Chapter 28: MINE

"I’ll marry you."

Dorian had fully braced himself for a refusal. He wouldn’t have blamed her if she had walked away, so her sudden acceptance genuinely caught him off guard.

His golden eyes snapped up to meet hers, widening slightly. "What did you say?"

The disbelief in his voice amused Alyssa. She shyly tucked a thick lock of blood-tipped hair behind her ear and looked at him. "I said I’ll marry you. I’ll help you keep your throne."

Dorian was almost afraid to believe it. He hadn’t expected her to actually agree so easily, even though he had confidently boasted to Jake that she would.

"Do you really mean that?" he asked, his voice dropping into a thick, raspy timbre.

Alyssa nodded. "You’ve been nothing but kind to me from the moment you found me. I have nowhere else to go, no home to return to. No family. But... that isn’t the reason I agreed."

She lowered her gaze, suddenly unable to maintain eye contact. "You were wrong when you assumed I didn’t feel anything for you. I do feel something, but I don’t know what it is yet. Maybe it’s the way you keep me safe, the way you... care for me. The way you treat me like I’m the only thing that matters in your world."

"You are," Dorian murmured. He cupped her face, his large palms incredibly soft against her skin. "Maybe it’s too soon to say it, but you matter to me, Alyssa, more than words can explain. When I found you that night, bleeding and unconscious, I knew fate had brought you right back to me."

He gently tilted her chin up. "I promise to keep you safe from now on. You have a family now. Me, Pandora, and everyone in this fortress. You are not alone anymore."

His words brought a sudden rush of tears to her eyes. As they spilled down her cheeks, he leaned forward and kissed her.

There was nothing soft or gentle about the kiss this time. He kissed her with a fierce, burning hunger, staking a permanent claim on her and marking her as his own. Inside his head, a deep, possessive voice snarled into the darkness. MINE!

Dorian’s eyes suddenly flew open. For a split second, the entire whites of his eyes bled into a glowing, crimson red. But in a flash, it disappeared, leaving his golden irises completely normal before shutting close again.

He slowly pulled away a fraction, his lips still brushing against hers. He swiped at a lone tear on her cheek, pressing one final, tender kiss to her mouth before completely drawing back.

"Thank you," she whispered.

​"Don’t," he shook his head, staring deeply into her eyes. "I should be the one thanking you for falling right back into my arms."

He went quiet for a moment, carefully calculating his next words. "About my ex-wife, I can’t give you the full story right now. It is not something I like to talk about."

Alyssa listened quietly, her mind spinning, wondering what dark history was behind the story.

"But I will tell you eventually," he continued. "On a good day. I promise."

Alyssa badly wanted to know the truth right then, but she restrained herself. She would wait.

"Okay," she nodded.

​Dorian let out a silent breath of relief. Two massive hurdles had been cleared; the truth of his heritage, and securing her hand in marriage.

Now, it was time for the third, and most critical piece of the puzzle.

"Tell me about yourself, Alyssa," he murmured, his hands resting on her waist. "The night I first met you, you told me you didn’t have a mate, but I know there’s more to it. What pushed a wolfless girl into a dangerous place like Iridian? And after that night, why did you suddenly disappear."

Alyssa closed her eyes, exhaling a long, shaky breath. Since Dorian had rescued her, she had managed to lock those dark memories in the furthest corner of her mind. Talking about it now was like ripping open old wounds.

"My story is not a pretty one, Dorian," she said softly.

"And I told you I can handle it," Dorian replied without hesitation. "Tell me everything. I want to know."

Alyssa looked away from his piercing gaze, giving a slow nod.

"I have no parents," she began, her voice steady. "And I never met my mother. My stepmother, Ingrid, told me that my birth caused my mother’s death. My father married her when I turned eight, and she already had a daughter, Melinda, who was the same age as me."

In a low, monotonous voice, she described the years of abuse she had endured. She detailed how her father had mysteriously passed away from poisoning just a year after marrying Ingrid, and how she was reduced to a slave in her father’s home.

She told him about the nights Ingrid had forcefully pressed both of her hands onto a searing hot stove as punishment for eating without permission, and how Melinda had almost drowned her in the river. She only shared a fraction of the horrors, because the true extent of the abuse was simply too brutal to put into words.

Dorian didn’t interrupt all through. His facial expression remained blank, stone-cold and unreadable. But his eyes blazed. His golden irises burned like living flames, his jaw locking so tight the muscle ticked.

"Then I met my ex-boyfriend, Fabian," Alyssa murmured.

The moment that name left her lips, Dorian’s posture shifted. He sat up straighter, a deep, menacing frown creasing his brow.

"Fabian?" he repeated.

"Yes. Fabian Hallow," Alyssa continued, unaware of the dangerous glint that had just entered Dorian’s eyes. "I met him when I turned sixteen, and we fell in love, or so I thought. He promised me he would reject his fated mate if he ever found her when we turned eighteen. And I was stupid enough to believe him."

She paused, taking a ragged breath to steady her chest. Dorian gently squeezed her hand, his thumb stroking over her delicate skin.

"The night I met you, I had caught him in bed with Melinda," she continued, her voice beginning to tremble as the memories flooded back. "It turns out he discovered she was his fated mate the night we all turned eighteen. He didn’t reject her, and he never told me. He just kept sleeping with her behind my back."

Her tears were falling freely now, and Dorian noticed her grief was giving way to a raw, bottled-up rage.

With her voice shaking over every syllable, she laid it all bare. She told him about the confrontation, her escape into Iridian, and how her stepmother had sold her to Gerald’s harem as a sex slave.

She explained how she had survived by violently resisting Gerald’s advances, enduring the punishments that followed, until she finally managed to break free on the night of her escape.

By the time the story ended, she was sobbing.

Dorian pulled her into his broad chest, cradling her tightly against him and simply holding her while she wept. Only now did he truly understand what she meant when she said her past wasn’t pretty.

"I am so sorry you went through that, little lamb," he whispered fiercely, pressing a deep kiss into her hair. "But I promise you, it’s all over. As long as you are by my side, you are untouchable."

He lifted her chin, gently wiping the tears from her cheeks. Her tears made her eyes shimmer like bright sapphires.

"Your past is my past now," he murmured. "And your burdens are my burdens. Let me take them off your shoulders. Will you let me?"

She sniffed, her blue eyes searching his. All she saw in his expression was a burning, unyielding sincerity. He meant every single word.

"Yes," she whispered.

He kissed her then, wildly, deeply, his lips claiming hers with an absolute possessiveness. His hands slid into her hair, tangling in the soft strands and angling her head to the side.

And Alyssa kissed him back with the exact same intensity, matching his hunger and his chaos. Her fingers clutched tightly at his shirt, holding onto him like a drowning person seeking leverage.

In that exact moment, Dorian made a silent vow. He would wreak havoc on every single person who had ever caused her pain.