My Sister's Fiance Ordered Me To Kneel In Public

The attic air tasted stale, heavy with dust and the suffocating scent of lilies. I knelt on the uneven floorboards, smoothing the edges of Seraphina's engagement veil. Tomorrow, my perfect sister would wear this. Tomorrow, she would bind herself to Kaelen Dravos.

The brass doorknob turned. A sharp click echoed through the rafters.

The door locked from the inside.

I spun around. My knees scraped the wood.

Kaelen stood in the shadows, his broad frame blocking the only exit. He hadn't bothered to take off his suit jacket from the rehearsal dinner.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked, keeping my voice low. "The guests just left."

"I missed you at dinner, Elara." His voice was a low rumble that vibrated against my skin.

"I had to steam the dress. Now leave, before someone sees you."

He didn't move. The shadows clung to his sharp jawline. "Make me."

"Kaelen, I swear to God—"

He crossed the room in three massive strides. Before I could scramble backward, his hand shot out. He snatched the delicate tulle from my fingers. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the veil into the corner. It landed in a crumpled white heap.

"My sister's veil!" I yelled.

"Forget the fucking veil."

His fingers clamped around the back of my neck. The sheer force of his grip sent a shockwave down my spine. I stiffened, my back going completely rigid.

"Let go of me," I demanded.

"Down," he ordered.

The Alpha command hit me like a physical blow. My biology screamed to submit, to collapse under the sheer weight of his pheromones. I fought it. I dug my fingernails so hard into my palms that the skin broke.

"I said, down." He shoved my shoulders hard.

My knees hit the floorboards, landing right in the center of the discarded white tulle. The fabric snagged against my bare skin.

"Are you insane?" I hissed, glaring up at him. "Your engagement party is in eight hours!"

"And you've been avoiding me for three days."

"Because you're marrying Seraphina!"

Kaelen dropped to his haunches, leveling his gaze with mine. His eyes were entirely black, the pupil swallowing the iris. "Does that change anything?"

"It changes everything."

"You belong to me, Elara. A ring on her finger doesn't erase my mark on you."

His thumb found the sensitive knot of flesh at the base of my neck. My gland. He didn't just touch it; he dug his fingers in, massaging the swollen tissue with a rough, punishing rhythm.

A violent shudder tore through my body. I tried to twist away.

"Stay still," he growled.

"You're hurting me."

"I'm marking you."

His breathing turned ragged, harsh against the quiet of the attic. He leaned in, his nose brushing the curve of my jaw. The scent of cold iron and crushed pine needles flooded my senses, heavy and suffocating. It was a pure, unfiltered Alpha scent, designed to conquer.

"Stop," I gasped.

"You smell like dust and cheap soap," he muttered, his lips grazing my ear. "I need you to smell like me. Only me."

"Seraphina will notice."

"Let her."

I pushed both hands against his solid chest, trying to wedge some distance between us. It was like shoving a brick wall. He didn't even flinch. Instead, he shifted his weight forward.

His knee drove hard between my closed legs, forcing my thighs apart.

I gasped, my eyes widening. "Kaelen!"

The rough wool of his expensive suit trousers ground against the frayed cotton of my old nightgown. The friction sent a wicked, unwanted spark straight through my core. I hated myself for feeling it. I hated him for knowing exactly how to cause it.

"You're trembling," he noted, a dark smirk playing on his lips.

"It's fear," I lied.

"It's arousal."

"You're a monster."

"I'm your Alpha."

He pressed his knee higher, pinning me firmly against the floorboards. The thin fabric of my nightgown offered zero protection from the heat radiating off his body. Every time I tried to shift away, his leg locked me tighter in place.

"Admit it," he whispered, his grip on my neck tightening just enough to control my movements. "Tell me you want me to leave."

"I want you to leave."

He leaned down, his mouth hovering a millimeter from mine. "Say it like you mean it, Elara."

"Get the hell out of my room."

"Liar."

He crushed his mouth against my neck, right over the pulsing vein. His teeth scraped the surface of my skin. I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the relentless ache pooling low in my stomach. The Alpha pressure in the room was so thick I could barely drag oxygen into my lungs.

"Please," I whispered.

"Please what?" he taunted, his thumb pressing harder into my gland. "Please stop? Or please don't stop?"

"You're going to ruin everything."

"I already have."

His free hand slid down my side, tracing the curve of my waist before gripping my hip. He hauled me flush against his chest. The tulle from Seraphina's veil twisted around our legs, a mocking reminder of the wedding that was supposed to happen tomorrow.

"She loves you," I said, my voice cracking.

"She loves the title," Kaelen corrected. "She loves the power of being the Alpha's mate. You're the only one who looks at me like I'm a nightmare."

"You are a nightmare."

"Good. Then wake up and face me."

He forced my chin up, making me look at him. His expression was wild, stripped of the polished, cold demeanor he showed the rest of the pack. This was the beast beneath the suit.

"Mark me," he ordered.

I stared at him in disbelief. "What?"

"Scent me back. Now."

"I won't."

"Do it, Elara, or I swear to God I'll rip this veil to shreds and tell your sister exactly why."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

He surged forward, pressing his scent gland against my cheek. The overwhelming aroma of pine and iron assaulted me. My instincts flared, a deep, buried part of my Omega nature begging to rub against him, to intertwine our scents until nobody could tell where he ended and I began.

I kept my hands balled into tight fists at my sides. I refused to move.

"Stubborn," he muttered, his breath hot against my collarbone. "I'll just have to do it for both of us."

He shoved his knee deeper, the friction causing a sharp gasp to escape my lips. My resistance was crumbling under the sheer force of his presence.

Then, footsteps echoed on the wooden stairs outside.

Slow, steady steps coming right toward the attic.

My blood turned to ice.

"Someone's coming," I panicked, pushing frantically at his shoulders.

Kaelen didn't budge. He kept his knee locked between my thighs, his fingers still wrapped around my neck.

"Let them come."

"Are you crazy? Get off me!"

The footsteps stopped right outside the door. A soft, rhythmic knock followed.

"Elara?"

It was Seraphina. Her voice was muffled through the thick wood, sweet and entirely innocent.

I froze. The air trapped in my throat.

"Elara, are you asleep?" she called out. "Kaelen doesn't seem to be in his room. Have you seen him?"

I opened my mouth to answer, to tell her to go away, to make up an excuse.

Before a single syllable could leave my lips, Kaelen's large hand clamped violently over my mouth.

He silenced me completely.

His eyes bore into mine, dark, dangerous, and utterly unyielding. The smirk returned to his face, a wicked challenge daring me to make a sound.

"Elara?" Seraphina knocked again, a little louder this time. The brass doorknob rattled as she tried to open it.

Kaelen leaned in close, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.

"Make a sound," he whispered against my skin, "and I'll take you right here on her veil."

The doorknob rattled again.

"That's weird," Seraphina muttered from the hallway. "It's locked."

I stared at the door, my heart hammering violently against my ribs, entirely at the mercy of the monster in the dark.