Ruined By The Alpha

Chapter 9

The digits on the digital clock beside Carl’s bed felt like a countdown to my execution. Forty-five seconds. Thirty. My phone was still warm in my palm, the glowing text message a terrifying reminder that the beast outside the glass would not hesitate to destroy everything.

I looked down at Carl. His face was entirely peaceful in sleep, his breathing deep and even, one of his hands still loosely curled where mine had been just moments before. The guilt slicing through me was unendurable, but the terror was greater. If I stayed in this bed, Caine would shatter the glass. He would tear this room apart, force a physical confrontation with his own son, and expose my betrayal in the most violent way possible.

Carefully, agonizingly slowly, I slid my legs out from beneath the heavy duvet. The cool air of the room instantly hit my bare legs beneath Carl’s oversized black t-shirt. I didn't dare breathe as my feet touched the hardwood floor.

I looked up at the balcony doors. Standing in the pouring rain, the massive black wolf didn't move a single muscle. His liquid-gold eyes caught the faint light from the bathroom, tracking my every movement behind the glass wall. He was waiting.

I took a slow, silent step forward, then another, my heart hammering so violently against my ribs I was certain it would wake Carl. Every creak of the floorboards felt magnified a thousand times over. When I reached the glass, the sheer size of Caine’s wolf form became overwhelming. He was easily twice the size of a normal timber wolf, his broad shoulders dense with thick, rain-slicked muscle, his jaw massive enough to crush bone in a single bite.

With trembling fingers, I reached for the heavy silver lock of the balcony door.

Click.

The mechanism felt deafening in the quiet room. Before I could even slide the door open myself, a massive, fur-covered shoulder pushed against the glass. The door slid open with a soft hiss, and a violent gust of wind swept into the bedroom, bringing with it the scent of cold rain, wet earth, and the suffocating, terrifyingly familiar aroma of dark cedar and ozone.

Before I could utter a single breath, the massive black wolf lunged forward.

He didn't step inside. Instead, his powerful jaws wrapped gently but unyieldingly around the fabric of my shirt near my shoulder. With a sudden, explosive burst of strength, he yanked me backward, dragging me completely out of the bedroom and onto the stone tiles of the dark, rainy terrace.

The heavy glass door slid shut behind me, clicked into place by a gust of wind, cutting off the warmth of the bedroom entirely.

I let out a sharp, choked gasp as the freezing rain instantly drenched me, plastering Carl’s black t-shirt to my shivering skin. The stone beneath my bare feet was ice, but I didn't have time to process the cold.

In a fraction of a second, the massive black wolf shifted.

The sound of cracking bones and shifting muscle was a low, brutal symphony in the dark. The dark fur receded, expanding into the towering, bare-chested silhouette of Alpha Caine Black. He stood in the pouring rain, completely unfazed by the storm, his broad chest heaving slightly as his golden eyes burned down into me. Rainwater ran down the sharp planes of his jaw, dripping from his silver-flecked hair onto his thick shoulders.

He didn't give me a chance to speak. He closed the distance in a single step, his large, heavy hand slamming against the brick wall of the mansion right next to my head, pinning me against the cold stone.

"You kept me waiting, little wolf," Caine growled, his deep baritone a raw, feral rasp that was entirely beastly. He wrapped his other hand firmly around my waist, lifting me slightly off my feet until my hips were pressed flush against the hard, uncompromising heat of his thighs.

"Caine... please," I whimpered, my teeth chattering as the rain poured over us. I could see Carl's bed through the glass just three feet away. Carl was right there. If he turned over, if he opened his eyes, he would see his father holding me against the wall in the dark. "He's right there. Please let me go."

"He is a boy playing at a man's game," Caine whispered, his face dipping low, his lips brushing the freezing, wet skin of my cheek. His breath was a blistering contrast to the ice of the rain. "He thinks because he shouts at me in my lounge, he can claim what is mine? He thinks he can put you in his bed and lock me out?"

Caine’s hand traveled up my waist, his long, calloused fingers digging into the soft skin of my ribs before wrapping tightly around my throat. He didn't squeeze to hurt, but the grip was a total, unyielding assertion of absolute dominance. He tilted my head back, forcing me to look straight into the liquid gold of his eyes.

"Look at him, Madison," Caine commanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper against my ear.

I averted my eyes, tears mixing with the rain on my face. "No... please."

"Look at him," he growled darker, his grip on my throat tightening just enough to demand compliance.

I forced myself to look through the glass. Inside the warm, dry room, Carl turned over in his sleep, his arm reaching out blindly to the empty space where I had been lying moments ago. A soft moan of confusion escaped his lips in his sleep as his hand found only cold sheets.

"He is searching for you," Caine purred, his teeth grazing the sensitive, wet skin of my neck, right over my wildly racing pulse point. "He wants a Luna to sit on a throne with him. But you don't belong on a throne, do you, Madison? You belong right here. Pinned against a wall in the dark, shivering for your Alpha."

A violent jolt of electricity shot straight to my core at his words, a heavy, throbbing ache blossoming between my thighs despite the freezing storm. My wolf bared her soul to him, completely surrendering to the terrifying thrill of the danger. I was a traitor, a terrible, guilty creature, but as Caine’s heavy thigh wedged deeper between my knees, forcing my legs apart against the brick, I knew I was entirely his.

"Tell me who you belong to," Caine demanded, his lips brushing mine, teasing me with a agonizingly brief hint of his heat before pulling away. "Say it, Madison. Say it while he is sleeping right behind you."

"You," I choked out, a sob escaping my throat as my fingers curled into the wet, dense muscles of his chest, holding onto him for dear life. "I belong to you, Alpha. Please..."

Caine let out a deep, rumbling purr of absolute victory. He leaned in, his mouth finally slamming onto mine in a fierce, bruising kiss that tasted of rain, whiskey, and pure, unbridled ruin.