Feral Bonds: Claimed By Rogue Alpha Brothers

Evaline:

The silence stretched between us like a taut string ready to snap. My back was pressed lightly against the wall, my hands fisting my coat on my sides, and yet it wasn't the cold wall behind me that sent shivers spiraling through my body. It was him. The sheer weight of his presence - his towering frame, the storm in his stunning deep green eyes.

I held his gaze, searching, trying to decipher what exactly was going through his mind. But River was a fortress, as always. His expression gave nothing away save for the faint tension around his jaw, the faint flare of his nostrils as though every ounce of his control was being tested.

Then, without warning, he closed his eyes. His chest expanded with a slow, deep inhale, and I naively thought that he was trying to calm himself down. That perhaps he was reminding himself to be civil with me, his assistant, his mate, the one who seemed to always push his boundaries without meaning to.

But the illusion shattered a heartbeat later. His lips curled into a curse, guttural and low, followed by a deep growl that rolled from his chest like thunder.

I flinched.

It took me only a second to realize what had happened. He had inhaled me. He had pulled my scent into his lungs... except not just my scent. Their scent. Oscar's and Draven's.

His eyes snapped open, and the glare he leveled at me was sharp enough to slice me in half. As if all of this - my existence, my arrival, my very nerve to stand in his office smelling like his brothers - was my fault.

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry. I hadn't even thought about it. I hadn't imagined, not for one moment, that he would notice this easily. That the second I stepped into his office, he would smell Oscar and Draven clinging to me, woven into my skin like a second layer. And even if I had considered it - how was I supposed to predict this reaction?

I opened my mouth, ready to speak, but he beat me to it.

"Do you know," he said suddenly, his voice sharp but controlled, "that your mates' scent on you is... special?"

I blinked. My lips parted, but nothing came out. Special? What was he even talking about?

He took a step closer, his eyes never leaving mine. "Oscar and Draven didn't just mark you with their scents carelessly. The way you are carrying them... only your mates would notice. No one else in this building smelled them on you. Only me."

My confusion must have been plain on my face, because he tilted his head slightly, studying me like he was dissecting every flicker of thought across my expression.

"You didn't know," he said flatly.

I shook my head slowly, still trying to wrap my mind around his words. Scent-marking in such a way that only mates could pick it up? I didn't even know that was possible.

But before I could ask, his next words stole the ground from beneath my feet.

"Do you know why they marked you like this?" His voice was lower now, almost taunting.

I shook my head again, my chest tightening with unease.

His lips curved, but it wasn't a smile. It was sharper than that. "Because they wanted me to notice. They wanted me to smell them on you. They marked you like this to tease me."

I stared at him, my mind whirling. For a moment, I was ready to dismiss it, to argue that he was reading too much into things. That Oscar and Draven, for all their playful torment and secretive ways, wouldn't stoop to such pettiness. But then the thought lodged deeper, and I froze.

They would.

They absolutely would.

Oscar with his cold, calculating subtlety. Draven with his mischievous smirks and relentless need to push buttons. Together, they were perfectly capable of crafting such a deliberate torment just to rile their eldest brother.

Heat flushed across my cheeks, but not from embarrassment this time. If I could have stomped into the mountain cabin at that moment, I would have given them both a piece of my mind. Sweet, heartwarming as their scent-marking felt to me, it had landed me straight into River's radar. A battlefield I had no defenses against.

I was still lost in those thoughts when River stunned me all over again.

"Let me mark you with my scent."

The words hit me like a physical blow.

My breath caught. My eyes widened. My heart stuttered so violently in my chest that I was sure he could hear it.

I stared at him, speechless, my mind blank as snow. Had I heard him right? Surely, I hadn't. Surely, River - the ruthless, controlled, untouchable Rogue Alpha King - hadn't just asked me if he could scent-mark me.

But his eyes, those deep green eyes, held me in place, sharp and unyielding. He had said it.

When I failed to form a single syllable, he spoke again, his voice deliberate and steady.

"I don't want to give them the satisfaction. Letting them believe their little trick succeeded..." His gaze hardened. "No. I'll answer them the only way they won't expect. By marking you with my scent instead."

I blinked rapidly, my lips parting. Words finally tumbled out, shaky and incredulous. "Why... why should I let you?"

Something shifted in his eyes at that. He stepped closer, so close I could feel the faint warmth of his body, so close the steady rise and fall of his chest brushed against mine. My heart started racing wildly, my breath sharp and unsteady.

He leaned down, his lips hovering just near my ear, and his voice dropped into a whisper that coiled around my spine like smoke.

"Because you don't need to pretend."

My body stiffened.

"It's not like your body isn't about to melt at the thought of my lips grazing your skin."

The air rushed out of me, and my knees nearly buckled.

I wanted to protest, to push him away, to say no. It should have been the easiest thing in the world to refuse him. I was supposed to dislike him. I was supposed to keep my distance, to draw a line in the sand and never cross it.

And yet...

My body betrayed me. My breath came faster, harsher. My heart thundered. And the image - his lips on my skin, his scent wrapping around me - did things to me I couldn't begin to admit.

He was right. He was so painfully right.

I should have said no. I should have resisted. But the word refused to form. My lips moved uselessly, and my body leaned into him instead of away.

And just when I thought I couldn't possibly be any weaker against him, as if I wasn't already struggling enough to refuse him, he tipped the scales completely.

His breath brushed against my ear again, deliberate, dangerous. "I'll even offer you your bonus for the month."

My eyes widened.

Oh, no.

Not that.

He knew. He knew exactly what my weakness was.