Claimed By My Alpha Stepbrother.

12

AZRIEL

I crashed onto the floor the moment I entered my room, the door clicking shut behind me. My heart hammered against my chest. My vision blurred, my lungs refusing to work properly. Only one word kept ringing in my head.

Mate.

“Shut up,” I snarled, slamming my fist against the floor.

The beast didn’t care. It had been losing its f*****g mind from the second she walked into the house. Every second at that dinner table had been pure torture. Watching her pick at her food. Watching her tuck her hair behind her ear in frustration. Watching her lips wrap around the rim of her glass while waiting for me to slip.

I noticed every single thing, and it did too.

Mate.

I squeezed my eyes shut. It had taken everything in me to remain calm. If only she knew how close I’d come to dragging her into my lap the second her scent hit me. How every instinct inside me had screamed to sink my teeth into the side of her throat and mark her in front of everyone sitting at that damn table.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I could still feel it. The way she’d looked at me when our eyes met. Confused. Hurt. Curious. The beast had gone feral.

TAKE HER.

I couldn’t be more thankful she hadn’t taken my hand. Just imagining what would’ve happened if I’d come in contact with her skin. It had taken everything in me to laugh at her mother’s joke and listen to Dad talk about meaningless s**t no one cared about.

Then Seraphina’s leg brushed mine beneath the table for half a second, and the wolf lunged so violently inside my head that my vision blurred black for a moment.

Mate. Claim her. Mark her.

“Jesus f*****g Christ...” I dragged a hand through my hair and pushed myself up, stumbling toward the bathroom. The beast paced violently inside my head.

Let me out.

I ignored it.

I barely made it to the sink before another wave hit me. Images flashed through my mind so vividly they made me sick.

Seraphina beneath me, crying out my name as I thrust into her.

My teeth buried in her neck while her scent wrapped around me forever.

Mate.

I gripped the sink hard.

“No.”

She belongs to us.

“No.”

You left unfinished what was ours.

“I said no!”

My roar ripped through the bathroom walls. The wolf slammed against my control again, furious now. It hated restraint. Hated weakness. Hated me.

And maybe it had every reason to.

Because it was right.

I was a coward.

Two years ago, I ran. Left her sleeping in my bed and disappeared before dawn because I was terrified of what she was. I could've said goodbye at least before leaving for the mission.

Mate.

I had been terrified because I didn’t know what that meant. All I knew was that monsters like me weren’t worthy of beautiful, delicate souls like her. We destroyed everything we touched. Everything we held dear.

Bogota was proof enough.

It had all been my fault, and now I would destroy someone else simply because I couldn’t control my hunger for her.

What happened that night was a mistake. With how young she was, I should've restrained myself.

Each day during my mission, I kept hating myself because I'd f****d her up. She deserved to have been with someone pure and...human.

I’d tried to purge her from my system. Really tried. There were countless other women in the world, but I couldn’t even bring myself to touch them. They all repulsed me. My body craved only one jasmine-scented girl.

One I wasn’t worthy enough to have.

The wolf roared so loudly my head split with pain.

TAKE HER.

The command slammed into me so hard my knees buckled. Pain erupted through my hands. I looked down just as my fingers elongated, bones cracking while thick black claws tore through my skin.

“Fuck.” I gripped the sink harder. “Not now. Not f*****g now.”

I clenched my jaw so tightly pain shot through my skull. I couldn’t lose control here. Not with her a few rooms away. Not with her scent filling every corner of this house.

God.

The beast didn’t listen. It loved every trace of her scent. Wanted more of it. More of her.

Claim her.

Mark her.

Fill her with our scent until no male dares look at her again.

My breathing grew rougher, control slipping little by little. I hated it. Hated the way my body reacted to her. The way one glance from her nearly destroyed every ounce of control I’d spent years building.

The way I couldn’t stop thinking about her soft gasps against my mouth. My hand tangled in her hair while she whispered my name like a prayer.

MATE. MATE. MATE.

I slammed my head against the wall hard enough to crack the drywall.

“Shut the f**k up,” I snarled, banging my head again and again. Anything to drown the voice out.

It didn’t help.

TAKE HER. CLAIM HER. MATE.

“Get off me!” I screamed.

I grabbed the faucet and yanked too hard. It tore free instantly. Cold water burst out, splashing across my face, drenching me within seconds.

It did nothing to ease the heat.

It was getting harder to keep the wolf under control, and it had only gotten worse after Bogota. Usually, it was easy enough to keep it in check. I just had to avoid getting emotional. Suppress everything, and it stayed dormant.

But it wasn’t listening now.

Not after I’d nearly bitten into her during dinner.

I didn’t understand how I’d managed to stay calm, but I knew I was paying for it now.

I staggered backward and slammed into the mirror. Glass shattered everywhere, slicing into my skin. I didn’t bother reacting. My body would do exactly what a monster’s body did.

Heal.

Sure enough, the cuts sealed almost immediately.

I laughed, the sound tearing out of me in a low, animalistic growl.

“That’s right,” I muttered. “That’s who you are. A monster who couldn’t even protect his team. She’s better off without you. Get any closer to her and you’ll never forgive yourself.”

My reflection stared back at me in fractured pieces. My light brown eyes had darkened, feral and inhuman.

“Azriel?”

Dad’s voice came through the door. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was actually concerned about me. More likely, he was worried about his experiment.

“Everything alright, son?”

“Fine, Dad.” I forced my voice to be normal. Boring. “Just dropped a glass. Clumsy.”

Silence followed.

I could picture him standing on the other side of the door, listening for any sign that I was about to go berserk.

“Need help cleaning up?”

See. He knew what I was that episodes like this didn't shake him. I was more worried about Celeste and Seraphina hearing me. No one else could see the abomination I was.

“No,” I snapped, then sighed and lowered my voice. “Everything’s good, Dad. I’m just... tired. It’s been a long day. I’ll handle it.”

There was a brief silence.

“Alright then,” he finally said. “Get some rest. We’ll talk in the morning. About your... condition.”

I didn’t answer. I waited until his footsteps faded before finally letting go just enough to give the beast some freedom—but not enough to surrender control completely.

My spine arched, bones popping and breaking. Fur burst through my skin in coarse black patches. My jaw lengthened, teeth sharpening as the taste of copper flooded my mouth.

I dropped to all fours.

No longer a man. Not quite a beast.

I paced the perimeter of my room.

MATE. MATE. MATE.

“She’s not yours,” I growled. “She was never yours. You left her. You had to leave her.”

***

Two hours later, I was finally starting to calm down when I smelled her.

She was getting closer to my room.

I held my breath.

Please just pass. Please just—

She didn’t.

Instead, she stopped in front of my door and knocked.

The beast growled.

MINE.