The Feral King’s Forbidden Mate

In his arms

Lin’s POV

"Open it. Now."

It wasn't a request. It was an ancient, crushing decree that made the very air inside the tiny, suffocating room thick with static electricity. My heart hammered against my ribs—a frantic, erratic rhythm that had been my constant companion for the past one hundred days.

One hundred days of being Ricardo’s captive. One hundred days of being told I was nothing, that I was broken, that a wolfless girl had no right to breathe the same air as real shape-shifters.

With a shaky breath, I turned the latch.

The wood groaned as the door swung inward, and before the man even crossed the threshold, his presence flooded the room like a suffocating tide. I froze, the air locked tight in my throat, every survival instinct I possessed screaming at me to run, even though there was nowhere left to go.

Moses Osborn did not merely walk into a room—he swallowed it whole.

I had heard stories about the Feral King in whispered, terrified gossip among Ricardo’s servants. They said he was a monster, a king who had lost his mind to the wild five years ago when his first mate died, abandoning his throne to run with the beasts in the deep forest.

Looking at him now, standing well over six-foot-seven, his shoulders broad enough to block out the flickering torchlight of the grand hallway, I realized the rumors had understated everything.

He looked less like a king and more like an apex predator that someone had tried—and failed—to drag into civilization.

A sharp, scar cut cleanly through his right eyebrow, trailing down across his high cheekbone—a brutal, jagged trophy from his five years in the wild. His jaw was dusted with dark, rough stubble, tight and unyielding.

Underneath his dark crimson tunic, his frame was massive—thick chest, heavy arms, and a terrifying, suffocating aura of raw Alpha dominance that made my knees feel like water.

He looked down at me, his eyes narrowing into thin slits as he took in my pale face, my trembling hands, and the heavy duvet I had yanked off the bed and clutched tightly around my naked body like armor.

"You make me wait, little bird," Moses purred.

His voice was a low, gravelly baritone—dark, dangerous, and vibrating with a primal power that sent a sharp, violent shudder straight down my spine. It felt like velvet dragged over broken glass, but it still somehow managed to make me wet between my legs.

"I... I was..." I swallowed down the lump of panic rising in my throat, forcing myself to take a small step back as he crossed into my space. "What do you want with me? If you think I’m just going to submit to another man, if you think because you took me from Ricardo I’m going to bow down to…"

"Follow me," Moses interrupted flatly.

He didn't yell. He didn't raise his voice. He spoke with the absolute expectation of total obedience, turning on his heel to face the dark corridor outside.

My pride—the only thing I had left after three months of torment—flared up through my sheer terror. I planted my feet against the cold floor, locking my knees. "I asked you a question! I’m not moving an inch until you tell me where you are taking me! I am not a dog to be ordered around!"

Moses stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't sigh. He didn't argue with me. He didn't even look annoyed.

In a movement so blindingly fast it defied his massive, heavy frame, Moses closed the distance between us. Before a scream could even form in my throat, his large, calloused hand wrapped around my waist like a vice of solid iron. With an effortless tug, he swept me clean off my feet, pulling my body flush against the hard, unyielding plane of his chest.

"Hey! Let me go! Put me down!" I gasped, my hands flying up instinctively to shove against his broad shoulder.

It was like trying to push a mountain. His body was pure steel, completely unaffected by my desperate squirming.

"You ask too many questions when your legs are too weak to walk," Moses said coldly. His heavy arm locked around my waist, pinning me against his side so securely I couldn't even wriggle a toe free.

Panic seized my chest, squeezing the air right out of my lungs. My mind spiraled backward into the dark horror of the last hundred days—being dragged down halls, being locked in rooms, being forced to endure Ricardo's cold, callous touch while he reminded me I was nothing.

He’s taking me to his bed, I thought frantically, my breathing turning shallow and ragged as I stared up at the sharp, uncompromising angle of his jaw. He didn't rescue me. He claimed me from Ricardo just to take his own turn with the wolfless captive.

Moses didn't say a word to reassure me. He didn't offer a single soft gesture. He simply strode down the grand stone corridor with long, heavy steps, his boots echoing against the walls like a death march.

As his thick arm locked around my waist, my mind flashed violently back to my fourth week in Ricardo’s quarters. Ricardo never carried me like this.

When he wanted me somewhere, he grabbed me by the wrist or hauled me by my hair, dragging my bare feet across cold, splintered stone while my brothers watched from the doorway and did nothing.

They didn’t come to see if I was okay, they came because my father sent them to get more money from Ricardo

Moses held me with crushing, absolute force—yet there was no pain in his grip. Just overwhelming, dark power.

He carried me as if my weight meant less than a feather, ignoring my tense, hyperventilating frame against his chest while his dark, intoxicating scent—pine, ozone, and dangerous Alpha magic—engulfed every breath I drew.

Every muscle in my body was locked tight as Moses carried me through the endless, winding labyrinth of the palace. The heavy duvet I had clutched around my bare body was bunched tightly between us, the thick velvet fabric the only thin barrier separating my skin from the sheer, burning heat radiating off his chest.

I braced myself for the inevitable. I waited for the heavy bedroom door to slam shut, for the metallic, unforgiving turn of a lock, for the alpha to toss me onto a mattress and take what he believed was his right as the supreme Alpha of this land.