Nicholas’s POV

I stood perfectly still by the massive glass window.

The heavy, suffocating silence of the bedroom wrapped around us. *I want to go to school.* Her tiny, broken voice echoed in my ears. It violently scraped against my brain.

I slowly turned around.

Irina stood near the massive wooden crib. She looked impossibly small. Her frail shoulders were completely hunched. Her pale face was entirely drained of color. She looked absolutely terrified, but she didn’t look away.

My wolf growled a low, dark warning deep in my chest.

"School," I repeated. My voice was completely flat. Dangerously calm.

She swallowed hard. "Yes."

I let out a heavy breath. I ran a hand fiercely through my dark hair. This was ridiculous. Absolutely insane. After the complete disaster of a birthday dinner, after everything I did to keep her completely safe, this was what she wanted?

"You want to read," I stated. I walked slowly toward the center of the dark room. "Fine. I have the largest private library in the state right downstairs, Irina. Tens of thousands of books. Rare historical texts. Modern literature. Science. Whatever you want."

I stopped a few feet away from her. The heavy scent of her sweet vanilla and sheer terror hit my nose.

"You can go to the library anytime you want," I continued. "You can spend the entire day there. Have the Omegas bring your meals. Have them bring whatever books you desire directly to this room. You don’t ever have to leave."

Irina vigorously shook her head.

Her dark hair flew wildly around her pale, tear-stained face. She took a tiny, shaky step back.

"No," she whispered. Her voice trembled, but her eyes held a strange, desperate fire. "That’s not what I mean."

I narrowed my eyes. The violent, possessive beast inside my chest instantly scratched at my ribs. The temperature in the huge room violently plummeted.

"Then what *do* you mean?" I demanded. My tone dropped into a lethal, warning rumble.

She hugged her own arms. Her knuckles were completely white.

"I want to go back," she said. Her voice cracked, but she pushed the words out anyway. "I want to go back to my previous school. To my old university. I want to attend real classes. I want to study there."

Dead silence.

The words violently slammed into my chest. *My previous school. Go back.*

A dark, venomous laugh violently ripped out of my throat. It wasn’t a happy sound. It was cold. It was entirely lethal. The sheer sound of it made her violently flinch.

"Your old university," I repeated mockingly. The dark amusement instantly died on my lips. A violent, burning rage completely replaced it. "You think I’m stupid, Irina? You just want to escape again."

"I don’t!" she cried out. Her voice instantly spiked in volume.

"You want to run!" I snarled, taking a heavy, predatory step toward her. The thick hardwood floorboards violently groaned under my boots. "You want to pack a little bag, walk out of my sight, and completely disappear! Just like last time!"

"That is not true!" she yelled back.

I completely froze.

I stared at her in absolute shock. I actually stopped breathing for a second.

Irina was yelling at me.

She was standing her ground, and she was actually shouting back. I had never, ever seen her speak this much. Usually, she just cowered. She whimpered softly. She completely submitted to my Alpha aura. She kept her eyes glued to the floor and took my orders in absolute silence.

But right now? Her small chest was violently heaving. Her beautiful eyes were completely wide and flashing with raw, desperate defiance. She wasn’t acting like a broken, fragile glass doll anymore. She was fighting me.

"I am not trying to run away!" Irina screamed. Hot tears violently spilled down her pale cheeks. "It’s just a school, Nicholas! I want my degree! I want a single piece of my own life back!"

"You have a life right here!" I roared. My fangs forcefully elongated. The sharp, metallic tang of blood instantly filled my mouth. "You are the Alpha King’s fated mate! You have a son sleeping right over there! You are entirely surrounded by the most elite guards in the country who will slaughter anyone who even breathes on you wrong!"

"That is not a life! That is a fucking prison!" she shrieked.

The absolute audacity of her words felt like a physical blow.

"A prison?" I sneered. My hands curled into massive, violent fists. "I gave you the entire fucking world, Irina! I gave you absolute luxury. I gave you total safety. I gave you my absolute protection. And you stand there and call my home a prison?!"

"Because it is!" she sobbed hysterically. She took a step forward, completely ignoring the lethal danger radiating off my massive body. "I do absolutely nothing all day! I am completely nothing! You lock me inside this huge, dark house like a pet!"

"I keep you completely safe!"

"You keep me completely suffocated!" she yelled, gesturing wildly at the heavy, locked doors. "Your guards watch me breathe! Your Omega maids are terrified of me! Your Royal Beta absolutely hates me! Roman didn’t even show up to his future King’s birthday today!"

"Roman’s opinions do not fucking matter!" I bellowed. The sheer volume of my voice made the expensive crystal lamps violently rattle. "I am the absolute King! I make the rules! You belong to me! You belong in this house, raising our heir!"

"I am a human being, Nicholas!" she sobbed, clutching her chest violently. "I have dreams! I was halfway through my degree when you dragged me into this bloody, violent nightmare!"

"Nightmare?" The word tasted like absolute poison on my tongue. "I gave you a family! You ran from me once, Irina! You nearly killed our innocent pup in the process! You think I’ll just let you walk out the front door so you can disappear into the city?"

"Send your guards with me!" she pleaded desperately. "Put a GPS tracker on my ankle! I don’t care! I just need to use my brain! I need to see the sun! I need to speak to normal people before I go completely insane in this dark room!"

"No."

"Nicholas, please! I am begging you!"

"I said NO!" I stepped violently into her space.

The absolute heat of my crushing Alpha aura violently crashed down on her. It was heavy enough to drop a grown wolf to their knees. But she didn’t back down. The desperate fire in her soul pushed her forward. She actually bumped right into my solid chest.

"Why are you doing this to me?!" she cried, hitting my chest with her small, weak fists. "Why do you hate me so much?!"

"I don’t hate you!" I snarled, effortlessly catching her flying wrists in one massive hand. "I am protecting you! You are mine! Mine! The outside world is completely lethal, and you are entirely defenseless!"

"You are the most lethal thing in my life!" she screamed right into my face.

Something completely snapped inside my brain.

My wolf lost absolute control. The primal, violent possessiveness completely hijacked my rational mind. I saw nothing but blinding, red rage. She was mine. She was entirely mine. She was never, ever leaving my sight again.

I dropped her fragile wrists. I reached out and violently grabbed her frail shoulders.

My massive hands completely swallowed her small bones. I dug my fingers fiercely into her soft flesh.

"YOU ARE NEVER LEAVING THIS COMPOUND!" I roared. My voice cracked like brutal, deafening thunder. The absolute force of my Alpha command violently ripped through the air. "DO YOU HEAR ME, IRINA?! YOU BELONG TO ME UNTIL THE DAY YOU FUCKING DIE!"

She stared up at me. Her large, tear-filled eyes went completely wide.

The desperate, fiery fight suddenly drained entirely out of her face. The brilliant spark in her eyes violently extinguished.

Irina suddenly went completely limp and fainted.