MATED TO FATHER, FATED TO SONS-Chapter 13: MONSTER

Chapter THIRTEEN: MONSTER

CORVIN

My sons hate me and I don’t care.

All my life, I had tried my best to be the best for them, especially that ungrateful bastard Ryker who would have been killed if not for me.

But every single time, he chooses to test me.

I had indulged him in the past, not anymore.

Not with a lot at stake.

Not with Victor resurfacing again after he almost destroyed my pack. Not after losing Zoya.

My Luna Zoya.

I stared at Rowan and Amaris smiling and giggling their way into the room.

When did these two become friends? I don’t want her getting all cozy in this pack, especially when I want her to just bare my heir and leave.

She can’t stay.

"I was just showing Amaris around the pack," Rowan cleared his throat right before he replied.

"I see," I glanced at both of them, she had her head down. All the smile that was previously on her face disappeared in an instant replaced with fear.

People feared me, some called me a monster, quite frankly I do also think of myself as one not after what I did to Zoya.

I am a monster.

"Can you leave, I want to talk to Amaris alone?" I said to Rowan. He nodded and glanced at Amaris who was now staring at me inquisitively before he left.

As soon as the door shut, I took a few steps to where she stood, standing a few inches away from her.

Her amber eyes glittered in the fading light and I looked away because I had no business noticing how they caught the sun or how her breathing had quickened the second I stepped closer.

She was just another obligation in young skin and a body that had no right being this distracting.

I needed her to be functional, not falling apart every time I entered a room.

Zoya used to stand her ground when I walked in, used to meet my gaze without flinching, used to make me feel like a man instead of the monster I had become.

This girl trembled.

Good. Fear kept people honest. Fear kept them from getting ideas they had no business entertaining.

Fear was what I wanted more than whatever the hell Rowan thought he was doing, showing her around my territory like she belonged here.

She didn’t belong here and the sooner she understood that the better off we would all be.

Except her hair had come loose and there were strands falling against her neck.

My jaw tightened. This was exactly the kind of bullshit I didn’t have time for. I had buried one woman already, I had no intention of giving a damn about another one.

"Amaris," I said, and I hated how her name sounded, like I was trying not to scare her when scaring her was exactly what I should be doing. "We need to establish some boundaries."

She nodded but didn’t speak and that irritated me more than it should have.

I wanted her to push back, to say something stupid so I could remind her exactly where she stood in this arrangement.

Instead she just stood there looking at me with those eyes that were starting to make me forget why keeping my distance mattered.

I took another step forward and watched her spine straighten in response.

There was something almost defiant in the way she held herself now, like she was bracing for impact but refusing to back down.

"You don’t wander around my house with my sons," I said, my voice dropping lower.

I continued "You don’t get comfortable. You don’t smile and laugh in hallways like you’re part of this family because you’re not. You’re here to do a job and once that job is done you leave. Do you understand me?"

She swallowed hard and I tracked the movement of her throat without meaning to.

Fuck.

"So you want me to be a corpse, just that I would be breathing?" she muttered in a low tone, her hands curling into fists at her sides.

I glanced back at her, my eyebrows raising slightly. Did she just counter back?

I must say, I am impressed.

"What I want you to do," I paused and took a step closer but not too close, my hands sliding into my pockets to keep them from doing something I would regret.

"Is to do what you are told and not give me any attitude."

She rolled her eyes in defiance and I watched that small gesture as irritation and amusement pulling at my chest.

I stared, genuinely curious now about what happened to the shy and timid girl who walked into my office and the cowering woman who wanted to run because she was intimidated by Ryker.

This version of her had teeth.

"With all due respect Alpha Corvin," she said, lifting her chin in a way that made her neck longer, more exposed, and I immediately hated that I noticed.

"I think what you are telling me to do is equivalent to imprisonment. Maybe just lock me up in a dungeon so I can get the memo."

Her voice had gained an edge and she crossed her arms under her breasts in a gesture that was both defensive and challenging at the same time.

I exhaled slowly through my nose, forcing my gaze away from where her arms pressed against her chest and focusing instead on the wall behind her head.

"Nia and my Beta would tell you what is needed for the mating ceremony," I replied, ignoring everything she said because I didn’t want to have this back and forth with her.

I turned slightly, giving her my profile instead of my full attention because looking at her directly was becoming a problem now.

"Mating ceremony?" Her voice went up an octave and I heard her take a step forward, closing the distance I had just created.

"Yes Amaris," I said, pivoting back to face her and immediately regretting it because now she was closer and I could see the confusion and panic, flashing across her face.

"We will be holding a small mating ceremony this weekend."

I moved past her toward the window, needing space, needing air that wasn’t filled with whatever scent she was wearing that made my wolf stir in ways I had no intention of entertaining.

I braced one hand against the window frame and stared out at the grounds below.

"We will be mated according to pack law, nothing fancy. Just my family, and yours."

"Mine?" The word came out small, uncertain, and when I glanced over my shoulder I saw her standing in the middle of the room looking suddenly very young and very lost.

"Yes yours," I turned fully now, leaning back against the window frame and crossing my arms to mirror her earlier posture.

"Do you have any problem with that?" I asked, her reaction suddenly piquing my interest more than it should.

She bit her lip, a gesture so unconscious and unguarded it made something in my chest tighten, and then her expression hardened into a bitter one.

"Not really," she said, her hands dropping to her sides and curling into fists again. "I just hate them all and would rather not see them ever again."

She said it so casually, with such naked honesty, that it left me speechless for a beat.

Then a laugh escaped my mouth, rough and unexpected, I actually cackled and it felt foreign, like my body had betrayed me by remembering how.

"What a thing to say about your family," I said, still half smiling despite myself.

She didn’t smile back. Instead she tilted her head slightly, studying me with those amber eyes that were too observant, too knowing.

"I rather they don’t come," she said, taking a step toward me now with her shoulders back and her chin up.

"But if you insist, sure bring the family that locked me up in a dungeon for days starving to witness my blissful marriage as I finally become the breeder I always wanted to be."

Her voice dripped with sarcasm, she gestured dramatically with her hands as she spoke, mocking the very idea of what I was asking her to do.

I pushed off the window frame and closed the distance between us in three long strides, my amusement evaporating.

She didn’t step back this time, didn’t flinch, just stood there meeting my gaze with burning behind hers that looked dangerously close to fury.

"Watch your tone," I said quietly, my voice dropping to that register that usually made grown men think twice.

"Or what?" she shot back, and her voice didn’t waver even though I could see her pulse hammering in her throat.

"You will lock me up too? Starve me? Beat me?"

She took another step forward, actually closing the space between us until I could feel the heat coming off her skin.

"I have had all that already Alpha Corvin. So tell me, what exactly do you think you can do to me that hasn’t already been done?"

When I asked for a mate, I asked for a woman who would do as she was told.

Now I see this one right here.

She is in trouble and I think she wants to bring out the monster in me.

I can see it in her eyes.