Chapter One

“Wait up”… she screamed running to the school bus, but it left her, again… She didn’t even know why she still bothered to wait for the bus to appear.

“Run freak”, her step sisters drove past her laughing loudly.

She flipped her middle finger at them and sent the poor stones flying with a kick. Life sucks.

Aramina was simply tired of living with her stepmother and the bullies she had as sisters.

“High school is almost over”, she consoled herself for the hundredth time since she came into existence.

Aramina hated life in general, everything sucked, but the worse part of the deal was herself, she was one unusual girl; she didn’t get tired as quickly as the other kids, she barely got sick and despite the injuries inflicted on her by her family and school bullies, she never had a scar the next day.

It doesn’t exactly bother her that they thought she is a freak, it scares the losers away after several attempts to break her failed.

The actual bone of contention was that she had a heightened sense of sight and hearing. Her stepmother said she had been cursed, and her stepsisters see her as a freak and had managed to convince the school to think the same.

Aramina agreed with them: she’d heard things she didn’t have any business hearing; people’s heartbeat, the flipping of paper, clicking of glass, platter of the rain and worse still, the slightest whispers. She saw the smallest of things, the rain before it got to the ground, the wrongly screwed nut, and the smallest of details.

It was an exhausting life, one that caused her little or no sleep since she turned 11, consequently, the haggard way she often looked.

To save herself from the ache of seeing and hearing too much, Aramina was always seen with the shade and headset as her companion. As she entered the school gate, she signed

“Another long Friday!”

********

Alpha Zachary hissed again in frustration, Karen and Caleb knew better than to talk to him at that moment. His meeting with Alpha Recdolf had left him pissed again. How dare he set him up with another woman? He had already made it clear that he didn’t need a wife, not for the moment at least.

He just couldn’t understand Recdolf’s obsession with him getting married before his twenty-fifth birthday. It was not like he was dying anyway. Why was the Council of Alphas obsessed with legitimizing his title by marrying him off, the last thing on Zach’s mind was the need for a partner that will tie him down or worse, be his weakness to the enemies he had inherited from his father.

“Let me see her profile“.

As he glanced through it, he smirked ruthlessly as the car pulled at the entrance of the g&g

Zachery had decided that being alone was better, with nothing to lose, he could easily be as ruthless as he can, especially here. He knew that his ruthlessness was why he was still the alpha of his tribe. He loved his pack, but he knew that he was only accepted because of the fear of his father, his alpha powers from his mother, and the witchcraft of his grandmother.

Nobody wanted a hybrid as their alpha, except, his Beta and Gemma who were also his best friends.

After his father’s death, a group of Alphas, led by his half-brother had decided to come after him, disrupting the peace of his pack and using witchcraft to curse him, none of them had lived to tell the story, it was a blood bath, how could useless Alphas who had everything to lose think that he was an easy prey for them.

He was the son of a true Alpha and the grandson of a pureblood witch, they didn’t have any idea what they were up against.

He couldn’t help the smirk on his face as he remembered the look of terror in their eyes when he ripped the hearts of their Lunas and watched them writhe in the pain of losing their mate. He had hunted down the witches who dared produced the hex for his death and had made them watch as he burnt their family heirlooms leaving them completely powerless.

The Council of Alphas had suspended him for eight moons but no one had dared to come after him again. His pack was isolated, he loved the fact that it was surrounded by water - shaped like a half moon, there was only one way to enter his territory and that was through his warriors, anyone who entered through the water was deemed a trespasser and ripped on sight.

He knew the Council of Alphas have giving up on dethroning him as the leader of his pack and have decided to find him a bride…a true blood Alpha bride…

like the one currently sitting across him…

“Are you even listening to me Zach”, she said through a pursed lip that he could have thought sexy if he wasn’t distracted by the sweet scent he perceived immediately after he had stepped into the restaurant.

Struggling to compose himself, he let his eyes stray back to the lady in front of him, she had used her alpha tone on him, clearly to remind him of her purpose in his life. “Yes Mira”, he gritted out,

“It’s Maya, and I had already corrected you twice”. She responded curtly.

“Do you want to go somewhere else, I mean, I’m not interested in making you my bride but I’m free this weekend, I can offer you the weekend of your dreams or you can go back to being the council’s pawn”, he said, leaning back on his seat and gently running his hands over the rim of his glass.

********

She immediately dropped the tray, she couldn’t believe he just suggested that.

Aramina hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. She wasn’t even supposed to be here, but she had been bullied by Nadi, her step-sister who suddenly decided to conveniently go on a weekend vacation with her friends. So here she was, filling in for her for the weekend, the management had insisted that she was not allowed to wear her shades or earphones, she had ended up practically wincing at every word uttered by people in the restaurant.

Strangely, a soothing scent made her comfortable in this place. The feeling was one she was not accustomed to and so she didn’t know what to make of it.

This feeling had crept up as soon as the couple had come in, she had noticed, and couldn’t help listening in on their conversation.

She knew the couple was on the second floor, she had wondered why the woman couldn’t notice her partner’s lack of interest since she had been chattering for over 40 minutes without meaningful input from her partner.

********

Zachary knew what she would choose, they all wanted the same thing, after all, his money and his active libido.

Not bothering to wait for Maya’s response, he stood up and walked towards the entrance, she hurriedly followed behind. Leeches

The scent got sharper, as he got to the exit, his heart raced as he suddenly put a name to this soothing scent.

Mate!

Karen and Celeb gasp, “but the prophesy…” Celeb couldn’t finish as Zach walked purposely to the staff-only part of the restaurant, his heart was beating loudly.

He had a mate, he had a f**king mate and his grandmother had said otherwise, that old woman had never prophesied anything that turned out to be true.

Immediately he stepped into the kitchen, he saw her…she was a red hair, the only red hair in the room, fate couldn’t have been more dramatic, there was a frown on her face as if she wanted to be anywhere but here, then as her eyes caught him, she gasped in shock… Zach strolled toward her, instinctively wanting to hug her… protect her, and leave this hot kitchen with her.

“Hey mate” Zach greeted

*******

The shadow slipped out from its position and hurried down the alley, this was the most exciting news it was going to bring to its master…Zachary Toople found his mate.