The Alpha Who Refused to Let Me Go

The word "no" has barely left my lips when I see his expression shift. The mask of cold authority cracks, revealing something raw and dangerous underneath. My survival instincts finally kick in, overriding the paralyzing shock of seeing him again.

I bolt.

My bare feet slip on the hardwood as I sprint toward my bedroom, desperate to reach my phone, to find some weapon, anything that might give me a chance. But I've forgotten how fast he is, how predatory his reflexes are when his Alpha nature takes over.

His hands close around my arms before I make it three steps.

"Let me go!" The scream tears from my throat as I thrash against his grip, my nails clawing at his forearms. The contact sends lightning through the mate bond, a cruel reminder of what we once shared. My wolf whimpers in confusion, torn between the instinct to submit to her mate and the desperate need to escape.

His fingers tighten, not enough to bruise but enough to remind me of his strength. "Stop fighting me, Primrose."

"I'll never stop fighting you!" I twist in his grasp, fury giving me strength I didn't know I still possessed. "You abandoned me! You left me when I needed you most, and now you think you can just waltz back in and—"

"Enough." His voice drops to that Alpha tone that used to make me melt. Now it only makes me fight harder.

"No, it's not enough!" Tears stream down my face, three years of suppressed anguish pouring out in a torrent. "Where were you when I was bleeding? Where were you when I lost—" My voice breaks on the words I can't say, the loss too raw even after all this time.

Something flickers in his dark eyes—confusion, maybe even pain—but it's gone too quickly. His grip shifts, one arm sliding around my waist to pin me against his chest while his free hand tangles in my hair.

"I said enough." His breath is hot against my ear, and I can feel the tremor in his voice despite his commanding tone. "You're coming home with me, and we're going to settle this once and for all."

"I don't have a home with you anymore!" I slam my elbow back, catching him in the ribs. He grunts but doesn't release me. "You made sure of that when you decided I wasn't worth your time!"

His control snaps.

I feel it the moment it happens—the sudden stillness in his body, the way his breathing changes. Before I can react, he spins me around with brutal efficiency. My back hits his chest, and his arm locks across my throat, not choking but restraining.

"You want to know why I left?" His voice is a growl against my ear, rough with emotions I can't identify. "You want to talk about abandonment?"

Terror and rage war in my chest as I feel his head dip toward my neck. "Don't you dare—"

His teeth sink into the mark he left there four years ago.

The world explodes into sensation. The Alpha bite floods my system with a cocktail of submission and euphoria that my body remembers even if my mind rejects it. My wolf rolls over immediately, purring at the familiar dominance of her mate, while my human consciousness screams in protest.

Every muscle in my body goes liquid. My knees buckle, and only his arm around my waist keeps me upright. The mate bond roars to life with an intensity that steals my breath, flooding me with his emotions—rage, pain, possessiveness, and underneath it all, something that feels dangerously like desperation.

"No," I whisper, but the word comes out slurred, my tongue heavy in my mouth. "You can't... you can't do this to me again."

His teeth release my neck, but his lips remain pressed against the mark, his breathing ragged. "I can do whatever I want, Primrose. You're mine. You've always been mine."

The forced submission wars with my fury, creating a nauseating cocktail of conflicting sensations. My vision blurs at the edges, darkness creeping in from all sides. I try to fight it, try to hold onto my anger, but the Alpha bite is too powerful, my body too overwhelmed by the sudden reconnection to our bond.

"I hate you," I manage to gasp out, even as my consciousness begins to slip away. "I hate you for what you did to me."

His arm tightens around me, and for just a moment, I swear I feel him trembling. "I know," he whispers, so quietly I might have imagined it. "I know you do."

The darkness claims me, dragging me down into unconsciousness with the taste of betrayal bitter on my tongue and the scent of pine and leather filling my lungs.

***

I wake to the sound of rain against windows and the familiar scent of cedar and vanilla candles.

For a moment, I'm disoriented, caught between sleep and waking. The bed beneath me is soft, expensive, nothing like the modest mattress in my human apartment. The sheets smell like home—like the detergent Mrs. Chen used to use, like the lavender sachets I once tucked between the linens.

Like him.

Memory crashes back with the force of a tidal wave. The apartment. Gabriele. The bite.

I bolt upright, my heart hammering against my ribs, and the room spins sickeningly around me. When my vision clears, I'm staring at a space I know as intimately as my own body.

Our bedroom. The master suite of the Luna's quarters in Ravencrest territory.

Everything is exactly as I left it three years ago. The heavy oak furniture, dark and imposing. The floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the pack's training grounds. The fireplace where we used to curl up together on winter nights, talking about our future, our dreams, the children we would have.

My gaze falls on the nightstand, and my breath catches in my throat.

Our wedding photo is still there, silver frame gleaming in the dim light. We're both smiling in the picture, my face radiant with joy, his expression softer than I've seen it in years. His arm is wrapped around my waist, pulling me close, and I'm looking up at him like he hung the stars.

Like he was my whole world.

Which he was, until he decided I wasn't worth his.

I move to get up, to put distance between myself and the painful memories, but something cold and heavy around my ankle stops me short. I look down and my blood turns to ice.

A thick metal shackle encircles my ankle, connected to a heavy chain that disappears under the bed. The metal is polished steel, clearly custom-made, and when I tug at it experimentally, it doesn't give even a millimeter.

He chained me.

He actually chained me like some kind of prisoner.

Rage floods through me, hot and cleansing, burning away the lingering effects of the Alpha bite. I yank at the chain with both hands, the metal cutting into my palms, but it's useless. The shackle is too tight to slip off, too strong to break.

I'm trapped.

Trapped in the room where we once made love, where we whispered promises we couldn't keep, where I once believed I was the luckiest woman alive to be mated to Gabriele Ravencrest.

The irony is so bitter I can taste it.

Tears burn my eyes as I stare around the room that was once my sanctuary and is now my prison. Every surface holds a memory, every shadow whispers of what we used to be. The vanity where he used to brush my hair. The reading chair where I would curl up with a book while he worked. The window seat where we would sit together and watch the sun set over pack lands.

All of it tainted now by his betrayal, by his abandonment, by the chains around my ankle.

I sink back against the pillows, my body shaking with a mixture of fury and despair. He brought me back to the scene of our destruction, to the place where everything fell apart.

And he's keeping me here whether I want to stay or not.