Chapter 3: The Darkest Pact

Ann's POV

I sat completely frozen on the edge of the massive four-poster bed of Reginald with my hands gripping the sheets until my knuckles turned white. The dress they had forced me into earlier that day felt like a straightjacket, making every breath a battle.

Hours had passed since the council meeting.. hours since Reginald had kissed me in front of the elders, effectively sealing my fate and transforming me from an invisible maid into the pack’s most high-profile prisoner.

The other maids had moved my meager belongings into this opulent room in total silence.

I was completely isolated... a ghost wearing a Luna’s crown.

My newly awakened wolf paced relentlessly inside my mind, whining and scratching at the edges of my consciousness.

'Click.'

The sound of the iron deadbolt sliding open echoed like a gunshot and I flinched as Alpha Reginald stepped inside and discarded his suit jacket with his white dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, revealing the muscular column of his throat. He wasn’t alone.

Beta Logan followed him in, closing the doors and throwing the lock with a snap.

Reginald didn't look at me right away as he walked over to a decanter on a side table, pouring two glasses of amber liquid slowly.

“You handled yourself adequately today, Ann,” Reginald said as he handed a glass to Logan who took it without breaking his burning glare on me. “The elders are satisfied. For now the threat of impeachment is suspended.”

I couldn't speak. It was like my body was completely frozen.

Reginald took a slow sip of his drink with his gray eyes finally sliding to me. The golden ring around his irises glowed faintly in the dim light.

“But a public announcement is only the first step,” he continued, setting his glass down with a soft clink and began to slowly roll up his sleeves, exposing his forearms. “A Luna’s true purpose is to provide heirs. The council will expect a pregnancy soon. Very soon.”

Tears instantly pricked my eyes, blurring my vision.

“Please,” I whispered with my voice sounding in a pathetic and broken rasp. “You promised… you said I was just a cover for you and Logan. I won't say anything, I swear it.”

“You 'are' a cover,” Logan sneered, stepping out of the shadows. His amber eyes were alight with a twisted jealousy that made my blood run cold. “Don’t flatter yourself, omega. You’re nothing but a vessel. A convenient womb to keep the council off his back.”

“Logan,” Reginald warned softly, though a dark smirk played on his lips.

He walked slowly toward the bed and I scrambled backward with my back hitting the headboard but there was nowhere left to run. He stopped at the edge of the mattress, leaning over me until his overwhelming scent filled my lungs, forcing my omega wolf to submit.

“Logan is right,” Reginald murmured, reaching out to trace the line of my jaw with a thumb. I squeezed my eyes shut with a tear slipping free. “But the process of creating that heir… well, that requires a certain level of participation. And since you belong to my pack, you belong to me and by extension, you belong to him.”

“No… no, please...”

Reginald stepped back with his expression hardening into absolute authority as he looked at his fated mate.

“Logan,” Reginald commanded with his voice dropping into the undeniable Alpha tone that commanded immediate obedience. “Take her dress off.”

***

Logan’s POV

I hated her.. I hated this fragile and wide-eyed little maid who had stumbled into our secret. I hated that Reginald had to pretend to love her in front of the council and I absolutely loathed that the survival of our pack... the survival of 'us'... depended on putting a pup in her belly.

But as I set my glass down and took a slow step toward the bed, a different kind of torture entirely ripped through me.. the scent in the room.

My Beta instincts were violently clashing with my heart. I belonged to Reginald, body and soul but the primal and animalistic part of my brain was roaring at me to claim the trembling omega cornered on the bed.

I stopped right in front of her. She was shaking so violently her teeth were chattering and her soft gray-blue eyes looked up at me, wide with absolute terror, pleading with me silently.

'Don’t do this,' her eyes begged.

My jaw clenched until my teeth ached as I reached out with my hands trembling slightly with the force of my restraint and grabbed the zipper at the back of her emerald gown.

As the backs of my knuckles brushed against her bare and feverish skin, a violent electrical shock arched up my arm.

Ann gasped with her back arching slightly into my touch before she realized what she was doing and shrank away.

'She felt it too.'

Her omega wolf was reacting to me, seeking comfort and submission from a dominant male even while her human mind was paralyzed with fear.

I wanted to rip her throat out for standing between me and Reginald but as I slowly pulled the zipper down, baring the creamy and unblemished expanse of her back with a dark possessive hunger uncoiled in my gut.

“You’re pathetic,” I whispered harshly, leaning down so only she could hear me, desperate to convince myself as much as her. “You’re nothing but a distraction.”

Ann squeezed her eyes shut with a soft and helpless whimper escaping her lips. The sound bypassed my rational brain and hit my wolf directly and my fangs forcefully elongated, pressing painfully against my lower lip as I grabbed the sleeves of the dress and yanked them down her arms, stripping her to the waist.

She crossed her arms over her chest instinctively, trying to hide her lace undergarments with her skin flushed deep red with humiliation and fear.

Reginald moved from the shadows, stepping up right beside me and reached out and grabbed my shoulder with his large hand squeezing tight. The physical contact from him grounded me but the twisted nature of what we were doing made my stomach churn.

“Look at her, Logan,” Reginald rasped with his voice dark with lust. “Look at our new Luna.”

Reginald didn't wait for my response as he climbed onto the bed his knees sinking into the mattress on either side of Ann’s legs, trapping her completely. He grabbed both of her wrists in one massive hand, pinning them above her head against the headboard.

Ann cried out, thrashing weakly beneath him but it was useless. She was a newborn omega fighting a fully-grown and ruthless Alpha.

“Shh, little bird,” Reginald mocked softly, lowering his face to her neck and inhaled deeply, groaning as the scent of her fear. “You’re going to give me the strongest pups this pack has ever seen. But I don't like to share my burdens alone.”

“Logan,” Reginald commanded with a wicked smirk spreading across his face as Ann sobbed beneath him. “Get on the bed. You’re going to help me break her in..”