A bite from an Alpha King

Chapter 5: A bite

-Octavia-

I screamed as his canines sank deep into my skin, the sharp pain cutting through me. I fought against him, despite the exhaustion that weighed me down, but then an overwhelming warmth washed over me.

I could feel the connection between us strengthen. Everything about him intensified—his scent, his touch—it was intoxicating. I was caught up in the high of his bite, lost in the sensations flooding my body.

Then, I heard voices in my head—voices I hadn’t heard in a long time. The voices of his pack members. For a moment, the noise overwhelmed me, as I wasn’t used to blocking out the pack bond.

But as I pushed the voices away, one remained. His. His warm voice flowed through me, reaching parts of me I thought had died, parts I had forgotten existed. I sighed deeply, letting the warmth of his presence fill me.

But the euphoria didn’t last. Reality hit me like the hardest punch I’d ever felt. I pushed him with all the strength I had left, but it was like trying to move a wall of iron. Instead, I was the one who fell back.

I landed on the ground, looking up at his dark figure, his shadow looming over me. His eyes glowed so fiercely it sent a shiver down my spine. Fear gripped me—a feeling I hadn’t known in years.

“Submit,” he sneered, his voice low and dangerous. My wolf whimpered inside me, forcing my eyes down and my head to the side, exposing the now tender spot where he had marked me.

I hated myself for submitting to him, but I couldn’t stop it. My wolf wanted to please him, wanted to ensure our mate didn’t hate us.

“Lock her up,” I heard a deep voice command, and suddenly I felt strong hands gripping my arms, pulling me up from the ground.

I still didn’t dare look anywhere but the ground as they dragged me away. It didn’t take long before they threw me down onto the cold, hard brick floor. They didn’t even bother chaining me—probably because they knew I had submitted to the king in front of everyone.

I didn’t try to get up. I just lay there, trembling, unable to comprehend what had just happened. He had forced his mark on me and made me submit. I bowed to the king, I thought. I couldn’t believe it.

The shame was suffocating, and I hated myself for it. My thoughts drifted to my father. What would he think of me now?

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, as tears—something I hadn’t felt in years—slid down my cheeks, burning my skin.

-Valerio-

“Aaaah!”

I hurled the glass in my hand at the fireplace, watching as the flames flared up briefly, fueled by the alcohol, before settling down again. I hadn’t even tasted the bourbon before anger surged through every part of me. I needed to release it somehow. After ordering Octavia back to her cell, I had stormed to my room, desperate to calm myself.

“How is this going to end?” I muttered under my breath, running a hand over my head and tugging at my hair.

I hoped the slight pain might clear my thoughts, but everything was a mess—a mess I didn’t know how to fix. I sighed heavily, leaning my forehead against one of the bedposts. I was at a loss, and it was eating away at me.

I always had a plan, always knew how to handle things. Nothing ever caught me off guard—nothing except Octavia. And it was driving me insane. What was this female doing to me after only a few hours?

“My king?”

I heard loud knocking on my door, and I knew my men were eager to talk about what had happened in the fighting pit. I wasn’t in the mood for that conversation, but I knew they were confused and deserved an explanation.

I groaned, pushing myself away from the wooden bedpost, and walked over to the double doors with their golden edges and handles. I stopped, resting my hands on the handles, and closed my eyes for a moment, steeling myself to face the reality waiting on the other side.

Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and yanked the doors open, facing my most trusted men. The same expression was plastered on all their faces, the same question burning in their eyes: What the hell is going on?

“It had to be done,” I muttered, storming past them and heading to my office, knowing they would follow.

“My king, what happened out there? How could you mark her?” Garrett inquired. He was angry, and rightfully so—I hadn’t given them a straight answer.

It was clear they were going mad with uncertainty, but I wasn’t ready to give the full explanation. Not yet. Not until I had a drink, without tossing it across the room in a fit of rage.

I entered my office and immediately made my way to the table lined with bottles of alcohol and crystal glasses. It took me three drinks before I could finally turn around to face them. The alcohol coursed through my veins, helping calm my wolf enough for me to think clearly.

I sank into the chair behind my desk and looked at my men, still seeing confusion in their eyes. My gaze lingered a little longer on Zane. He looked more furious than confused. Did he want me to kill his sister? It wouldn’t surprise me if he did.

“How could you do that, my king?” Garrett finally broke the tense silence.

I sat with my drink in hand, swirling the liquid as I stared into the glass. After a few moments, I placed it on the table and took a deep breath, knowing it was time to give my men the explanation they deserved.

“I couldn’t kill her,” I said bluntly, folding my hands in front of me.

My men exchanged glances, confusion evident in their eyes. Chris, another loyal friend, stepped forward. He was tall, with blond hair and piercing blue eyes, and his temper was flaring.

“What do you mean you couldn’t kill her? She deserved to die!” he yelled, earning nods of agreement from the rest of the room.

“If I had killed her,” I began, “then I would’ve died too.”

This only deepened their confusion. They glanced at one another, hoping someone might understand my cryptic words, but none of them did.

“What do you mean, my king?” Garrett asked.

I sighed and rubbed my tired eyes before meeting their gazes again. “She is my mate,” I admitted, and the room fell into an uncomfortable silence. No one seemed to know what to say next.

“What?” I heard Garrett whisper.

Our eyes met, and I saw him narrow his, as if trying to determine whether I was making some kind of twisted joke. But I wasn’t.

“I knew the moment I grabbed her by the throat, when she came at me with a knife.” I leaned back, rubbing my chin, exhausted. “I had hoped it wasn’t true—that maybe she wasn’t really my mate, or that our bond was so weak because she tried to kill me and seemed unaffected by it. But as I stood there, knowing I could easily tear her throat out, I just... couldn’t. Every time I hurt her, I felt the pain too. I can only imagine the agony I’d feel if I were the one to take her life.”

Silence. No one dared to speak after hearing what I had just said. They were clearly as lost as I was about how to handle this situation, and the uncertainty unsettled us all. Keeping Octavia locked up was only a temporary solution. My wolf was already howling for her, yet I was the only one truly affected. The harsh reality was that if I released her, she would take the first opportunity to kill me.

“So, what do we do with her?” Evan, one of my more reserved men, finally asked, breaking the silence. He had dark brown hair and matching brown eyes, and he usually kept quiet in our meetings, following orders without complaint. Hearing him speak now surprised me.

“For now, nothing,” I replied, drawing their attention back to me. “If we let her out, she’ll kill me. If we keep her locked up, I’ll slowly lose my mind.”

“Then how can we just do nothing?” Chris inquired.

“We have some time before it becomes unbearable for me to be away from her,” I explained. “That gives us a window to figure out how to control her. But the question is—with what? She doesn’t fear death. She has no loved ones, since we took everything from her when she was a child.”

My head pounded with the weight of it all, and I groaned in frustration. How could I make her submit when I had no leverage? My jaw clenched as I wrestled with the problem. I scanned my men again, my eyes lingering on Zane, who stood a bit farther back, half-hidden behind the others.

“Zane!” I barked, snapping him out of his daze. He jumped slightly, taking a few hesitant steps forward as I motioned him closer. “What do you know about Octavia’s real family?”

“Nothing, my king,” Zane replied, confusion evident in his expression. “My father found her abandoned in the woods, left to die. She’s just a rogue’s child.”

“Her eyes are silver,” I growled. “Rogues have black eyes.”

Zane shrugged, clearly unsure how to respond, but I could tell he was holding something back. His shifting stance and guilty expression gave him away. He knew something about Octavia that he wasn’t telling me.

I narrowed my eyes, and under the weight of my gaze, he averted his eyes to the ground, unwilling to defy me. He was a pathetic excuse for an alpha. I might be the king, with more alpha power than most, but Zane didn’t even seem to have a spine. It was hard to believe he was truly the former king’s son.

“You don’t know anything?” I inquired, my voice dark, making it clear I knew he was hiding something.

Zane looked around nervously, clearly torn between silence and confession. “My father kept some journals,” Zane finally said, his voice low.

“You still have them?” I asked sharply.

He nodded.

“Good. Bring them to me,” I ordered, waving my hand dismissively.

He didn’t look pleased, but he had no option but to obey. Without a word, he left the room quietly, leaving me and my most trusted men behind.

“What do we do about the rumors, my king? People are already talking. They saw everything,” Chris said, his worry evident.

I sighed, closing my eyes briefly as I considered the situation. There was no use denying or covering up what had happened.

“Tell them the truth. Tell them who she is to me,” I said, watching the unease ripple through my men as they exchanged concerned glances. I knew they didn’t like the idea of revealing the truth, but what choice did we have?

“And Selene?” Damian asked cautiously. “Alpha Michael won’t be happy you’ve marked someone else.”

Sh*t! I thought. My promise to Alpha Michael! Technically, I could still mate with his daughter, Selene, since I hadn’t completed the full mating process with Octavia. But Octavia would be stuck with my mark forever, and if I were honest with myself, I’d rather see my mark on Octavia’s light skin than Selene’s. Yet, I had a promise to keep.

“Invite them here. I’ll tell them the whole truth myself. I’ll explain that Octavia will only be kept alive for my sake, and Selene will be my queen,” I said, dismissing my men.

The thought of marking and mating with Selene almost made me physically ill. I knew it was because Octavia was the one chosen for me—my true mate. I wanted no one else. Marking Octavia had felt incredible, hearing her sweet voice in my head, feeling her warm body so close to mine.

I closed my eyes, reliving the sensation of her heat radiating from her. It had grown stronger after I marked her, and when we touched, it was like lightning—a surge of electricity between us.

I smiled as I opened my eyes again, glancing around the room. You always heard stories about finding your mate, but nothing compared to the real thing.

She’s mine, I thought, clenching my fist. And no one else will ever touch her except me.

***

“The Silver Howlers,” I whispered.

I slammed the journal shut, the small bang echoing through the office. I had been sitting alone, reading Alpha Xavier’s journal that Zane had brought to me just an hour ago. I hadn’t read through all of it in detail yet.

I was in a rush to find something useful, something that would help me keep Octavia in her place so she couldn’t come after me again. But the most recent journals were barely readable, filled with mad scribbles that made no sense. But as I skimmed through the older entries, I found a more coherent voice.

As I went through some of the earliest entries, I saw a glimpse of the man he once was. In these pages, he talked about the Alpha Council, how dissatisfied they were with the royal family. It was here that a name suddenly appeared: The Silver Howlers.

The Silver Howlers were wiped out now, but once, they had been one of the largest and most powerful packs, almost considered royalty because of their strength. Legend had it that the Moon Goddess had blessed their bloodline.

Naturally, people feared their power and didn’t want them to rise too high. My family had been the ones to destroy them, afraid they might challenge the throne. The council, of course, had helped, and that was how it had been formed—loyal alphas who each received a seat after aiding in the destruction of the Silver Howlers.

It had been so long ago, I never thought any of them could have survived. But what Alpha Xavier wrote was unmistakable. He was very clear about Octavia—she was the last Silver Howler, and she carried blessed blood.

With the right training and guidance, she could be more than deadly. That had clearly been Xavier’s intention for her. He knew the power hidden inside her, and he wanted to harness it. He wrote that if anything happened to him, Octavia would be his legacy.

Just as Zane had told me, but Zane was wrong about one thing. Xavier’s initial plan had been to make Octavia a weapon, but as I read further, it became clear he had come to care for her. He wrote that he loved her as if she were truly his daughter and intended to make her his heir.

“That snake,” I whispered to myself.

No wonder Zane had betrayed his father. He must have found the journals, realized Xavier wanted to replace him with Octavia, and plotted his father’s death. It explained everything. I shook my head—Xavier had been right to consider replacing his son. Zane was not alpha material, but I wondered... was Octavia?

The Silver Howlers were known for being extreme. They were more in tune with their wolves, driven by their instincts rather than reason. That was likely one of the reasons they never took the throne. They preferred to live like wolves rather than humans.

So how much of a Silver Howler was Octavia?