Chapter 2 - The Man Inside The Hoodie

He walked out and brushed past her without another glance. His footsteps faded and the corridor slowly emptied.

Only when she had gathered every broken piece, every overturned cup and every shattered wine glass did Briella stop moving.

One tear escaped but she caught it before it reached the floor. 

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High above the entrance hall and hidden behind the carved balcony railing, Natasha Ashcroft watched everything.

Her expression softened just enough to resemble pity. Anyone looking up would have believed the Queen Mother mourned for Briella, her daughter-in-law. They would have been wrong.

Natasha wasn't grieving. She was waiting. And far far away from the walls of Ashcroft Manor, a deep war horn rolled across the valleys.

The banners of the Red Kingdom had entered Ashcroft lands.

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It happened as usual. Bernard drank, cursed her and looked at her with cold, hateful eyes before he fell asleep. 

He had made it clear as usual that he did not care about her needs, didn't want her as a wife and did not want her body because his mother had told him to be ready but he never could be ready to touch her virgin body. 

So, Briella took her time and sobbed in her room. She also took her time to wish she was dead with her parents. Then, she made the decision she'd been daring to ever make since she realized Bernard would never mate with her.

She sneaked out of the estate. 

And it was surprisingly easy since the guards were incompetent as usual. Tears of intense anger and sexual frustration blurred her vision as she hurried away.

She walked into the exclusive district of the main city, ignoring the looks people gave her. 

The deeper Briella wandered into the district, the louder the city became. Wild music sounded through the streets as masked men and women laughed beneath glowing lights. Luxury cars lined the roads while elegantly or skimpily dressed couples disappeared behind velvet curtains.

Then she saw it.

The Pleasure House.

It was a towering black and glass building. Expensive perfumes drifted through its open doors, mingling with wine, musky sex, and whispered laughter.

People entered smiling and emerged looking drunk and completely different. Some walked on trembling legs.

Briella stared and her heart pounded. For the first time in five years, she wondered what it felt like to be wanted.

Briella felt small and felt out of place in her simple silky nightdress. And for very strange reasons, she felt her nipples peak beneath the thin fabric. 

She only stood outside the great building and stared up at it, temptation gnawing through her mind. 

Meanwhile, an Alpha stood in the shadows, wearing a very large red hoodie and watching her closely. Just by sight, one could tell he was a very powerful man. A large one at that.

He tried to control his instinct and for the first time in four centuries, his heartbeat quickened and he felt the rush of his own blood. 

Suddenly, Briella was crying as she wrapped her arms around herself and looked around, lost.

The man only felt a strange pull and it was all it took for his instincts to move his feet. 

Like a shadow, he approached her slowly. He did not speak. He did not ask for her name. She did not even see his face.

He only reached out and touched her face. And instantly they both froze. 

His touch was surprisingly light and caught a tear from her cheek. Briella flinched. She had heard stories of tall powerful men and their need for mating and their casual lifestyle. And with that, she expected cruelty.

But what she found now was gentleness instead. His hands were warm and his presence was calming. 

There was a great weariness about him but all Briella could think about was trust, need and a very foreign excitement. 

Without another word, he took her hand and moved them to a dark, private room. The door clicked shut and the world outside disappeared. 

The room was lit only by a bedside lamp. Shadows danced across the stone walls as Briella stood frozen, her breath still uneven.

She had trusted the darkness of the halls because it had hidden him and her from the other people who were lost in their own senses of passion.

But now, he reached up slowly and his gloved fingers pulled back the hood that had concealed his features.

The fabric slipped back and Briella's breath caught. He was.... breathtaking.

Long, dark hair framed a face so striking it almost didn't seem real. Strong, elegant features carried the quiet confidence of a man born to command. Yet it wasn't his face that stole every thought from her mind.

It was his eyes. They weren't blue or green. They weren't exactly violet. They were piercing and shimmering between red and violet, glowing faintly in the dim light like embers buried under ice.

Briella instinctively stepped back.

"Oh no.... W-What.... who are you...?"

Her voice trembled. Those eyes.... They weren't for any normal wolf.

For the first time that night, fear gripped her soul. Every story she'd heard as a little girl rushed back.

"The Red Lycans and their kings draped in blood. Warriors blessed and feared by the Moon."

Her heart pounded.