CHAPTER TWO - The Alpha’s Unwanted Mate
1427 Words
Pain woke Hunter before sound did.
A slow, burning pulse throbbed beneath his ribs too steady, too heavy, too not his own.
It dragged him up from darkness like claws raking through water.
His eyes snapped open.
Stone ceiling.
Silver lanterns.
Rich furs spread across the floor.
A cold draft brushing his skin.
And—
Chains.
Thick iron shackles bound his wrists to a carved pillar behind him. His ankles were free, but that didn’t matter. The cuffs glowed faintly red, humming with spellwork. They wouldn’t break, not even if he ripped his hands off.
Hunter let out a shaky breath.
“Shit.”
“Awake.”
The voice came from across the room.
Hunter’s head lifted sharply.
Alpha Aric Thorn stood near the window, his back turned, armor removed. He wore only dark slacks and a sleeveless shirt, the fabric stretched tight over broad shoulders and a torso carved like a blade.
Even standing still, he radiated power. The air felt thick with it.
Hunter’s heart jumped—a reflex he wanted to punish himself for.
Aric turned slightly, silver eyes glinting in the dim light. “You took longer to wake than I expected.”
Hunter forced a smirk, even though his body shook. “Sorry to disappoint. Next time I’ll recover faster after being magically glued to a psychopath.”
Aric didn’t rise to the insult.
Annoyingly calm, he walked toward him.
Hunter tugged at the chains. They didn’t even rattle.
“Let me out,” Hunter said, voice flat.
“No.”
“Then kill me.”
“No.”
Hunter’s jaw clenched. “Then what the hell do you want?”
Aric stopped just in front of him. Not touching—just close enough that Hunter felt the Alpha’s heat bleed into him.
“The bond,” Aric said quietly. “We need to talk about it.”
Hunter swallowed. His throat was dry. His chest burned with an ache he didn’t understand.
“I don’t want a bond,” he spat. “Break it.”
“I can’t.”
The calm finality in Aric’s voice knocked the air out of Hunter.
“Can’t,” Hunter repeated slowly. “Or won’t?”
Aric lowered himself to a knee in front of him, eyes locking with Hunter’s. “There are some bonds that take two wolves to form. But there are others—older ones, forbidden ones—that only need blood. On a Blood Moon, with the right lineage…”
His gaze dropped to Hunter’s injured palm, now wrapped in bandages.
“You triggered it.”
Hunter shook his head. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You bled,” Aric said, voice lowered. “You touched me with your blood. That was enough.”
Hunter swallowed. Panic thrummed under his skin like electricity.
He hid it behind anger.
“Then un-trigger it.”
Aric exhaled. “Hunter… a blood-born mate bond doesn’t break. It only settles. Or kills.”
Hunter stilled.
“Kills?” he whispered.
“If one dies,” Aric said, “so does the other.”
The world tilted.
Hunter felt his pulse spike—and felt another pulse answer it, faintly, somewhere to his left.
His eyes snapped to Aric.
“You feel it too,” Aric said softly. “That’s the bond. Our bodies are… linked. Our breath. Our heart rate. Our pain.”
Hunter shook his head. “I don’t believe this. You’re lying.”
Aric didn’t argue.
Instead, he lifted his hand—and pressed two fingers to his own chest.
A sharp pain stabbed through Hunter’s ribs, fast and clean, as if someone had driven a needle into him.
Hunter hissed, jerking in the restraints. “Stop—stop it!”
Aric lowered his hand.
The pain faded instantly.
Hunter stared at him, horror pooling in his stomach.
“Believe me now?”
Hunter’s breathing turned ragged.
His voice dropped to a broken whisper.
“I don’t want this.”
Aric’s expression flickered—just for a second. A crack in the ice.
“I know,” he said quietly. “I don’t either.”
Silence.
Hunter looked away, throat burning.
He should hate Aric.
He did hate him.
But the bond pulsed between them like an unwanted heartbeat—warm, alive, ancient.
He felt Aric’s emotions like distant echoes.
Calm.
Concentrated.
And buried beneath—
Fear.
Hunter blinked.
“You’re scared,” he said before he could stop himself.
Aric stiffened. “The bond is new. It will settle.”
“You’re lying.”
Aric’s jaw flexed. “I am not scared of you.”
“No,” Hunter said, voice low. “You’re scared for yourself.”
Aric’s eyes snapped to him.
Hunter pushed. “You’re scared of what the bond will do to you.”
The Alpha stood abruptly.
“Enough,” Aric growled.
But it was too late, Hunter had seen it.
The flash of real, human fear in the strongest Alpha in the region.
Hunter’s voice softened with reluctant curiosity. “What happens to an Alpha who gets bound by this ritual?”
Aric didn’t answer.
Hunter waited.
Finally, Aric spoke, voice raw.
“Power becomes unstable,” he said. “Instinct becomes… heightened. The Alpha loses control unless the mate stays close.”
Hunter swallowed. “How close?”
Aric’s silver eyes met his.
“No more than a mile.”
Hunter stared at him. “You mean—”
“Yes,” Aric said. “You cannot leave this territory. If you run, I chase. If you hide, I find you.”
Hunter’s stomach dropped.
His fate was chained to the last man he wanted near him.
Aric turned and walked toward a wooden table. He picked up something small and metallic, then returned.
He knelt again.
Hunter flinched, expecting a weapon.
But Aric held… a key.
He unlocked the wrist shackles slowly, carefully, as if afraid Hunter would shatter.
Hunter rubbed his wrists. “Why release me?”
“Because you’re not a prisoner.”
Hunter snorted. “That’s funny coming from the man who chained me to a column.”
“I chained you because if you ran while unconscious, we both would have died,” Aric growled. “Use your head.”
Hunter stared at him.
Aric wasn’t denying it.
He was… explaining.
And Hunter hated how calm and logical it sounded.
Aric stood, muscles tensing. “Now that you’re awake, you can walk.”
“Where?” Hunter demanded.
Aric extended a hand to him—
not threatening, not forceful.
Just… offered.
“Come,” Aric said quietly. “There’s something you need to see.”
“I’m not touching you,” Hunter snapped.
Aric didn’t withdraw the hand. “The bond will pull. Walking will be easier if you steady yourself.”
“I’d rather crawl,” Hunter hissed.
Aric sighed. “Stubborn pup.”
Hunter froze.
Pup.
His father used to call him that.
His heart lurched painfully, and he shoved the memory away.
“I’m not your pup,” he said tightly.
“No,” Aric murmured. “But you are my mate now.”
Hunter’s blood ran cold.
He ignored Aric’s hand, pushed himself up, and nearly collapsed—because a wave of dizziness rolled through him.
Aric caught him before he hit the ground.
Hunter shoved at him with both hands. “Don’t touch me!”
Aric’s voice dropped to a calm growl. “If you fall, I feel it too. If you get hurt, I get hurt. Stop fighting every breath.”
Hunter trembled, teeth clenched.
Aric steadied him by the elbows, their faces inches apart.
Something shifted—
Something hot, magnetic, primal.
Hunter felt it.
Aric felt it.
The bond pulsed between them, alive and hungry.
And for a heartbeat, the world held its breath.
Hunter jerked away first.
“Show me whatever you need to,” he spat. “And then I’m finding a way to break this.”
Aric’s expression hardened—something like pain flashing quickly across it.
“There is no breaking,” he said quietly. “Only understanding.”
Hunter didn’t answer.
Aric moved to the door, opening it with a single push.
“Follow me,” he said.
Hunter hesitated.
But the bond tugged—
a gentle but undeniable pull toward the Alpha.
Gritting his teeth, Hunter stepped forward.
Because whether he agreed or not…
his fate was now tied to the monster he came to kill.
And the world outside that door was about to show him why.
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