A bite from an Alpha King

Chapter 6: Real family

-Octavia-

It was cold in the cell. I didn’t really feel it but I knew. My body was shaking yet I felt numb. I was still lying on the cold floor like a small child. I had stopped crying. I wasn’t sure when, maybe a few hours ago or maybe only a minute ago. I couldn’t tell. My head felt light but my heart felt heavy in my chest. So many things were running around inside of me and my own wolf’s voice was louder than I had ever heard it before. My father always told me to keep her in chains. Do not let your instinct or your wolf control you because it will lead you to your doom. So I did exactly that. I never let her control me, but after he bit me, it was like she broke free of her chains and now had a lot to say.

You can’t kill him! Stop those thoughts now! He is our mate!

She kept blaming me for hurting our mate and kept talking about how she hated my idea of plunging another silver knife into his chest. It was driving me mad that she kept this guilt trip up. In the end, I couldn’t take it anymore. I held my hands over my ears and screamed, trying to shut her out, but as I stopped screaming after pushing all the air inside of my lungs out, her voice just became stronger and I didn’t know how to stop it.

“Go away!” I sneered, but that only earned me an eye roll inside of me.

She wasn’t done talking. You think you need no one in your life. All you listen to is your father’s words, but he never loved you. He just taught you how to survive and how to do that without me. You need me! And you need our mate!

“SHUT UP!” I screamed, making it echo so violently in the cold brick room.

I hoped it would make her quiet, but just before she got the chance to speak again, the door to my cell opened and a strong musky scent filled the room mixed with some sort of alcohol. Bourbon maybe. I rose to my feet so fast I felt a head rush and for a minute I thought I was imagining things as I couldn’t really believe that the king was in front of me, but as my vision got clearer he became clearer too. It was the king. He had a tired look in his yellow eyes and his short dark hair was a bit of a mess. He had a black shirt on now that was only buttoned halfway up, leaving a perfect view of his iron hard chest and black pants.

“What are you doing here?” I sneered, making him narrow his eyes at me.

“Am I not allowed to check up on my mate?” he asked jokingly, but there was no happy tone to his voice.

I crossed my arms and looked at him with so much hatred I could. He had to see I hated him and that I didn’t take him as my mate. He was nothing but the man who murdered my father. He was going to pay for that.

“We are not mates,” I growled. “We might as well refuse each other now that we have the chance.”

This sent him into a rage as he stormed towards me, catching me a bit off guard. I backed away trying to get away from the scary male in front of me but my back hit a cold wall sending shivers through me as he came close. I could feel his breath on my skin as I could see he was trying to control himself. He was so much taller than me and had to bow his head down and the top of his back down just to look me in the eyes.

“Don’t ever let me hear those words leave your lips, my little mate,” he said in a low, threatening tone.

I shuddered. He was the only one I had experienced that could actually make me scared and his words confused me. Why wouldn’t he want us to refuse each other? It was such an easy thing. You just said the words and the bond would be broken. Why did he have a problem with that? I couldn’t imagine he actually wanted me as his mate.

-Valerio-

When I heard those words leave her beautiful pink lips, it made me angry. More than angry actually. My wolf came up to the surface angry at our mate for even coming up with the suggestion. I stormed towards her, seeing her lose her confidence as she backed away from me. She was so different after I marked her. Before, she wasn’t afraid to stand against me, now it seemed like something in her had come forth and it was willing to submit to me. Her wolf perhaps? Was this the explanation for why she had been able to almost kill me? When I had entered, I was surprised to see that her eyes were a bit swollen, almost as if she had been crying and she did not seem like the type to cry much. Had my mark really changed her so much? It was hard to believe but the thoughts were quite far from my mind now as I cornered my mate against the wall. I couldn’t allow her to refuse me because being refused wasn’t something simple. It could drive you insane too. The pain of having the bond broken was said to be so bad it would paralyze you for three days and if you actually made it through somewhat sane, it was a miracle. It was no easy thing to reject the Moon Goddess's gifts and she made sure you would go through unimaginable pain to make sure you remembered that. I looked into her silver eyes and made it clear to her that if I ever heard those words leave her lips again I was going to make sure she paid for it. It surprised me as I saw confusion flicker in her eyes. Did she think I said this because I wanted her? My wolf still did, despite that she tried to kill me, but I was less of a fan of her. Her coming into my life messed a lot of things up and now I had to try and explain to Alpha Michael that even though I had found my mate I wasn’t going to go back on my word. She was just another obstacle in my way. Just another obstacle I had to take care of.

“From now on you will behave, little mate. You will do exactly as I say or I will make sure you feel the consequences,” I said as I backed away.

As soon as I moved away, I saw her hatred return and her confidence. She crossed her arms again and turned her head away huffing as she showed me she had no intention of submitting to me.

“I will never submit. You might have my wolf wrapped around your little finger but I will never bow,” she sneered and smiled an evil smile.

“Then you will never know your real family,” I said and pulled out one of her adoptive father’s old brown journals that I had kept tugged a little down at the back of my pants. I saw her eyes focus on me with interest in them. I smiled as I knew I had her attention now.

“What is that?” she asked and focused on the journal in my hand.

“Oh this,” I said and gestured to the journal. “Just one journal out of many that the man you considered your father wrote,” I said, seeing her arms fall down and her mouth opening a little as she looked at the journal as it was the only thing she needed in her life.

“What do you mean real family? My father is my family,” she sneered quickly, gathering herself as she tried to act as if she didn’t want to read the journal.

“Come on Octavia,” I said, making her eyes widen as I said her name. “You must now have come to terms with the fact that the man you called father never really was your father!” My voice was full of annoyance. I couldn’t understand why she so stubbornly held onto the idea that Alpha Xavier was her father.

“He is my father!” she yelled, as her eyes got watery. “And you took him from me when I was only 13!”

I could hear the pain in her voice as she yelled at me. I didn’t feel any guilt from killing him or the fact she had been alone for so many years surviving on her own in such a cruel world full of rogues and evil packs that would love to lure an innocent little female into their claws but it did pain me that she was so loyal to Xavier, even though his intentions with her wasn’t to establish a father and daughter relationship. I did read Xavier came to care for her and wanted to leave the pack in her care when she came of age, but he was very clear in his intention with her. She was going to be the deadliest of them all. She was going to be a ruthless leader and he was going to make sure she never bowed to anyone or let herself fall in love or have any caring feelings for anyone at all. She was going to be molded into the person he wanted her to be. A true queen. Stronger than anyone and more ruthless than anyone. And the day she would come of age and, after ruling a few years, Xavier would choose a mate for her, but not because he wanted to make her happy or give her love, but because she needed strong heirs to be trained just like her. He had everything planned. Her whole life and she would have been fine with it, I believed, because the way she acted now only showed how far he had gotten with her training and he only had her until the age of 13. It was almost scary and quite sad that she still held such loyalty to him. If I could just make her see, she was nothing but a pawn in his paranoid games.

“You are right, I did kill him and I did take his crown, but you forget it was mine first!” I growled, making her shake a bit. “But the man was never fit to be king, even if he was a distant relative. He was crazy!”

“Don’t you dare talk about my father that way!”

“But the man isn’t your father!” I yelled at her, making a tear spill from her eye.

“He doesn’t need to be of blood to be family. He cared for me!” she shouted.

I shook my head. Poor little female. She was so delusional. It was just sad to watch.

“Cared?” I asked in disbelief. “He never cared for you. He needed you because he knew you held power. You are stronger than most. So he needed you to do his dirty work.”

“You are lying!” she said, shaking her head violently. “Why would I be stronger than most?”

I waved the journal in my hand. “All the answer is right here,” I said, “but if you don’t believe me, then I can give you a taste if you want?”

She sighed and shook her head slowly this time acting like she wouldn’t believe a word I said, but I knew when she read her father’s thoughts about her she was going to break, immediately.

“September 1st. Octavia is too kind. I see how she feels so deeply for all the people around her. How she always tries to make other people happy and tries so hard to please everyone and she is only three. I can’t let it stay that way. She has to be cold. Her feelings must be removed if she is ever going to be a great leader and if she ever wants to be my daughter, she must be stronger or else I will remove her and I won’t look back…”

The tears were running like crazy down her cheeks as I let the last sentence hang in the air like a thick fog suffocating her. I knew she couldn’t believe her own father’s words. He was ready to remove her if she couldn’t change into the cold and deadly person he wanted her to be and he would never look back. She saw now all he needed her to be was nothing but an obedient little lap dog. They might carry the title father and daughter, but they were nothing but titles. I had chosen an old journal where he hadn’t yet started to care for her, but I needed Octavia to believe me. I needed to crush her idea of her perfect father, and break her somehow, and this was the only way. Take the only person who mattered to her away. Showing that he never cared for her and that she was nothing but a means to an end.

She fell down on her knees throwing her arms around herself as she started to shake violently. I couldn’t deny it did pain me seeing her break that way but I knew it was necessary.

“T-Tell me it’s a lie!” she sobbed as she looked up at me with begging eyes, but I said nothing.

I just stared down at her, showing nothing but coldness towards her. “If you don’t believe me,” I said and let the journal fall to the ground. “You can read it yourself.”

She tried reaching for the journal but as her fingers clutched around it, I let my foot press down on it. She looked up at me confused. I squatted down and held her chin mercilessly between my fingers. “I will not let you read a word before you submit to me now and forever.” I said in a dark and low tone.

She closed her eyes hard together, letting some more tears leave her eyes, but as she opened them again, I wasn’t looking into a broken person’s eyes. No, now there was only coldness and an evil smirk on her lips. “Go f**k yourself,” she whispered before letting go of the journal and pulling herself out of my grip.

She laughed a little to herself, acting like she didn’t care what happened next. I grabbed the journal and stood up in anger. “Seems like I will have to get my hands dirty then, my little mate, and teach you some discipline!”

I walked over to her with long steps. She tried crawling away but I quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her up before throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her out of the cell.

“Let me go! What are you going to do to me?” she yelled as she tried getting out of my iron grip on her.

“Teaching you to respect your mate and alpha!” I said before slapping her ass hard.