The Genetic Bride: Alpha's Obsession

Chapter 2: Marked

ISABELLA

The moon was too bright tonight.

For ten months, I’d been stuck on this island, and I had learned to read the sky. Tonight, the silver light didn't just pour through the glass. It felt like it was pinning me to the floor.

Usually, the full moon was the only time my head stopped spinning. It usually calmed me down, giving me a break from the constant, exhausting static of Sebastian's shadow over my life. But this time, it wasn't calming me. It was doing the exact opposite. My blood felt hot. It wasn't just a normal body heat; it was like a slow, heavy fever pulsing under my skin. My chest was tight, my breathing shallow, and there was an ache low in my belly that made me want to crawl out of my own skin.

I clamped my thighs together as a wave of shame hit me hard, making my stomach turn.

“No. Not for him. Do not do this,” I whispered to myself.

I hated Sebastian Whitlock. I spent every waking hour reminding myself of what he did. He took me. He put these heavy iron cuffs on my wrists. He locked me in this massive, freezing stone house and treated me like his property.

But my body didn't care about my hatred tonight. The light from the window felt like a hand pressing down on me, turning my anger into a sickening, desperate craving. I wanted to be touched. I wanted him to touch me.

The beating of my heart became erratic when I heard the firm, powerful footsteps outside—followed by the heavy lock on the door clicking. The air in the room instantly curdled.

I didn't turn around, but the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

The door closed, and another click resounded in the room. He turned the key from the inside. He was locking himself in with me!

"Bella,” he called, his voice rough and gritty. The usual smooth, arrogant Alpha mask he wore was completely gone.

Something inside me clenched tight at the sound. I hated how much I noticed it. I kept my back against the wall, eyes fixed on the floor, even as his heavy boots stopped right in front of me. The sheer heat coming off him was suffocating.

Sebastian reached down, his rough fingers catching my jaw. I flinched at the contact, but the heat of his skin sent a shock straight down my spine.

"Look at me," he murmured. His thumb forced my chin up, eyes were glowing with that familiar golden hue, completely blown out. "Stop lying to yourself. The moon is hitting both of us. You're burning up."

"I hate you," I choked out, but my voice shook. There was no real bite to it. "I'll always hate you."

"Hate doesn't change the bond, Bella," he said, leaning down until his breath brushed my ear. "And it's not going to stop me tonight."

He dropped to his knees in front of me. His hand went straight to the heavy iron cuffs on my wrists, pulled a small key from his pocket, and with two sharp snaps, the metal fell away, clattering loudly against the floor.

My wrists were suddenly lighter. He actually freed me—after almost a year of being chained like an animal. This was my chance. I could have hit him. I could have clawed at his eyes and bolted for the door.

But my limbs felt like lead. The fever in my blood was too heavy to control.

Sebastian stood up, taking a single step back. It was as if he was giving me a choice, but we both knew I didn't have one.

"Come here, Bella," he ordered.

My body moved entirely on its own, betraying my mind. I stepped closer to him, tilting my head back to meet his gaze. Before I could change my mind, his massive hands locked around my waist, pulling my hips flush against his hard, unyielding frame.

I didn't pull away. I couldn't…

With a dark growl, his mouth crushed mine. There was no calculation in the kiss, no gentle softness. It was a collision of raw, desperate hunger. I moaned into his mouth, my fingers tangling desperately in his shirt, pulling him closer until my back hit the cold stone wall. His hands tore at the silk fabric of my nightgown until his large palm found my bare hip and gripped it hard. His lips dragged down my throat, his fangs and tongue scraping lightly against my racing pulse.

I gasped against his shoulder, my knees giving out completely as his fingers found how wet and aching I already was for him.

"You're dripping for me, Bella," he growled against my skin, his voice thick with triumph.

I couldn't answer. I could only wrap my legs around his waist as he lifted me effortlessly against the wall. The friction of his heavy denim against my bare center was agonizing torture. I could feel him—thick, rigid, and pulsing against me through the fabric.

He captured my lips again, slower this time, a deeper, claiming possession that stole the very air from my lungs.

"Say it," he demanded, his hips shifting against mine, teasing the edge of my sanity. "Tell me you want this."

I looked into his golden eyes, tears of frustration blurring my vision.

"I hate you," I breathed, my nails digging into his shoulders. "But God help me... I want you."

That was all the permission the beast needed. He freed himself and drove into me in one deep, unyielding thrust. A sharp cry tore from my throat—a mix of sudden pain and overwhelming ecstasy shattered the last of my defenses.

Sebastian froze inside me, his muscles turning rigid while his breath tore out of him in ragged gasps.

"You're mine, Bella," he vowed fiercely, pressing his forehead against mine. "You were always mine."

Then, he began to move. Each heavy, driving stroke sent a shockwave of silver fire through my veins. The world narrowed to the friction of our bodies, the scent of cedar and dark musk, and the rhythmic, intoxicating slam of his hips.

I held onto him like a drowning woman in a storm.

He buried his face in my neck, breathing in my scent, and then his fangs sank deep into my shoulder.

I screamed.

It wasn't just physical pain. It felt as if a branding iron had pierced my very soul. The mating bond snapped into place like a heavy iron lock, binding my spirit to his.

At the exact moment his teeth marked me, my body convulsed, a violent, blinding climax crashing through me so intensely that the room dissolved into a white-hot blur.

Sebastian let out a broken, guttural roar, driving deep one last time as his own release overtook him, spilling his heat inside me as we both shattered under the unblinking watch of the moon.

****

SEBASTIAN

She collapsed against my chest, her breathing shallow and ragged, her body still trembling from the aftershocks of the mating bond.

On her neck, my mark was bleeding faintly. A perfect, raw crescent. Her scent had completely changed—the wild sweetness was gone, replaced by my own dark, heavy musk. She smelled completely claimed.

But the beast inside me wasn't satisfied. Ten months of denial couldn't be washed away by a single encounter.

I slid my hand down her thigh, my fingers cupping her soaked, swollen heat. She rippled around my touch, a breathless gasp escaping her bruised lips.

"You think I'm letting you go after that, my Bella?" I rasped, scraping my teeth gently along the edge of her fresh mark.

I carried her to the massive bed and lowered her onto the sheets. She looked utterly wrecked—her dark hair splayed across the pillows, her cheeks flushed, her lips swollen from my kisses. But as I spread her knees apart, she pulled them back together, desperate to hide herself.

I growled, grabbing both of her wrists in one hand and pinning them flat above her head.

"Don't hide from me, Bella," I commanded, my gaze locking onto hers. "I want to see every look on your face when I take you again."

"Sebastian..." she whispered, a ragged plea that only poured gasoline on the fire in my blood.

Hearing my name on her lips in that tone nearly broke the final threads of my sanity. I didn't wait another second. I aligned my hips and drove back into her, slow and deep, filling her completely.

A loud, broken sob of a moan tore from her throat, her head tossing back as her body immediately arched up to meet my thrusts. Even though her mind still harbored a fierce, stubborn hatred for what I had done, her body was a beautiful liar. It clung to me, begging for more with every desperate sink of my hips.

I leaned down, pressing my forehead against hers, forcing her to look at me. "You feel that, Bella? That is the bond. That is destiny. You can't run from it."

Her legs wrapped around my waist, her nails digging into my shoulders until she drew blood. I didn't care. I went faster, harder, until the sound of skin hitting skin filled the quiet room.

I flipped her onto her stomach, yanking her hips up into the air. She gasped, her hands clawing desperately at the silk sheets, but she didn't fight me. I pushed back inside her from behind, grabbing a fistful of her long hair and pulling her head back so she had to take every bit of it. I wanted to burn myself into her mind so deeply that she'd never think of anyone else again.

Every inch of her belonged to me. Every ragged breath. Every f*****g heartbeat.

I pulled her back against my chest, wrapping my arms around her waist, keeping her locked against me as I continued to drive into her tight, pulsing heat. Her head fell back against my shoulder, eyes half-closed, completely undone by the pleasure.

"You're mine now," I whispered against her damp skin, my voice raw. "Forever."

She didn't argue.

As the final wave of heat built in my chest, I drove deep one last time, spilling inside her as her body clamped around me in a crushing, final release.

I held her tightly against me as the world faded out, knowing with absolute, terrifying certainty that I would burn the entire world to ash before I ever let her go.