Unbreakable Hybrid: The Alpha's Silent Vow

The Tasting of Defiance

Sierra’s sanity had started to crumble on the second night in the subterranean darkness. All the toxic herb-derived suppressants that her system had carried for the last seven days were gone from her bloodstream, leaving her hybrid anatomy exposed, raw and completely vulnerable. The subzero chill from the stone floor beneath her seemed to register no more; she was burning alive from the inside out in a volatile, agony-fuelled fever induced by the unfulfilled mate-bond.

Her throat felt like a burning desert wasteland, and her razor-sharp fangs extended, aching for the only thing that would satisfy the hungry, predatory void tearing through her soul-Kaelen’s blood.

She took each ragged breath she drew to an agony of cedar and fresh rain-his scent bled through the iron door, heavy and thick, and drove her inner beast to claw at the insides of her skull. The iron bolts grumbled on the heavy iron door, and a sharp clink echoed through the stone room when they were thrown back. Sierra scrambled backwards on her hands and knees, long hair cascading into her face as the door was shoved open. The torchlight from the corridor ahead spilt into the cell, casting a hulking, intimidating silhouette.

Kaelen walked in-or more like stalked-filling the confined space with his sheer, predator-level mass.

He had removed his military jacket; it now lay on the rough, stone table. He wore nothing but a pair of low-slung, black trousers. His wide shoulders, broad jaw, and mouth-watering, scarred chest heaved with each breath as his muscular abs contracted with a sheen of sweat that glistened under the flickering flame.

His amber eyes glowed with an almost violent intensity as they locked onto her shivering form. “Twenty-four hours left, Sierra,” Kaelen rumbled low and rough against the stone walls. “The High Council’s executioners are sharpening their silver blades at my gates.

And yet, you haven’t uttered a single syllable about your coven.”

Sierra forced herself to sit upright, leaning her aching back against the cool stone. She clamped her lips down on her inner cheek to hide the protruding length of her fangs, but the sweet, metallic tang of her own blood made the heat in her throat flare. “I told you the truth,” she rasped, her voice choked and barely audible. “There is no coven.

There are no spies.

I was an abandoned pup-a stray left in your dirt. If you want a corpse to give to Vance, then just kill me yourself.” A low, guttural growl rumbled through Kaelen’s chest.

He took two slow, deliberate, predatory steps towards her, dropping to his knees in front of her. His blazing proximity heated her from the inside out and contracted the muscles of her lower abdomen into a painful, needy ache. An invisible, turgid cord around her mind tightened, pulling her towards him like a puppet on a string.

“You think I am going to let you take the easy way out?”

Kaelen rasped, leaning his head downwards until the edge of his sharp jawline was barely inches from hers. He inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring as his senses zeroed in on her perspiration and the sweet, intoxicating musky aroma of her hungering need. “Look at you. Your eyes are pulsing red.

Your body is screaming for what it needs.”

Kaelen’s calloused hand darted out before she could pull away, grabbing hold of her chin, his fingers iron as he forced her mouth open. His thumb slid up across her upper lip, and it instantly hooked on the sharp edge of her fangs. A single drop of dark, hot blood welled on his thumb as the pointed fangs pierced his skin.

A soft, choked whimper tore through Sierra, her eyes dilating to pools of almost pure black. The proximity of his blood hit her senses like a bolt of pure electricity. “You’re starving, little hybrid,” Kaelen murmured, his voice deepening into a husky, seductive drawl that sent an unwelcome heat coiling between her trembling thighs.

He did not move his hand from her chin; instead, he deliberately swiped the blood across her swollen lower lip with his thumb.

“You want to sink these wicked little teeth into my neck. You want to drain me until your fever breaks.” “Get… out,” Sierra choked out, her hands flying up to grip his thick wrist and pushing his hand away, even as her tongue inevitably flicked out to lick the trace of his blood from her lips. The sheer richness and power of his Alpha blood was pure ecstasy; the dominant energy within it temporarily cooled the fires in her veins.

It made her want more.

She wanted to crawl into his lap and rip his throat out and consume him whole. “Taste it,” Kaelen commanded, a dark, unholy pleasure coloring his voice as he watched her battle herself. He leaned in further, pressing the hard, naked expanse of his chest ruthlessly against her front, crushing her against the wall.

“Accept what you are. Accept that your body belongs to the Supreme Commander. Give me the names of the traitors, and I will let you gorge yourself on my veins tonight.”

“No!”

Sierra screamed, an unexpected burst of hybrid adrenaline surging through her body as she tore her face free of his grip and beat her fists against his scarred chest. “I will not be your pet monster, Kaelen! I will not buy my life with lies just to satisfy your ego!” Kaelen’s amber eyes flared with blinding, pure fury.

The rejection pulsed through the golden, unseen cord connecting them, hitting his beast with a visceral shock.

In a single, terrifying flash of Alpha speed, he grabbed her by both shoulders and pressed her firmly flat against the stone floor. He straddled her hips, dropping to all fours, pinning her to the cold surface under his weight, the undeniable hardness of his length pressing painfully against the outer part of her thigh through the cloth of his trousers. “You still think you have a choice,” Kaelen snarled inches from her face, his chest heaving with the exertion of his move.

“You think this little display of defiance makes you strong?

Tomorrow at midnight, Vance and his army will cross that threshold. If you haven’t broken by then, I will personally rewrite your submission in flesh.”

He released her shoulders, standing to his full, impressive height in the middle of the dark cell, looking down at her shaking form, jaw rigid, with the same cold, detached expression as he adjusted the waistband of his pants.

“Enjoy the dark while it lasts, Sierra,” Kaelen stated, his voice flat, utterly devoid of warmth. “Because tomorrow night, your countdown officially hits zero.”