Marked By The Mafia Alpha

Chapter 2 – The Alpha’s Mistake

Dario’s POV

I should’ve walked away the moment I saw her.

Not because I didn’t want her,no. That was the problem.

I wanted her too much.

The second our eyes met, the bond slammed into me like a loaded bullet straight to the chest. My wolf howled. My blood rioted. Every instinct I’ve ever buried screamed the same word:

Mate.

I’ve survived three assassination attempts, two coups, and a lifetime under the Cruz name.

But none of that prepared me for her.

Arielle.

Eighteen. Barely grown. Already dangerous.

They dressed her like a doll shackled, silent, trying to hide her fire. But I saw it. The storm behind her eyes. The refusal to break.

My wolf didn’t just want her.

It needed her.

And that’s why I had to reject her.

Because if I claimed her—if I let that bond fully lock into place she’d be tied to me forever.

And forever in my world means blood, betrayal, and eventually, a grave.

After the auction, I drove alone.

I needed space. Needed silence. But the bond pulsed inside me like poison. I could feel her pain, her confusion. Her fury.

She thought I didn’t want her.

She was wrong.

I wanted her so badly, it terrified me.

I slammed a fist into the dashboard of the armored car. The plastic cracked under my knuckles.

“Stupid, stupid,” I muttered.

The bloodline rumors had circulated for years. A girl born under a cursed moon. Blood tied to the old magic. Supposedly hunted, supposedly extinct. Until now.

Until her.

And if even half the rumors were true…

She could ruin me.

She could save me.

She could kill me.

I couldn’t afford to find out which.

Back at the compound, I pulled up her records again.

Fake names. Disappearing guardians. Relocated every six months. Someone had been hiding her since birth.

Why?

What were they afraid she’d become?

Or even worse what were they hoping she would become?

I stared at the grainy photo of her in the system. It didn’t do her justice. It didn’t show the way her eyes cut through bullshit. The way her chin tilted in defiance. The way she looked at me when I told her she meant nothing.

I felt that look in my spine.

She didn’t beg.

She didn’t cry.

She looked at me like she wanted to set my world on fire.

By the time I returned to her room that night, I expected fear.

What I found was resistance.

She was standing, arms folded, eyes locked on me like she’d been waiting for a fight.

“You rejected me,” she said.

I heard the edge in her voice. I also heard the hurt buried beneath it.

My jaw clenched.

“I did.”

She stepped forward. “Then why are you here?”

Because I couldn’t stay away. Because my control was paper-thin. Because the scent of her haunted me through every corridor of this compound.

“Because I don’t believe in fate,” I lied.

Her lip curled. “That’s rich coming from an Alpha with a wolf inside him. You think you get to out-think the bond?”

I stepped closer. Too close.

Her breath hitched.

So did mine.

“Do you know what you are?” I asked.

“I’m the girl you bought like property.”

“No,” I said, voice low. “You’re something much worse.”

I could smell it on her,ancient power, raw and unformed. Her blood wasn’t just rare. It was forbidden.

“You’re not just a mate,” I said, staring into her. “You’re a weapon.”

Her jaw tightened. “Good. Because I’m done being anyone’s victim.”

She meant it.

And damn me,I admired her for it.

Even though it would be the death of me.

Before I left, I reached for the door then stopped.

“You’ll be assigned a sparring trainer tomorrow,” I said. “Don’t hold back. I want to see exactly what they sold me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re scared of what I’ll become, huh?”

I stared at her a moment longer, then gave the smallest, most dangerous smile I owned.

“No. I’m scared you already are.”