Chapter 4

The man with white hair, cold as ice, looked at me with a hard expression as more men gathered around us. At that moment, one of them approached and called him by name: Ezra Heist.

My heart skipped a beat. Ezra Heist. The name echoed in my head, and suddenly, everything clicked. That’s why everything felt so familiar. Ezra was the male protagonist in the novel I was reading just before the accident. The ambush at the river, the capture… this is part of the story.

My thoughts were racing. How did I become a character in a fiction novel? I tried to calm myself, but it was as if everything was moving too fast to process. I was Fenir… or rather, I was in her body, now I remembered. But the main character of the novel wasn’t Fenir. It was Zenia Madfur, a beautiful noblewoman from a prominent family. The same Zenia who ends up lost in the forest after Fenir, her adoptive sister, leaves her abandoned and unconscious in the dark woods to prevent her marriage to the Lycan royal heir and take her place in that marriage. However, Fenir is tragically murdered by Ezra Heist, Zenia’s destined mate.

Did I end up in a novel, and not even as the protagonist? No, not at all. Instead of being the heroine, I ended up as the villain, the secondary character destined to die at the end. Is this for real? This must be the worst luck ever. Life was never fair to me, but this… this is too much.

I’m the antagonist of the story. My sole purpose is to be an obstacle in the path of the protagonists, a hurdle so they can have their happy ending. I shouldn’t even appear in the first act of the story, and still, here I am! Though, honestly, dying is not part of my plans. I don’t care what the script says or how inevitable the plot may seem; I refuse to accept an ending where I end up dead. Why should I settle for being just a worthless secondary character? No. Surviving is the only thing that matters to me, because I have to find a way to return to my reality, to my true life. And to achieve that, I need to find the way out of this story.

So, if the author of this novel placed me here just to watch me fall, she’ll have to reconsider the ending, because I, Carolina Williams, am not going down without a fight.

While my mind continued wrestling for answers, Ezra approached with slow yet firm steps, watching me with the same coldness he had shown before.

“You’re my prisoner now,” he said in an icy voice.

My heart skipped again, but this time not because of Eva’s euphoria, but due to disbelief. Prisoner? Me? The word echoed in my mind, and at that moment, I knew I couldn’t just stand there and let him decide my fate.

“Excuse me? Prisoner?! No, no, no. This is not happening,” I murmured, struggling to stand even though my legs were shaking. Still, I straightened up, striving to maintain a dignified stance.

“Wait a minute! I am not your property! Are we living in the Middle Ages here? What kind of ridiculous story is this? Where’s my freedom? Slavery was abolished centuries ago, and my freedom is protected by rights,” I declared firmly, though my voice was a bit shaky from the mix of anger and desperation. If I were going to survive, he needed to understand that this was going to be complicated.

But Ezra simply looked at me, his expression cold and emotionless, as if my words were mere whispers in the wind. He didn’t seem affected at all.

“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?” I exclaimed, and, letting frustration take over, I started muttering about suing him and taking him to court. “This is a complete violation of my rights! I have the right to defend my freedom, and you’re going to hear from me in court!”

Ezra raised an eyebrow, and a small mocking smile crossed his lips. I saw him hold back a laugh, but he eventually let out a soft, restrained chuckle. His men exchanged glances, as if I were raving, and that only made me angrier.

“Is this funny to you? Laughing at someone’s rights?” I demanded, not even thinking about the consequences.

“It’s amusing…” Ezra murmured, his eyes shining with amusement as he watched me with that superior expression. “You talk about rights and freedom, but here that has no value. You don’t need to understand it. I suggest you get used to your place… before it’s too late.”

“Oh, fantastic!” I exclaimed, unable to hold back the sarcasm. “Great, right? As if being treated like a sack of potatoes was just what I always dreamed of.

Ezra said nothing else, but I saw his eyes harden. Then, he nodded his head, and one of his men stepped forward toward me.

“You’ll be better off if you don’t fight,” he added with a coldness that made my skin crawl. “Gag her.”

The man took a dirty cloth and stuffed it in my mouth, tying it tightly around my head.

“Mmmmf!” I tried to scream, but my voice was muffled by the cloth. I felt frustration boiling inside me. Damn psychopath! I thought, struggling desperately to break free.

I spent hours tied up like a dog, angry and helpless, something I truly hated. Meanwhile, Eva was pacing frantically in my mind, as if digging a hole in my subconscious.

“Mate! Ezra is our mate!” she kept shouting, completely ignored. Eva’s anger and frustration grew so much that she began to lose control, and the worst part was that I felt her fury pulling me along with her.

Eva, calm down! I wanted to scream, but it was useless. Suddenly, something shifted inside me. My body tensed, my muscles contracted, and a burning sensation ran down my spine. A partial transformation, as if Eva wanted to come out and take control of me. My nails lengthened, my senses sharpened, and, with almost superhuman effort, I managed to break free from the chains.

The men holding me were stunned, but they didn’t have time to react before I shoved them off and freed myself from their control.

Run, Carolina, I thought. Run! But Eva had other ideas.

“No,” she said with suicidal determination. “We have to mark him.”

Before I could stop her, my body, now under my crazy wolf’s control, bolted in the direction of Ezra’s camp.

No, no, no, this is freaking madness! I wanted to scream, but I had no control. Eva was determined, and nothing was going to stop her.

Eva moved with astonishing precision, each step calculated, silent. While Ezra’s men frantically searched the forest for her, she was in the last place they expected: stalking the alpha in his camp. She slipped through the shadows like a specter, avoiding any noise that could give her away. Her target was clear. The wolf had no doubts.

When she reached Ezra’s tent, she climbed with feline agility. The air was thick with the dim light of the fire, enough to outline her naked figure on a bed of furs. There he was, Ezra, the Alpha. Naked, with golden skin glowing in the firelight. His chest rose and fell slowly, and the muscles of his abdomen were defined like a living sculpture.

Eva’s influence began to fade, and suddenly, I was myself again, Carolina, naked and far too close to him. Everything inside me ignited as soon as I saw him so close, so vulnerable. Ezra Heist is a cold, calculating man, but incredibly attractive. My body responded in ways I had never experienced before. I felt a scorching heat between my legs and a clear liquid trickling down my inner thighs as if my own body were responding to the call of nature.

“I can smell your heat,” his deep, rough voice cut through the air, making every cell in my body tingle. “It’s sweet.” The way he said it, as if desire were an inevitable sentence, pierced my core like a blade, and the air around us seemed to grow heavy and thick. My breasts tightened, my nipples hardening under his amber gaze that shone like two clear beacons in the darkness.

In one swift motion, Ezra grabbed me by the waist and pulled me on top of him. The heat of his skin beneath my bare thighs was incendiary. My breathing became erratic, and my thoughts began to dissolve into a gray fog of pure desire.

My wolf was completely out of control. Everything in her screamed to mate with this alpha. It was a primal, instinctual urge, like the most passionate and wild scenes I had seen in movies. But this wasn’t a fantasy. This was real. My body trembled with every sensation, each one multiplied by a hundred.

This is madness, I thought, my mind trying to resist, but it was futile. The cloud of desire enveloped every corner of my being, and the only thought left was inevitable: Make him yours. I wasn’t a virgin, but I had never felt so out of control, so enslaved by desire as I did now. I had never experienced this level of attraction, of need. And then, all my self-control went out the window.

Ezra wasted no time. He leaned in and captured my lips in a deep kiss. His mouth was firm but soft, and the contact made my skin ignite as if I had been set on fire. Every caress his hands traced over my smooth skin was like a drug. This was addictive.

Ezra’s hands slid slowly up my waist, with a firm caress that made me shiver. My body responded instinctively, a sigh escaped my lips as his fingers grazed my breasts, provoking a wave of sensations that I couldn’t control. Every touch was a mix of tenderness and desire, which surprised me, given his cold nature. I thought he’d be wilder, rougher… but his touch, though intense, had an unexpected delicacy.

Eva was completely frantic. Mine, mine, hurry up! she screamed inside my mind, demanding more, but my body was already on the verge of madness, rubbing against him, feeling the strength of his desire.

Ezra grabbed my hips, lifting me with overwhelming ease. The sensation of being suspended, under his absolute control, flooded my entire being with warmth. The connection between us was magnetic. I looked into his eyes, those amber eyes that had once been cold and calculating, now blazing with desire. At that moment, all rational thought disappeared.

When he placed me over him, a wave of heat surged through my body. My arms clung to his shoulders, seeking an anchor, while his face moved slowly toward my chest. His breathing was uneven, like mine, and our bodies moved in sync as if we had found a primal harmony, beyond anything I had ever imagined.

This is unreal… I thought. The heat of his skin, the intensity of his gaze, it all fused into an experience that left me breathless. The glow in his eyes spoke of wild desire, but there was something deeper, something that made every second feel eternal as if the world had stopped around us.

Our bodies responded instinctively, with every movement reaching new heights of connection. Sex with wolves isn’t just physical, it was something more, a need that went beyond the human. It was madness, a shared frenzy that made me feel alive in a way I had never experienced before.

Every sensation was heightened. My temperature rose along with his, and the heat we shared enveloped me like a blanket, warm and deep. It was the best feeling I had ever had in my life, a connection that transcended the physical, leaving me completely vulnerable, yet at peace.

Still clinging to Ezra, our bodies fused by heat, Eva began to demand the inevitable. “Mark him,” she growled in my mind, her voice almost desperate. My wolf was out of control, and I could feel the urge growing within me. I leaned down slowly, brushing my lips against his neck, the perfect spot, the place where it would all end.

“Do it, mark him,” Eva screamed. I swear I could see her drooling with excitement.

But before I could react, Ezra pushed me back with a coldness that hit me like a bucket of ice water. His expression was distant, completely opposite to the moment we had just shared.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said, his voice like a cold dagger. “I only did you a favor to relieve your heat. You went into estrus, don’t think otherwise. We are not mates.”

For a second, I thought I hadn’t heard him right. What? Is he rejecting me? My jaw nearly hit the floor. A favor? What? Oh, come on! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. After all that? But, of course, what was I expecting? He’s the typical alpha male from a novel. Cold, calculating, and with no respect after sex.

However, I refused to be the suffering protagonist who pines over having given her “cookie” to the wrong man. Wolves, with their obsession with fated mates, couldn’t live without one. But I’m a 21st-century woman. Relationships, in my world, sometimes lasted as long as a sneeze and one-night stands were practically the norm at clubs. This wasn’t the end of the world.

Eva, however, didn’t see it that way. “You’re sad! Because of Ezra’s rejection.”

“Seriously?” I shouted at her mentally. “You’re an idiot! This is all your fault for not marking him.” Now she was blaming me for this.

“Of course not! He doesn’t want you as his mate! He just rejected you! Listen, woman, get up already!”

Ezra, looking at me with something resembling disdain, tossed an old piece of cloth my way. And with the same coldness, he said, “Being your mate is the last thing I would ever want. I’m not interested in you. This was just a momentary impulse, just sex, nothing more.”

I stared at him, furious, as I dressed myself with the cloth he had thrown at me.

“Believe me, you’re the worst prospect!” I exclaimed indignantly, still feeling the sting of his rejection burning on my skin. I had never felt so humiliated. “The one rejecting you here is me, Alpha!”

Eva roared inside my mind, even more outraged. “How dare you reject our mate?” she screamed at me, completely out of control.

“Hello!” I responded, exasperated. “He did it first!”