The Alpha's Daydream ✔️

Chapter 13

2204 words

"Malachi!"
Ariella breathed his name and shoved him back at the same time, gasping for air as pain shot across her skin and down her spine.

The open wound on her neck throbbed as warm blood spilled out, and she glared at her mate in shock. "What have you done?" Lifting tentative fingers, she touched the mark and pulled back with blood-covered fingers, her breath coming out in pants and her veins burning with a fire. It felt as if his toxin was coursing through her blood streams, consuming her, ravaging her with his Alpha intensity.

"You are mine now," the Alpha growled lowly, and when Ariella looked up at him she saw flecks of red appear in his dark eyes. His fringe hung menacingly over his eyebrows, and his jaw clenched as he came closer once more.

"No, wait," Ariella held up a hand, a tear slipping from her eye. "Please, just...just don't..." She hated how shaky her voice sounded, and even more she hated how confused she was. Had Malachi really just marked her? Was it what she wanted? They hadn't discussed it, nor even confessed that they accepted each other as mates. It had happened so fast, and it left her body flushed and trembling.

"You need me, Ariella. I am your mate," he reached out his arms to her, and when her legs could no longer hold up under the amount of pain searning her body, he was there to catch her. She clung to him, burying her face in his neck as he held her securely.

When his tongue gently glided over the open wound, she nearly sighed his name from the relief that washed through her. He pressed his lips to the mark, sealing it and completing the claim that all would see. Ariella felt such strong and conflicting emotions for this male who now held her; tears sprung to her eyes at the awareness of his every touch, of his hands that caressed the back of her head and waist. Malachi, her mate, her Alpha, had claimed her as his and she was consumed with the feeling of utterly belonging to him.

"What on earth is going on up here?"

Ariella pulled back at the sound of her dad's voice, and she saw him leap up the stairs with Lexi right behind him.
"What are you doing with my daughter?" The fury in Charles' eyes would make any wolf cower, but the Alpha only smirked.

"I am spending time with my mate. I didn't realise that was such a crime where you come from."

"Don't be smart with me, young wolf! I heard my daughter scream, and I want to know exactly what you did to her."

"Dad, it's not—" Ariella moved towards him, getting his full attention but realising it was a mistake when he noticed the fresh mark on her neck.

"You marked her?" Charles' eyes widened, and Lexi gasped. "On the first night of meeting her?"

"Actually, it's not the first—"

"How dare you hurt my daughter like this!"

"I did nothing of the sort," Malachi growled and glared at the former Beta, wrapping his arm firmly around Ariella's waist and pulling her into his side. "I would never hurt my mate," he said while turning to her and kissing her neck right above the blood stains that sat dark and incriminating on her pale dress.

"That's not what it looks like," Charles strode forward and clasped the young Alpha's shoulder, pushing him back.

Ariella felt pulled between the two agitated wolves as they stared each other down. One was young and reckless, surging with hot Alpha blood, the other wiser and strong from years of experience as top command. One had a heart full of youthful lust and dominance, the other forged with a parental bond that could not be weakened. Ariella shuddered to think who would come out second best if this turned into a fight.