Mated To The Supreme Alpha King

From Frying Pan To The Fire

Celine

Warmth. Soft, luxurious warmth cradles my body, rich bedsheets sliding against my bare skin like silk woven from sunlight. The scent of clean linen and smoldering cedar wraps around me.

I jerk upright, my heart slamming into my throat. This isn’t the cell. I don't see damp stones, or iron bars. I don't see a blood-crusted floor.

Moonlight spills through tall arched windows, painting silver across a massive four-poster bed draped in midnight-blue velvet.

The room is enormous with vaulted ceilings, a crackling fireplace big enough to stand in, and walls lined with ancient tapestries depicting wolves beneath a crown of thorns and stars.

My hands fly to my neck. The mating mark throbs, tender and hot, a perfect circle of raised skin where his fangs sank in.

The memory floods back in a rush: the forest, the fall, golden eyes, the bond snapping tight between us, and then his teeth claiming me as the world dissolved into his growled Mine.

I’m in the Alpha King’s stronghold. Panic claws up my spine. I scramble to the edge of the bed, my bare feet hitting plush fur rugs.

My torn nightgown from the escape is gone; I’m wearing a soft oversized shirt that smells faintly of honey, cinnamon, and him. It falls to mid-thigh, the sleeves swallowing my hands.

Wait… who undressed me to change my ruined clothes? Oh, moon goddess. Was it him?

My eyes dart to the door across the room. It's made of heavy oak bound in iron, and I can't see a visible lock from this side.

A single guard’s silhouette stands beyond the narrow window slit beside it. I’m not a prisoner in a cell anymore. But am I free?

My wolf stirs lazily inside me, stretching with smug satisfaction. ‘Mate brought us home,’ she hums, utterly content. ‘We are safe, warm and his.’

Unbelievable! I want to snarl at her. We don’t know him. We don’t know what he wants. We were running for our life, accused of murder, and now we’re marked and tucked into the Supreme Alpha’s bed like a rescued prize.

I'm still arguing with her when the door pushes open and a beautiful girl my age with a poised stride steps in. She stops short upon seeing me awake, her pretty features twisting into a scrawl.

“So it's really true,” she sneers, her voice dripping with venom as she slams the door shut behind her, the sound echoing through the tense air.

Instinct takes over, and I recoil, taking a wary step back, my eyes locked on hers as if anticipating a predator's pounce.

She starts advancing on me. “He brought you to the Supreme Stronghold, a stray wolf who murdered her own mother. He brought you into his bed, and….” she gasps audibly when she sees the bite marks on my neck.

“He claimed you already? I've been here for years, begging for his attention, doing as he says. But he takes a look at a stray murderer and brings her home?”

Her eyes flash with a mix of rage and desperation as she takes another step closer, her voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "You think you're special, don't you? You think you're worthy of his claim just because he sank his teeth into you? Newsflash, killer wolf: you're nothing but a plaything. And playthings get discarded."

“I don't even know who you are.” I tell her, scanning the room for an object with which to defend myself just in case she decides to go on the offensive.

“I’m Sage Lara's daughter, the Supreme Matriarch of the kingdom. She has been priming me for years for when Supreme Alpha Kaine finally decides to pick my mate. You've just usurped my destiny.” Her voice is a low deadly hiss, each word dripping with entitlement and fury.

With a feral snarl, she lunges herself at me, bridging the distance between us with a deadly grace. I dodge just in time, snatching the table lamp as a makeshift shield. Her claws s***h through the air, inches from my face, and I brandish the lamp like a talisman against her wrath.

The door explodes open, and Alpha Kaine strode in, his presence commanding the room. "What. Is. Going. On. Here?" he growls, his voice a low, menacing rumble that freezes us both in place.

She is the first to regain her composure. She snatches the lamp from me, grinning with innocence as she turns to face Kaine.

"I was just trying to tend to her wounds," she says, her voice dripping with false sincerity, "but your unruly, violent mate attacked me before I could even examine them."

Alpha Kaine's gaze narrows, his eyes flicking between us. "Is that so?" he says, his voice low and deadly. "Because it looked like you were trying to rip her throat out, Lilith."

Lilith's smile falters for a split second before she recovers, turning away from me and smoothing down her dress. "Of course not, my Alpha. I'm a healer, not a threat. Ask her yourself, she'll tell you I was just trying to help."

Kaine's eyes snap to me, piercing and intense. I can almost feel the weight of his gaze, daring me to contradict Lilith's story.

But I’m no coward. My own father looked me in the eye and named me my mother's killer. The man I thought would claim me banished me without a second glance.

If I keep shrinking, keep hiding, they win. I’ve let fear rule me long enough.

I pull my shoulders back, lift my chin, and meet her gaze. “That’s a—”

Lilith cuts me off, her voice suddenly dripping with syrupy concern. “Shall I draw your bath, Supreme Alpha? It's so cold, and you always look better after your morning bath.” She tilts her head, all wide-eyed innocence, as if she hadn’t just hissed threats sharp enough to draw blood moments ago.

The shift is so abrupt it sets my teeth on edge. Sweetness like that from her mouth feels more dangerous than her snarls ever did.

“Draw a bath for the Supreme Luna instead,” Kaine says, his deep voice carrying effortless command as he steps closer. “I want everyone to see their new Supreme Luna.”

The words ring through the room like a royal decree. Supreme Luna. I forget how to breathe.

The title settles over me, heavy and surreal, like a crown I never asked for.

Lilith’s sweet mask flickers. For a split second, her eyes flash with something venomous, and I catch the tight clench of her fist as she hides it behind her back.

Her knuckles whiten.

“I… just remembered,” she starts, her voice still honeyed but strained now, “my mother needs me back immediately. We’re preparing—”

“Your mother left at dawn for the peace-keeping summit between IronFang and FrostFang,” Kaine cuts in smoothly, not even glancing at her. His golden eyes stay fixed on me, warm and possessive. “She won’t need you for hours. Don’t keep your Luna waiting.”

The dismissal is quiet, final, laced with the kind of authority that makes the air itself still.

Lilith’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. She drops into a curtsey so low it borders on mockery, her eyes lowered to the floor.

“Of course, my king,” she murmurs, the sweetness curdling at the edges. “Right away.”

She turns and glides toward the adjoining bathroom, her long skirts whispering over the marble tiles like a snake through grass. The door closes behind her with a soft, deliberate click.

Kaine crosses the room in five powerful strides, each one eating the space between us until my back meets the cold stone wall with a soft thud.

He doesn’t touch me yet, but he cages me there, one hand planting beside my head, the other gripping my chin and tilting it up so I have nowhere to look but into those burning golden eyes.

His body heat rolls over me, spiced honey and raw power, the mating mark on my neck flaring in answer.

“My wolf wanted you the second he caught your scent,” his voice is edged with something dangerous, and I shrink into the wall. “He sank his teeth in before I could even think to stop him. Don’t mistake that for love, little mate. I’m not some lovesick boy falling at your feet.”

His thumb presses harder against my jaw, to remind me how easily he could break me.

“I couldn’t reject the supreme bond,” he continues, leaning in until his lips brush the shell of my ear. “Not without killing you. And I don’t let what’s mine die.”

I knew it, I leaped from the frying pan into the fire.