Obedience, p.1
Obedience, page 1
OBEDIENCE
ALPHAHOLES BOOK 5
GEMMA WEIR
Obedience
Copyright © 2026 by Gemma Weir
Published by Dirty Ink Publishing
www.gemmaweirauthor.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author.
Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The authors reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Obedience/Gemma Weir - 1st ed.
CONTENTS
AI Statement
Reader Note
***Warning***
1. Starling
2. Sebastian
3. Starling
4. Sebastian
5. Starling
6. Sebastian
7. Starling
8. Sebastian
9. Starling
10. Sebastian
11. Starling
12. Sebastian
13. Starling
14. Sebastian
15. Starling
16. Sebastian
17. Starling
18. Sebastian
19. Chief Turner
20. Sebastian
21. Starling
Epilogue
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Gemma Weir
Birds, cages, psychos oh my…
AI STATEMENT
Hey guys, this is yet another statement that I wish I didn’t need to write but feel like every human author has to make.
To make it completely clear, I write every single word of my books myself. I have never and would never use AI because honestly if I have to use a computer program to write a book, then I need to find a new job.
That being said, you will find a fair few em-dashes in this and all of my books. That doesn’t mean that I use AI, it means I use appropriate grammar.
If someone decides to look at my book and say, “Well, I read an AI book, and it had words and phrases that sound like Gemma’s,” that’s probably because every single one of mine and tens of thousands of other authors’ books were stolen and used to help AI learn how to write.
I put my blood, sweat, and tears into my books, and every single word, character, plot, and happy ever after are mine, dreamt up in my own head without the use of any kind of AI.
My covers have pictures of real human people, photographed by a human photographer, and are designed by a human graphic designer. My words are polished and made pretty by a human editor, and my ebooks and paperbacks are made beautiful by a human formatter.
My books are AI-free.
Gemma xoxo
READER NOTE
This book is not a standalone.
Obedience is a continuation of the ongoing story arc of Starling and Sebastian’s relationship that started in Obsession and spanned the background of Obligation, Obliterate, and Oblivion.
I strongly recommend that you read the earlier books in the series in order to get a true understanding of this couple and their backstory. Without the previous books, most of this book probably won’t make sense.
While I will be providing some context to the relevant scenes in the rest of the series, this book would be 500,000 words long if I had to recap everything that has happened to this couple to get them to this point.
So to get the best reading experience, grab Obsession first and dive into the world of the Alphaholes.
***WARNING***
My heroes are assholes. They are not PC. They are, at times, morally ambiguous, behave like cavemen, and sometimes, they’ll do whatever it takes to get their heroines pregnant.
Please, please, please don’t read this book thinking I’m exaggerating about how OTT and alpha these characters are because you’ll hate the book and then write a scathing review saying both me and my characters are psychopaths.
My Alphaholes are extremely controlling, manipulative, single-minded, and sometimes cold to the point of being glacial. If this type of hero is not your jam, then please stop reading now.
All of my heroes are over-the-top, jealous, unreasonable, possessive, red flag waving assholes, and although this is a love story, it’s a toxic love that’s as wrong as it is deliciously right.
If you consider unapologetic alphaholes unacceptable or feel their behavior is in some way abusive, then this isn’t the book or series for you.
If you’re a naysayer who thinks what I write is romanticizing domestic violence and abuse, then please, please stop reading now. You will not enjoy this book!
This book isn’t a guide to dysfunctional relationships. It’s fiction. My books are fantasy. This isn’t real life. It’s a romance novel and should be read as such.
We all know in the real world, throwing a woman over your shoulder, messing with her birth control, or stalking her and letting yourself into her home is a one-way ticket to either a restraining order or the mental hospital.
Nothing I write is based on real life. It’s pure fantasy, so it’s okay to agree that the dysfunctional relationships between my characters are sexy as fuck. Please do not kink shame me or my enthusiastic readers for finding these extreme alphahole behaviors hot. Maybe if you read this book with the pinch of romantic salt it was intended to come with, you might like it too.
Please heed this warning. My books will make you question your feminism, so I suggest you leave it at the door while you live in the world of my creation for a little bit, then pick it back up on your way out. But please know it’s okay to like this kind of story because that’s all it is. A story, a few hundred pages of fantasy intended to titillate and excite, not to change your life.
If you’re easily offended, this isn’t the book for you.
But if, like me, you love a guy who is so obsessively in love with his girl that he will manipulate, coerce, control, and obsess over her until she gives herself to him completely, then read on and welcome back to the world of my Alphaholes. ;)
For a full list of trigger warnings for each book, please check out my website: www.gemmaweirauthor.com.
ONE
STARLING
“Are you fucking serious?” I question, pinning my shaking hands firmly to my hips so Sebastian won’t see how much this has shaken me, as I look from my asshole husband to the crowd of suit-wearing behemoths standing in our driveway.
“Completely,” he answers, his eyes hard and shrewd and coldly focused on me.
Furious tears prickle at the backs of my eyes, but I will them away. I won’t cry over the absence of his soft gaze on me, not now. Not when what I’m assuming is the entire team of invisible ninjas that have been following me for years are very visibly outside waiting for me.
Sucking in an attempt at a calming breath, I exhale and then speak. “I accept that your psycho, control freak ways mean that I have a security team following me. I accept that you implanted a tracker in my skin. Honestly, I don’t even mind it that much, because your insanity and that tracker saved me from being raped. Jesus, Sebastian, I even accept that you’re an obsessive, possessive psychopath. But this,” I shriek, my voice having gotten louder and louder with each word as I point toward the group of men outside. “This is too much.”
Instead of reacting, Sebastian’s expression stays inscrutable, without even a twitch of a muscle to show me my words are having an impact. I hate him like this. I hate that when I feel like I’m unraveling, he’s so immovable…untouched by my distress.
“Sebastian,” I rasp, my voice breaking as I lose control in my attempt to stay calm.
“Your security team is for your protection,” he says, like that should be obvious, like I’m the one that’s overreacting.
“And why can’t they provide that protection invisibly, the way they’ve been doing it for years?” I question, hating how desperate I sound.
For the first time I see a chink as his expressionless armor cracks a little. Only instead of the guilt or understanding I’m hoping for, he smirks. It’s little more than a twitch of his lips, but I see it, and my stomach clenches.
Instead of hardness, when he looks at me, it’s smug triumph in his gaze. “I understand that this change in your security protocol might have come as a shock. So if you’d prefer, I’m more than happy to speak to Dean Livingstone and arrange for you to finish your degree online,” he offers magnanimously, like he’s doing me a favor.
“This is insane. You’re insane,” I say quietly, looking at him, then motioning through the window to the ridiculous black suit and sunglasses-clad team of commandos. “You’ve lost it,” I declare, unsure if I want to cry or scream or to run as fast and as far away from my crazy husband as possible.
Sighing, like my reaction is annoying him, Sebastian takes a step closer to me. “You’ve never had an issue with your security before, they’ve been ensuring your safety since you were sixteen. I don’t understand the problem,” he says, deliberately oblivious, and making it sound like I’m the one being unreasonable.
My anger surges to the surface, smashing through my attempts at control. “The problem,” I hiss, stepping back and motioning again to the crowd of wannabe Secret Service agents in the driveway, “is that I’ve been willing to tolerate having security, because even though I knew they were there, I’ve never seen them. The problem,” I snarl angrily, “is that all of a sudden you’ve decided that I need to take a team of seven-foot fucking Neanderthals to school with me like I’m Taylor Swift and not just married to a crazy person.”
My husband thrives on power. Especially over me. He likes to control me, and right now he’s enjoying this. He’s toying with me, and from the excited gleam in his eyes, I’m doing exactly what he expected me to do.
The rational side of my brain is screaming at me to retreat. To step back and to try to figure out what his endgame is, but before I can, he says, “There was an attack on campus last month.”
“That wasn’t an attack, one of the valet parking staff got into a fight with an asshole student,” I scoff.
“You were attacked on campus,” he reminds me, his expression animalistic as he closes the distance between us again.
“I was attacked at a party, not in broad daylight, and that asshole was arrested and kicked out of school,” I remind him. “I’m not in any danger, Sebastian, and we both know it. The goons standing outside right now have nothing to do with keeping me safe and everything to do with you making sure that I can’t disappear, and we both know that.”
“I’d never let you go,” he snarls, his eyes glowing with intensity as he prowls another step closer. A predator with his prey in sight.
Shaking my head, I close my eyes. When I open them again, I capture his gaze with mine, needing him to see the sincerity in my words. “Sebastian. I’m not leaving you. I’m not running away or disappearing. This paranoia is all in your head.” This isn’t the first time I’ve said these words to him. In fact, in the last few months, I’ve told him over and over in a hundred different ways that even though he’s insane, I’m not going anywhere. But it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I reassure him; he doesn’t believe me.
I know that I’m the cause of his fear and worry. Months ago, I helped my friend Bunny run from her husband—my pseudo brother-in-law—Hunter. I gave her my escape plan. I gave her my go-bag. I gave her all the money I’d saved to start a new life if I ever decided to leave Sebastian. I gave her everything she needed to be free of this life that I never had a choice in being dragged into.
Loving Sebastian isn’t a choice for me. He forced his way into my world when I was only sixteen years old, and every action I’ve taken since then has been affected by him in one way or another. He and his friends broke me, and even though I glued myself back together again, a part of me will always wonder who I’d be right now if he’d looked past me instead of claiming me the very first time he saw me.
But I’m not sixteen, and I’m not his prisoner anymore. Being with him and marrying him was a choice I made for myself, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to who he is or who the men he considers his brothers are. I’m who I am because I survived them, but I promised myself I’d never allow them to do to another person what they did to me.
So, when I realized that instead of learning from the mistakes and hurt Sebastian inflicted on me, Hunter was doubling down and behaving like every bit the monster I know him capable of being. I lost it.
I gathered up all the things I’ve learned from surviving for years in their world, and I turned it on them. I gave them a dose of their own medicine, and for the very first time since I met them all, I stuck first. I didn’t play defense; I fired the first shot, and I got a direct hit. I just didn’t realize that my marriage would be the biggest casualty of the war.
“I’ll never let you leave me, Little Bird,” Sebastian rasps, his voice so cold and feral, a chill rushes over my skin. “I’d find you, Starling. You might think you could get free of me, but I’d hunt you to the ends of the earth. I’d never stop searching. I’d never give up. I’d stalk you to the very depths of hell and I’d drag you back, because there’s nowhere you could go that I wouldn’t follow. You’re mine, Little Bird, and I’ll never let you go.”
I don’t know when he moved, but suddenly he’s so close I can feel the heat of his breath on my skin as he threatens me in so seductive a tone that it makes the hairs on my arms stand on end.
The normal, rational parts of me know I shouldn’t taunt him, because I know that his fear of losing me is what’s making him behave like a crazy person, but I can’t help it. Sebastian and I have always brought out the worst in each other. Since the first time he saw me, his obsessive need for control has stifled and overwhelmed me. We’ve been fighting, running, and chasing each other for years, but somehow, we always end up together at the end, in our fucked-up version of happy ever after.
I love him. I married him. But since the day I dropped the tracking chip I cut out of Bunny’s neck onto the kitchen table still covered in her blood, Sebastian hasn’t been the same. He barely sleeps, spending all night watching me like he thinks I’m a mirage and that one day he’ll reach for me and realize I’m just a figment of his imagination. He graduated from Kingsacre University this spring, but instead of throwing himself into his role in his family’s company, he’s been glued to my side all summer, rarely spending more than a few hours away from me.
I’m used to his controlling nature, but since our house was finished and we moved into our first real home together, he’s become frantically consumed with summer coming to an end and me returning to school without him. Perhaps I should have expected his escalating insane behavior, but stupidly, I figured he’d just get over it, not escalate to Plan: Batshit Crazy.
Parting my lips, I plan to reassure him, the same way I’ve been doing since I threatened him that one day he might wake up and find me gone. But instead, I can’t help the scoff that falls from my mouth. “If I decided to leave, you wouldn’t even know where to start to look for me. I’d be long gone, and all traces of me would have disappeared before you even realized I was missing,” I taunt.
Feral anger burns to life in his eyes as he snaps his hand out, collaring my throat with his fingers. His hold is tighter than usual, the hint of pain a threat and a warning. I can see the real and genuine fear of losing me etched across his entire body, but when he speaks, his voice is laced with arrogant spite. “Oh, Little Bird, you talk such a big game, but your threats are empty. You love the golden cage I built for you. You love the cold metal bars that I press you against when I fuck you. You like the lock I put on your door and the chains I’ve wrapped around your wings. You love knowing that the only freedom you get is the kind I allow you. You need the cage I bound you in to survive, because you’re so fucking conditioned to want this life I’ve created for you that without it and me, you’d fall from the sky and plummet to the ground.”
His words are angry and mean, and each one is a reminder of his control. A jab intended to remind me that no matter how much I’ve learned, he’s still in charge. But I can hear the anxiety in his bravado. He wants to believe what he’s saying, but I’m not sure that he does.
Despite the way I’m sure this conversation would look to the outside world, I love this man with all my heart. I love his threats, his control, his anger and craziness and obsession. I love our life and our marriage and the way I don’t think he’ll ever stop being insane. I love provoking him and watching him plot how to bring me in line, but since the tiny tracker hit the top of the wooden kitchen table, I’ve watched him spiral.
His behavior has gradually escalated, and now there’s a team of suit-wearing ninjas outside. This isn’t the time to aggravate or remind him of what I’m capable of. So, I force my shoulders to slump, and I relax into his fingers, which are still curled tightly around my throat. Softening my voice, I lock my gaze with him. “I love you too much to leave.”
Instead of reassuring him like I intended, my words seem to make him angrier. His jaw twitches as his hold on my throat tightens while his free arm locks around my back, keeping me in place. “Every time you try to get a rise out of me, it makes me want to close the bars even tighter around you, Little Bird.” Leaning forward until his lips are pressed against my ear, he whispers, “I’ll clip your wings before I ever let you fly away.”
