Chapter 1

Hazel

I had a life as though I had none. Bullied and rejected, I was more like a tool for everyone around and nobody cared about me.

My mom was sick, and I needed to work extra but my pay was peanuts. I walked gradually to the house with a heavy heart, and was stopped by a voice behind me.

"And where are you coming from?" Gulther, my stepfather growled at me from behind with so much hate in his voice.

I turned around slowly and my eyes met with his hateful glares making me shudder absently.

"Answer me!" He growled, "where do you think you are coming from?" 

He shot a glare at me with a frown on his face but before I could give an answer to his question, he looked down and saw the money with me, and his face twisted with so much hate and disgust.

"You fool!" He bawled out and advanced towards me.

"And how many times have I warned you to always bring all the tips you get from work back to me?" There was so much hate in his voice as he pulled the money away forcefully from me.

"But, I..." I tried to counter, but instead, a slap landed on my face making fresh tears pour down from my eyes.

"I think I will have to teach you a lesson so you will never try this again." 

He walked away from me and I could feel my heart beating hard against my chest as though it was going to burst through.

I knew what he was about to do, he was about to beat me up with his leather belt as he always did. 

And thinking about it, made the tears that already rolled out from my eyes to increase.

"I will have to run for it," I said to myself but before I could make a move, he was already upon me. 

The first whip landed on my neck while I yelled hard in pain.

And just as he continued trying to hit me, with the loud screams that I let out, there was a loud bang on the door.

I noticed that he shivered hard with fear and he was reluctant to go open the door for whoever was behind it. "Clean up those tears of yours," he growled at me and I did so immediately.

"Who could those people be," I could only wonder, "that had the potential to make him shiver that hard with fear."

I sniffled.

I watched him closely as he opened the door but he was pushed down by a strange man.

What was happening? 

Had the people come to the house to kill us? 

So much fear immediately crept into my heart, and my lips shook in trepidation.

"Where is the money you owe the Alpha?" They growled at my stepfather.

"What's happening?" I thought again in my head.

 Even though he was wicked, I didn't want anything happening to him. My mom loved him so much and she was definitely going to be broken. Which was another reason why I kept the abuse my step father caused me away from her.

"I will get it soon," he returned, shivering to his bones while my heart was beating hard against my chest.

"You just have today to sign the contract or give us the money you owe the Alpha," one of the men said, and I wondered the contract that they talked about. 

Did he want to sell our house and everything that we had to clear his debts? If he did that, what was going to happen to I and my mother?

But what made me really uneasy was the deadly glare that my step father shot at me, before finally returning his gaze to the men. 

Saying the words, "There is nothing she can do about it," and I gulped.

He took some papers from their hands and signed them hastily with trembling fingers. 

"The Alpha will come to take his bride tomorrow." 

"What were they talking about?"  I thought confusedly.

The strange werewolves stormed out of the house and my stepfather immediately rose from the ground.

Shooting another scary glare at me, "Get ready, the Alpha will be coming to take you as his bride tomorrow."

His words made me to almost fall backwards, and it was only the chair that I had subconsciously gripped, that still kept my balance.

I still did not get what he was saying and I wanted to assume that I was just making up things in my head. 

It could not be true, right?

"What do you mean?" I probed, unable to contain the various assumptions that ran through my mind.

"I owe the Alpha a debt and I just sold you off to him," he snapped at me immediately and I could feel tears forming at the corner of my eyes. 

 "What? How could you do that? Sell me off for a debt that I know nothing about? Because I literally take care of every single bill that I incur in this house!" 

I had no idea when I lost my cool, but with the tears that had gathered in my eyes, I was shouting at my step father right at that point.

"Yes you heard me right, so get your things ready." He said.

"And listen," he added without letting me process what he had said already. "You do not have any right to question anything I do. Just get him a son and you will be free," he noted and made to walk away, but my next words made him stop in his tracks.

I was already shivering hard with fear, tears forming at the corner of my eyes. The Alpha of the pack from what I heard was cursed and he was very cruel. The last time I heard anything about him, I was told he murdered his Luna because she couldn't bear him a son.

I certainly wasn't going to get married to such an Alpha. My tears soon gave way to anger. I could feel my anger rising so badly that I had to clutch my hands to control myself.

"I am not getting married to any Alpha," I growled at him from behind. And to think that the whole contract was just so I get a son for him? Something I was not mentally prepared for. There was no way I planned on doing that.

He turned over to me briskly, looking at  me with so much hate and disgust. The way he had always looked at me. 

"What did you say? I did not get you?" 

I knew what he was trying to do. It was the same old thing, and I had already gotten familiar with it. He wanted to act like he had not gotten my words, so that out of fear, I will cower, and go back on what I had said. 

But I was not going to do that now.

I stared right into his eyes. My stance was my stance, I wasn't getting married to any cruel Alpha.

"I'm not getting married to any Alpha or any other body," I returned quickly.

His face twisted with anger as he advanced towards me holding my jaws while I cried in pain.

"You fool," he growled at me. "You don't have a choice, you are getting married to the Alpha and that's final," he glared at me and threw me away.

I could no longer restrain the tears that had formed in my eyes and I let them pour in torrents.

Then I saw him walking towards me again with a key in his hands. He dragged me along with him and threw me into my room. 

"This is where you belong until he comes to get you," he yelled at me and began to walk away, locking the door behind me as more tears poured down from m eyes and I sobbed silently.

The days rolled by gradually and from what I heard, the Alpha had come to see my family members and he was going to go away to the pack house that night.

I was scared. 

I didn't want any cruel cursed Alpha to be  my mate. 

"Crying will not solve this problem, you have to escape," my wolf, Emily said to me.

I looked around but there was no way to escape the room except through the window and it was sealed.

"But I can't get married to that cruel Alpha," I supported, "I had to run from it."

I searched through the place and found something that could be helpful to my escape. It was a little dagger lying on the floor and I picked it up quickly.

I began to chip gradually through the wooden hinges of the seal silently until it came off.

I could feel my heart beating hard against my chest as though it was going to burst and cold shivers ran down my spine.

I came down from the window quickly only to meet with the worst sight. The place was surrounded by pack warriors.

They shot a deadly sneer at me but before I could move, one of them held me tightly by my hands.

I tried to break free from his strong grip but he held my hands so tightly that my skin cells could hardly breathe.

"You will have a lot to explain to the Alpha," he growled at me and began to drag me along to where the Alpha was.

He dragged me to the living room and for the first time, I set my eyes on the Alpha who had passed me an evil grin.

Alpha Alexander, from what one of the men had called him.

"What's happening here?" My stepfather inquired confusedly, but I wasn't even listening to him, neither did I pay attention to the reply of the warriors.

I kept staring at the Alpha. I just couldn't take my eyes off him no matter how hard I tried.

Then I began to perceive the wolf scent making my heart beat faster again my chest. "Could it be?" I thought in my head.

"Mate! Mate!!" My wolf confirmed my fears.

"Mate?" 

No, I did not want to believe that.