ALEXANDER.
The sun seeped into my eyes and I instantly flung them open. I was still in my car, two gates away from Tina’s home. I stayed here overnight. ‘Yep, she didn't come back,’ Tyrant said. “You didn't sleep?” I asked and he nodded. ‘I waited for her scent, until now, she hasn't come back.’ He yawned, his voice tired. What the hell?! Where did she go? I opened the car door and Tyrant came forward. ‘Where are you going?’ He asked. “To her house. Maybe Tina knows where she went?” I asked. ‘You are wearing the same clothes and shoes from yesterday, Tina will ask questions.’ He reminded me and I sighed. I had completely forgotten. ‘She might be in school.’ Tyrant added. I drove back home and showered before dressing for work. Being a professor was the best way to build my qualifications to be Beta. This was why I took the job and it actually paid off. In school, she was nowhere in sight. I went to every class she was supposed to have for the day yet she wasn't in any of them. “Where could she be?” I wondered again. Tyrant kept quiet for a second. ‘It is not like we care about her, we shouldn't care.’ he said. I nodded. He was right. “But she is human, we have to care because we are good people.” ‘Yes.’ he agreed. “Should we report to the border men? Do you think that is better?” I asked. ‘I think it is too much, wouldn't they wonder why and how we knew she was missing?’ “Does it matter? She ran out of the house and now she didn't come to school.” I sighed. ‘We have a meeting with the Alpha, let’s sort that out first.’ I nodded, picking my keys off the table. I got in my car and picked Tina up from the saloon. We would be seeing the Alpha together and also fixing the date for our wedding and Beta coronation. “Are you excited?” she asked. Excitement? No, I wasn't. I was going to be meeting my father for the first time in twenty-eight years, why should I be excited about that? “Yes,” I said without a smile, and she brought her hand to mine caressing my skin. “Did she come back?” I asked. “Who?” She asked making me glance at her. “Lana, she wasn't in class today.” “Oh, she probably went to fuck a man. She is just like her mother, fucking around before finding her mate. Pretty sure the man would be meeting a big fish hole when he meets her.” She hissed. ‘Is she not explaining herself right now?’ Tyrant hissed and I almost laughed from his irritation. “She sleeps around?” I asked. “Yes, she is a whore. Why do you think I hate her? I have caught her with over four men in her room, moaning and sucking their cock. Did you know she ran from the house to meet a man and that was when her father went to search for her which caused his accident.” She rolled her eyes with irritation. I swallowed, feeling a nerve burst in my belly. “Are you okay?” She asked. “No, I am parched.” I stopped by the coffee shop and went in for a cup of coffee. After swallowing the first one in one gulp, I took another back to the car. Tyrant said nothing. “Are you okay now?” She asked and I nodded, continuing the drive, my face fixed on the road. Soon, we arrived at the pack house. I had never lived in it. I had never one day lived like an Alpha prince. We got in, Tina holding my hand like she was leading her baby brother. She was six years older anyway. We waited for the Alpha to arrive in the meeting room and when he stepped in, I got engulfed in his aura. He had violet eyes, one that ran in the family and this was the reason I wore contact lenses to hide mine. “Wow, he is a handsome one,” he said taking his seat. “Yes, Alpha. Alexander here is going to be taking over from Bryan. I will also be getting married to him.” Tina beamed. I blacked out from their discussion when a familiar scent hit my nostrils, making me dart around to see where it came from. The pack house was large. We were in the second floor where the Alpha did all of his meetings. ‘It smelling like her’ Tyrant came forward. He was right. She smelled like vanilla. Like peach. Spring break. Freedom. Her smell was ecstasy and every time I sniffed if, it felt so right. ‘Yet wrong, very wrong.’ Tyrant interjected, reminding me I wasn't supposed to be enjoying her scent. ‘Especially because she is not a saint. She has been sleeping with different men. This is why love is nonsense and we can never believe in it.’ I agreed with him. The only reason my mom was crazy in a mental hospital was because of this man. He didn't know how much hatred I harbored against him. He was here living happily while my mother suffered a great deal. He got a new wife and son who lived in this mansion with him and neglected my mother who was his real mate. Worse, the bastard marked her yet he didn't let her mark him. He claimed her subjecting her to loneliness and heartbreak. Each time he slept with other women, she felt it. My fist clenched beside me and I wanted to punch the grin off his face. He was looking at me, but I hated his gut. I hated everything about him. “Yes, he is very handsome.” Tina held me and laid her head on my shoulder. “Dad, I am going to drop her off.” A manly voice sounded. I turned to the entrance and saw a young man. It was Isaac, Alpha’s heir. Isaac was over twenty years old. His purple eyes gazed at his father waiting for approval. It wasn't Isaac that got my attention. He was handsome with violet eyes that have him unique features but that didn't flabbergasted me. It was the female behind him that did. She stood next to him, closely, her eyes on the floor. ‘What is she doing with him?’ Tyrant came forward quickly, anger sipping from him to me. ‘Isn’t Isaac a fuck boy? Goodness, did she fuvk him?’ “She better not!” I stood, ignoring everyone in the room. She was the one I fixed my burning gaze on. Gently, she lifted her head as well, and when she saw me, she froze. I walked up to her and grabbed her hand. “Come with me!”LENA.Alexander didn’t come back to me.No.He left—and never came back. I had prepared it all—his death. It was going to be simple. I had the poison hidden inside my bag, concealed in a syringe filled with liquid death. All I needed was the right moment. The irony was cruel: the man I once obsessed over, the one I had craved for most of my life, was going to die at my hands.Back in high school, I was infatuated with him. Alexander. The golden boy with midnight hair and a jawline sculpted from cold marble. I used to trace his name into my notebooks and imagine the kind of girl he’d fall for. Now, here I was. That girl—grown, bitter, scarred.Still, he was so handsome.Even more than before. But I had failed to read his features correctly, even now. I couldn’t allow a monster like him to pull me back in. Not after everything he had done. Not after all the people he had killed. Not after Phoenix. Not after Austin.I waited all night. Watching the door. My heart stiff with anticipation.
ALEXANDER. I needed to tame the monster. To be better for her. I didn't want her to see me like a monster. A man who wasn't enough for her. Maybe I wasn't enough for her. How… how do I tame the monster? I walked down the building. The doctor. She should be able to help. That doctor who had watch me - the monster- kill Tina and my mother. I wasn't sure. She saw me. She watched. She was terrified. She tried to run. But I held her back.I covered her mouth when she wanted to scream. I told her not to shout. I told her I won't hurt her. She didn't smell like evil. The monster didn't hate her. The monster didn't want to kill her. Her eyes streamed with fear. Ones I could feel.Eventually, she was taken away by the guard.Annalise. She called Tina ‘mother.’I wasn't sure. Maybe I was wrong. She was taken away that day. “You are here again,” her voice penetrated my ears as I entered her office. She wore white coat. She became the pack doctor. She became strict.
LENA.Isaac.It was freaking Isaac.Of all the people in the world, it had to be him.Yes—Alexander’s stepbrother.My friend. Almost my best friend. The boy who understood my silences, who laughed at my dumbest jokes, who held my hand when I thought the world would swallow me whole.Until he ran.He didn’t say goodbye. He didn’t even look back.He just… left.I couldn’t bring myself to blame him.He had to go. He had to pack his things and run. There were too many problems stacked against him, too many truths that broke his spirit. And he was just a boy then, barely old enough to shoulder that kind of pain.But now—he was a man.Taller.Broader.His beard was thicker than I remembered, shadows resting across his jawline like it had grown alongside his pain.Time had done its work on him. But not just time—life.It had chiseled him into someone I almost didn’t recognize.And now, he was the boss?The one who took my children?I stumbled back, my heartbeat pounding in my ears like war d
ALEXANDER. She hates me. She really hates me. Lena, her name was Lena. I remember. She told me not to come near her. Her eyes screamed with fear. She feared me. Did I do something bad? I only protected her. Why couldn't she see that? Did she hate me? Perhaps she thought that I was a monster. Was I? But I would never let the monster get her. I would hide him deep within me and never allow him to get to her. She ran. Why did she run? I wanted her to come back. To me. To be with me. Why couldn't she be with me? Was I a monster? Did she hate me? I wasn't sure. I walked around my room. My fingers in my hair. My scalp was itching. A lot. It happened when I felt anxious. When I didn't know what to do. When I didn't understand what was happening. Lena looked like she was going to run from me. I didn't want her to run. I wanted her to stay with me. I didn't want her to fear me. Her smell, she smelled so good and I didn't want that to be gone. I needed her to st
LENA.I was shocked to the ground. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t.There was blood all over. The blood of my best friend; a man who had been there for me my entire life. This man killed him. Every part of me tensed with pain.I didn’t know what to do.I could only stare. The image stuck with me. The smell of blood was thick in the air, plunging into my nostrils like acid. I couldn’t take the sight off my mind.“No.” I shook my head, barely able to process the horror before me.I kept shaking my head. My hands trembled by my sides, my knees locked stiff.“No, don’t run. Don’t run.” He tried to come close to me. His bloody hands were raised in the air. My eyes went even wider. He was coming closer. He was going to kill me. I was next.And tell me why I couldn’t run.Why did my feet feel like stone? My legs betrayed me. I just couldn’t run away. A man whom I had loved… my mate was going to kill me.I shook my head harder, almost like I could shake the moment off, make it disappear. Tears ra
ALEXANDER.White. The first thing I saw was white.The roof. Was it the roof? I looked away, it looked like it was going to fall on me. The brightness stung my eyes. It was too clean. Too wrong. Like it didn’t belong in my world.I turned and saw no one next to me. No her.I was on the bed or the couch, I wasn’t sure. I looked around for her, hoping to see her again. To tell her what happened back there. What had happened back there?Blood?Spilled?That man, he kept touching her.Evil. So I killed him. Stopped him from breathing.Where did she go?Why did she leave?What did she inject me with? She injected me.Why? Didn’t she see, that man’s evil.He had to die. I had to kill him.To protect her.That man was evil.Her face. I could remember her face properly.She was angry. Angry. Her scent mixed with her anger.Was she angry at me or was he evil man?Did she know?I had to tell her. I had to find answers.So I stepped out of the bed. Couch. I wasn’t sure.I walked to the door and