THE ALPHA KING'S DARK OBSESSION

ANNALISE

With awareness creeping back, it was slow—like emerging from the bottom of dense water, weighted down and dazed. My head thudded, and my body floated, suspended between dreams and wakefulness. I opened my eyes to pale, strange light above. The pale scent of leather, smoke, and something very much him surrounded me.

I was wrapped in warmth, but not in bed.

I shifted a little, and a hard arm wrapped around me.

My heart leaped. The odor was not something you could help but notice.

Carl.

His bulk occupied every inch of space in the room, dense and heavy. His fingers trailed down my jaw, light as a feather, grounding me to the present.

"You fainted," his low voice growled, rough and deep, with something much gentler than I recalled on the man on the hospital bed. "I think I leaned on anger. Not faint."

I blinked again, turning slightly to meet his gaze. His eyes—stormy, piercing, and far too close.

"You—" My voice cracked, dry as paper. "You were. here."

His lips curled, something between a smirk and something darker. "I've always been here."

I flinched, trying to pull away, but my body didn't seem to belong to me. "The men—those men—"

"Dead." His voice was final, with no room for questioning, only sour conclusion. "You were a target. I arrived just in time."

I swallowed hard, my mind reeling to piece things together. "Why? Why me?"

His gaze dropped to the necklace still stuck on my neck, the silver moon dimly glinting. His fingers stroked it, slow and deliberate, as if to remind.

"You know why already," he whispered. "Your wolf knows why."

I sensed her shift again, sleepily, blissfully. As if she'd never really been gone from me.

"M-mate," I breathed, the sound hardly lost from my lips. My chest seared with the discovery, with the impossible pull I'd fought so hard to resist.

His thumb brushed my face, slow, sensual. "You can run, little one," he whispered, "but I'll always find you."

And in that moment, I knew he wasn't speaking of the past.

He was speaking of every other day but I had conditions.

I gulped hard "I've been alone for so long for myself and now for Selena, my wolf and I have learned to do things on our own but I do know how the mate bond is but even if I agree to be with you,. he interrupts me "It's not negotiable. You will remain with me, my wolf Vulcan would never permit such distance between us".

I swallow hard and nod my head "But we have to be a secret". He scowls "Why?" "Because it's safer and it's what I want". He breathes out. "If I do this, then you will have to stay away from all male figures or male scents to keep Vulcan at bay. Can I mark you now?"

I step away from him and extend my hands "No just give me time please". He rubs his hand over his face and gradually leans his head. Alright, go ahead and have your breakfast.

VULCAN

(Carl's Wolf)

The moment her scent hit me, I was off, out of control completely.

Lilies. Rain-soaked earth. Whispers of fear. But beneath it all — her. Our mate. The one I'd been waiting for, the one this stubborn human half of myself had lied to that he'd be able to deny.

I had been pacing inside Carl's mind for weeks, clawing at the edges of his self-restraint, knowing long before he admitted it that she was ours.

Annalise.

Her name felt like a prayer. Her scent, a drug. I'd waited too long for this moment — for her.

Her heartbeat was a frantic drum roll when we found her tonight, her body locked in fear, pinned, penned. The attackers had already overrun the last spot of her defenses before Carl granted me room to rise.

As soon as his control slipped, I acted. His body, my body — it was the same. We were one, as always when the instincts overrode us.

The men never even saw me. Didn't smell me as I passed through the walls of her apartment. Never had the chance to scream before I tore them apart, my claws and teeth a blur.

Threat. Eliminated.

But the real war was just beginning.

The moment her wide, stunned eyes landed on us — the moment her trembling, blanched lips parted and breathed "Mate" — I felt something I hadn't in centuries. Home.

Her wolf, dormant for so many years, awoke to recall me unto the ages. I felt the bond forming itself between us, fragile but unbreakable, as tangible as any cord. Her dainty human body couldn't withstand the burst, however. I felt her knees go out, her brain go out like a flame quenched.

Carl grabbed her, but it was me that had her. My paws were missing, but the drive remained the same. Protect. Shield. Keep her breathing. Keep her safe.

I could feel the beat of her pulse against our chest, like a bird trapped in a storm. Weak. Frail. But so brave. She had held on so long by herself — an omega with no pack, a healer with no shield. And still she stood like a queen in a world built to break her.

No more.

I would not permit it.

Carl's human brain was full of politics, strategy, repercussions. But I didn't have any of that. My world was simple. She is ours. We will guard her. We will take her. We will make her understand that she will never be alone again.

I could feel her stirring now, wrapped in the warmth of the bed we'd brought her to — our bed. Our home. She would wake soon, and the fight would start anew: her human mind fighting what her wolf already knew.

But I was willing to wait.

I had waited this long.

And I would wait for however many lifetimes it took.

Because Annalise Keaton was not leaving.

Not now.

Not ever.