Marked By The Alpha's Refusal

ONE

Seraya

His mouth was on my throat, his fingers buried in my hair, and his hips grinding between my thighs as I cried out beneath him. Thorne didn’t move gently. He moved like a man with no fear, like he owned me. And in every damn way, he did.

My legs were wide around his waist, my nails scraping down his back. I felt him swell even deeper inside me and gasped.

“f**k,” I moaned. “You’re getting bigger.”

His lips curled against my skin. “I haven’t even started yet.”

He pulled back, just enough for me to feel the stretch of him leaving me—and then slammed back in, full length, hard, thick, brutal.

My entire body arched up from the bed. “Oh my Goddess—”

“Louder,” he growled. “I want every wolf in the damn forest to hear who you belong to.”

“You,” I whimpered, breathless. “Thorne, it’s you—”

“Say it properly.”

“I belong to you.”

He grabbed my hips and slammed into me again, burying himself so deep I could feel the pressure behind my navel. My walls clenched around him and I swore I saw stars.

“You feel that?” he asked, voice dark, dirty. “That’s how deep I need to be. I want your body to remember me even after I’m gone.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” I said, barely coherent as he thrust again and again, each time harder than the last.

“I’m thirty, baby. You’re twenty. The whole damn pack thinks I should be touching someone with a bloodline and a pedigree.”

“You’re touching me anyway,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his neck. “You’re f*****g me like you’ll never stop.”

He kissed me hard, teeth scraping my lip as he drove his c**k into me so deep I whimpered. His rhythm changed—faster, desperate, greedy. And mine matched it. My legs locked around him, pulling him even closer.

I felt everything.

The length of him stretching me out, his groans as he bit into my shoulder, the heat building between us like fire that wouldn’t stop until it burned us both down.

“I’m gonna c*m,” I whispered.

“Not yet,” he growled. “You wait for me.”

“I can’t—”

“You will.”

His thumb moved between us, rubbing my c**t fast and tight in circles, and my body screamed with need.

“Now,” he ordered.

And I shattered.

My orgasm hit hard—ripping through me in waves as I cried out his name over and over again. My walls clenched around him, milking him, and seconds later he spilled into me with a deep growl, holding me down, shaking from the force of it.

We collapsed together, tangled in sweat and blankets and something that felt like more than lust.

For a long minute, the room was silent except for the sound of our breathing.

Then he rolled onto his back, pulling me with him, my head resting on his chest.

“You okay?” he asked quietly, stroking my hair.

“I feel like I’ve been ruined.”

“You have,” he said. “I meant to.”

I looked up at him, half laughing, half breathless. “So now what?”

“I go to the council.”

“And I come with you.”

He frowned. “No. You stay—”

I sat up, straddling him still fully naked, my chest rising and falling. “You said I’m yours. That makes me Luna. Or do you f**k girls you hide afterward?”

His eyes darkened, not with anger—but respect. Lust. That look he gave when I challenged him, and he loved me more for it.

“You’re gonna regret this,” he muttered.

I kissed him once more, slow and possessive. “You regret not bringing me, and you’ll find me naked in your chair when you come back.”

He smirked. “f**k. Fine. Get dressed.”

---

The council chamber was buried deep in the cliffside near the Alpha’s estate, old stone walls lit with fire sconces and lined with chairs occupied by wolves who only saw bloodlines, tradition, and power—not love.

When we stepped in, they all turned.

Ten Elders. Ten stares. One breath held too long.

Thorne walked to the head chair and sat down. There was no extra seat. Of course there wasn’t. No Luna had ever stood beside the Alpha before the bond was sealed.

I lingered beside him, unsure for a beat.

Then he reached for my waist and pulled me down—right into his lap.

Gasps. Throat clears. One disgusted chuckle.

“I see you’ve brought a guest,” Elder Myron grumbled.

Thorne didn’t even look up. “I’ve brought my mate.”

“She’s twenty,” Elder Vexon said sharply. “Barely weaned.”

“She’s stronger than you,” Thorne replied coolly. “And she’s mine.”

“She’s not your Luna.”

“She’s whatever I say she is.”

The Elders exchanged looks, uncomfortable ones. Disrespect wasn't new from Thorne—but the defiance in seating me on his lap, the way he didn’t even ask for approval?

That was new.

I sat silently, every muscle in my body stiff, my thighs still sore from earlier but my heart swelling. This was power. This was what it meant to be chosen. I belonged here. I could feel it in the heat of his hands, the quiet tension in the room, the jealousy from a few of the older males whose sons weren’t claimed by an Alpha.

And then the door creaked open.

The scent hit first—River Moon.

A man entered wearing their mark. Polished. Calm. Snake in wolf’s clothing.

“I bring a message for Alpha Thorne.”

Thorne’s grip on my waist tensed. “Then bring it.”

The man stepped forward, placed a crisp envelope on the table, and bowed out with too much grace.

Thorne opened it.

Pulled out the photo.

And the moment his eyes met it, I felt his whole body shift under me.

Still. Quiet. Burning.

I looked down at the photo and my mouth opened.

It was me.

On a bed.

Naked.

Grinning.

Under a man with a River Moon tattoo.

No. No, no. That wasn’t real. That wasn’t—

“Thorne,” I whispered. “That’s fake. You know it’s fake—”

“Did you let him touch you like that?” His voice didn’t rise. It sank—like something was crawling up from the pit of him.

“I’ve never even seen that man—”

The Elders stood.

“This is an act of war.”

“She’s a spy.”

“She’s disgraced you—”

“Silence,” Thorne barked. “Everyone sit down.”

They did.

And he stood.

His hand dropped from my body.

“Thorne, don’t,” I whispered. “Please. I don’t even know how they—”

“You came here in my shirt. In my bed. After this?” He held up the photo like it was poison. “You humiliated me.”

“It’s not real!”

“Then why do I feel like I’m the fool?”

I reached for him, voice cracking. “You told me I was yours—”

“And I was wrong.”

No.

No.

“No, you don’t mean that.”

His jaw clenched. “I reject you, Seraya.”

The bond. The hope. The future.

Gone.

I stumbled back, chest splitting open with a pain no blade could match. My legs gave way beneath me, and I sank to the cold stone floor, trembling.

Thorne turned his back.

But he didn’t leave.

He stood there—still as death—as if he could feel my sobs in the air, could hear the way I tried to muffle them in the sleeves of his shirt still clinging to my skin.

Tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t stop them. I didn’t even try. I was shaking, humiliated, naked beneath the weight of ten staring Elders and the only man I had ever trusted.

He looked over his shoulder once.

Just once.

His eyes met mine—and I swear, for a second, I saw regret.

But it wasn’t enough to save me.

Not when he said nothing.

Not when he turned away for good and left me there on the floor, broken.