Selene was exhausted.
Breaking your matebond, getting marked, and watching your pack be slaughtered while chained in silver will do that to you. Almost being executed was the cherry on top.
She didn't mean to fall back asleep. But her body had been through too much, lost too much blood, absorbed too much venom. Sleep took her whether she wanted it or not.
When she woke, she felt his satisfaction bleeding through the matebond. Smug. Pleased.
Like her sleeping in his arms meant he was winning.
You haven't won anything.
He rolled her off him and was on top of her before she could react. His lips pressed against hers, hard and demanding.
The jolt from the kiss hit her like lightning. Electricity crackling where their mouths met, buzzing through her nerve endings, trying to convince her body this was right. This was mate. This was home.
No.
Selene turned her head, breaking the kiss. "Get off me."
He didn't.
His eyes were gold again. Not gray. Not human. His wolf was at the surface, and the man underneath seemed very far away.
She'd seen wolves lose control before. Seen the way their eyes glazed, the way their movements became more animal than human. Theron looked like that now. Like something primal had taken the wheel and the king was just a passenger.
His hand slid up her thigh, under what remained of her dress. His finger pushed inside her without warning.
Selene's body jolted. She tried to twist away, to close her legs, but he held her down with his other hand. His weight pinned her to the mattress.
"Stop." Her voice came out steadier than she felt. "I don't want this."
Through the matebond, she felt something flicker. Something that wasn't hunger or possession.
Conflict.
Like two beings fighting for control of the same body, and the wrong one was winning.
But then it was gone, drowned under a wave of need so intense it nearly choked her. His wolf didn't care what she wanted. His wolf only knew one thing: mate. claim. mine.
His thumb found her clit and began circling. His tongue pushed into her mouth when she gasped. His finger stroked inside her, searching for the spot that would make her body betray her.
Logan. Think of Logan.
But Logan was dead. Logan was cold. Logan's mark had been ripped from her neck and replaced with this monster's claim.
Not a monster, some traitorous part of her whispered. His wolf. There's a difference.
She crushed that thought. There was no difference. Not to her. Not now.
"Submit," he growled against her mouth. Alpha tone. A command that vibrated through her bones and tried to make her body obey.
She didn't.
Selene had been mated to an alpha for six months. She knew how to resist the tone. It took everything she had, every ounce of willpower, but she held.
Something like surprise flickered through the matebond. Then frustration.
He sat up abruptly, pulling her with him. She found herself draped over his lap, her ass in the air, before she understood what was happening.
His hand came down hard.
The smack echoed through the room. Pain bloomed across her skin, sharp and hot.
"Submit," he commanded again.
"No."
Another smack. Harder.
His hand slid between her thighs from behind. His finger pushed into her again, rougher this time. Moving in and out while his other hand held her down across his lap.
She heard fabric tear. Felt cool air on her back as he ripped her dress open.
"You're mine," he snarled. The words were barely human. More growl than speech.
"No." Selene's voice was ice. "I'm not."
He spanked her again. His finger never stopped moving. His thumb found her clit and rubbed in relentless circles.
Through the matebond, his arousal crashed into her like a wave. Overwhelming. Unwanted. Her body responded despite her mind's screaming protest. She felt herself getting wet, and she hated herself for it.
He groaned when he smelled her arousal. A sound of pure animal satisfaction.
"Cum," he commanded. "Now."
No. No. No.
But the alpha tone combined with his touch, combined with the venom still in her system, combined with the matebond flooding her with his pleasure...
Her body obeyed.
She orgasmed with a choked cry of rage. Hating him. Hating her own flesh. Hating the moon goddess who thought this was acceptable.
And in that moment, through the matebond, she felt something she didn't expect.
Grief.
Not hers. His.
Buried so deep she almost missed it. A sorrow that tasted like ash and old wounds. Like he'd lost something too, once. Like he understood exactly what he was taking from her.
Then it was gone, swallowed by the wolf's hunger.
He moved at alpha speed. One second she was draped over his lap. The next she was on her back, his head between her thighs, his tongue sliding through her folds.
She tried to close her legs. He forced them apart.
She tried to twist away. He pinned her hips to the mattress.
His mouth worked her relentlessly. Tongue on her clit, then inside her, then back again. Noises escaped his throat. Growls and groans that vibrated against her sensitive flesh.
His arousal bled through the matebond, mixing with hers until she couldn't tell whose pleasure she was feeling. It was affecting her more than she wanted to admit. More than she would ever let him see.
She relaxed for a single second, trying to think, to plan.
He felt it through the matebond.
She used that moment to yank herself backward, scrambling toward the headboard.
He caught her ankle before she made it a foot. Dragged her back. Flipped her over his lap again and smacked her ass hard enough to leave a handprint.
"You can fight me," he growled in her ear. "Your body already knows who it belongs to."
My body is a traitor. My mind is still mine.
She heard him removing his pants. Felt him pull her into his lap, her breasts against his chest, her thighs spread over his.
She looked away. Refusing to give him anything. Refusing to watch.
He pressed against her entrance. Pushed inside.
She winced. His size stretched her, filled her, and the sensation mixed with the venom and the matebond until her nerve endings didn't know if they were feeling pain or pleasure.
He grabbed her hips and moved her. Up and down. Using her body while he thrust up into her from below.
His hand found her clit again. Rubbing. Relentless.
"You're going to beg me for this," he said against her ear. "Eventually. You're going to want it."
I will never want you. I will never forgive you.
Even if you weren't in control. Even if your wolf did this. You let it happen.
She turned her face away from him.
His finger pressed against her other entrance. She stiffened.
"Ride me," he growled. "Or I push this all the way in."
She looked at him with pure disgust.
He pushed his finger in anyway.
And through the matebond, she felt something crack. Just for a second. Just a flash.
Shame.
It was there and gone so fast she might have imagined it. But she didn't think she did.
He started moving his finger inside her, using it to rock her back and forth on his cock. His thumb never stopped on her clit.
Then her hips betrayed her. Started moving on their own. Riding him because her body had been commanded too many times, flooded with too much venom, overwhelmed by too much matebond bleed-through.
"That's it," he groaned. Satisfaction and something darker in his voice.
She looked away. Angry. Angry at him, at her body, at the gods, at Logan for dying and leaving her alone in this nightmare.
He pulled his finger out just long enough to smack her ass. Then pushed it back in.
"Cum," he commanded.
Her body obeyed.
She orgasmed hard. Harder than she ever had with Logan, and that made her want to scream. Her muscles clenched around him, and she felt him follow her over the edge, pumping into her with a groan that was almost a howl.
He didn't stop.
She tried to pull off him. He caught her halfway, still buried inside her.
She heard more fabric tear. Felt him rip away the last of her dress until she was completely bare. Exposed. Vulnerable.
He pulled her back down onto him and his mouth found her breast. His teeth scraped her nipple before he bit down, then sucked, hard.
She made a sound she hated herself for.
His finger returned to her ass. His thumb to her clit. He moved her again, and her body, her stupid traitorous body, started riding him.
She came again. Felt his satisfaction through the matebond and wanted to tear his throat out.
She tried to slow down. Stop.
He added another finger.
"Did I say you could stop?" he hissed against her ear.
And there, underneath the wolf's dominance, she heard something. A rasp in his voice that sounded almost like desperation. Like he was as trapped in this as she was. Like stopping wasn't something he could do.
She didn't know if that made it better or worse.
He kept going. Commanding her to cum when her body resisted. Forcing pleasure on her that she didn't want. The matebond made her feel every wave of his arousal, his satisfaction, his hunger.
By the third forced orgasm, she was barely conscious. By the fourth, she was riding him so hard her thighs burned.
"Submit," he commanded.
Her body finally broke.
She came so hard she squirted, something she'd never done in her life. A noise escaped her throat, high and desperate.
"Fuck," he snarled, his hips stuttering. He pumped into her, fangs extending.
Then his teeth were in her neck again. Right over the mark. Venom flooding her system for the second time.
The orgasm extended. Went on and on. One minute. Two. Three. Her body spasmed around him and she couldn't stop, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but feel.
Five minutes.
Through the matebond, she felt his wolf finally, finally begin to recede. Felt something human crawling back to the surface. Felt what might have been horror at the edges of his consciousness.
Her eyes fluttered closed.
The last thing she felt before the darkness took her was his arms wrapping around her. Holding her against his chest.
"I'm sorry."
She didn't know if she imagined it.
Everything went black.