CHAPTER 6

KNOX

I was still working in my office when Rook, my second-in-command and beta of the Blackthorn Pack, came to tell me the woman was here.

I didn't want to see her at first. I had no patience for people coming to beg me to spare traitors, but after thinking it through, I realized she could be useful to me.

After all, I needed a surrogate bride to sign a contract with me and bear me a blood heir.

The elders of the pack were threatening my seat as Alpha because I didn't have an heir. But how was I supposed to get an heir when I hadn't found my mate? I couldn't wait any longer for my mate to appear before conceiving a child. I desperately needed an heir before the winter solstice.

So I asked Rook to let her up.

But her scent reached me three seconds before the heavy doors of my office opened.

My inner wolf, Dagger, forever ruthless and active, slammed against my ribs with enough force to make my hands twitch against the mahogany armrests of my chair.

Mate.

Mate.

I smell our mate.

Dagger's voice echoed through my mind, and it took everything in me to remain seated instead of bolting for the door to find the woman I had been searching for all these years.

Then the heavy doors to my office opened, and I felt the pull stronger than anything I had ever experienced.

She is my mate?

The same woman who was about to beg me to spare her brother's life?

The word echoed through the dark corners of my mind, hot and demanding. I didn't turn around immediately. I kept my chair facing the glass, my knuckles whitening against the leather as I fought to remain composed.

How is my mate a human?

A small, fragile human girl who smelled like cheap beer and rain, at that.

Was the Moon Goddess even real? How could she mate me—the Alpha King of the Blackthorn Pack—with such a weak creature?

Every instinct in me hated that the mate I had spent years searching for was a human girl, yet my wolf was ready to tear down the entire city just to mark her.

I slowly rotated the chair.

When my eyes locked onto Zara Bennett, I forgot everything else.

She stood by the doorway, soaking wet, her cheap coat wrapped tightly around herself as she shivered. She looked small, terrified, and utterly out of her depth in my world.

But when her dark eyes met mine, her gaze lingered over my face, my arms, and my chest.

She was looking at me like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. I bet she had heard the rumors too, about how deadly and ruthless the president of Blackthorn MC was. She had probably expected to see an aged man covered in scars, with an ugly face to match the stories.

I'll admit, she wasn't what I was expecting either.

Even soaked, terrified, and completely out of her depth, she was beautiful.

For a few seconds, I couldn't keep my eyes off her. Her body looked heavenly, as though it had been carved by the goddess herself. Maybe that was why she was my mate. She would fit perfectly as my Luna if I taught her the rules properly.

I stood up.

I couldn't help it. The mate bond was pulling me toward her with an irresistible force. I would blame that on the bond, not myself.

I walked around the desk, keeping my steps slow and deliberate while I fought the overwhelming instinct urging me to pin her against the wall, sink my fangs into her neck, and claim her.

She was mine.

The universe had finally handed me my fated mate.

But I wasn't an idiot. If I told a frightened human girl that she was fated by shifter magic to become the Luna of the Blackthorn MC and Pack, she would run. She would think I was insane. She knew nothing about our world, and she didn't understand pack law.

So I needed leverage.

I needed something she couldn't walk away from until she realized she belonged to me.

…

She rolled her eyes at me.

“Have you been stalking me? How do you know so much about my life? And what does Jake even know about some silver-laced weapons? He's just nineteen and was probably set up.”

I let out a deep, low chuckle, stepping back from her a fraction.

“I know a lot about people I find interesting and those who get on my bad side.”

The way I stressed the last part made her flinch.

“You can't afford two hundred grand on a dive-bar salary, Zara,” I whispered, my hand sliding from her chin to wrap around the back of her neck, holding her firmly in place. “But lucky for you… I have a different form of payment in mind.”

She swallowed, her wide eyes searching my face.

“What… what kind of payment?”

I pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, a faint smirk curving my lips.

“A contract,” I stated flatly. “You sign a one-year marriage contract with me. You move into my penthouse, you become my wife, and you bear me a child. In exchange, I will wipe Jake's debt clean, keep him alive, and cover your mother's ten-thousand-dollar ICU bill by eight o'clock tomorrow morning.”

Her jaw dropped.

“What?!”

“You have five minutes to decide,” I rumbled, my thumb softly tracing the curve of her bottom lip. “Or I give Rook the order to put a bullet in your brother's head.”

“No, you can't do that!” Zara choked out, her brown eyes flashing with sudden fury that made my wolf purr with delight.

“You heard me, sweetheart,” I growled, keeping my fingers wrapped around the warm skin of her neck, feeling her pulse race beneath my thumb.

Zara shoved against my chest, her small hands pressing hard against my shirt. I didn't budge an inch, but the fiery defiance in her face was intoxicating.

“I can see you're out of your mind!” she spat, her voice shaking with fury and disbelief. “You think you can just stand there, looking like… like this, and demand that I marry you?! I don't even know you! I came here to negotiate a debt for my brother, not to sell myself to a biker president.”

“You're not negotiating anything, Zara,” I said smoothly, letting the faint smirk return to my lips. I stepped back a little, giving her space. “You don't have a single card to play.”

“I have a life!” she shouted, her chest heaving. “I am not signing some insane contract to be your broodmare! You can take your sick proposal and—”

“Your mother has less than seven hours to live,” I cut in, my voice dropping an octave, smooth, cold, and heavy with absolute authority.

Zara froze, the color draining from her face.

I took a step forward, leaning in slightly so she could look into my eyes and see how serious I was.

“Eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Ten thousand dollars. You don't have it. Your dive-bar job won't pay it, and your pathetic excuse for an ex-boyfriend certainly isn't going to save you.”

Her eyes widened at the mention of Jack, a flicker of fresh pain crossing her features before she hardened her gaze again.

“And Jake?” I continued softly, lifting my hand to trace the outline of her jaw with my thumb. “Rook is waiting downstairs in the basement. He has a loaded 9mm pressed against your brother's temple right now. All it takes is one word from me, and Jake becomes fish food in the Chicago River.”

“You monster…” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes, though she refused to let them fall.

“I'm just making a deal, sweetheart. Do you know how important that ceremonial crest and those silver weapons your brother and his crew stole from us were? You should be grateful I'm giving you an option.”

I pulled a silver watch from my pocket and tapped the glass face.

“And your five minutes started four minutes ago. If you walk out that door right now, you lose your mom by morning, and you lose your brother in thirty seconds.”

“This is forced!” she snapped, her voice trembling with anger. “This isn't a marriage. It's extortion!”

“Call it whatever helps you sleep at night.”

I cocked my head, my gray eyes locking onto hers.

“Tick-tock, Zara. Are you signing the contract and saving your family… or are you walking away?”