CHAPTER 4

EMILY'S POV

From the moment our eyes met, I was instantly drawn to him - his tall muscular frame, his piercing silver eyes and slightly messy ink black hair. He looked perfect, without any blemishes but I was soon to find out that he had the temper of an uncultured brute.

I ran upstairs to the guest room with tears in my eyes and I shut the door as soon as I was in. Never in my life had I felt so worthless. There was no turning back now. He was surely going to send me back to Royal High and from there, I was going to be sold to the Gamma.

I lay down on the bed and shut my eyes, but an hour passed quickly and the sleep never came. I turned on the bed and just then, my eyes caught a quick blur of light flash by.

"Who is there?" I muttered.

Except for the steady whirring of the fan hanging from the ceiling above, the room was dead silent.

I tried to convince myself that it was just my mind playing games with me, but a few minutes later, I heard something hiss under the bed.

I rose up from the bed and bolted out of the room immediately. Alpha Lucas' room was at the far end of the hallway and the door was partially open. He was still awake.

I ran straight to the door of his room and I knocked twice before poking my head through.

He stared at me for a moment like he had seen a ghost before standing up from his desk.

"What the fuck do you want from me, Emily?" He muttered under his breath.

"There's something in my room," I cried. "I'm hearing sounds."

Surprisingly, he didn't argue with me. He opened the door fully and pointed to a couch at the corner.

"You can sleep there," He said. "But I can assure you that if you try anything funny, you'll spend the rest of the night on the streets."

I nodded in understanding and made for the couch. It was small and not very comfortable but I felt safer with him there, and in a matter of minutes I was already sound asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was surprised to see that I was on the bed. The Alpha was shirtless and standing by the drawer beside me. I noticed that his eyes were fixed on the portrait of a beautiful lady on the wall and I figured that she must have been someone very close to him.

"Thank you," I muttered. "For allowing me to spend the night."

"You're welcome," He grunted. "You can go and start preparing. I would make plans for your trip back."

His words left me shattered. It was a painful reminder of the fact that I was going back to that hellhole. I wished I could make him change his mind, but the situation seemed hopeless.

I nodded in agreement and I made my way out of his room. After washing up, I had a quick breakfast of bacon and eggs. Then, I took my only belonging - a little diary I had been keeping for over a year now.

I waited patiently for him in the living room and an hour later, he was there and fully dressed.

He slipped a cellphone out of his pocket and dialed a number. It rang for barely a second before the person at the other end answered.

"Royal High?" He inquired.

"Yes. How may I help you?"

I recognized the voice at once. It was Lady Marigold - the witch who deceived me all my life.

I wondered if the Alpha knew what really went on at Royal High, and just like that an idea started forming in my head. What if I told him everything? What if I exposed Royal High for what it really was?

But just then, it hit me. He knew that his Beta bought me at an auction. If he was sending me back there, that could only mean that he knew that the school was the auction house.

My heart sank in my chest at the realization.

"I have someone from your school here with me," He said.

"Oh," Lady Marigold said and paused for a while. "I'm not in charge of that but I'll give you a number to call."

He walked up to me and without asking, he grabbed the diary from my hand. As he scribbled the number down on the jotter, a piece of paper fell from it. He caught it midair, and after a suspicious glance at me, he started to open it.

"It's personal," I cried.

"Is that Emily?" Lady Marigold asked over the phone.

He hung up the call and stared at the writing on the paper for a few seconds.

"You're just eighteen." There was an element of surprise on his face when he handed the paper back to me.

I swallowed hard as I read the contents. It was a birthday letter from my best friend, Karen. She must have secretly hidden it in my diary, as a parting gift to me.

I wiped the tears that were etched at the corners of my eyes with my hand. The conflicting emotions were overwhelming, the sadness of having to go back to Royal High, and the joy of realizing that I was not all alone in the world, and I didn't realize when I burst into tears.

Surprisingly, the Alpha didn't say anything mean. Instead, he pulled me closer to himself and grabbed me in a bear hug.

"I lost my younger sister on her eighteenth birthday," He said. "It's been three years now but it still feels like it was yesterday."

"I'm sorry about that," I muttered. "If there's anything I can do to make you feel better - "

He pulled out of the embrace and for the first time since we met, a smile spread across his face.

Good heavens! He looked like an angel when he smiled.

"Actually there is," He said.

I followed his gaze and I saw that he was staring at a portrait on the wall. It was the same portrait I had seen in his room the previous night.

"Clarisse disappeared on the morning of her birthday, and her body was found a few hours later," He said. "I never got to celebrate her eighteenth."

"So you want to celebrate mine to honor her," I cut in.

"It's the least I can do," He sighed.

His face darkened almost immediately and he continued.

"Just a week. Just a week to plan and celebrate the biggest party this pack has ever seen, and after that, you're gone. I'm sorry, but I can't drag you into this dark web I call a life."

And with that, he turned on his heels and went upstairs to his room.

I watched as the handsome Alpha retreated to his room and I realized that I had a very big problem to solve now.

I was falling in love with the Alpha. But that was not the problem.

The problem was that I had barely a week to get the Alpha to fall in love with me.