Chapter 4: A Den of She-wolves and a Beta

Samiya’s POV

Breasts.

There were breasts everywhere I turned, and I was supposedly the slut.

It had been two years since Meidran rejected me in the largest market square in Etrana and two years since I had begun plotting my revenge.

Every year, on the third day of every first month, a contest begins where all female werewolves, or were-women as I liked to call us, would fight for the Alpha’s heart. It was a game where all women had to convince Alpha Zain himself that any of us could make the perfect Luna, but the man always found a sneaky way to wiggle out of it. At best, contestants could only make it to his collection of concubines.

But not this year.

Because this year, I was going to show all of Etrana exactly how to mate with an Alpha and use my new status to ruin Meidran.

Upon my arrival at the Alpha’s castle, I was taken to a special area of the building where there just so happened to be other women willing to compete to be the Alpha’s chosen mate. Fortunately, this year the women willing to compete were a lot less, but they also happened to be quite desperate too.

There were about seven to ten other women in the hallway who were still dressed in their formal attire, which didn’t appear to be all that formal. Most of the women around me had their breasts almost slipping out of their dresses and, if my eyes served me correctly, there was a woman who had her nipples on full display with most of her dress being see-through.

I couldn’t bash any of their tactics though. I was definitely not the most morally upright person in the land and werewolves were indeed sexual beings.

Plus, my outfit wasn’t the most modest either. My mother and I had opted for a body-hugging dress with a high slit and a deep, plunging neckline while I kept my ginger-red hair in a high sleek bun. The dress I had on was seductive enough to capture a man’s attention, but clearly more modest than anything I had seen tonight.

The sound of metal hitting glass stopped the chatter in the hall and made all eyes search for the cause.

Standing in front of all of us, holding a glass cup and a metal fork was none other than Meidran. My purse almost slipped from my hands when I caught sight of his silver blond hair, but I was quick to prevent the small accident. What I wasn’t quick to prevent, however, was the toe-curling pain that erupted in my heart.

A howl from Scarlet echoed in my head and, all of a sudden, I found myself in the same market square from two years ago.

“Get a hold of yourself! He is not our mate anymore!” I yelled at Scarlet, but she was the kind of wolf to always act like a three-year-old pup.

“But the moon goddess-”

“Fuck the moon goddess! Now, behave so that I can get us a better mate!” I cut her off, preventing her from saying anything that could make the pain I felt possibly feel even worse.

Scarlet went silent for a few moments and I began to worry that I might have been a little too harsh on her. I loved her, but sometimes tough love was the only way to work things out with Scarlet.

“I trust you, Miya. I know you’ll only do what’s best for us,” I finally heard Scarlet say with a sigh of resignation.

“Thank you,” I replied in a more cheerful tone than I had used earlier.

My focus returned to the asshole standing in front of us all with a cocky smile plastered on his face. It hurt to see him so happy after what he had done to us. A big part of me still wished to see him have some form of regret or remorse after what he had done, but I knew that that couldn’t happen so fast. Not now at least.

I had been keeping myself updated on news about him ever since the rejection and, unfortunately things had been going smoothly for him ever since then. He even received a special award from the Alpha recently. One could say that he was living the perfect life, but that was all about to change very soon.

“Good evening ladies,” the bastard started, his eyes roaming through the crowd of women. Not once did his eyes land on me. Had he and his wolf forgotten me so easily? Was it really true what my mother had said that no one would remember so easily because I had become quiet and settled with the likes of a sad old gamma over the past two years? None of the women here could even easily point me out as the wench of Etrana.

The lack of attention intrigued me.

“I know that we are all excited to start the games that will decide who the alpha’s chosen mate will be, but for now, we will all be getting some rest, and tomorrow morning, we can all gather here for instructions on what the first game will be. Our staff will be going around and handing out keys to your new rooms. Get some rest and tomorrow morning we shall all meet again,” Meidran explained before stepping down from the stage.

Like the bastard that he was, he began mingling with some of the contestants.

Hypocrite!

If he only liked modest virgins and couldn’t be seen around women like me, then what was he doing around women dressed half-naked anyway?

Before I had a chance to turn red due to the anger bubbling inside of me, a young man approached me and handed me a key. I offered him a small thank you before turning my heels. As much as I despised Meidran and wanted to trick myself into believing that he didn’t affect me in the slightest, I couldn’t bear to see him so happy any longer, and it would have been even much worse if he noticed me. I wasn’t ready to confront him. Yet.

The room I was assigned to was almost the same size as the one I had back home. I had originally expected a bigger room with a few roommates, but if smaller rooms meant no roommates, then I was game. I enjoyed my privacy.

I waited for about two hours to go by before I stepped outside in one of my finest robes. If I truly wanted to win this game, then I needed to think and act fast and leaving things up to chance in the first game tomorrow simply had to be one of the dumbest things I’d ever heard.

I had barely left the sleeping area of the contestants when I heard a strangled moan. Choosing to ignore the sound, I took a few steps forward, but it was the sound of shattering glass that prevented me from moving any further.

“Please, more!” I heard the small voice moan, making me laugh.

“Couldn’t she wait,” I snickered, mindlinking Scarlet.

“Maybe it was one of those times. You know we have them too, Miya,” she countered.

I rolled my eyes. “You know we’d never try something like this in times as drastic as this. Plus, in the worst-case scenario, I’d use my hands. This woman is definitely getting hot with someone else.”

“You’re right. I was just trying to make things look better.”

“I may be a whore, but even I know there is no way to make this look good.”

While I was aware that I had a mission to set into pace, drama like this was something that I could never look over. Plus, I had a feeling that this could somehow help me win the contest in one way or another.

The moans got louder as I followed the distinct sound of the woman’s moans and, luckily for me, the sounds were coming from a room that just had the door slightly ajar. With a smile, I bent forward slightly and took a peep.

What should have filled me with instant gratification, instead filled me with instant regret.

Inside the room, pounding one of the contestants against the wall was Meidran. The alpha’s beta, Meidran Hall. The fool claimed that he had to have a virgin as his mate, but he couldn’t even bother to keep himself for his mate.

A soft whimpering from Scarlet met my ears followed by a familiar pain returning to my chest.

The pain worsened even more when I saw Meidran whispering sweet things into the woman’s ear before thrusting into her once more. A traitorous tear ran down my cheeks, and although I knew that it would be a wise decision to leave as fast as possible, I couldn’t get my feet to move.

As fate would have it, in the middle of his rendezvous, Meidran’s face turned, and his eyes and mine locked. His lips parted slowly and his eyes widened. It might have been from the pleasurable time that he was currently experiencing or from the shock of seeing me. Either way, if he didn’t know that I was a contestant before, he clearly knew now. It was only then that my brain seemed to work again, and my feet came back to life.

With as much speed as I could muster, I ran away from the door and the hallway altogether, while wiping away any signs of sadness from my face.

Somehow, I managed to get to one of the main hallways of the castle. Leaning on one of the walls, I drew in a deep breath while reminding myself of the reason I stepped out of my room in the first place.

Maybe fate was on my side after all, because the moment I turned my head to take a good look at the place I had wound up in, my eyes took notice of a man in a black tunic decorated with golden buttons with a sword strapped to his side. One of the alpha’s men.

He seemed to take good notice of me too, because his eyes widened before he quickly looked away.

Maybe he knew who I was. Maybe I wasn’t as forgotten as I initially thought I was.

Inhaling and exhaling, I mustered up all the charm I could and approached the unsuspecting man with a smile. “Good evening,” I greeted him in a low but cheery tone.

He gulped, his eyes blinking rapidly like someone had shoved something hard down his throat. “Good evening, ma’am.”

Maybe this was going to be a lot easier than I thought.

“You can look at me, you know. All I wanted was to ask for a few directions.” I waved a hand in the air, laughing. The man laughed along with me, but anyone could tell that it was clearly forced.

Slowly, the man turned to look at me and I widened my smile, hoping that somehow that would make him feel comfortable.

He swallowed.

“You are the wench of Etrana, aren’t you? I’ve heard so many good things about you. I heard that you’re able to make any man fall and looking at you now, I see why they say it’s true. Now, I know why men would willingly spend everything they have just to spend a night with you,” he rambled on, and suddenly I started to prefer seeing him quiet.

I let out another laugh and tucked a few strands of my hair behind my ear. At least none of what he heard involved details of my sad rejection.

“Thank you so much for the um… flattery. Well, what you have heard is true and the Alpha needs to see me tonight and I may have forgotten directions to his room, so I was wondering if you could show me?” I asked with a smile still plastered on my face.

His eyebrows creased and he gulped once more. “I’m not sure…”

With a long sigh, I stopped him from speaking entirely. Placing my fingers on my robe, I opened the material slowly, watching his eyes follow my every movement. Reaching into my inner garment and the area just above my breasts, I took out a few hundred dollar bills. Taking the guard's hands, I placed the money in it. “And will this suffice?”