Marked as His Slave, Born as His Mate.

Chapter Four: The Rise Beneath My Skin

••••••••Ava••••••••

It started in my sleep — a low thrum in my belly, a strange heaviness in my limbs — but now I’m awake, and it’s a storm.

Heat rolls beneath my skin in waves, rising like a tide I can’t control.

My eyes blink open, and I’m immediately overwhelmed.

My body is drenched in sweat.

The sheets are tangled around my legs, soaked.

My nightshirt clings to my skin, my breasts tight, n*****s painfully hard.

My thighs are slick, and the soft cotton between them is soaked through.

I gasp as a sharp, throbbing ache pulses between my legs.

My body arches involuntarily, chasing something I don’t even understand. I can’t think. I can’t breathe. I can barely move. It’s like something is crawling through me, under my skin — fierce, hungry, wild.

I throw the blankets off, desperate for air, for space. I curl in on myself on the edge of the bed, pressing my forehead to my knees. But it doesn’t help. The ache grows sharper, deeper, until I’m shaking with it.

My fingers tremble as I touch my stomach, my thighs. The hunger in me is unbearable. I feel stretched thin. Shaky. Wet. I’m drenched in my own scent — warm, musky, ripe — and it clings to everything. I can feel how needy I am, how soaked, how desperate.

Something inside me stirs.

A voice.

Let me out.

It’s soft, distant, but it’s mine.

My wolf.

She’s waking.

Not fully.

Not yet.

But her presence is undeniable now.

Her breath brushes the inside of my mind. She’s pushing at the edges of my bones, at the limits of my skin.

I can feel her claws dragging lightly down my spine.

He’s close… he’s ours…

And then the scent hits me. Strong. Dominant. Raw.

Pine.

Smoke.

Power.

Raze.

My body locks up. I whimper without meaning to. The sound escapes me like a secret I’ve been keeping too long.

My n*****s ache. My thighs clench. And still, the heat grows.

I stumble out of bed and collapse to the floor. The wood is cool beneath my knees and palms, but it doesn’t soothe me. I press my forehead to it, panting, rocking slightly to ease the burn between my legs, but it only makes it worse.

I’ve never felt anything like this. Nothing even close.

I’m terrified.

But under the fear, a new kind of hunger gnaws at me. A craving I don’t understand.

“Alpha…” I whisper, breathless.

I don't even know if he's nearby. But I *feel* him. Not just his scent — I feel the way the air changes around me, how my skin prickles. My body knows he’s close.

The need spikes again, so fast and hard that I sob.

“Please…”

I don’t know what I’m begging for.

Relief?

Touch?

Claiming?

His presence is in my bones now.

I’m unraveling. And I’m not sure I want it to stop.

---

••••••••Raze••••••••

She’s breaking.

I can hear the shift in her breathing. Smell the change in her heat. It’s thicker now, sharper, wilder. Every inhale tastes like her on my tongue — slick, warm, desperate. It’s all I can do not to rip the door off its hinges.

Kairos is snarling, pushing forward with every beat of her scent.

“She needs us,” he growls. “Now.”

I pace outside her room, fingers twitching, fists clenching and unclenching. My skin burns. My jaw aches from how tightly I’m grinding my teeth.

She’s mine. I can feel it.

Her heat calls to every part of me. Not just my instincts — my soul. The bond between us is alive now, stretching taut like a string pulled to the point of snapping.

And she doesn’t even know.

She’s not ready.

Not yet.

But f**k, she’s close.

Her wolf is surfacing. I can sense her. She’s clawing her way out of Ava’s skin, rising through her blood like a sunrise. Soon, the shift will come. And when it does — when her wolf takes form — I’ll be able to claim her.

But not before.

If I mark her now, if I lose control, I could hurt her.

She’s still too fragile.

Too human.

Kairos doesn’t care.

He paces in my chest, snarling at the door, snapping his fangs.

“She’s begging. She’s dripping. She wants us.”

“I know,” I snap. “Don’t you think I know?”

I press my hand flat to the wooden door. It vibrates faintly beneath my palm — or maybe that’s me. Her voice whispers through the wood. My name. My title.

“Alpha…”

My throat tightens.

She’s in pain. Real pain. Her body is crying out for relief — and I’m the only one who can give it. My scent alone probably makes it worse. I shouldn’t have come near.

But I couldn’t stay away.

Kairos is furious now.

“You’re denying her. Denying us.”

I growl low, teeth bared. “I’m protecting her.”

“She doesn’t need protection. She needs to be claimed.”

My knuckles press harder into the wood.

I can picture her on the other side. Bent over the edge of the bed. Collapsed on the floor. Slick and flushed, her lips parted, breath shallow. Her body ready, begging, soaked for me.

I want to take her.

On the bed.

On the floor.

In the f*****g hallway.

I want her legs wrapped around my waist, her fingers digging into my back, her mouth gasping my name as I thrust into her. I want to taste the slick between her thighs until she’s sobbing with pleasure.

I want her scent on my skin, in my sheets, on my tongue.

I want her marked.

But not like this.

Not before she shifts. Not before her wolf rises.

If I take her now, the mating bond might snap into place before she’s ready. It could confuse her. Damage her. She might feel bound to me without understanding why — and she deserves the choice to give herself, not just instincts dragging her toward me.

Kairos snarls again, furious, frustrated.

“She is ours.”

I breathe deep. Her scent floods my lungs again, and I stagger.

“I know.”

I lean my forehead against the door.

“I know.”

And still — I don’t move.

---

••••••••Ava••••••••

I lie on the floor, slick, shaking, empty. My body aches. Every throb between my legs sends shivers up my spine. I’m burning alive from the inside out, and no amount of cool air or distance or willpower is putting out the flames.

He’s there.

I can feel him.

I can feel his scent thick in my lungs, his energy pulsing outside the door like thunder waiting to strike.

I bite my lip until it bleeds.

He doesn’t come in.

I cry harder.

I want him.

NOW.

I can't take it anymore.

The sound is small, muffled by the floorboards beneath my cheek, but it feels like a scream in my chest. A surrender. My tears are hot, mixing with the sweat on my skin, and I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins.

Every sob is laced with frustration, humiliation, and a hunger I can't silence.

I curl into myself, aching, sore, empty. My body trembles violently as the pressure builds, wave after wave of unmet need crashing through me. It doesn’t stop. It won’t stop.

Why won’t he come in?

Why won’t he touch me?

I feel like I’m falling apart at the seams — unraveling, thread by thread, moan by moan — all while he stands just on the other side of the door, close enough to take it all away.

And he does nothing.

My nails dig into the wooden floor, scratching at it like a wild thing, trying to claw my way back into control. But it’s useless.

The wolf inside me is awake now. She’s restless, furious, howling through my soul. She wants him. Demands him.

But he won’t come.

And I don’t understand why.

So I cry harder.

And somewhere between the tears and the ache and the loneliness, something cracks.

No.

Breaks.