Claimed by My Mafia Alpha King

Nicholas’s POV

"Stop! I’ll go with you! I’ll go back with you!"

Her voice was a sharp, terrified scream. It echoed through the freezing autumn wind, slicing straight through the thick, suffocating fog of my rage.

I froze. My heavy boot hovered inches above the human’s chest.

My chest heaved violently. My wolf snarled in the dark corners of my mind, demanding the blood of the male who had dared to touch our mate. But her words were an absolute command. She was submitting. She was finally surrendering.

I slowly lowered my boot to the cold stone pavement. I turned my head to look at her.

Irina was trembling uncontrollably. Her blue eyes were wide, completely overflowing with desperate tears. She was staring at me like I was a monster, but she wasn’t running anymore. She had made a choice.

Before I could even process the massive, overwhelming wave of relief, a sudden movement caught the corner of my eye.

The human boy was pushing himself up from the ground. He was coughing, his face pale and contorted in pain. He didn’t run away. He didn’t cower. The absolute, stupid bravery of this fragile human made the blood boil in my veins all over again.

He stumbled forward, his legs unsteady, and reached out.

He grabbed her arm.

"Irina," he choked out, his voice hoarse. "You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to go with him."

A low, guttural snarl vibrated in my chest. My pitch-black eyes locked onto his hand where it gripped her sleeve. I was going to tear his arm straight out of its socket. I was going to rip him apart piece by piece until there was nothing left but bloody scraps on the pavement.

But before I could move, Irina shifted.

She turned her head slowly to look at him. She didn’t pull her arm away. She didn’t scream. She simply looked at him, her pale face completely devoid of color.

She gently shook her head.

It was a small, silent movement. It wasn’t a rejection of him, but a desperate plea for him to stop. She was protecting him. She was sacrificing her own freedom to save this pathetic human’s life.

The realization was a jagged, rusted blade twisting violently in my gut.

The human boy stared at her for a long, agonizing second. He saw the absolute, unbroken resolve in her tear-filled blue eyes. He saw the terror she was hiding behind that fragile mask of strength.

Slowly, his fingers loosened. He let his hand drop away from her arm.

I didn’t give her another second to say goodbye.

I lunged forward, my large hand violently clamping down over her wrist. I yanked her toward me, my grip like an unbreakable band of iron.

"Walk," I commanded, my voice a rough, gravelly rasp.

I didn’t look back at the human. He was entirely irrelevant now. I turned sharply on my heel and dragged her toward the looming shadow of Rosewood Manor.

She stumbled behind me, her scuffed sneakers dragging against the paved pathway. She didn’t fight me anymore. She didn’t try to dig her heels in or claw at my fingers. She was completely, entirely silent.

The silence was worse than her screams.

It was a dead, suffocating silence. It was the silence of a broken omega who had completely surrendered to her horrific fate. It was the same silence she had worn in the Greystone dungeon, staring blankly at the stone walls while her soul slowly bled to death.

I pushed the heavy oak doors open with a violent shove.

We stepped into the pitch-black foyer of the manor. The air inside was freezing, smelling of old wood and damp stone.

I slammed the heavy doors shut behind us, plunging us into absolute darkness.

I released her wrist.

She didn’t move. She stood perfectly still in the dark, her breathing shallow and ragged. I couldn’t see her face, but I could hear her heart hammering a frantic, terrified rhythm against her ribs. I could smell the sharp, metallic tang of her fear, completely overwhelming the sweet scent of vanilla.

"Why?" I asked, my voice low and dangerous.

I needed to know. I needed to understand why she had chosen to run from me, why her wolf was suddenly awake, why she was hiding in a human university.

"Talk to me," I commanded, stepping closer to her.

She didn’t answer. She just stood there, an empty, fragile shell.

The frustration was a blinding, hot fire in my chest. She was shutting me out again. She was building that impenetrable wall of ice around her mind, refusing to let me in.

I couldn’t force the truth out of her. I knew that now. Every time I tried to use my authority, every time I tried to break her down, she only retreated further into the dark.

If I couldn’t make her talk, I would make her feel.

I reached out, my blistering hot hands grabbing her fragile shoulders. I yanked her flush against my solid chest, completely crushing the distance between us.

I didn’t ask another question. I just forcefully crashed my mouth down onto hers.