it, she was holding onto his neck as if her life depended on it. Each thrust, deeper and harder, made her body tremble with overwhelming pleasure. Something was coiling tightly inside her, and she knew she was like a volcano ready to erupt again under his relentless claim on her body.
“Urghhh, you’re so delicious, and it’s maddening… my little wolf, now my vixen,” he grunted as he accelerated his pace. He captured her lips in a fierce kiss, his tongue sliding into her mouth, probing deeper until she felt like she was being completely consumed.
“It feels so good to be inside you like this,” he grunted, his pace increasing, plunging deeper with each thrust. “I’ve never felt like this before. The mate bond is truly exceptional… making love to a fated mate is one of a kind.”
That last sentence hit her like a bucket of cold water. Althea’s heart sank, the weight of his words heavier than any punishment she had endured before. It confirmed what she had feared… he was only enjoying her because she was his mate. Nothing more. Nothing deeper.
To him, she was a body to claim, a toy to satisfy a craving rooted in instinct.
Then it came… Gavriel’s hand wrapped around her throat, firm but not crushing, his body moving with punishing rhythm above hers. His eyes were wild, dark with heat and power, locked onto her flushed, trembling face.
With a cruel smirk curling on his lips, he leaned close and growled into her ear, “You’re nothing more than the traitor’s daughter warming my bed. That’s all this is. Don’t forget it.”
Althea’s chest tightened. Her breath caught, not from his grip, but from the cold blade of those words slicing through her.
She turned her head to the side, shame blooming hot under her skin even as her body betrayed her with every wave of sensation.
‘That’s right,’ she reminded herself bitterly. ‘He didn’t save me out of mercy. He didn’t touch me out of affection. This is punishment. This is power. I’m just a body to him. Something to use, to ruin, to forget.’
And still, he didn’t stop...
Her eyes burned as she stared at the ceiling of the tent, her hands gripping the sheets. He had taken everything… her name, her freedom, and now, her pride.
Her eyes stung. She bit the inside of her cheek, forcing back the sting of tears.
And yet… even as her mind screamed that he would discard her the moment she ceased to interest him, her heart ached. Because deep down, she wanted more. She wanted to be more than a body. More than his pawn. She wanted to mean something… even if he never said it.
And that… that… was the cruelest part.
Gavriel took a deep breath as he stared at the woman sleeping quietly on the makeshift bed inside his tent. Her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, her face serene, unaware of the storm raging inside him.
She was his mate.
That much was undeniable. His instincts told him so every time she was close… drawing him in, tempting him, taking over his thoughts. When she's around, he's no longer the detached, strategic Alpha King. Instead, he's something primal. Unrestrained. And he despises it.
Each time he touched her or lowered his guard, another image burned into his mind - Riela, his older sister, pushed to madness.