Alphas' contract mate

Axel’s POV “Frank,” I muttered under my breath, “get here quickly. The apostles are beginning to lose their minds.” My Beta chuckled on the other end of the line, sounding far too relaxed for someone who was supposed to be helping me hold this place together. Still, I trusted him. Frank had always been the right choice for Beta. He was strong, capable, and annoyingly sarcastic, which made more sense for him to patrol the borders with a few guards than sit back and listen to old wolves bark over outdated laws. “Okay, Alpha. Wait… hold on, I smell something,” he said suddenly, and I could tell he had stopped walking. From the rustling around him and the quick shuffle of boots, I knew the guards had picked up on it too. “What do you smell?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the old wall in front of me where a portrait hung—Alex and me side by side in our younger years. It was hard to tell who was who. We looked almost exactly alike. “Something roasting too close to our fucking borde

Mia's POV The footsteps got louder. They were unmistakably human… and wolves. "Shit," I whispered to myself, backing away slowly from the fire, my gaze locked in the direction of the noise. How did they find me? There was no time to think or even grab anything. The instant another footstep cracked through the damp brush, I turned and bolted. “Hey!” “Stop right there!” “What the hell are you doing in our territory?!” Oh no. I hadn’t realized they were this close. I ducked beneath a low branch and leapt over a broken log, but my right foot hit a sharp stone that sent me crashing hard into the ground. My palms scraped across bark and gravel. “Why… Why can’t I shift? Come on, shift into your wolf, goddamn it, Mia!” I sobbed, shaking as I looked down at my bleeding hands. And then I understood. My wolf was terrified. She was paralyzed somewhere deep inside me, buried under fear and exhaustion. I couldn’t reach her. My chest heaved. Territory. They said “our territory.” I’d heard

Axel’s POV“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me,” Frank muttered the moment Mary guided the rogue woman up the stairs, his voice heavy with disbelief as he rubbed a hand over his face. His problem was trying to process everything at once and failing. “You don’t even know her name, Axel. You seriously just let some strange rogue into your room without asking a single thing about her? That’s not just reckless, that’s insane.” He gestured wildly now, clearly building steam. “She could be anyone. She could be a spy, an assassin, or one of those unstable omega freaks trained to slit throats in their sleep. Hell, she could even be part of the Lykan remnants, and we’d have no idea because you—” he paused, his expression twisting as he turned his glare to Alex, who was leaned back in his chair calmly munching on a carrot like he hadn’t just witnessed a potentially dangerous rogue being welcomed into the heart of their estate. “You’re in on this, aren’t you?” Frank narrowed his eyes. “Don’t

Axel's POV The sunset glow filtered in through the open windows, revealing the recently polished wooden floorboards. I took a deep breath. Fuck. Her earthly scent had already soaked into the sheets and the room. It made no sense. Nothing about this rogue made sense, and yet I brought her in here. She should’ve been in the guest wing or, better yet, the servants’ quarters. But no. I let her stay here, where only Alex and I lived—for our use. And she agreed so readily. Wasn’t that worrisome? But why does her misery… and mystery… excite me? Look at her curled up under the covers like something broken. Her dark hair spilled across my pillow, mouth slightly parted, chest rising and falling with a subtle tremble I didn’t like.Oh, she had an eye for comfort too. What’s a moss bed compared to a soft fur bed?Greedy little thing. I should’ve ended her the moment we found her, or left her with the rest of the displaced pack girls. But when I saw her on that floor, sobbing like the world ha

Alex's POVLocked inside my makeshift room quarters, I welcomed the silence like an old friend. The noise outside had finally died down. Peace… just as I preferred it.Unfortunately, everyone thought I was chaotic. Yes I was... just in the way no one would expect. My brother’s pack was always too rigid, too structured… too clean which evidently suffocated me.“Alpha, the priestess requests your presence.”My eyes snapped open at the mental intrusion. “What the fuck, Warren?”Warren, the gamma of the pack and my unofficial second-in-command, was the only person I trusted to handle both inter-pack communication and personal affairs. I trusted him far more than that sleazy bastard Frank. He chose to work under me instead of Axel, which spoke volumes. But honestly, who wouldn’t prefer my side of the territory? My pack had fire. Axel had rules—fucking annoying rules. Still, I could feel Warren’s unease leaking into the mind link.“I’m sorry, Alpha. I told her you were currently at the De