Claimed By The Enemy Alpha

Venom

I continue to swallow large gulps, filling my mouth with his blood. The blinding headache behind my temples vanished instantly, and a sudden wave of strength rushed through my limbs.

The starvation that had paralyzed my thoughts for the past twenty-four hours receded. My fingers automatically lengthened, skin splitting as my claws extended fully. I dug them deep into the flesh of William’s bare back, dragging them downward and leaving large, parallel lacerations behind.

William let out a low grunt against my ear. The deep vibration of his chest traveled directly through my own body, triggering another unprompted moan from my throat. I pulled my face back an inch, only to lean forward and bite down harder into the wound.

I drank greedily, focusing entirely on the flow of his blood until my hunger was entirely satisfied. And William remained perfectly still above me, keeping his weight balanced on his hands to let me finish.

My mind cleared of the thick, exhausting haze and I took one last mouthful, before finally disengaging my fangs from his neck. My chest heaved as I stared up at him, with blood stained lips.

William’s thick brows were knitted tightly, his focus directed over my head as if he were deep in thought. Then realization hit me with absolute clarity: William was always a few steps ahead of me. He had used my own physical desperation against me, forcing me into a position where I had to submit just to get the nourishment I needed to function.

Anger flared in my chest. My eyes narrowed into slits as I looked up at his calm face. Wanting to retaliate for the humiliation, I flexed my fingers and intentionally dug my sharp claws deeper into the open wounds on his back, twisting the tips into his muscle.

William grunted, his focus blinking back to the present reality. For a single second, his green eyes flashed a bright gold as he locked his gaze onto mine, the pupils blown wide.

A heavy silence settled between us in the dim room. We simply stared at each other, our breaths mingling in the short distance between our faces. I could feel the thick heat of his blood dripping down his spine, pooling onto the cushions beneath us.

The scent of it filled the air, yet his expression quickly returned to a mask of complete indifference. He did not flinch or attempt to remove my hands from his back.

I made a promise to myself right then. I would discover exactly what it took to get a genuine rise out of this man. I would find his breaking point, shatter his calm indifference, and use that emotional crack to dismantle his control over me.

With that thought fixed in my mind, I slowly retracted my claws from his torn skin. William let out another short grunt as I slipped out of his flesh. He was oddly silent, his mouth set in a straight line as he continued to hover over me.

"Get off," I said. I placed both of my palms flat against his broad chest and shoved him off me with all the new strength returning to my muscles.

William moved sideways, allowing me to shift my legs and sit up. I swung my feet around, placing them flat on the hardwood floor. But the moment I pushed myself up to stand, my knees buckled completely, and my legs gave out beneath me.

Fuck.

I clamped my hand onto the edge of the coffee table, and used it alongside William’s shoulder to steady myself. My legs were incredibly sore and wobbly, refusing to hold me up properly.

This is all William's fault. My jaw clenched as I looked down at the mess he had just made of me.

My skirt was pushed up past my hips, and my ruined blouse hung in torn shreds around my torso, the fabric completely split open from my collarbone down to my waist. And I could feel the fluid of my own release running slowly down the inside of my thighs.

I turned my head, preparing to lash out at him for the state he had left me in, but the words died in my throat. I found him sitting in an identical state of stillness. His eyes were completely unfocused, staring blankly at the floorboards as if he was still lost deep in his own thoughts.

Then, I noticed his posture. His shoulders were entirely relaxed, slumped in a way I had never seen before, and the color of his eyes was changing. The green and gold were switching back and forth at an alarming rate, the colors bleeding into one another around his pupils.

"William?" I called out, before I even realized it.

Immediately his name left my mouth, the gold won over the green, completely overtaking his irises. His head snapped up to look directly at me.

William did not say a single word. Instead, he slowly raised his right hand, his fingers trembling slightly as he pressed his fingertips against the open bite mark on his neck where I had just fed.

The strange behavior made a knot of unease form in my stomach. I forced my jelly-like legs to take a step closer. "William," I called out again.

I reached my hand out toward him, intending to touch his shoulder to get a reaction. But just before my fingers made contact, William’s hand shot out. He caught my wrist in a grip tight enough to bruise.

As his fingers clamped down, the gold in his eyes receded, changing back into his usual bright green. But he did not release my wrist, his gaze trailed slowly up from my captured hand, moving up my arm until his eyes locked onto my face. Then the green vanished entirely.

"William, are you okay?" I asked, an involuntary note of concern leaking into my tone as I stared at the tight lines around his mouth.

William stood up abruptly, releasing my wrist so suddenly that I stumbled back. "I'm fine," he muttered in a rough growl.

Without looking back at me, he turned and sped up the stairs of the loft and disappeared entirely from my line of sight into the upper bedroom.

I stood frozen by the couch, staring at the ruined cushions. I had never seen him so out of control, and his eyes had never fluctuated like that before.

A sudden, painful groan echoed through the apartment, cutting into my thoughts. It was followed immediately by a loud, sickening crack of bone from the upper floor.

The sound vibrated through the floor, sending a cold sense of terror straight down my spine.