Mark of Sin: Bound to the Cruel Alpha

My knees turned to jelly, my palms broke into a sweat, and my fingers went numb, as if all my blood had retreated deep inside to hide. I wanted to scream, Can I come with you?!

So, he already knew.

So, the database had already flagged me.

So, this was it.

I slowly slid my phone back into my pocket. My hands were shaking so violently that I nearly dropped it. I wanted to collapse right there onto the cold floor and just bury my face in my hands like a child. But I couldn’t. I had never been allowed to be a child.

Turning around, I looked at the doorway bathed in sunlight.

Annie was standing nearby, the sun catching her hair, her eyes, her smile. She looked happy, normal, alive. It only made things worse because the line dividing us felt so stark.

I walked over and hugged her.

I didn’t really know why.

Maybe because in that moment, I desperately needed something warm and human. Maybe because my mind was already flashing to images that made me sick to my stomach: my father, his hands, his voice, his "order," his "you’re a disgrace to this family."

Maybe because I felt like we might never see each other again.

But Father wouldn’t want to lose state-subsidized housing. My family held legal guardianship over me. State protection was nothing more than a joke of a piece of paper when your home wasn’t a family, but a regime.

"Should we head to the room?" Annie asked gently, raising an eyebrow. I let out a breath and shook my head. Her voice dropped, turning softer, more attentive. "Wait, aren’t you coming to the dorms?"

I forced a smile. It felt twisted, like a fracture.

"No..." I said quietly. "I need to stop by my house."

Annie grimaced as if she’d tasted something sour.

"Did your dad call?"

I nodded, and she snorted, pouting as she wrapped her arms around me even tighter, making my back crack.

"Look, I’m sorry, I get that they’re family and all, but I just don’t understand those people. Seriously. They’re just mean..." she muttered into my shoulder. "They can’t wait to pawn you off to some Alpha just to wash their hands of the responsibility."

"Ow..." escaped my lips as she squeezed harder.

She pulled back instantly and winked, snapping right back into her usual, sassy self.

"Don’t be sad. Come to our room tonight. We’ll eat popcorn, wash it down with hot chocolate... and I’ll even buy you marshmallows."

Marshmallows. My little weakness.

I pictured the soft, white pieces melting in the cocoa, turning sticky and sweet. I pictured it—and for some reason, it hurt. There was so much normalcy in it, such a teenage "night out with a friend" vibe, that the contrast cut deep inside me.

"Okay," I lied, because I didn’t know how to do anything else. "I’ll try."

Annie grabbed her bag and bolted, giving a final wave. Her footsteps quickly faded into the street noise.

I walked as if someone had hit the mute button inside my head. Cars drove past, people talked, someone laughed, but it all reached me as if through thick layers of water. The thoughts in my head wouldn’t form into words. Even my usual fear was gone—it had dropped somewhere deep down, like a stone falling into a well.

Only emptiness remained.

Except for my pulsing wrist, a constant reminder: this is not a dream.

The house stood on the edge of town. Small, neat, with a narrow yard and a fence my father always painted himself because "strangers ruin everything." The windows stared out at the street with indifference, like the eyes of a man who had already made up his mind.

And there on the porch, my father was already waiting.

He wasn’t standing relaxed like he usually did. His hands were shoved in his pockets, his shoulders tense. His face was a mask, but there was a threat buried in that stillness—the kind of threat that used to make my toes curl in fear when I was a kid, even if he didn’t say a word.

I stopped a few paces away.

The sun caught his profile, and for a second, he looked older, as if anger added years to a person’s face.

He looked down at me. His gaze swept over my face, my bag, my sleeves—and lingered on my left arm.

I felt it on my skin.

"Get inside," he said calmly.

That calmness was terrifying—worse than shouting. Shouting meant emotion. It meant a breakdown. It meant there was a chance he would burn himself out.

But my father’s calmness meant he had already decided everything. He had already laid out a plan. To him, this wasn’t "news"; it was a "problem" that needed to be handled.

I took a step toward the door. My stomach clenched, bracing for a blow.

I knew that the second I walked inside, nothing on the outside would matter anymore. Not Annie, not the sun, not the city. There would only be these walls, the smell of the house, and a father who believed he had the right to dispose of me like a piece of property.

And somewhere beneath the fabric of my sweater, the rose pulsed again, as if it were listening to his voice too.

As if it were also waiting to see what would happen next.

I swallowed, looking away toward the sun-drenched street, and saw a black monster of a car round the corner at high speed. It was far too expensive a car for our neighborhood; vehicles like that didn’t drive through here.

Clutching the edge of my bag, I took a step toward the porch. Toward my father.

But the aggressive screech of brakes behind me and a cloud of dust forced me to spin around. A guy stepped out of the car, and his Alpha aura was staggering—I could actually feel the pressure. I felt his aggression and recognized him instantly. He was the one I had crashed into this morning.

He turned, his gaze boring into me like steel needles. Now, in the daylight, I could finally get a good look at him, and damn. He was so massive and brooding that his sheer beauty was completely eclipsed by the wild aggression and danger radiating off him.

"Does Jane Lang live here?"

He walked around the car and stood there, surveying the street with a blank stare that chilled me to the bone.

He knew my name...

"And who are you, and what business do you have with my daughter?"

My father crossed his arms, his entire posture screaming aggression directed right at the alpha wolf. The guy raised an eyebrow and let out a dark, flashing grin. His eyes snapped to me, and I shrank back, hit by a sudden, sinking realization.

"I came to get my mate."