This psycho Alpha didn’t want a servant. He wanted a shadow. He wanted . And now, I couldn’t move without feeling his madness pressed against my skin. From sunrise to sunset, he refused to let out of sight. If I stepped into the hallway, his boots echoed behind . If I lingered in the courtyard, his shadow stretched across mine until it swallowed whole. Once, desperate for a mont of air, I slipped toward the back gardens, heart hamring, praying he was busy. I made it ten steps before the familiar chill prickled down my spine.
"Running, little oga?" His voice slid through the silence like a knife.
I froze, my breath catching. Slowly, I turned. There he was. Leaning against the tree with his arms folded, watching as though he had been there all along. His eyes glittered in a way that made my stomach twist.
"You can run," he continued, pushing off the tree, his steps slow and deliberate. "But you’ll never get away. Do you know why?"
I swallowed, unable to speak.
"Because I already live inside your head." His smile was sharp, feral. "Every step you take, every breath you draw you think of . I haunt you even when I’m not here."
He was right. And that truth broke sothing inside .
At als, he made sit beside him, too close, his arm brushing mine deliberately as he lifted his fork. The other ogas gossiped, glaring daggers at , but their whispers didn’t matter. What mattered was the Alpha’s hand on the table, inching close to mine, tapping a rhythm that matched my heartbeat. He leaned down, murmuring low enough for only to hear. "Do you feel how your pulse races when I touch the table? You’re already anticipating . Your body begs for even when your mouth lies."
I flinched, pulling my hand away. His smirk deepened. "Fear is still hunger, Ellie. It just tastes sharper."
The nights were worse.
Always the sa the click of the lock, the creak of the door, the shift in the air before I even opened my eyes. My body knew before my mind did: he was here. When I looked, he was seated in the chair by the window, or standing in the shadows, or on the nights that broke most leaning over , his breath ghosting across my cheek. He whispered then, not to , but to himself. His inner thoughts bleeding out like poison, words I was never ant to hear but could never unhear.
"Inner voice: Look at her. So small, so fragile. I could snap her neck and end her in a second. But why would I? Breaking her too fast would ruin the ga."
"Inner voice: I want her afraid. I want her trembling. Every shiver tells she knows she belongs to ."
"Sotis I think about locking her away. Caging her where no one can see her. Just and her, forever. She’d cry at first. But she’d learn. She’d learn to smile only for ."
I pressed the blanket to my mouth to smother the sound of my breathing. But he heard it anyway.
"Inner voice: Ah," he whispered, tilting his head. "Even the way she hides excites . She thinks she can keep herself from , but she can’t. She’s already mine. She will die mine."
My tears soaked the pillow. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. But my body was paralyzed with terror. And he just smiled, sinking into the chair, his eyes glowing faintly. "Perfect little pet. You don’t even realize how beautiful you are when you’re terrified. I could watch you like this forever."
Day after day, his madness deepened. When he held council etings, he placed on a cushion by his chair. Not outside. Not down the hall. At his feet, where his hand could rest on my hair as he spoke to the other alphas.
"Why here?" I whispered once, my voice trembling.
His lips brushed my ear, his words venomous silk. "Inner voice: Because when they look at , I want them to see you. I want them to know what I own."
The word own left bruises on my heart. He stroked my hair idly as he spoke to his n, his voice steady, commanding, as though discussing war strategies. And yet, between the pauses, his whispers dropped like blades into .
"Inner voice: you are mine, my oga. And You will never escape."
And the others pretended not to hear. They bowed to him, not . They left to drown in his madness alone.
Joan was the only one who noticed how my life had turned upside down the mont I started living with the Alpha. She found in the laundry, my hands shaking so badly I could barely fold a sheet.
"Ellie..." she whispered, glancing around nervously. "Are you okay? You are pale. Oh moon goddess you’re trembling again.
"I can’t stop," I choked out. "He’s everywhere, Joan. He doesn’t leave alone. Even when he’s not near, I hear him everywhere My throat closed, tears stinging my eyes. "He says things, Joan. Things that... haunt ."
Her eyes widened, fear darkening them. "You have to be careful. If he’s showing you his mind... Ellie, that’s not obsession. That’s possession. You’re not his oga. You’re his prisoner. "Wait! Are you the Alpha’s Mate?"
"What? Never, I can never be his mate i shouted.
"Are you sure Ellie Joan asked again.
"Yes, I’m sure. Joan stayed with for a while before going back to her duty post.
That night, I woke to find him not at the window, not in the chair but lying on the floor beside my bed. His face was turned toward , his arm stretched across the rug like he’d fallen asleep watching.
Except he wasn’t asleep. The mont I shifted, his eyes opened, gleaming with hunger.
"Finally awake," he whispered, voice hoarse with sothing I couldn’t na. "Inner voice: I’ve been listening to you breathe for hours."
I recoiled, pressing against the wall. "Alpha, please—"
"Please?" he echoed, rising fluidly to his feet. "Please what? Please leave? Please stay? You don’t even know what you’re begging for."
His hand braced against the wall beside my head, trapping . His gaze burned, his words spilling out like poison.
"Sotis I imagine breaking your legs so you can’t run. Would you hate then? Or would you finally understand that you’re mine?"
Terror choked .
"Inner voice: Other tis, I imagine locking you underground. No light, no sound, just . You’d go mad, but at least you’d go mad with . And isn’t that better than being sane without ?"
My body shook violently. Tears stread down my face. "Why are you doing this to ?"
His smile was slow, chilling. "Because I can’t stop. Because the mont I saw you, I knew. You’re the only thing in this cursed world that makes feel alive. And if I have to destroy you to keep that feeling, I will."
I sobbed, pressing my hands to my face. He leaned closer, his breath hot against my ear. "Inner voice: You will never escape toad, Even if you run, I’ll find you. Even if you die, I’ll dig you up. You belong to until the end of everything."
When he finally stepped back, I collapsed against the bedfra, gasping for air.
He watched for a long mont, then smirked, satisfied. "Beautiful. You look most beautiful when you break."
And then he left. The door closed. The room was silent.
But his words his horrifying, obsessive thoughts stayed behind, etched into my bones. And I knew then, with a sinking, soul-crushing certainty, that my life is over. I’m stuck here in this werewolf world forever. I had begun to realize that the walls of the Alpha’s quarters weren’t made of stone, but of him. The crazy psycho is everywhere I turned, every step I took, every breath I dared to draw, his presence was there. Looming. Heavy. Impossible to escape. He had made his personal oga, not his mate, not his equal his possession. He claid it wasn’t the sa as marking , but it felt worse sohow. With a mate-bond, at least there was fate’s hand in the strings. With Zach, there was only his will, raw and suffocating, pulling I tighter and tighter into the cage of his obsession. By day, his eyes followed . In the corridors. At als. Even when I went to fetch water, I could feel the weight of him standing sowhere nearby. His shadow beca my shadow. And by night By night, he stole the little scraps of peace I tried to find. I had known for weeks that he ca into my room when the moon rose, his footsteps barely whispering on the stone floor. At first I thought I was dreaming. The feeling of being watched had woken from sleep, my heart thudding too loudly in the quiet. I would open my eyes to darkness and convince myself it was my mind playing tricks. But then... then I began to see the faint silhouette near the window, or the chair in the corner. Him. Always him. Watching breathe. Watching dream. And every morning, when the dawn crept through the curtains, there was never a trace of him. No words spoken, no evidence left behind except for the tightening knot of dread in my chest. I had learned to sleep with the blanket pulled all the way to my chin, as though that could protect from his gaze. But that night, sothing changed. That night, I woke up not because of the cold stillness of his stare, but because of warmth. Heat pressed against my back, solid and unrelenting. My body stiffened instantly, dread crawling up my spine. His scent the unmistakable, suffocating mix of pine and smoke and sothing darker wrapped around like chains. I didn’t even need to turn. I knew. Alpha the crazy Alpha was in my bed. My breath hitched, sharp and frantic, as I forced myself to move slowly, inch by inch. When I turned my head, my heart nearly stopped.
He was there beside , stretched out on his side like he belonged, one powerful arm locked tightly around my waist. His face was buried in my hair, his chest rising and falling against my back. He was holding like I was sothing he could lose, sothing he refused to let go of even in sleep. Terror washed through , leaving trembling. My hands curled into fists against the mattress to stop myself from shaking the bed. I wanted to scream, but the sound lodged in my throat like a stone.
Not the voice. Not the cruel, mocking tone of his inner voice that usually hissed words of possession into the air. Tonight, the voice was silent. Instead, there were fragnts. Broken whispers, torn from his lips in sleep.
"No... not her... don’t—" His brow furrowed, his hold around tightening until I could barely breathe. His voice cracked, low and pained. "Blood... everywhere. Stop. Please. I’ll... I’ll kill you. I’ll kill—"
I froze, my eyes wide in the dark. He was dreaming. This psycho is actually having a nightmare?" His body jerked slightly against mine, his arm tightening even more, pulling flush against his chest. His face twisted, and for the first ti since I’d known him, he didn’t look like the cruel, untouchable Alpha. He looked broken.
"Alpha," I whispered before I could stop myself. My voice was barely audible, a tremor in the night. He flinched, his breath hitching, but he didn’t wake. Instead, more fragnts spilled out.
"They burned her... I couldn’t no, no!His words dissolved into a ragged growl, and then softer, almost pleading: "Mine. Don’t take her. Don’t take her away."
A shiver ran through . My chest felt too tight. I wanted to shove him off, to scream, to run but sothing in his voice rooted there. I had seen him furious. I had seen him mocking, cruel, terrifying. But this... this was sothing else. He was afraid. The thought unsettled more than his grip. Because if the psycho Alpha, the Alpha everyone talked about in fear, the man who haunted my every step, could be afraid what nightmare was strong enough to haunt him? I swallowed hard, trying to steady my shaking. His fingers dug into my hip as though he was holding onto for dear life. I tried to breathe evenly, terrified of waking him, terrified of what he would say or do if he realized I had caught him like this. And yet my heart twisted when I felt the faintest tremor run through his body. A shudder, as though whatever he was seeing in his dream tore him apart from the inside. For a mont just a single, impossible mont I wondered if this was what the silence of his inner voice ant. If the thing that usually taunted , claid , possessed ... had been drowned out by a different kind of tornt. His nightmare. I should have hated him. I should have used the chance to slip away from his grasp, to crawl out of bed and run to the furthest corner of the quarters. But I didn’t.
I couldn’t. Because his face... gods, his face. Even in the dim light, I could see the anguish etched into every line. His jaw clenched tight, his lips drawn in a grimace of pain. His brow creased as though he were reliving sothing that destroyed him. And then his voice broke again, hoarse and desperate.
"Ellie.. he whispered almost pleading The world seed to tilt beneath . I didn’t understand. I didn’t want to understand. But the sound of it made sothing heavy settle in my chest. His breath fanned against my neck, uneven and hot, and though my skin crawled with fear, my heart betrayed by beating too fast, too confused. This was still crazy psycho, the Alpha who tornted , who refused to let breathe without his permission. But for the first ti, I could see the cracks. The nightmare leaking through. help God, a part of wanted to know why. His grip softened slightly, his breathing hitching as the nightmare began to loosen its hold. Slowly, the lines on his face eased, though his arm never let go. He sighed in his sleep, a low sound that vibrated against my back. I stayed still, rigid in his arms, staring into the darkness. Every part of scread that I should push him away. That I should claw my way free and put as much distance between us as possible. But I didn’t move, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t move. Because for the first ti since I had been dragged into his world, the monster looked human.
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