Enzo’s POV
I stood pacing by the window of my bedroom, checking the clock on the wall for what felt like the hundredth time.
Ten minutes.
It had only been ten minutes since the guards dragged Rebecca down the stairs, but it felt like ten long years.
My chest was tight.
My wolf had been restless ever since they dragged her away.
Everyone in the pack hall wanted her punished, but I?
I couldn’t stand it.
And more importantly, I knew what the dungeon would do to her.
I knew how much she hated small, dark spaces.
Ten minutes in that tight blackness was already ten minutes too long for my Rebecca.
”Fuck this,” I growled out loud to the empty room.
I couldn’t just sit here.
I didn’t care about the cold, tough Alpha mask I had just forced myself to wear, and I didn’t care about pack law.
I threw my jacket onto the bed and rushed out into the hallway.
I skipped the main halls and took the hidden, winding stone stairs that went straight down into the basement of the mansion.
When I reached the bottom floor, the foul smell of old silver and wet stone hit the back of my throat.
Two guards stood outside the narrow hallway, their faces hardening when they saw me coming.
”Alpha Enzo,” one of them said, stepping in my way and bowing quickly.
“You gave strict orders that nobody is allowed to visit the prisoner—”
I didn’t let him finish.
I lunged forward, grabbing the front of his vest and slamming him hard against the stone wall.
The keys at his waist rattled loudly.
”Open the fucking door,” I snarled, my voice shaking with pure Alpha power.
My eyes flashed a terrifying wolf-gold, threatening to tear his throat out right there.
“Now.
Before I make sure you never breathe again.”
The guard swallowed hard, his bravery completely gone.
His hands shook as he fumbled with the heavy iron ring, unlocking the rusty bolt.
The door made a loud, screeching noise as it swung open, revealing the pitch-black cell.
”Get out,” I barked at them over my shoulder.
“Both of you.
Leave.”
They didn’t need to be told twice.
Their hurried footsteps retreated up the stairs as I stepped inside, pulling a small flashlight from my pocket.
The second the flashlight found her, my heart instantly sank into my stomach.
”Becca,” I breathed.
She was slumped against the freezing stone wall, completely knocked out.
Her beautiful wedding dress was torn to pieces, the white silk stained with dirt and a line of dark, wet blood dripping from a severe cut on her forehead.
I dropped to my knees, pocketing the flashlight and scooping her weak body into my arms.
She felt so light, her skin ice-cold and wet with sweat.
But as I pulled her close against my chest, a strange, sweet, burning scent hit my nose.
It wasn’t just her usual smell.
It was heavy, thick, and dripping with an intoxicating, raw pheromone.
I looked up at the vents in the top corner of the tiny room.
A faint, glowing smoke was drifting in the air.
Wolfsbane poison.
The kind that forces a wolf into a violently desperate, frenzied heat.
”Those fucking bastards,” I roared, a deep growl ripping from my chest.
They hadn’t just put her in a normal cell to hold her.
Someone had rigged the tiny box with a potent, concentrated wolfsbane poison meant to break a wolf’s mind, completely burning up her body from the inside out.
It was meant to drive her crazy.
I didn’t waste another second.
I lifted her up in my arms, rushing past the empty guard post and taking the private back stairs straight to my bedroom.
I slipped inside my room, kicking the heavy wooden door shut and locking it behind me.
Carefully, almost gently, I laid her down across my bed.
My heart was hammering against my ribs.
I rushed over to the bathroom, poured a glass of cold water, and hurried back to her side.
”Becca.
Becca, look at me.
Wake up,” I begged, lifting her head a little and pressing the glass against her pale, trembling lips.
A sharp gasp came from her throat as her eyes flew open.
She swallowed a few drops of the water, coughing weakly as she looked around the room.
But she wasn’t herself.
The blue of her eyes was completely blurry, dilated so wide that the color was almost totally gone.
Her cheeks were suddenly burning a deep, bright red, and her breathing was ragged and shallow.
She dropped the glass, the water spilling all over the sheets, and looked up at me with a wild, desperate, and unadulterated sexual hunger.
”Enzo…” she whimpered, her voice dropping into a low, breathless whisper that sent a dangerous shock straight down my spine.
“It hurts…
I’m too hot.
Goddess, I’m burning up inside.”
Before I could even think, she reached out, her fingers scratching frantically at the front of my shirt, tearing at the fabric to get to my skin.
She dragged herself up, climbing into my lap and straddling my thighs with a sudden, wild strength caused by the potent poison running through her blood.
”Becca, wait—stop,” I groaned, putting my hands firmly on her waist to push her back, but my fingers sank into the soft curve of her hips.
Touching her was a mistake.
Even through the cloth of her dress, her skin felt like pure fire, melting right into my palms and igniting an answering spark in my groin.
“You aren’t yourself.
You’re breathing in a poison.
You need to rest.”
”No…
no, don’t push me away,” she cried out, making a broken, needy sound as she ground her core hard against my lap.
She completely ignored my hands, her fingers gripping my shoulders as she threw her weight forward, burying her face into my neck.
She took a deep breath, letting out a soft, needy moan that made my wolf roar with fierce, possessive anger.
The heavy, sweet, musky scent coming from her skin was filling my lungs, messing with my head, turning my blood to hot lava and causing my cock to throb violently against my jeans.
Then, her lips smashed into mine.
Fuck.
It wasn’t a gentle, careful kiss.
It was raw.
Hungry.
Messy, wild, and deeply sexual.
She tasted like blood, water, and pure sin.
I knew this had to be her first kiss—she had saved everything for me, the exact man who had just thrown her into the dark dungeon—and yet here she was, devouring my mouth, shoving her tongue deep between my lips like a dying woman desperate for air.
”Fuck, Becca, stop,” I groaned against her mouth, my grip tightening on her hips, trying to pull her off me even as my own body betrayed me, hardening instantly and throbbing painfully against her leg.
“You’re going to regret this.
Becca—”
”I want you,” she panted, her breath hot, wet, and heavy against my lips.
“Please, Enzo.
Make it stop burning.
Put yourself inside me.
I want you.”
She didn’t give me a chance to breathe.
With a sudden surge of feverish strength, she pressed her hands against my chest and shoved me backward.
I hit the mattress, groaning as she immediately scrambled over me, sitting right on my hips and rubbing her wet heat directly over my rock-hard erection.
The torn lace of her wedding dress bunched up around her waist, revealing smooth, pale thighs and bare skin against my dark bedsheets.
She leaned down, her blurry blue eyes locked onto mine for a split second before she buried her face in the side of my neck, biting down on my skin.
Her lips were scorching hot as she began to press wild, open-mouthed kisses along my jaw, dragging her wet tongue over my pulsing jugular, lapping up the sweat there.
A low, deep, predatory growl rumbled from my throat.
My hands acted on pure instinct, ripping into the fabric of her dress, tearing the bodice open to expose the soft swell of her breasts.
My palms slid up the bare, burning skin of her waist, pulling her down impossibly closer, grinding her pelvis against my own rising heat.
”Enzo…
please…” she whispered, her lips sliding down my throat, past my collarbone while her hands frantically tore the remaining buttons off my shirt, exposing my chest to her clawing touch.
She dropped lower, her mouth leaving a burning trail of wet, heavy, sucking kisses down my chest.
Her teeth bit lightly into my skin, nipping at my nipples until she reached the flat part of my belly, her breath hot against my abdomen.
Every single touch felt like an electric shock, burning away the last of my control and making my vision go red with lust.
I gripped her hair, my fingers tangling in the messy strands, trapped between wanting to pull her away and the overwhelming, wild urge to rip the rest of her clothes off and completely lose myself in her.
I knew she was out of her mind.
I knew the toxin was driving her into a feral heat she couldn’t control.
But as her hands slipped lower, wrapping around my swollen length through my denim and unbuckling the belt of my pants, my mind began to go completely dark.