Something wasn't right. I knew it
long before I opened my eyes. Something bad, something I didn't want to
remember, had happened and it was waiting for me on the other side of
wakefulness. And though my subconscious tried to protect me from the pain that
waited for me on the other side, my body was already resuming its normal
functions without any prompting from me. My eyes sprang open. I immediately
squinted at the bright lights overhead.
I sat up quickly, too quickly. The
room spun for a moment, then steadied. I groaned as my fingers touched a raised
bump at the back of my head. The bump immediately brought everything into
clear, sharp focus. I remembered trying to run away from the huge men. I
remembered Lora screaming for me to be caught while my father looked on. I
remembered being grabbed and knocked out cold.
I whimpered in fright. That meant I
was in Alpha Ryder's pack now. I took in my surroundings. I was in a small
room, sitting on a single sofa. The only window here had bars. Was I some sort
of prisoner then? Was Alpha Ryder already angry with me for trying to run away?
Lora's words echoed in my head.
"Alpha Ryder is a ruthless man... There are rumors,
terrible rumors of what he does to people who make him angry."
I put my hands in front of my face
and saw that they had begun to shake. But there was no one in the room with me.
Perhaps I could still escape. My gaze darted to the door and just before I
could make a move towards it, it opened. The biggest man I had ever met walked
in. Apart from his build, his face was breathtaking. Nearly overlong lashes
framed his vivid green eyes, while a tousled thatch of glossy, black hair
framed his handsome face. We stared at each other for a long moment.
"Finally. You're awake," he
said in a deep rumbling voice only a man of that build would have.
Seeing him sucked my breath away. I
was transported back to the night of the mating ceremony. I felt an
inexplicable pull towards him as though my life had been leading to all this
moment. My wolf stirred within me, claiming him as her mate. I gasped at the
realization that this man, whoever he was, was my second chance mate.
"I was beginning to think that
my people hit you a little too hard," he continued. "You may have
guessed who I am, or maybe not," he amended as he took in my still-wondering
expression. "I am Alpha Ryder."
I gasped again. I didn't think I was
capable of normal speech just yet. Ryder? This was Alpha Ryder? I had heard of
him. Everyone in my pack had heard of him. Everyone said he was a savage, cruel
man. How could a man everyone thought of as a beast be so devastatingly
handsome? And why was he acting as though he couldn't sense our mate bond? I
was curling my hands into fists to keep from launching myself into his arms. So
far I was succeeding, but my wolf was by far harder to control.
"Alpha," I said
breathlessly. Then I paused as I tried to marshal my thoughts into words. He
merely raised a brow, watching me struggle. Apart from the fact that he was
completely disregarding our mate bond, he was also more than a little intimidating.
"Alpha, don't you... feel it? The- the bond? The mate bond?"
He was quiet for a long moment and I
thought he wouldn't answer.
"I suppose I need to make some
things very clear," he said. "Firstly, you are not here to relax, to
be at ease." He looked meaningfully at the sofa I was still sitting on.
"Secondly, you will be working in my pack as a slave to pay back the money
your father owes me. Yes, a slave," he acted, reacting to my startled
look. He kept looking me over, like I was a particularly good specie of cow he
wanted to trade. "As for the bond
you mentioned, it's quite laughable that you would think for a moment that I
would claim you as my mate. Kiara, you aren't even worthy to be a member of my
pack in the first place. Did you get that?"
I simply stared at him, as my brain
desperately tried to play catch-up with my ears.
"I said, did you get that?"
he repeated a note of menace in his voice.
He took half a step towards me. His
eyes flashed and burned. It was at that moment I knew why people referred to
him as a dangerous man. Fear pooled in my stomach. I nodded twice jerkily.
"Yes, Alpha," I squeaked.
A muscle in his jaw jumped as he
stared down at me. "You will find that I expect prompt answers whenever I
ask you a question. And like I said, completely erase the notion of a union
between us because that will never happen." He was almost at the door
before he turned once more. "I hope for your sake that you're physically
strong enough to work. I have no patience for weaklings."
The door clicked shut behind him and
the tears I had been desperately holding back spilled over. I buried my face in
my hands as I wept uncontrollably. What was wrong with me? I had been rejected
by my first mate and turned into a slave by the other. What had I done in my
past life for the moon goddess to punish me so cruelly?
I nearly fell off the bed when I
heard the door open again, thinking Alpha Ryder had returned. I quickly wiped
my teary eyes and looked up. Another devastatingly handsome man had walked in.
He was staring right at me. For the third time, I felt that this stranger was a
missing part of me, the part that kept me whole.
'Mate,' my wolf screamed.