Mark of Sin: Bound to the Cruel Alpha

Magnus wore a crisp white shirt, the top two buttons undone, with a dark sweater slung carelessly over his shoulders. His black tailored trousers fit flawlessly. He looked like he’d stepped straight off the cover of a high-end financial magazine.

Gorgeous. Lethal. Impossibly tall and built like a predator.

A hard shiver racked my frame just from the sight of him.

I knew most people at the academy feared him to the point of madness, and they had every reason to. Last night, I had subtly pried for information from Annie. She lived for gossip, and she had readily poured out everything she knew about the elusive heir.

It was exactly as I’d suspected: the man was dangerous. Last year, he’d gotten into a brutal altercation with another student. No one knew the exact details, but Magnus had walked around looking darker than a thundercloud for weeks, while the other guy—according to campus rumors—was still being pieced back together in a medical facility.

For an Alpha like Magnus, the word no simply did not exist.

I had also spent hours digging through the internet last night, desperately searching for anything that could give me leverage.

Blackthorne Pack. They held massive territories not just in our city, but deep into the capital. They were one of the most ruthless, influential lineages on the entire peninsula, backed by generational wealth that was impossible to calculate and a stranglehold on pack government officials.

His father, Hugo Rainn, possessed a bloody track record that made my skin crawl. He was entirely merciless. And rumors whispered that his son was carved from the exact same stone—and in some matters, proved even more relentless.

Magnus didn’t notice me immediately. He reached into the car for a bottle of water, twisting off the cap. As I drew closer, his head finally turned.

The impact of his slate-gray eyes hit me like a physical blow.

"I explicitly told you to report to me after your lectures," he barked instead of a greeting, taking a slow sip. His voice was perfectly level, but it rang with pure, unyielding steel.

I swallowed hard, forcing my eyes away from the sharp movement of his throat. I thrust the parcel with its glittering gold emblem directly toward him.

"I don’t want this. Take it back."

He slowly lowered the bottle. A single eyebrow arched, his eyes narrowing into dangerous, predatory slits. He was practically vibrating with dominant aggression, sending out waves of suffocating power that made the surrounding air feel thick and heavy.

"What’s the matter? Didn’t the design suit the princess?" A poisonous, mocking edge bled into his tone. "Or was it simply too cheap for your tastes?"

I let out a sharp breath, digging my fingernails into my palms to anchor my mask of composure.

"I don’t care about the design, and I don’t care how much it costs. I can’t carry a piece like that anywhere. I need my bag. The one that holds my actual notebooks. The one you casually threw in the trash, by the way. How could you even do that? What am I supposed to tell my professors today?"

My voice cracked on the final words, the raw humiliation and resentment I’d been suffocating all morning finally breaching the surface.

He stared at me in absolute silence. Long. Piercing. Evaluating me as if I were some bizarre, insignificant insect that had suddenly found the audacity to screech at him.

Then, without a word, he reached out and took the parcel from my hands.

With a single, fluid, completely indifferent motion, he hurled it into a nearby metal trash bin.

The expensive package hit the bottom with a hollow, metallic thud. Just like that... it was another piece of trash to him.

My jaw nearly dropped to the ground. I stood there rooted to my spot, my gaze darting between the trash bin and him, utterly unable to believe my eyes.

He had just thrown away something that probably cost more than every single thing I owned combined. Despite what Annie had said, I did not believe that even my kidney was worth it.

"Then pick out and order whatever it is you actually want," he tossed out indifferently, not even sparing a backward glance at the discarded luxury item. "Send me the invoice. I’ll take care of it."

His callousness was worse than a physical slap. To a monster like him, nothing had any real value. Money, possessions, human lives—everything was just a disposable commodity. I realized then that fighting him on this battlefield was completely useless. I didn’t want a single thing from him.

"I won’t be coming to the North Sector after classes today," I said, my voice quiet but unyielding. "I have a shift at my job."

I turned on my heel, fully intending to walk away. I couldn’t stand the sight of him for another second. I needed distance; I needed to hide and find room to breathe.

This Alpha was churning up a dark, chaotic storm inside my soul, ripping my emotions to shreds with his sheer arrogance. I knew exactly what he saw when he looked at me—a low-born, wolfless nobody who had somehow dared to present as his fated mate. But I hadn’t asked for this. I had never wanted to be anyone’s destined breeder.

"That wasn’t a request."

His voice struck my back like the crack of a whip. It was low, vibrating with absolute dominant power, brooking no refusal. The sound shot through my nerve endings like boiling water, causing everything inside me to painfully constrict.

"You will report to the compound the moment your lectures end. That is not up for debate, Jane. You will not survive the consequences of your disobedience."

I didn’t turn around. I simply rolled my eyes to myself, feeling that same righteous, defiant fury ignite in my chest once more.

We’ll see about that.

But if I had known then what that tiny act of rebellion was going to cost me... I would have crawled to him on my knees.