Bound by the Alpha’s Shadow

The Mother

Aria’s POV:

Victoria Vale stepped into the penthouse like she owned the air itself. Her presence sucked all the warmth out of the room. I was still catching my breath against the window, Lucian’s c*m slowly dripping down my thighs, my dress barely pulled back into place. There was no hiding what we had been doing.

She took one look at me and her dark eyes filled with pure contempt. “So this is the little payment my son brought home. How quaint.”

Lucian pulled me behind him slightly, his hand firm on my waist. “Mother. You should have called first.”

Victoria waved a hand like she was swatting away an insect. “Why? So you could hide your new toy? I heard all about the contract. Two million for a year between her legs. Really, Lucian? You could have had any woman from our circle. Instead you choose this… nobody.”

My face burned but I lifted my chin. “I’m standing right here.”

She smiled coldly. “Yes, you are. For now.”

Lucian’s grip tightened on me. “Aria stays. The contract is signed. End of discussion.”

Victoria walked closer, studying me like I was something stuck to her expensive heel. “She will never fit into our world. Look at her. Soft. Ordinary. When the full moon comes and your true nature rises, she will run screaming. Or break. And then what? You will come crawling back to the family like you always do.”

I felt Lucian tense. His body was still radiating heat from f*****g me minutes earlier. Victoria’s words clearly struck a nerve.

She turned to leave but paused at the elevator. “Bring her to the estate this weekend. The pack wants to meet the new addition. Let us see how long she lasts under real pressure.”

The doors closed behind her. The silence that followed felt heavy.

Lucian spun me around and kissed me hard, almost angrily. His hands roamed over my body like he needed to remind himself I was still there. He lifted me onto the dining table, shoved my dress up, and buried himself inside me in one rough thrust.

“She does not decide anything,” he growled as he f****d me deep and fast. The table creaked under us. “You are mine, Aria. No one takes you from me.”

I moaned loudly, legs wrapped around his waist as he pounded into me. The anger in his thrusts only made it hotter. He f****d me like he was punishing the world through my body. I came hard around him, nails digging into his back. He followed soon after, knot swelling and locking us together as he filled me again.

We stayed tied like that for a long time. His forehead pressed against mine, breathing rough.

Later that night, after another round in his bed where he took me slow and deep from behind, I finally asked the question burning in my mind.

“Did you really set up my brother’s debt?”

Lucian went quiet for a moment. His fingers traced circles on my hip. “The debt was real. Your brother is reckless and he dug his own grave. But… I made sure the hole was deeper once I saw you. I wanted you, Aria. From the first photo I laid eyes on. The wolf inside me recognized you immediately.”

My stomach twisted even as fresh heat pooled between my legs. “So everything was a lie?”

“Not everything,” he said, voice low. “The way your body responds to me is real. The way you soak my c**k every time I touch you is real.”

He rolled me onto my back and slid inside me again, slower this time. We f****d like that for a long while, eyes locked, until I came again, whimpering his name.

The next morning Renata was back, all polished professionalism on the surface. She handed me a new schedule and more clothes. But I caught the way her eyes lingered on the marks Lucian had left on my neck. There was something ugly behind her perfect smile.

“Mr. Vale wants you ready for the estate this weekend,” she said. “The pack gatherings can be… intense. Especially during the approach to the full moon.”

She left me with a stack of documents about “expected behavior.” Most of it was about pleasing Lucian in every possible way.

I spent the afternoon trying to reach Simone and Jax. Both lines went straight to voicemail. When I mentioned it to Lucian later, he just pulled me onto his lap and distracted me with his fingers between my legs until I forgot my own name.

But that evening, as we were getting ready for another one of his business dinners, my phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number.

“Victoria is planning something for the weekend. Watch your back. And ask Lucian why Renata hates you so much.”

I deleted it quickly. But the seed of doubt was growing.

At the dinner, Lucian kept me close, his hand on my thigh under the table the whole time. One of the older men at the table kept glancing at me with interest. Lucian noticed. His fingers dug into my skin hard enough to bruise.

When we got back to the penthouse, his mood was dark and dangerous. He barely got the door closed before he had me on my knees, c**k down my throat. He f****d my mouth until tears ran down my cheeks, then bent me over the couch and took me from behind so hard I saw stars.

Right as his knot locked us together and I was coming again, shaking and dripping, the elevator dinged.

Victoria walked in without knocking, this time with Renata right beside her.

“Well,” Victoria said, eyes cold as she took in the sight of us. “Interrupting something important, are we?”

Lucian stayed buried inside me, knot still swollen, shielding my body with his as much as he could. “What do you want, Mother?”

Victoria smiled thinly. “Just making sure the new addition understands her place before the pack gathering. Renata here has been kind enough to prepare a few… lessons for her.”

Renata’s eyes met mine over Lucian’s shoulder. There was pure venom in them.

And in that moment, with Lucian’s c*m still leaking out of me and his knot holding us together, I realized this weekend at the estate was going to be far more dangerous than I ever imagined.

Especially when my phone vibrated silently on the floor with another unknown message.

This one had a photo attached.

It was Simone. Tied up. Looking terrified.

The text underneath read:

“Come alone or she dies. Midnight. The old warehouse district.”

My blood ran cold.