The Mate He Shouldn’t Have Claimed

Chapter 4: I Never Wanted This

[Seraphina's POV]

I despised the way he could so easily get under my skin. I despised that despite me struggling every muscle in my body to move him away, the hot, unyielding bond between us thrummed like an electric wire, too strong to be ignored. I had a mate. A mafia alpha.

The last thing I'd ever wished to be owned by. But there I was—my heart in conflict between rebellion and an inexplicable pull that could crush the walls I'd so fiercely constructed. Viktor's hold on my arm, tugging me toward him, and no matter how I fought it, my body had other plans. It starved him. Needed him. The connection between us—his brand on me—was more than physical. It was something within me, beyond my control.

I could feel the truth of it every time that he touched me, every time his eyes fixed on me like branding. But I wasn't going to lose to him. I stepped back, my eyes flashing with rage.

"You don't get to control me," I snarled, my voice shaking with the effort of holding my strength. "You don't get to just walk into my life and tell me that I am yours, like some.....some thing you possess."

Viktor didn't hesitate. He didn't step back. If anything, the flame burning in his eyes only grew stronger. "You are mine, whether you want it or not, sweetheart." His voice was dark, but there was something different about it now—something more menacing, something gentler.

"And you'll learn to live with that. It's not all about the connection we share. It's about your protection, your destiny. You think you can shield yourself from the world that I was born into? What am I capable of?"

I weighed the burden of his words. The shadows that surrounded him. The world he'd grown up in wasn't just populated with bad men—it was populated with savage predators who'd do whatever it took to destroy anyone who was in their way. And I wasn't foolish enough to believe that I could manage that myself. But I wasn't going to let him own me, either.

"I don't need your protection," I said to him, gritting my jaw in defiance, even though my heart skipped a frightened beat. "I never did. I'm not some maiden to be rescued because you happen to have a title and a horde of blood-hungry men riding behind you. I'm more capable than you give me credit for."

Viktor's eyes gentled a little, but the fire did not go out in their depths. He came closer, and this time I didn't retreat. His hand went up to brush back a lock of hair behind my ear, his fingers nearly kind. It was the only kindness in him.

"Think you're tougher than me?" he snarled, his voice a challenge, almost. "Think you're going to get along just fine in this world by yourself? Think your pack's going to protect you when they discover what you've done?"

The words s***h like a punch. I hadn't considered that—the repercussions of what Viktor and I had done. I had disobeyed the one thing my pack had authority over all others: never cross the Morettis. We were meant to be enemies, competitors even. And now? Now I was pregnant with his child. The very blood of the Moretti mafia. I swallowed the fear rising up to choke me.

"I never wanted this. I never wanted you."

His face did not alter, but his eyes flickered—something that looked like regret. It doesn't make any difference what you want," he told me in a low voice. "What matters is what we need. And we need each other, whether you will admit it or not." I shook my head violently back and forth.

"I don't need you. I don't need any of this."

"So why do you feel it?" he whispered, his fingers tracing the line of my face, his thumb along the curve of my jaw. "Why do you feel this pull? This affection? It's not some mistake, mi amor. The moon has selected us."

I needed to yell at him. I needed to toss him out of my apartment and never see him again. But the reality—detested as I was by it—could not be denied. I could feel it. The bond. The pull. The need for him. I braced myself and attempted to resist, stepping back and shaking my head.

"You don't get it," I breathed, to myself. "I can't do this. I won't be your puppet in your mini-mafia game. I won't."

Viktor's face darkened again, but there was something almost. drained in his eyes.

"This isn't a game, little wolf. This is my life. This is me. And I'm not asking you to be a pawn. I'm asking you to be my partner. I'm asking you to remain with me. To create something real."

"Real?" I laughed, stepping back further, palms up in frustration. "How is anything about any of this real? You're a mafia king. Your life is one of deception, betrayals, and killings. What could possibly make me have to offer that would make this real?"

He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, and for some time, a flicker in his eyes, which caught my attention, flared with surprise from my side. Weakness. A glimpse of the man-not-a-monster who was wounded within. A man who had lost something perhaps what he lost was me.

"I lost everything I ever loved," Viktor said while holding his voice quiet by then yet still heavy with that commanding weight, "and when I took you, when I claimed you, I thought I could keep you safe from the chaos that surrounds me. From the life I live."

How I wanted to believe him. How I wanted to believe that he wasn't the cold, brutal alpha I had always envisaged. But how was he ever to expect me to believe him if everything he touched turned to dust?

"You ask too much from me," I said, voice rising. "You ask me to abandon everything I've ever known for a terrifying new world I can hardly even claim to understand. And why? To live in your shadow? To be just another name on your list of conquests?"

Viktor's expression turned brisk again; he narrowed his eyes.

"You are not just the trophy of which the world speaks, mi amor. You are my future; you are my family; and in everything you do, you will see it; because not only do you carry my child, but also my inheritance".

The stings of what he said slapped me in the face, and I recoiled and nearly stumbled backwards. Legacy? Did he really think of me that way-a mere vessel for his family, just a pawn in his game?

"Family," I eased out almost so low that anyone could hardly hear.

Viktor's gaze softened, indicating that he should take a step towards me and take my hand. He stopped, as if something deep within him was holding him back.

"I'll give you some time," he panted. "But I'm not losing you. Not now, not ever."

Then he was gone, but his presence lingered all long in the silent room after he left through the door. I had never felt that dense silence around me. It was the calm before the storm, the silence just about to turn into the madness I knew was coming. But even in silence, there was no avoiding the truth that was haunting me. Regardless of how hard I struggled against it, I was his. And I was soon to discover what that meant.