Chapter : Say It Again

The forest pulsed with silence, thick and suffocating in the wake of Althea's disappearance.

Rain could still feel the lingering touch of her presence—sharp, taunting, a whisper of something unresolved.

But none of that compared to the presence before him now.

Nathaniel.

The Alpha King's gaze burned into him, his touch still ghosting along Rain's jaw, deceptively light. But there was nothing gentle about the way he stood—rigid, lethal, vibrating with a fury that was barely restrained.

"She touched you."

The words echoed in Rain's mind, threading through the heated tension that coiled between them like a viper ready to strike.

He knew that tone.

Possession.

Danger.

Nathaniel wasn't just angry. He was furious.

And Rain should have been afraid.

Instead, his pulse pounded in his throat, an intoxicating mix of defiance and something far more dangerous.

Something he refused to name.

Rain lifted his chin, silver eyes narrowing. "And what of it?"

Nathaniel didn't answer.

Not with words.

Instead, his fingers curled beneath Rain's chin, tilting his face up—forcing him to meet those searing golden eyes. The weight of that gaze sent a slow burn trickling down Rain's spine, pooling hot and heavy in his gut.

"Say it again."

Rain's breath hitched.

A warning. A challenge. A threat.

His heart hammered as he fought against the pull—against the way Nathaniel's heat wrapped around him like a cage, drawing him in, unraveling him thread by thread.

He hated this.

He hated the way this man got under his skin, made his body betray him, made the bond between them thrum with something unspoken.

"I don't belong to you."

Nathaniel's grip tightened, just enough to make Rain shudder—but not from fear.

"Liar."

The word slithered between them, dark and silken.

Rain opened his mouth—to argue, to push him away—but he never got the chance.

Nathaniel moved, closing the distance so fast that Rain barely had time to inhale before his back hit the rough bark of the tree.

A sharp gasp left his lips.

Nathaniel's hands caged him in, palms pressed against the trunk on either side of Rain's head, his body a solid wall of heat, of power, of something dangerous and consuming.

"Do you think she doesn't know?" Nathaniel murmured, his breath brushing against Rain's lips, close enough to taste. "Do you think I don't?"

Rain's pulse roared in his ears.

The space between them was nonexistent. His body betrayed him, reacting to the heat, to the pull, to the bond that made his skin tingle and his breath come short.

Nathaniel was too close.

Too much.

And Rain hated that it didn't feel like enough.

"Get off me." His voice was a rasp, lacking the venom he wanted to lace it with.

Nathaniel only smirked.

"No."

The single word sent a violent tremor through Rain's body.

A test. A provocation.

A claim.

The air between them was suffocating, charged with something untamed, something reckless. The scent of the Alpha King surrounded him—smoky, warm, dominant.

His scent was everywhere.

Drowning him.

Marking him.

And Rain hated that his body responded.

That he wanted to push closer instead of pulling away.

Nathaniel must have sensed it, because his smirk deepened, his voice dropping lower, rougher.

"Say it again, Rain."

Rain's breath caught.

"Say you don't belong to me."

He clenched his jaw, forcing his body to obey him.

Forcing himself to ignore the way the bond sang under the pressure of Nathaniel's dominance.

"I—"

Nathaniel's lips brushed against the corner of his jaw.

Not quite a kiss. Not quite not a kiss.

A whisper of something lethal.

A warning.

"Liar."

The word unraveled him.

Heat. Tension. Fire.

It was too much. Too fast.

And yet—

Nathaniel pulled back before Rain could react, his smirk laced with victory, his golden eyes molten.

"You'll say it soon enough."

Then, just like that, he was gone—stepping back, leaving Rain breathless and burning against the tree, his body still tingling where Nathaniel's heat had pressed against him.

Rain's hands clenched into fists.

His breath came shallow.

His mind raced.

Damn him.

Damn that Alpha King and his games.

But most of all—

Damn himself for the way his body still ached for more.

To Be Continued...