DEALS AND BLOOD

ANOKAI’S POV.

I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up.

Every eye in the room turned to me, hot and blaring. I should have known the minute Emilia showed up and had her eyes on me that things would go wrong. No..no… I should have escaped the minute I got up this morning instead of planning and letting these dumb girls rile me up.

Still, a part of me didn’t want to believe it.

Why?

Why have they called for me after last night?

I pursed my lips together, feigning ignorance, “Me? Me? Are you sure it’s me?”

The guards looked at me as if I had grown two heads as I took a step back, pushing the red-haired girl forward, “She wants to go to the alphas, how about we take her instead?” I tried a small laugh, “She has been begging for it. In fact, the main reason we were together…

Lady Emilia cut me off, her smile thinning on her face, “Take her by force if she doesn’t want to. The rest of you follow me.”

I pushed the red-haired girl towards the other girls as they all yelped out, hoping to cause a distraction. I bolted for the door immediately, only to be grabbed by one of the guards, his hand circling my entire palm.

His eyes burned with fury as he met mine.

“Try anything stupid..

“Or what?” I snapped, too angry to think, “You’ll take me to the alphas or punish me?”

He growled right in my face as he dragged me out of the room, ignoring my thrashing and kicking.

I should have left here.

Ohh, what have I done to myself? Was the red-haired girl correct? That I brought this upon myself and tried to get them all to myself.

What were they going to do to me this time? Touch me? Kill me? Finish what they didn’t do last night and take me by force?

I shuddered as I remembered the way they had all touched me last night, the way their hands had felt on my body—hot, raw, needy. My stupid body had craved it even, wanted more of it.

The rational part of me threw that thought out, replacing it with the shadow beast and the other glowing red eyes.

I would rather die than let them touch me again.

The guard’s grip did not falter on my hand as he climbed the stairs, and my stomach dropped as I noticed he was taking me in another direction.

Not the one I went to yesterday.

No, we’ve passed that. Each of his steps echoed through the hallway like a countdown; the more he walked without stopping, the more my dread increased.

After climbing three more stairs, he finally stopped in front of a black door, this one smaller than the one from yesterday. He let go of my hand and scowled at me before knocking on the door.

“She’s here, your highness.”

He opened the door and suddenly shoved me inside before I could even process anything. By the time I looked up, my mouth watered at the beauty of everything and the danger I was in.

This was not a party room like the one I was in yesterday.

This was a personal room.

One of the alpha rooms.

And it was breathtaking.

Tall ceiling loomed over me, enclosed in gold chandeliers. A bed sat in the middle, massive and large enough for a beast. There was a fireplace right in front of the bed, and a table full of food just in the opposite corner.

Everything was dark, heavy, and masculine.

And it felt wrong, like this was a place that only belonged to them.

A place of power.

Suddenly, the opposite door that I hadn’t noticed opened, and he stepped in, my breath hitching in my throat at the sight of him. He stepped in, magnificent and tall.

Every part of him in the morning sunlight looked handcrafted by the moon goddess herself. From his ripped muscles that are begging for release in the shirt he was wearing, to his jaw, and those firm lips that had touched mine last night.

Power oozed from every corner of his body.

“Are you going to sit down or gawk at me?”

I swallowed, heat rushing to my cheeks as I took two steps back. I had no interest in sitting with him, let alone eating with him. He didn’t say anything and just walked to the chair, pulling one out and sitting down as he started filling his plate.

My heart jumped as the door behind me opened and two guards entered, bundling me up as I thrashed against them, “Let me go! Let me go! This is wrong.”

They carried me to the table, one of them pulling out a chair and plopping my ass on it. The second guard picked a plate and fixed a meal, placing it in front of me with a fork before bowing and exiting the room.

I gulped down, staring right at my food before opening my mouth, “Alpha…”

I waited as he looked up at me, our eyes meeting, “Emiriel..”

“And the next time you don’t answer me,” he continued, “it’ll be more than two guards carrying you.”

I swallowed down nervously, flicking my gaze back to my food. “What do you want from me?”

“To eat breakfast.”

“As if,” I muttered under my breath, and I heard his fork drop.

Our eyes met again. “What did you just say?”

I gritted my teeth, my insides recoiling from the heat of his glare, “Look, I didn’t ask to eat with you. In fact, I don’t want to eat with you. So please, can you just let me go?”

Something flashed in his eyes as he blinked before leaning back into his chair, “What is your name?”

“Anokai,”

“And do you know about me, Anokai? Have you heard the rumors? Do you know about us?”

He propped his hand on the table, “I can snap your head without lifting my hand from here, and yet you talk to me like we’re mates.”

His words jolted fear in me. I knew he could. I was there last night when he glowered at his shadow wolf brother, scaring him back inside. If he could do that to a monster, he could do times ten or a hundred of it to me.

I would be dead in a second if he decided to do so. But he didn’t need to know that. I pulled all my courage into my next words, “Then snap it and get it done.”

The corners of his lips dipped into a very faint smile as he picked up his fork again, “What pack are you from?”

I didn’t bother lying, “Silver moon pack.”

If he knew the pack, it didn’t let it show, “Were you a slave? An omega? A prostitute?”

Deep lines creased my forehead. Telling him the truth felt dangerous, and besides, I didn’t want anyone to draw a connection between Ethan and me, or my family, “An omega.”

“Do you have siblings? Any family?”

“Nope,” I replied without hesitation.

Something flickered across his face as he met my eyes–pity, worry, but it left almost immediately. I was glad. If I had seen pity, I would have thought him humane, and the last thing I want is to see these devils as humans.

“About last night,” he continued, breaking my thoughts, “What you saw last night has never been seen by anyone before. Or at least none that has never lived long enough to tell the tale.”

I gulped. This was not good at all.

“And because of that, Anokai. I have a deal for you.”

My heart almost lurched out.

A deal.

A deal was never good, not to mention one from the Alpha beast.

“A…a deal..what deal..” I stuttered, sweat rolling down my back.

His eyes burned into mine, as if looking right into me. I let out a yelp as he dragged my chair to his, leaning his face so close to mine. He tipped my jaw forward, the touch sending jolts through me. I watched as his throat bobbed down and up before his mouth opened,

“You’ll serve us,” the words rolled out of his mouth in a whisper.

He didn’t look away from my eyes, his stare hot and fiery, “Your body will become ours to use as we see fit. You’ll be at our beck and call and please us anytime we need you to.”

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I thought he was done when he delivered the last blow, “Become our wife, and we’ll make you the most dazzling woman in the world.”

The words had barely left his mouth when the door opened, a guard panting in, “Alpha Emiriel, it’s Alpha Nikolai. He has gone rogue…

The words died in the guard’s mouth, his eyes widening as a loud growl bounced through the room, and a hand I knew too well plunged into the guard’s stomach, blood splashing out and painting the wall red.

My heart seized instantlyin my chest, my horror doubling.

Another growl shook the entire room as he stepped in, those beast shadows of him looming through his entire body. A chill ran down my back as his eyes immediately met mine: desire and hunger filled in those stark, dark shadow eyes.

Fear ran down my spine as I took a step back. I didn’t need a soothsayer to tell me anything.

He was here.

And he was here, for me.