dangerous

Amara Eldwood

I walked stiffly beside the tall wolf Alpha, not daring to look up from my creased sandals even when I felt his hot stare on the side of my face.

His sweet licorice scent made the hairs on my arms stand up straight.

He was too close to me! Couldn't he see that?

“Here we are,” He growled, and my body stiffened when his thick bicep brushed firmly against my chest as he leaned over to crack the door open.

A bolt of arousal zapped right through my sex and my nipples hardened to stone beneath the pink milkmaid dress I had on.

What the hell was wrong with me?

My mouth watered when those stormy gray eyes met mine as he stepped into the room, motioning around the dark wood walls.

Thick gray mist passed outside the large floor-to-ceiling windows and I marveled at the single-sized bed at the center of the room.

The overhead silver chandelier bounced off the mahogany bedframe beautifully, and I ran my hands over the wood, admiring it.

“Make yourself at home. I’ll have Mabel see to you as your handmaiden,” He offered again and I forced a smile onto my lips, realizing I might have to shoot myself in the head first.

“Thank you…this is all very nice,” I managed finally, and an awkward silence settled between us.

I watched him nod, noting the way his eyes tripped over my body before his ears reddened.

He clasped his big hands together before he left the room, leaving me with more questions than answers.

My thighs chaffed at the sweetness trickling down my sex before I pressed them together, gritting my teeth.

I couldn't afford to fall for his easy charm now. Not when I was sure underneath his caring smile and manly poise, was a ruthless beast who killed anyone that stood in his path.

“You don't have time for idle fantasies, Mara,” I wheezed, pushing away from the bed when my ankles hit the metal frame of something beneath it.

“What the hell?” 

My heart beat harder and faster than before as my knees kissed the cold dark tiles and I leaned down to see the bronze-gold box sitting in the darkness.

A thin layer of dust fell into the tiles when my fingers closed around it and I shook it off, my brows knotting in concern.

The maids had the entire place cleaned out hadn't they? 

What then, was this?

“Come on, let’s open you up,” 

The metallic cranking of the wheels as I pried it open echoed in the room and a rush of trepidation filled my chest.

“Shit,” I gasped as hundreds of polaroids spilled from the small box, splaying over the dark tiles like confetti.

My vision blurred before sharpening on a man’s hard chest until I realized who it was.

Alpha Dante. I was staring at Alpha Dante’s half-nude body.

The hard ridges of his abs made the moisture drain from my mouth when I traced my fingers over them.

Black and white clips of his body in various stages of undress, the hard V of his abs standing out against the backdrop of white.

Goddess, he was beautiful. 

All that long, wolf-cut hair…dark as night. And his eyes…piercing orbs of deep blue that would put shadowville’s darkest waters to shame.

“What is all this?” 

Pain throbbed in my temples and my throat closed up around the words when my fingers froze on a letter…dozens of them, all rose-scented.

A lover's letter? Leila, maybe?

My heart was beating so fast that a thin sheen of sweat beaded my forehead, even with the icy wind blowing in through the windows.

The orange flames dancing in the fireplace whooshed dramatically but the blood roaring in my ears made it hard to hear anything else.

I was holding the Alpha’s love letters from his old lover.

Ones which never got delivered by the looks of it.

“Oh my goodness,” I rasped, my knees wobbling as I stretched to my feet and my eyes flew over the inked cursive of the woman’s writing.

“Please, Your Highness. Let me explain to you, I never meant to hurt you. 

This is all just some big misunderstanding.

 If you would grant me one final audience…

I miss you,” 

My throat closed up and I slammed the paper shut, resisting the urge to crumple it in my palm.

“Damn it, Mara, you shouldn't be reading this,” I grunted, knowing it was none of my business figuring out why the big bad Alpha was such an asshole.

And yet, my fingers strayed to the next, and then another…the depth of the woman’s longing and desperation becoming worse with each note I read.

“Please, Dante. I’m begging you as my lover now, not as my Alpha. 

I’m innocent of everything they accused me of. You HAVE to BELIEVE me.

 It is only you in my heart mon coeur.” 

Love,

L.

Leila! 

It had to be her! 

Had she been accused of a crime? 

“They’re going to kill me, Milburn. How long will you turn away from me? I'm being set up! You have to get me out of here! Being shut up like this is driving me crazy! Will you really watch them execute me tonight?” 

A gasp flew past my lips as my fingers clutched at my chest.

Execution?!

“What the hell happened to you?” I breathed, my thoughts racing wildly when the murmur of voices drifted up from the square and a chill ram down my spine.

“This wasn't your room…it was your prison.” I gasped as the weight of realization suddenly struck me and the nausea I’d been holding in suddenly shot up my throat.

What kind of monster would have his own lover locked up like a rat?

 “Ms. Eldwood,” the noise of a woman’s quiet bark made the scream trapped in my throat escape before I whirled around to see Mabel’s tall bony frame hovering above me like a skeleton.

How long has she been standing there?

My lips opened and closed wordlessly as I scrambled to cover what little pictures of the Alpha were left on the floor.

The last thing I needed was for the bitch to go around flapping her gums and telling everyone how I had forbidden material.

I didn't doubt the rake-thin wench with her beady black eyes would do whatever it took to make me seem like a psycho gold digger and have me hanged.

She just had that evil look about her.

“What are you doing?” the maid hissed, her face scrunching up with disgust in a way that made me wonder what I must look like to her.

I stuffed the pictures back in the box, carefully tucking it back under the bed before she had a chance to pry and wipe what remained of the tears that had been streaming down my cheeks.

Crap!

How could I not have heard her walk in? 

If all wolves were this quiet in the fortress then it was going to be a hell of a lot harder for me to escape.

“None of your business, what do you want?” I snarled, limping over to the glass windows and hoping my crass tone would be enough to make her storm off.

“This is nice. You got anything like this back in shadow dump?” the woman hummed, stepping further into the room and running her skeleton-like fingers over the black shiny wood of my large dresser.

No such luck.

My jaw tightened as I fought to control my emotions, refusing to sink to her level.

I knew women like her all to well. Always happy to put you down when it was just the two of you and yet hiding her fangs expertly in public.

It made me sick.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” I gritted through clenched teeth, but the venom in my voice made her face turn into an ugly mask of rage as she pressed her twig-thin lips tightly together, as if gathering some composure of her own.

“The Alphas have asked that you be ready for tomorrow’s ball. See it as an opportunity to get introduced properly to the entire pack as…a short-term guest.” she hissed it out like it was a curse, and a shiver ran down my body at the thought of facing the four once more.

My could-be mates. Would they reject me publicly in front of everyone too?

I’d heard the maids gossiping, unable to help the delight that formed in my core at the thought of being their mate.

It would make me the most powerful, sought-after woman in Shadowville, and for the first time in my life, I would have something other than my self-loathing and worthlessness to hold on to.

That would show Kiernan not to mess with me, he and the other elders who had so cruelly cut me off from the pack I'd known my entire life.

“Im afraid I wont be able to make it,” I hissed, hating the way her lips curved into a sickeningly sweet smile.

“I’m afraid I didn't ask, Ms. Eldwood. And I would fix that attitude if I were you. Disregarding the Alpha’s command is grounds for execution.” Her brusque voice jarred my memory of the letter and I felt my asscheeks clench in horror.

The way he had with Leila? Was there something in the air that made wolves kill their mates this time around?

“Oh, and try not to wear anything that would show your tits to the entire pack this time.” Mabel quipped over her shoulder, swinging her bony hips so hard as she walked to the door that I could swear I'd heard the noise of bones rattling.

A whoosh of cold air seeped into the room until she slammed the door shut, leaving me alone with my thoughts once more.

“Come on…please,” I pleaded, hefting my dress up to peer down the open window just as my heart skipped a beat.

No…too high up. I had none of the regenerative healing I would've had if i’d gotten my wolf like bloody-else everyone did.

I would never recover from a fall that far.

“Think, Mara…freaking THINK,” 

The cold of the tiled floor bit at my heels as I paced the now quiet room, refusing to believe I was locked up in the royal mistress’ room.

What did she look like? A woman so beautiful that the cold hardass had fallen head over heels for her and been gutted by her betrayal.

I tried to wish away those secy pictures of him from my head. 

I had never thought he would be capable of being so mischievous...the playfulness in his deep blue eyes…it was breathtaking.

“Its a good thing he’s nothing like that anymore, Mara, or you would be throwing your panties in his face just like you did with Kiernan,” I grumbled, my jaw tightening as a bitter lump formed in my throat.

Outside the dark glass, the fog had started to dissipate until I was able to see the guard wolves milling around the Castle Square.

Other tall, dark buildings rose up out of the mist like silent sentinels as the bright fluorescent beam of the searchlight spun in a quick, silent circle.

Security was too tight.

It would be impossible to escape tonight. 

“Tomorrow. I would get out of this nightmare tomorrow,” I consoled myself, sinking my back into the soft comforter of the bed.

The knots in my shoulders melted away but my head felt tight, my temples throbbing like a beating heart.

I had to get out before they found out anymore about me. 

If Alpha Dante and the three could kill his mate so brutally, then what in the world would they do to a wolfless maiden like me who had been cursed by the goddess?

“I don't know, but I'd be damned if I'm gonna stick around and find out.”