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MALIK

R ed lined my vision as my brother lifted his hand to touch my mate.

My mate.

Mine.

I’d known it the moment she walked into the formal meeting hall, head bowed and demure. Pliant and obedient. Submissive to another male.

My hands balled into trembling fists as familiar, volatile anger simmered in my veins.

I inhaled once, desperate to draw the scent of her, a tantalizing combination of honeysuckle and pear, into my lungs.

It consumed me, momentarily taming my burning need to punish every male in the room who looked at her with desire in their eyes.

I resisted the urge to storm off of the dais and rip my brother and alpha away from her. I could, and, Goddess, in that moment, I wanted to. I’d never wanted to harm him before. I’d devoted my entire life to protecting him— serving him.

Yet this female, a blessing from the Moon Goddess herself, eclipsed any sense of duty that I possessed for my brother. She was a stranger, but she was mine.

And Roman wanted to claim her for himself.

A low, rasping growl grumbled from my chest. Pain grated at my throat as a result, but I didn’t care. I needed to stop this.

My brother immediately responded to my raw warning, his fingers pausing mere centimeters from Aria Knox’s rosy cheeks. The muscles in his back went still, a predator that had been temporarily leashed.

I could scent little Aria’s relief. Saw her round, blue eyes wrench open to find me on the dais.

Yes. Search for me, little dove, I wanted to say. Wanted to beckon her to me, tuck her against my side and take her far, far away from this place.

This innate urge to protect and possess her increased tenfold when her gaze finally found me, drinking in the sight of me from bottom to top. The world stood still as her eyes traveled up my legs, grazed the length of my torso and studied my shoulders, and finally…

She stiffened, fear pooling in her blue eyes and permeating off of her in waves.

I almost flinched. Almost.

I’d been a fool to believe that my fate-given mate would be unaffected by my scarred face. I’d seen enough disgust and alarm on the faces of those I crossed on a daily basis to know that most found my appearance repulsive.

A bitter smile twisted on my lips. If you think I’m so ugly now, little dove, you should’ve seen me when the attack first happened.

I looked like a fuckin’ prince by comparison. Twenty-four years prior, the right side of my head had been reduced to a mangled mess of skin and muscle and bone…

I shouldn’t have felt the impact of her revulsion so profoundly. Should’ve been accustomed to the effects I had on others by now. Even so, my hands curled into fists, claws biting into the skin of my palms.

Malik? Roman’s voice filled my head through our mind-link—a bond shared between all werewolves of the same pack—demanding and impatient. The voice of an alpha who had been interrupted by a subordinate.

I fought the urge to growl again and instead willed a semblance of respect into my response. She’s mine.

Again, the muscles lining Roman’s back pulled taut, and he stood a bit straighter. My claim surprised him.

You’re certain? He challenged, apprehension lacing the words. At last, he turned his head to face me, as if he needed to see the truth in my eyes. A fate bond?

I nodded, just a subtle dip of my chin. I wouldn’t deign to clarify any further. To question my claim again would be seen as a sign of disrespect, punishable by death. Even an alpha would bend to the will of Fate. Even the strongest answered to a higher power.

A muscle in Roman’s jaw twitched, the only sign of his anger.

He couldn’t have anticipated this. Desperate for an heir and without a fated mate himself, he’d been planning to take Mason Knox’s daughter to bed since the moment he learned that the old man possessed a breedable daughter.

Then, when Aria walked through the formal meeting hall’s doors and Roman laid eyes on her, she became far more than a vessel for a son. Her beauty and innocence made her a prize for my brother. His desire had been so palpable, I could still taste it in the air, heady and thick.

The thought had the primal, lupine force nestled deep in my body prowling to life, incensed by the very thought of my brother taking what belonged to me. Again.

I ground my teeth together in a painful exercise of control.

Like flipping a switch, Roman conjured an easy smile on his lips and turned back to Aria. He lifted his hand to her face again. I tensed.

“It seems that you belong to another,” he mused, tracing a knuckle across her cheekbone.

Another deep, gravelly warning rose within me, although the sound was too hoarse. Too easily ignored. My body began to tremble.

Roman did not cease his taunting, pinching Aria’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and forcing her to hold his gaze as he continued. “A beautiful golden flower, bound to my most prized monster.”

Monster. The nickname Roman had bestowed on me when I was seven and he was six. When it became clear that our father favored an heir who could speak instead of his firstborn son. When I was informed that my value now rested in my ability to kill for the sake of the Intonat Nocte Pack. For Roman.

Aria’s eyes widened in alarm, but she daren’t jerk out of my brother’s hold.

I took a slow step forward, every muscle in my body humming with the urge to attack anything that threatened this female. As I moved, however, several of my brother’s guards shifted as well, prepared to intervene the moment my control snapped.

The energy in the room turned volatile, charged with a dangerous cocktail of pheromones and instinct that could ignite at any second.

Roman knew that he played a dangerous game, but he reveled in it. He wanted me to attack but knew that I wouldn’t. I owed him too much.

“How ironic,” Roman chuckled, finally dropping his hand from my little mate’s cheek. At last, he stepped away from her and addressed Mason Knox again. “You may return to your home. Your daughter is no longer your concern. ”

“But–” Mason began, turning his horror-filled eyes in my direction. As if this pathetic man could not fathom abandoning his daughter to a man like me, whereas moments before he’d been prepared to hand her to Roman to save his own neck.

As if he feared I might harm her. As if he thought I could ever raise a hand to the most precious gift I’d ever been granted…

I still didn’t entirely believe it. Could this be a mistake? A part of me worried that fate would snatch Aria away from me, seconds before I touched her with my corrupt hands. Surely such a pure, beautiful thing was not meant to be tainted by a man like me.

It had been years— decades —since I’d truly had something of my own. From the moment my father renounced my position as his heir, I’d spent every waking moment of my life serving him and my brother. Playing the role of fearsome general and guard dog. Blooding my hands so that they didn’t have to.

I’d lost so much in the last twenty four years. My inheritance. My father’s approval. My face. My voice.

I’d be damned if I lost my mate, too.

My brother turned away from Aria and Mason and walked back to the dais, seemingly bored of the situation.

“It seems our business is finished,” he drawled, an undercurrent of annoyance in his tone. “Malik, take your mate away, but be back in my office in an hour.”

I stiffened but didn’t bother responding with a nod or through our mind-link. Roman knew that I wouldn’t neglect his orders, even if it meant neglecting my little dove in the first hours of our meeting.

My eyes flickered back to Aria and her father, and something like pity clenched at my chest. She’d rushed away from the center of the room and thrown herself in her father’s arms, clutching at his shoulders .

Even though she whispered, I could still hear her soft pleas. “Dad. Dad, please. Please don’t make me stay. I want to go home with you. P-Please. ”

A frown etched across my brow. I hated the desperation in her voice. Not because I didn’t want her to feel the emotion. Rather, I hated the impact that it had on me.

I wasn’t used to… feeling.

I’d learned to shut that part of myself off a long time ago. To become the monster that my brother needed me to be, I had to.

Yet, in the span of minutes, Aria Knox had ripped me open and rendered me defenseless. My connection to this girl left me exposed to the sharp, intense emotions that I’d fought so hard to bury. Her emotions.

Roman chuckled, lowering himself into the throne of our ancestors. “I’m afraid you won’t be going anywhere. You see, my brother belongs by my side, and you belong by his side. I’m sure I don’t need to explain that fated pairings cannot function properly without one another?”

His words were cruel and insensitive, but not incorrect. Even if I wanted to allow Aria to return home with her father, our wolves wouldn’t survive that. From the moment our eyes locked, our lives were bound together.

She was mine, and I was hers.

For better or worse.

“My heart, I am so sorry,” Mason whispered, tenderly brushing his old, feeble hands through her honeyed locks. “I wish there was something I could do…”

My pulse quickened, and I fought the irrational, innate need to punish this old fool for merely suggesting that he wished to take Aria away from me. No longer willing or able to tether myself to the tight confines of propriety, I stalked off of the dais.

Enough.

Although Aria faced away from me, she stiffened as I drew closer, as if she also felt the distance between our bodies growing shorter and shorter. My blood simmered as I inhaled her scent, bathing in the honey sweetness.

When she turned to face me, she bravely placed herself between me and her father, undoubtedly able to sense that I hung on by a thread. Her blue eyes brimmed with tears and fear and something else… curiosity?

The tightness in my chest bordered on uncomfortable, and my heightened emotions made my head spin. As a result, when I reached her, I callously grabbed her wrist and tugged her away from her father.

I wanted her out of that throne room. Wanted her hidden from the lecherous eyes of every other unmated male in the room.

She gasped, a rogue tear slipping down her cheek as she looked back at her father in farewell. Yet, when I began to lead her away, she came willingly, of her own accord.

As if she knew that fighting was futile. Because, deep down, she knew that she belonged to me.

Mine.