The Alpha's Bond: Forbidden But Wanted

My father did not look at me once as we left the grand hall. He walked ahead of me through the dim corridor with his hands clasped firmly at his back.

His pace was unhurried and steady, showing no sign of the chaos that had just unfolded in front of the bloodlines.

The two wolves flanking us kept exactly three steps behind. They moved like they already knew they were not supposed to hear what happened next.

I followed the rhythm of my father's heels on the stone floor because I had no other choice. He pushed open the heavy door to his private study and held it.

I walked through the threshold and felt the sudden shift in atmosphere. The door clicked shut behind me and the guards stayed outside to watch the hallway.

The study remained dark except for the low orange glow of the fireplace. My father walked to the side table and poured himself a glass of dark liquid. He took one slow sip and set the glass down with a heavy thud. He turned and looked at me for what might have been the first time in years.

It was not a comfortable sensation to be seen by him so clearly. His eyes moved over my face the way a general examines a map of hostile terrain.

"Sit down, Ximena," he said. I do not like the way he says my name. It sounds like a command instead of a greeting. I sat in the stiff leather chair across from his desk.

He did not join me but stood at the edge of the firelight with his drink. He began to talk in the same level voice he used for council meetings.

He explained what the mark on my arm meant and what he intended to do with it. He laid out the details with the same precision he used for territory agreements.

To him, I am just another contract that needs to be signed.

"You will go to Bastian Valdemar," he said. I feel my heart drop into my stomach at the mention of that name. This is a death sentence.

"You are not going as my daughter," he continued. "You will go as a wolf seeking refuge from a broken pack." He wants me to be unnamed and unaffiliated so nothing can be traced back to this house.

"You will get close to him and you will use the bond to do it," he added. I looked down at the gold crest still glowing against my skin. The heat from it is starting to make me feel sick.

"The bond does not work like that," I said. My voice was higher than I wanted it to be. "It is not a weapon and it does not give me any control over him."

"No," he agreed without showing any interest in the technicalities. "But it gives him a compulsion he will not be able to explain." He thinks he can outsmart the oldest magic in our world. "He will feel a pull toward you and he will want to keep you close," my father explained.

He paced in front of the fire like a predator. An Alpha with an unidentified bonded is an Alpha whose instincts are working against him.

"You are going to stand in the middle of that distraction and let it happen," he said. I watched him take another sip of his drink. The fire popped loudly in the silence that followed.

"And when I am close enough?" I asked. I already know the answer but I want to hear him say it. I want to know exactly how much I am worth to him.

"You will learn everything," he said. He wants his alliances, his security protocols, and every weakness in the Valdemar structure. He wants me to bring it all back so we can take what was stolen.

He said it simply like he was explaining a grocery list. I sat there and absorbed the full shape of the plan.

It is a suicide mission dressed up as pack strategy. He wants me to walk into the den of the most dangerous Alpha in Spain. He wants me to get close enough to destroy him and then hand the knife to my father. This is not a mission for a daughter.

"He will know," I said. "Bastian Valdemar does not get to his position by trusting every stranger who walks through his door." I know the stories about what he does to spies.

"Then do not be a stranger," my father replied. "Be useful to him and be good at it." He looked at me with cold eyes that showed no flickering of doubt. "You have spent twenty-one years watching this family from the edges," he reminded me.

"You know how power moves and how wolves read each other." He thinks my invisibility is a skill. He is not wrong and that is the worst part of this entire conversation.

I have spent my whole life watching and learning things no one bothered to teach me. He has known it all along and stored the information away.

Now he has decided my small and powerless existence has finally produced something worth spending. I am a coin he has been saving for a rainy day. I wonder if he even knows how much I hate him.

"What if the bond locks before I can get what you need?" I asked. "What if it pulls me toward him in ways I cannot control?" I am afraid of what my own body might do.

"That is a risk I am willing to take," he said.

I notice he did not say it was a risk we are taking. He is risking my life and my soul for a few miles of territory. He finished his drink and set the glass on the desk. He straightened his cuffs in a small and familiar gesture. It is the same thing he does at the end of every business meeting.

I understood then that this was a briefing and not a conversation. He has not asked me a single question about how I feel. He told me the plan and explained my role.

"Papa," I said. He stopped near the door and looked back at me. "Did you know?"

"Did you know the bond could manifest in me before tonight?" I asked. The silence that followed was long enough to provide the answer before he spoke. I feel a cold chill run down my spine.

"I had reason to believe it was possible," he admitted. "The old texts were not specific about bloodline requirements." He thought it was worth waiting to see if I would become useful.

"You waited," I said. My voice was flat and empty. "You waited to see if I would finally have a use."

"And here we are," he said. He crossed to the door and opened it for me to leave. He paused with his hand on the frame and looked at the gold mark on my skin.

"Get some rest," he told me. "We have arrangements to make in the morning."

The door closed behind him and I was left alone in the quiet study. I looked at the fire and felt a cold clarity settle into my bones.

He has never looked at me and seen a daughter in twenty-one years. Tonight he finally looked at me and saw a blade. He is not walking me into danger to protect me. He is throwing me at his enemy to see what breaks first.

I stood up and felt the weight of the gold crest pulling at my arm. I walked over to his desk and saw a small black envelope tucked under his empty glass. It was not there when we entered the room.

I picked it up and saw my name written in a handwriting that was not my father's. Inside was a single key and a set of coordinates that led to the middle of the Valdemar forest.

There was no signature but the paper smelled of ozone and expensive cologne. Someone else is already expecting me.