The word cost him everything. Alpha Kings didn’t beg. Didn’t ask. Certainly didn’t plead with their pets for permission to do what every instinct demanded.
But she wasn’t just his pet anymore. Something had shifted during her test—something fundamental that he couldn’t define and didn’t want to examine too closely. She wasmorenow. More than property. More than asset. More than a scent that kept him sane.
She washisin ways that went beyond claiming her his property.
And he needed her to say yes.
Elsa held his gaze for a long moment. Those blue eyes searched his face, reading things he’d spent years learning to hide. Then, slowly, deliberately, she nodded.
“Okay.”
The relief that flooded through him was almost painful. His claws made quick work of the gown—careful despite his desperation, cutting away fabric without touching the skin beneath. The silk fell away in pieces, baring her to the warm air of his chambers.
She shivered.
His tongue found her shoulder before the tremor had finished, dragging a long stripe across skin that tasted like fear and adrenaline and something sweeter beneath. The court’s stench began to fade with each pass—Xar’s challenge, Vask’s ambition, the hundreds of watching eyes that had witnessed her test—replaced by his own scent. His saliva. His claim.
Mine. Cleansing what’s mine. Making her smell like us.
The beast purred its approval.
Elsa’s breath caught as his tongue moved lower, tracing the curve of her ribs. Not sexual—not exactly—but intimate in ways that went beyond anything he’d done with the casual partners who’d warmed his bed over the years. This was about ownership and care and the primal need to erase every trace of anything that wasn’tthem.
“Sylas.” Her voice came out strangled. “What are you—”
“Cleaning you.” He dragged his tongue across the valley between her breasts, and her whole body arched beneath him. “They touched you. Their eyes, their attention, theirjudgment. I can taste it on your skin.”
She made a sound—half laugh, half sob—that he felt more than heard. “That’s not how touch works.”
“It is for me.”
His muzzle moved to her stomach, and she went rigid. Not from fear—he could read her well enough now to know the difference. From sensation. From the intimacy of what he was doing, the complete surrender it required.
She was letting him. Despite everything. Despite the terror she must feel, the uncertainty of what came next, the vulnerability of lying bare beneath a creature who could end her life with a single swipe of his claws.
She waslettinghim.
Trust. She trusts us.
The realization made something crack open in his chest. Something that had been locked away since long before she’d crashed into his life. Something that felt dangerously close to the bond his people spoke of—the connection between mates that went beyond political alliance or breeding convenience.
He’d never wanted it. Never sought it. Had convinced himself that an Alpha King couldn’t afford such weakness.
But she’d given it to him anyway. Without asking. Without understanding what it meant.
His tongue traced patterns across her hip, and she whimpered—a small, broken sound that made his beast want to roar with satisfaction. Not from power or dominance, but from the simple pleasure of making her feel good. Of caring for her in ways words couldn’t express.
“The ceremony.” He spoke against her skin, lips brushing the delicate curve of her waist. “You purified a contaminated core. That shouldn’t be possible.”
“I know.”
“How did you do it?”
“I don’t know.” Her fingers found his fur again, threading through the thick strands along his shoulder. The sensation sent sparks racing down his spine. “I just...refused to let it win.”
Refused.
As if fighting Moon Tear corruption was a matter of willpower. As if the madness that had claimed countless males over generations could be defeated by simple human stubbornness.