Bound by Pain: My Alpha Mate Suffers Tenfold

I was born with extreme pain sensitivity. A simple push feels like being pricked by a thousand needles. A single slap leaves me in agonizing pain.

My mother said it was the curse of our witch bloodlineour bodies are too sensitive, able to feel even the slightest wrinkles of fate.

On her deathbed, she told me this sensitivity would guide me to my fated one.

Later, Alpha Victor of the Moonclaw Pack told me:

"You are my fated mate, my very life!"

Because of our blood-bond, any pain I feel is transmitted to him, magnified tenfold.

When his familys arranged fiance pinched my arm, Alpha Victor spasmed in agony and immediately terminated all business partnerships with the Linwoods.

His mother, the former Luna, slapped me: "Take a million dollars and stay away from my son!"

My cheek burned like fire. The next second, Alpha Victor went into shock from the phantom pain and threw his own mother into the Pack prison.

Since then, the entire werewolf world knew Alpha Victors golden rule:

"If she frowns even once, I will crush your bones!"

Yet, the daughter of the Ice Wolf Pack's Alpha, who had just returned from overseas, didn't know this. She kicked open my dorm door with her minions:

"How dare a low-life human like you seduce Alpha Victor!"

The next second, I was dragged toward the abandoned outpost, feeling completely hopeless...

***

The grip on the back of my neck was brutal.

As two Pack warriors dragged me toward the abandoned warehouse, students along the hallway stuck their heads out to watch.

Their whispers felt like tiny needles piercing straight into my brain.

The warrior holding me gripped so tightly that his claws dug through my clothes and into the flesh of my arm. It hurt.

I clenched the hem of my shirt, my eyes burning with tears.

I had been like this since I was a child.

When others pushed me lightly, I would hurt for hours.

Now, with the warriors knuckles squeezing my wrist bone like steel pliers, waves of intense pain flooded my entire body.

"Still acting tough? Who do you think you are?"

"Why are you crying? Stop playing the victim!"

Ivy Linwood sauntered over to me in her four-inch stilettos. Her fingers, painted blood-red, flew up.

*Slap!*

She struck my face right in front of everyone.

She was the eldest daughter of the Ice Wolf Pack's Alpha. The Linwood family sat on the board of trustees at Northwood University.

She had just returned from Europe, only to find that her Alpha had been taken by a human with witch blood.

To her, this was a double insult. She hated witches, and she despised humans.

Ten minutes ago, when she kicked my dorm door open, I was typing my thesis on my laptop. Before I could even finish a sentence, she splashed half a cup of iced soda all over me.

"How dare a human with witch blood seduce Alpha Victor?"

She shrieked so loudly that the entire dorm floor poked their heads out.

Those curious, mocking, and gossiping stares fell on my face. Shame and anger rushed through me, choking back any words of defense.

The warrior behind me shoved me forward. I stumbled, my arm twisted behind my back. My joint let out a sharp pop. The agonizing pain shot straight to my brain, making my vision go dark.

"What are you doing! Ive already notified the Pack Enforcement!"

My roommate, Chloe, rushed over to stop them, only to be shoved hard against the wall by a warrior. Her phone slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.

Ivy sneered, stepping over my scattered belongings, and ordered the warriors to keep moving.

"Pack Enforcement?" she laughed arrogantly.

"Even if you take this to the Pack Tribunal, its useless. The Linwood family owns this school. You're just a witch-blooded human who barged in here by seducing Victor. What are you, anyway?"

I looked at my printed thesis and notes, now covered in muddy footprints. My twisted arm was still throbbing with pain. A tear slipped down and splashed onto the back of my hand.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out, but my pain-hypersensitive body made it impossible to control.

Seeing this, Ivy mocked:

"Oh, look at you. Who do you think you are, playing the fragile victim?"

Just as she raised her hand to deliver another slap to my face.

A voice roared from the end of the hallway: "Stop right there!"

The man leading the way was Alpha Victors Beta deputy, Derek.

Behind him stood four uniformed Pack warriors, lined up in perfect formation.

Derek looked at Ivy with a cold sneer, his voice freezing the air:

"Miss Linwood, I suggest you don't do anything stupid."

"If anything happens to Miss Whitmore, Im afraid you won't survive the consequences. She is our Alphas Fated Mate. Harming her is a direct declaration of war against the Moonclaw Pack."

Ivy froze for two seconds, then burst into a mocking laugh. She took a step forward, completely unfazed.

She pointed her long fingernail right at Dereks nose, her tone dripping with arrogance:

"Who do you think you are? A mere dog of the Moonclaw Pack dares to block my path?"

"Watch your tongue. Ive known Victor for over a decade. A Beta like you dares to play the hero here?"

She cursed as she shoved Derek's shoulder, glaring at him bossily:

"Get the hell out of my way! Let me teach this girl a lesson. When Alpha Victor arrives, Ill make him fire you on the spot!"

Ivy turned her glare back to me.

"Sage, don't think you're special just because you got a Beta deputy to back you up. Hes nothing but a Pack dog. I dont give a damn about him!"

Dereks expression turned utterly cold. The polite, professional smile on his face vanished. Nobody liked being called a dog.

But Ivy, spoiled her entire life, completely ignored the dangerous shift in the room. She kept mocking me, starting rumors on the spot:

"Your mother died early, and your grandmother is paralyzed in bed. You couldnt even afford tuition. Didn't you sell your body to get your name on the Vance Industries internship list?"

With every word she spoke, the murmurs around us grew louder.

Several classmates who didnt know me began to believe her lies.

"Wait, is her family really that broke?"

"No wonder she never eats at the nice diners. Shes desperate for cash."

"Could Ivy be telling the truth? The Vance Industries internship is almost impossible to get. How could a poor orphan get chosen over everyone else?"

"Yikes. She looks so innocent, but she's actually so wild behind closed doors."

I dug my fingernails deep into my palms, turning them white.

My slapped cheek was still burning, and my twisted arm throbbed. I couldnt even tell what hurt more anymore. I wanted to cry, I was furious that she was spreading disgusting rumors, and I was terrified that everyone would believe them.

It was true that I was poor.

Even though my mother was a witch, I didn't inherit any magical talent except for this hyper-sensitive body.

My grandma had been paralyzed from a stroke for five years. Her medical bills were over four thousand dollars a month. I worked three part-time jobs and studied late into the night to keep my scholarship just to pay for school.

But I got the Vance Industries internship fair and square. I beat out over three thousand applicants through five rounds of brutal interviews. I had nothing to be ashamed of.

Yet, the words clogged in my throat. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

The blood rushed to my head, and my ears buzzed.

Standing beside me, Derek saw my pale face and the endless tears streaming down. His expression changed instantly.

Only he knew what this meant.

One night a year ago, Ivy had hired a group of thugs to corner me in a dark alley behind the campus.

They dragged me to a corner and beat me. As I curled into a ball, one of my ribs snapped. The agonizing pain surged through my body like electricity. I nearly blacked out.

At that exact moment, Alpha Victor was hosting a routine meeting in the Pack council hall.

In the middle of his speech, his face turned deathly pale. He clutched his chest and collapsed to the floor.

The Pack elders panicked. The healers from the Silver Moon Clinic rushed in, but his vitals were perfectly normalexcept for a massive, dark purple bruise that rapidly formed on his chest, right where I had been kicked.

The healers were baffled. Victor couldn't explain where the pain came from either.

Over the next few months, similar phantom pains occurred. Sometimes, while signing documents, his arm would feel as if it were being sliced by a blade, yet his skin remained intact. Sometimes, he would wake up gasping in the middle of the night, feeling as if he were being strangled, though there were no marks on his neck.

The Pack doctors ran every test possiblebrain CTs, cardiac ultrasounds, blood analysis. Everything was normal.

Some elders even feared he had been cursed by a rival pack. They brought in the Elder Luna to perform a blessing ceremony, but nothing changed.

Until one day, Victor visited Northwood University.

I happened to run into Ivy in the hallway. She slapped me in front of everyone, her nails scratching my face. The instant the sharp pain registered in my brain, Victor, who was in the principals office, dropped his coffee cup. He collapsed to the floor, clutching his face, his shirt soaked in cold sweat.

The principal was terrified, thinking he had been poisoned.

When the school doctor examined Victors cheek, they watched the skin turn red and swell up in real-time, exactly as if he had just been slapped.

At that moment, Victor finally understood.

It wasn't a curse. I was his Fated Mate.

A witchs daughter had become the fated mate of an Alpha werewolf. Fate had forged a unique bond between us.

My physical pain was transmitted to him through the blood-bond, magnified tenfold.

Every time I was bullied, beaten, or hurt, he felt ten times the agony instantly.

If I were to be fatally injured, his heart might literally stop.

Only Derek knew about this secret. That was why Victor had ordered him to watch over me twenty-four hours a day. Anyone who dared to make me suffer would pay with their lives.

Dereks voice was tense as he roared at the warriors:

"What are you waiting for? Confiscate the phones of anyone who recorded videos or spread rumors! Note down their names. The Pack Tribunal will issue subpoenas to every single one of them!"

Seeing Derek panic, Ivy became even more arrogant.

"Oh? Are you sleeping with her too? Is that why you're protecting her so desperately?"

"The way this dog guards its bone is hilarious."

She snatched my canvas bag from the side and slammed it onto the floor.

That bag held my grandmas imported medication.

As the bag hit the floor, the plastic bottles shattered.

The yellow pills scattered everywhere, rolling into the dirt, ruined.

"Go on, pick them up," Ivy sneered, her eyes dripping with malice. "Don't you dogs love fetching things?"

My fingers trembled violently. I bent down to reach for the pills that hadn't touched the dirt yet.

But a stiletto heel stomped down first, crushing the pills into powder.

The yellow dust mixed with the dirt, completely useless now.

"Pick them up! Why did you stop?" Ivy laughed hysterically. "Is it too dirty? How about you lick it off the floor, and Ill buy you ten new bottles. Deal?"

I snapped my head up to look at her, my eyes bloodshot.

Dereks face was dark as thunder. He threw a heavy punch, knocking down the warrior guarding Ivy.

The other Pack warriors jumped in, pinning Ivys minions to the ground.

Derek rushed over to me. He took off his suit jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders, blocking me from the prying eyes of the crowd. He spoke in a whisper, terrified of triggering my panic:

"Miss Whitmore, its okay. I will get the exact same medicine from the Silver Moon Clinic immediately. Don't be scared. I'm here."

I leaned against his arm, shivering. My tears soaked into his jacket, leaving damp circles.

I thought this nightmare was finally over.

But Ivy, seeing her people pinned down, didnt look scared at all. Instead, she laughed even wilder. The pure malice in her eyes made my blood run cold.

"You're quite a fighter, aren't you, Derek?"

"You think you can protect her? Let me tell you, even if God Himself came down today, he would still beg me on his knees!"

Dereks voice turned murderous: "Ivy Linwood, you are begging for death. Alpha Victor will destroy you!"

"Destroy me?" Ivy laughed. She swiped her screen and thrust the phone right in front of my face. "Lets see who destroys whom!"

I looked at her screen.

In an instant, my blood turned to ice.

The screen showed an abandoned warehouse with damp concrete floors and no windows.

My grandma was lying on a rusted cot in the middle of the room. An IV needle was taped to her thin, frail hand. The IV bag hung from a rusty pole, swaying in the wind. I could see the blood backflowing into the tube.

Two burly men with full-sleeve tattoos stood nearby, smoking and playing mobile games.

The camera zoomed in on Grandmas face.

She seemed to hear something. She opened her cloudy eyes, struggling to turn her head. She opened her dry mouth, her voice raspy:

"Sage... Sage, where are you? Im so cold..."

My brain went completely blank.

She was my only family in this world.

I had no parents. My grandma had raised me by collecting recyclables.

After her stroke last year, I worked myself to the bone to put her in the best care facility in the city. I spent most of my salary on a one-on-one nurse just to make sure she was comfortable and could stay with me a few years longer.

And Ivy had dragged her out of that warm facility and thrown her into a freezing dump.

"Look at her, so pathetic," Ivys voice crawled over me like a venomous snake.

"I paid off the facility's night nurse. Nobody knows where your grandmother is. Only I do."

"Now, get down on your knees and beg me. Give me ten hard head-bows on the floor, then take this box cutter and slash your own face. Only then will I consider releasing her."

"Otherwise, Ill call my men right now and tell them to pull her plug. If she dies, don't blame me."

I shook like a leaf, my heart aching as if it were being torn out and crushed.

Tears poured down my face, drowned out by Ivy's triumphant laughter.

Seeing Grandma on the screen, Derek lunged to grab Ivys phone.

"Ivy Linwood, you're out of your mind! Kidnapping a human is a direct violation of the Peace Treaty! The human government will get involved! If you release her now, I can still show some mercy. Otherwise, youll rot in the Pack dungeons forever!"

Ivy dodged his grasp, her finger tapping the call button. She put it on speaker.

The tattooed man's voice came through instantly:

"Ivy, what's the plan? Do we pull the plug now?"

Ivy tilted her chin up, looking down at me with cold malice:

"Sage, you heard him. Im counting to three. If you're not on your knees, they pull the plug."

"Three."

"Two."

All the strength drained from my body.

Grandma's raspy coughing echoed from the speaker. I couldn't lose her.

My knees buckled, and I slammed onto the hard concrete.

"One." Ivy stopped counting, bursting into a smug laugh. "Well, look at you, so obedient. Go on, ten head-bows. Don't skip a single one."

Derek desperately tried to pull me up.

"Miss Whitmore, don't do this! Alpha Victor is almost here! Ive already sent a team to rescue your grandmother!"

The phone in Derek's pocket vibrated madly. Victors name flashed brightly on the screen.

Before Derek could answer, Ivy kicked his wrist. His phone flew and smashed against the wall, going completely black.

"Alpha Victor, Alpha Victor... all you do is bark his name. When I talk to Victor later, youll be the first one he executes."

Ivy sneered, nodding at me:

"Start bowing. Don't waste my time. My patience is running thin."

I bit my lip, forcing my forehead down against the cold concrete.

*Thud.*

The first impact brought a dull, throbbing pain. Tears splashed onto the floor.

*Thud.*

The second one. Ivy laughed harder: "Harder! Did you not eat today?"

People around us whispered. Some took out their phones to record, some shook their heads, and some said I deserved it.

The third, the fourth...

By the tenth time, my forehead was cut open. Blood trickled down my temple, dripping onto my white hoodie, blooming into bright red stains.

I gasped, propping myself up on the floor. My vision was blurry. The wound on my forehead burned, throbbing with sharp pain.

"Not bad. Very obedient."

Ivy nodded in satisfaction. She pulled a box cutter from her bag, clicked the blade out, and threw it onto the floor in front of me.

"Now, ruin your face. The deeper the cuts, the happier Ill be. If I'm satisfied, Ill let your grandmother go."

I stared at the silver blade, my fingers trembling.

If I cut my face, Grandma would live.

Seeing my hesitation, Ivy frowned and kicked my arm.

"Hurry up! Stop stalling! If you don't do it, I'm pulling the plug!"

"What, you can't bear to ruin this pretty face? Still hoping to seduce another Alpha with it?"

I gritted my teeth and reached for the box cutter.

The moment my fingers touched the cold metal, the wound on my forehead bled faster. The bruises on my knees throbbed. Fear and anger surged through me at once. My vision darkened, my tears mixing with the blood on my face. I could barely breathe.

Just as I raised the blade to my cheek, a thunderous roar echoed from the hallway.

"STOP!"

Everyone turned to look.

Through my blurry, blood-tinted vision, I saw Alpha Victor standing in the doorway.

His usually neat hair was a wild mess. His face, normally cold as ice, was covered in tears. His eyes were bloodshot, and his lips were completely pale.

The hallway fell into a dead silence.

Seeing Victor covered in tears, Ivy assumed he had cried out of worry for her.

"Victor!"

She sprinted toward him in her high heels, her voice dripping with fake sweet sorrow.

"You're finally here! This woman and Derek teamed up to bully me! You have to punish them!"

Before her hand could even touch his sleeve, he swerved away.

Without sparing her a single glance, Victor strode straight to me and dropped to his knees.

His fingers trembled as he gently brushed the bloody hair away from my forehead.

I stared at his red eyes, at the tears streaming down his facethe physical manifestation of my pain, magnified ten times and sent directly to him.

"Victor... tell your Ice Wolf heiress..." I whispered, my voice cracking. "What happens to you... if I feel too much pain?"

By the time I finished my question, the blood from my forehead had seeped into my eyes.

Everything in front of me was stained a blurry red.

My forehead burned, my slapped cheek stung like hot iron, and my nerves were stretched to the breaking point by fear and anger.

I forced myself to hold onto consciousness, waiting for his answer, but my mind was slipping away like loose sand.

Before darkness took me, I saw Victors face turn paper-white, tears pouring from his eyes.

He tried to reach out to catch me, but his own knees buckled first.

Two heavy *thuds* echoed.

We collapsed onto the cold concrete floor, one after the other.

The crowd erupted into chaos.

Ivy, who had been frozen in shock, panicked completely.

"Victor! Victor! Whats wrong with you?"

Dereks heart nearly stopped.

I had passed out from the pain, which meant Victor was currently feeling ten times that agonya level of pain that could literally kill him.

"Call the Silver Moon Clinic ambulance! Now!"

"Confiscate every single phone! Delete everything they recorded! If a single word of this leaks out, the Pack Tribunal will seize your entire family assets!"

Several Pack warriors charged into the crowd, grabbing phones and wiping every photo and video, even clearing the deleted folders.

Ivy was still screaming, trying to get to Victor, but the warriors pinned her to the floor. Derek immediately dialed the Pack Enforcement.

***

When I finally woke up, the sharp scent of antiseptic filled my nose. It was the Silver Moon Clinicit smelled similar to human hospitals, but with a faint, herbal undertone unique to werewolf healers.

The wound on my forehead had been bandaged. It felt cool and barely hurt.

Seeing me stir, the healer sitting by my bed smiled warmly.

"You're finally awake. Don't worry, your grandmother has been brought to the clinics VIP suite. Our specialists checked her over. She just caught a mild cold. Shell be discharged in a couple of days after some IV fluids."

The heavy weight on my chest finally lifted.

As I tried to sit up, I heard rustling from the bed next to mine.

I turned my head.

Victor was lying on the neighboring bed, an IV drip in his hand. His face was pale, almost translucent, with dark circles under his eyes.

The moment he saw me open my eyes, he struggled to sit up, causing the blood to backflow into his IV tube.

"You're awake," he rasped, his voice incredibly hoarse. His trembling fingers reached out to touch my bandage. "When you blacked out... I felt like I was dying."

The tenfold suffocating, crushing pain had felt like being submerged in freezing water. Every single heartbeat felt like a knife twisting in his chest.

In his twenty-eight years of life, he had never been so close to death.

Just then, the door pushed open. Derek walked in carrying some takeout. Seeing us both awake, he let out a sigh of relief, though his face remained grim.

"Alpha Victor, Miss Whitmore. We have a problem."

"Ivy Linwood is throwing a tantrum at the Pack Enforcement headquarters. Shes claiming Miss Whitmore faked the fainting to frame her. She even contacted your mother, the former Luna, telling her that Miss Whitmore is using a witch's spell to control you. The former Luna is already on her way here."

"Also, those gossiping students leaked some edited videos onto the school forum before we could wipe them. Now everyone online is calling Miss Whitmore a homewrecker who seduced you, driving Ivy to despair."

Victor let out a cold, chilling laugh.

"First, have the Pack Tribunal issue immediate subpoenas. Every Pack member involved in spreading those rumors will be dealt with under the Pack Code and banished from our territory."

"Second, notify all allied Packs that we are terminating all trade with the Linwood family. Anyone who does business with them is an enemy of the Moonclaw Pack. I want the Linwoods stripped of their seat on the Council within three months."

"Third, Ivy Linwood assaulted my Fated Mate, violating the Supreme Protection Order of the Luna. Charge her with kidnapping and aggravated assault. Hand her over to the Pack Tribunal for trial."

Derek nodded quickly, turning to leave.

But before he could reach the door, it was violently kicked open.

The former Luna, Seraphina, marched in wearing a vintage Chanel tweed suit. Her face was flushed with rage. The moment she saw me, she lunged and slapped me across the face.