The Alpha I Kissed in the Dark

​Winnie’s POV

​The world didn’t just stop; it shattered into a million jagged pieces, each one piercing my skin.

​I stood there, my feet glued to the expensive marble floor, while the air in my lungs turned to lead. The scent was undeniable. It wasn’t just a hint of cinnamon anymore; it was a tidal wave of it, it was dark, spicy, and so intoxicatingly familiar that my lips actually tingled with the ghost of a kiss I had spent two weeks trying to scrub away.

​My mind raced back to that neon-lit bar, to the bottom of a whiskey glass, and the man who had caught me before I hit the floor. I remembered the heat of his hands, the way he had looked at me like I was something precious rather than a broken girl with a wolf-less soul. I had kissed him to forget Jason. I had kissed him because for one second, I wanted to feel powerful.

​But the man standing before me now wasn’t just some kind stranger. He wasn’t a guard or a high-ranking official’s son.

​He was the Alpha.

​He was Alpha Cassian, the most feared and respected man in the northern territories. The same Alpha who had blessed the pack only weeks ago, standing on the high balcony while I watched from the dirt below. The same Alpha whose sister, Lila, was currently wearing a diamond ring from Jason, the man who had promised to love me until his last breath.

​My heart didn’t just do a backflip; it staged a full-on riot against my ribs. I looked up, my eyes wide and probably reflecting the sheer, unadulterated terror I felt. He was taller than he’d seemed in the dim light of the bar. His shoulders were broad, filling out a dark, tailored shirt that looked like it cost more than my mother’s medical bills. But it was his eyes that truly pinned me, sharp, obsidian depths that seemed to read every frantic thought racing through my head. He looked like a god carved from granite, and I felt like a speck of dust in his path.

​“The new carer, Alpha,” the guard murmured, bowing his head so low I thought he might hit the floor. The guard’s voice seemed to come from a thousand miles away, muffled by the roaring in my ears.

​I couldn’t even manage a nod. I was too busy trying not to faint again. Every instinct I had, the few human ones that functioned without a wolf’s guidance told me to run. To bolt out of the palace, grab my mother, and disappear into the woods. But I was trapped by the debt, trapped by the promise of medicine, and trapped by the man whose scent was currently claiming every inch of my senses.

​The Alpha didn’t say anything at first. He just stood there, his gaze moving slowly from the top of my messy bun, down the length of my worn dungarees, to my scuffed shoes, and finally settling on my face. I saw the moment recognition flickered in those dark depths. It wasn’t a shock he was too controlled for that, but a subtle tightening of his jaw, a slight narrowing of his eyes. He knew. He remembered the taste of me just as clearly as I remembered him.

​“Leave us,” he commanded.

​His voice. Oh Moon Goddess, his voice. It was the same low, vibrating rumble that had told me I shouldn’t be drinking so much. It was a sound that didn’t just hit the ears; it vibrated in the marrow of my bones. It sent a shiver straight down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold palace air.

​The guard scurried out faster than a pup caught in the kitchen, and the heavy doors clicked shut with a sound that felt like a prison sentence.

​Silence stretched between us, thick and heavy, broken only by the frantic drumming of my heart. I felt like a rabbit staring into the eyes of a wolf which, technically, I was. A wolf-less freak staring at the most powerful predator in the territory. I realized then that I had been hired to care for the man I had humiliated myself in front of.

​“So,” he finally spoke, taking a slow step toward me. The click of his boots on the marble sounded like a countdown. “The girl from the bar has a name.”

​I swallowed hard, my throat feeling like it was lined with sandpaper. I tried to find the “Professional Winnie” persona I’d practiced in the mirror, but she had abandoned me. “W-Winifred Godfrey, Alpha. But most people call me Winnie.”

​“Winnie,” he repeated. The way my name rolled off his tongue, slow and deliberate, made my toes curl in my shoes. He stopped just a few feet away, close enough for that cinnamon scent to wrap around me like a physical touch. “You look… different when you aren’t drowning your sorrows in cheap whiskey.”

​My face went from pale to beet red in three seconds flat. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. “I… I apologize for my behavior that night, Alpha. I wasn’t myself. I had… a terrible night. I didn’t know who you were. I would never have….I mean, I shouldn’t have…”

​“I am aware,” he said, his voice dropping an octave, cutting through my stammering. “I saw the proposal. I saw the way you were dragged out.”

​The reminder of Jason stung like a fresh lash. My eyes burned, the humiliation of that night doubling now that I knew the Alpha had witnessed it. He had seen me at my lowest, broken, discarded, and pathetic. I refused to cry, though. Not here. Not in front of him.

​“Then you know why I was at the bar,” I said, my voice gaining a tiny spark of defiance. “But I didn’t know… I mean, I didn’t realize you were the Alpha. I thought you were just… a man.”

​“The Alpha?” He arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow, a hint of something; amusement? Challenge? flickering in his eyes. “I prefer to keep a low profile when I’m not on duty. It allows me to see the pack for what it truly is, rather than what it pretends to be. It allows me to see people when they think no one is watching.”

​He took another step, closing the distance until I had to tilt my head back to look at him. The power radiating off him was nearly suffocating. It was a physical pressure, the weight of his Alpha aura. Usually, wolves could feel this as a command to submit. Since I had no wolf, I just thought of it as an overwhelming presence, like standing too close to a bonfire.

​This was the man who held my mother’s life in his hands. If I messed this up, if I offended him, if he decided he didn’t want a ‘freak’ like me near him, Mama was as good as dead. Her lungs were failing, and the palace was the only place with the resources to save her.

​“Mrs. Halden says you are the best for this position,” he said, his eyes scanning mine as if looking for a lie. “She says you are patient. Calm. That you don’t crumble under pressure.”

​“I… I try my best, Alpha,” I whispered. My voice was trembling, but I met his gaze. I had to. For Mama.

​“We shall see,” he murmured. Suddenly, he reached out. My breath hitched as his fingers brushed against my chin, tilting my face up. His touch was warm, firm, and sent a jolt of electricity through me that made my knees wobble. He looked at my lips, and for a terrifying second, I thought he might do it again. “But tell me, Winnie… do you always kiss strangers when you’re upset, or was I a special case?”

​I thought I might actually die of embarrassment right then and there. My heart was pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it. “It was a mistake! I was drunk, and I thought… I thought you were someone else for a second.”

​The air around him suddenly turned ice-cold. The hand on my chin dropped, and his eyes darkened to a terrifying shade of midnight. The amusement was gone, replaced by a sharp, jagged edge.

​“You thought I was the one who abandoned you for my sister,” he stated, and it wasn’t a question. It was a cold realization.

​I couldn’t answer. The truth was too heavy, too painful. How could I tell him that for one fleeting moment, his kindness had reminded me of the Jason I used to know?

​“Let’s get one thing clear, Winnie,” he said, his voice now a low, dangerous growl that made the shadows in the room seem to lengthen. “In this palace, I am not a substitute. I am not a mistake. And I am certainly not Jason.”

​He turned his back on me, walking toward a large desk covered in ancient-looking scrolls and leather-bound ledgers. The rejection was sharp, professional, and yet it felt personal.

​“You will start tonight. Your mother’s debt has already been partially cleared as a gesture of good faith from the Royal House. Fail me, and you’ll find that my mercy has very strict limits. I require absolute discretion and absolute obedience. Do you understand?”

​“Yes, Alpha,” I managed to choke out.

​“Good. Now, go to the infirmary. Ask for Head Healer Elara. Get the wolfsbane neutralizers. I have a meeting with the Council, and this ache in my chest isn’t getting any better.”

​I turned to leave, my heart still racing, my mind trying to process the fact that I was now the personal carer for the man whose kiss still haunted my dreams. I reached the door, my hand on the heavy brass handle, when his voice stopped me one last time.

​“And Winnie?”

​I looked back over my shoulder. He wasn’t looking at me; he was staring out the window at the setting sun, his silhouette powerful and lonely.

​“Wear something else tomorrow. Those dungarees are… distracting.”

​I practically ran out of the room, my face burning and my mind a chaotic mess. I was a wolf-less girl in a den of monsters, and the biggest monster of all had just told me I was distracting.

​Mama, what have I gotten myself into?