Lexianna's heart hammered against her ribs.
Genuine anxiety spiked through her system. The CEO was used to managing angry shareholders, but this wasn't anger. This was absolute, unhinged territorial madness.
The dying-star black of his eyes was entirely consumed by a luminous, blood-seeking ruby red.
His anger was flaring up.
How the fuck do I solve this one?
He leaned down, his nose grazing her jawline, inhaling sharply. He recoiled, a vicious snarl twisting his scarred features as the scent of the cold-blooded predator hit his senses.
"Who?" he demanded even though he already knew that answer.
Lexianna's pride flared. She was backed into a corner, completely overwhelmed, and her first instinct was to fight back. She needed to test the limits of his control. She needed to see exactly how much leverage she actually held.
"It doesn't matter," Lexianna snapped, lifting her chin defiantly. She pushed her hands against his chest. "We are not married, Arkin. We don't have a legally binding contract. It was a one-time medical necessity. If someone else has the resources to relieve me, I can let them."
She didn't mean a single word of it. It was a bluff.
It was a catastrophic miscalculation.
Arkin's sanity snapped.
His hand shot up, his large fingers closing around her throat. He didn't squeeze hard enough to crush her windpipe, but the grip was strong. He yanked her flush against his chest, lifting her onto her tiptoes.
"You are mine," Arkin roared, the sound tearing from the deepest, darkest part of his demonic core. The sheer force of his voice shattered the remaining glass in the balcony doors. "No one else can have you except me!"
The shadows beneath his boots erupted.
The balcony, the Great Hall, and the violet night sky vanished, violently swallowed by a concussive wave of dark spatial magic.
Lexianna didn't even have time to gasp before the world spat them out.
She hit a mattress. Hard.
They were back in his chambers, but Arkin was too blinded by jealousy to even lay her down correctly. She landed awkwardly, half on the thick wool, her legs dangling off the edge of the massive bed.
Before she could adjust, his heavy frame collapsed over her, pinning her to the mattress.
He attacked her mouth.
His mouth crashed down on hers with bruising, punishing force. He bit her lower lip, his sharp canines sinking into the delicate flesh.
Lexianna whimpered, a sharp taste of copper flooding her tongue as he drew blood. But the demonic biology was relentless. The wound sizzled, healing instantly, only for him to bite down again, licking the drop of blood away with a starving, feral desperation.
He ripped his mouth away, his breathing ragged. His massive hands grabbed the collar of her meticulously layered red robe.
The expensive silk tore down the middle with a loud, violent sound. He didn't bother untying sashes or finding clasps. He stripped her roughly, tearing the fabric away until she was completely exposed to the stifling heat of the bedchamber.
Fuck he has completely gone mad!
Lexianna's brain screamed in protest. This was completely unprofessional. It was barbaric. It was a total loss of executive control.
She didn't push him away.
A deep, heavy groan tore its way out of her throat. She arched her spine into his touch. She didn't understand it. She was an independent, fiercely intellectual woman, yet the sheer, violent dominance of the Wolf Prince was destroying her logic.
The rougher he was, the more the demonic Fox inside her thrived. Her core wept for him. Her entrance was already slick, her pussy drooling with an intense, desperate heat that demanded immediate attention.
The heavy, cloying scent of pineapple nectar exploded into the air.
It thickened the atmosphere in the room, mixing with the scent of his old blood and cedar. It was no longer just a biological byproduct; it was a potent, mind-warping aphrodisiac. It drove them both completely insane.
Arkin inhaled the scent like a dying man finding oxygen.
He leaned down, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear. His voice was a raw, dangerous rasp, completely unhinged by the jealousy and the aphrodisiac.
"No one else can have you," he whispered darkly, his hot breath sending a violent shiver down her spine. "Even if that person is me."
He wanted to devour her so entirely that there wouldn't even be a separate 'her' left for anyone to look at.
He moved lower. He was on a mission to completely rebrand her.
Wherever the Serpent's cold aura had lingered, Arkin overwrote it. He dragged his teeth down her jawline, down her neck, right over the flame mark he had given her, biting hard enough to leave deep, dark bruises that wouldn't heal by morning.
Lexianna's hands flew up, tangling in his thick black hair. She pulled him closer, her silver nails digging into his scalp.
Instead of talking, instead of trying to assert her dominance or negotiate the pace, the Iron Queen logged off for the night. She let Arkin take complete, tyrannical control.
What was there for her to say?
Say she didn't want it ?
Heck, I want it so bad.
He plunged into her, ruthless and deep, driving the cold Serpent venom completely out of her system with wave after wave of boiling, demonic heat. The bedframe groaned under the violent rhythm.
Lexianna's high, fractured moans echoed off the stone walls, completely lost to the intoxicating haze of the pineapple scent and his absolute ownership.
This was the right way to dominate a woman— Said Lexianna.
***
The next day, Lexianna woke up. It was neither morning or evening here since the sky never ever changes.
The curtains were drawn, but the ambient heat in the room was stifling.
She tried to sit up. A sharp, splitting headache immediately spiked behind her eyes. Her entire body felt like it had been run over. Every muscle ached with exhaustion.
She looked down at herself.
"Shit."
She was covered. Every inch of her pale silver skin, from her collarbones down to her thighs, was painted in violent, dark purple love bites and heavy, possessive bruises. He had marked her like property.
Arkin wasn't in the bed. She could hear the faint splash of water from the thermal pond behind the privacy screen.
Lexianna pulled the thick wool blanket up to her chest, her hands trembling slightly.
The intoxicating haze of the aphrodisiac was gone. Reality crashed back into the room with clarity.
Arkin wasn't a calculated business partner. He was a blunt, feral instrument. He could protect her from the Fox Tribe, yes. But his possessiveness was a lethal liability.
He couldn't be reasoned with when his territory was threatened.
Lexianna stared at the dark marks on her arms, a cold knot of dread tightening in her stomach. Was it fear?
She didn't know.
She pulled her knees to her chest, the silence of the massive chamber pressing in on her.
"He can't handle being jealous."