Moon Marked

14| Mark of Control

Adriel

Having her this close to me doused in my scent and dripping with the aroma of her arousal was enough to make me go wild.

My wolf had been clawing at my insides since the moment he had seen her at the ceremony, demanding to be set free so that he could do what my control would not allow me to. He wanted more than just a taste of her, he wanted to pin her to the ground—to sink deep inside of her and take her for everything that she was.

He wouldn't take account of her needs like I would, he would take and take and take until he had satisfied himself, and then he would leave her in the mess he had created. My wolf was unrestrained when it came to his desires, he was everything my father had been proud of and for that reason, I knew he had to be kept away from my mate at all costs.

Aurelia was much too innocent to be allowed anywhere near the savagery of my animal form, even as much as she tempted him—even as much as her own wolf called to mine. But our bond was too new, and I wasn't ready to reveal to her the hideous parts of myself, especially when I had spent so much time trying to rid myself of them.

I was ashamed of what my father had made me into, but controlling the monster I had been conditioned to become was easier said than done.

My need for her ran deeper than I ever thought it would, much deeper than the dreams I had built around the idea of her—always hoping, always wishing, always wanting for her to be by my side and now that she was, I knew that my desire to learn every part of her was filled with even more intensity than what I had recanted every night.

We were bound by blood, and bone and soul. My need for her running deeper than the way she needed me, which was a feat within itself considering the desperate way she acted around me. It was a truth I had acknowledged the moment I had set my eyes on her, and now that we were leaving the safety of the sanctuary I had found her in, I knew that the strings of reality were ready to tie a noose around my neck.

Even though I had claimed her, bitten her and marked my territory—there were still too many complications that I couldn't leave to chance.

The name of my pack was notorious for the atrocity my father had committed almost two decades ago, and when she found out where I came from—when she found out what had happened to the Luna that had come before her, I didn't know if our desire for each other would mean much to her anymore.

When she hadn't known who I was to her and when she had learnt of our mate bond, in both instances she had been spoiling me with her sweetness. Her longing for me overflowed with her wolfish instinct, and when the heat of our hunger wore off, she would have no choice but to come to her senses.

My mother had been enamoured by my father in the same way before she had given him what he wanted and then he killed her for it. It was a story that was shared through the structure of my pack—the softness of my mother, too sweet for the serrated sense of my father's harsh hands. They would think the same of me too when I brought Aurelia home with me, they would think the pattern of father and son would run in a cursed cycle.

I was branded with his severity even after all the changes I had made to the pack he had ruined. I had rebuilt an entire infrastructure, imbued a pack that had once sat under a dark cloud and brought it into the light. The wolves in my pack had been thriving for years now ever since I had taken my father down, but it was hard to undo the shackles of the past.

There was a high chance that when we reached my land she would want nothing to do with me—and even if she didn't, I had no intention of repeating the mistakes my father had made.

So, I indulged her—and I indulged myself with her under the knowledge that our time together was limited. I wasn't going to trap her, and I wasn't going to break her into pieces, she would have her freedom in any way that she wanted it. It was a promise I'd made to my mother after my father had made a spectacle out of her death.