Sold to the ruthless alpha king

Lyra’s POV

The smile on my face fell as Nerrissa said those words.

“Your father wants you back in the city. You will be marrying the new Alpha King of Silver Howl.”

Me?

Marriage?

“But… I do not want to get married. I want Father to take me home to be with him. I do not…”

My words were cut short by a resounding slap on my cheek. My hand flew to my face as tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Your father has ordered it! Do you wish to go against him?” Nerrissa shouted in a harsh tone. Wrinkles formed at the corners of her eyes as she spoke. Her brown hair was up in a high bun, but some strands stuck out.

“You are lucky your father is giving you the chance to marry an Alpha. After you killed your own mother, you deserve nothing but suffering,” her eyes blazed with rage as she spoke.

My whole life I had been raised by servants, far away from my family’s home. My father was a very influential man, respected by many—even the late king—all for his wisdom.

But Father was not as the people perceived him.

He was self-centered. Everything he had done was for his own benefit.

I had never known the love of a father, nor a mother. Mother died a few minutes after I was born. In his rage, my father instantly sent me away to the outskirts of the city to be raised by servants who looked after his houses there.

As I grew older, I could see the hate in his grey eyes.

I knew why.

I had a striking resemblance to my mother. I could see that from the only picture I had of her. Seeing my face made him think of her—the woman he had lost, all because of me.

All because the cursed child was born.

Worse?

I didn’t have a wolf like the others—no sharp claws, no strong sense of smell—just a plain girl who had bad luck.

When I turned thirteen, he suddenly stopped visiting. He would ask the servants to stop giving him feedback about my well-being.

The maids also stopped caring about me. They would force me to do hard labor, and if I didn’t do it right, they would make me starve for days. 

Well, those maids had been sent away when father realized that I only needed Nerissa to care for me. 

Lucky me, one horrible caretaker was better than six.

I still had marks on my back from being whipped by Nerrissa three days ago.

Sometimes I would sit by the riverside and cry my eyes out. I was being punished for something I had no control over.

If only Mom hadn’t died, maybe Dad would love me. Maybe I would live in the mansion with him in the big city.

For nine years, since I turned fifteen, Dad had not come to visit me, nor had he spoken to me. Now he finally had a message for me, and he was asking me to marry a man I didn’t know?

The late Alpha King had two sons, both around my age. People always assumed that the oldest would be the king’s successor, but after he died, the king’s will revealed that he wanted his second son to rule.

Unfortunately, my father had made my stepsister Astrid marry the Fury Sin when the king was alive, in anticipation that when the first son became king, my stepsister would be Luna and he would be related to the Alpha King himself.

Now that his plan had failed, he had resorted to his last option: me. The daughter he had abandoned for years had become the one who would boost his status among his peers.

The father of the kingdom’s Luna.

A power-hungry man.

I had never met my stepsister, nor my stepmother. If Dad had allowed me to stay with them, would my stepsister and I have been close?

I always wondered.

I was just a year older than Astrid. She was twenty-three years old. Maybe we could have been friends.

My heart cracked.

Father really had no intention of ever bringing me back home unless he forced me to marry?

“You better behave,” Nerrissa continued. “If you go into the city and disappoint your father again, he will never forgive you. This is your chance to make him see that you mean something. Do you understand?” she asked.

I sniffed and nodded.

She pointed at a heap of clothes on the ground. “Take those to the river and wash them. Make sure they are dry before you return,” she instructed and marched away.

I walked toward the clothes, but as I reached them, I suddenly stopped, unable to move. Tears streamed down my cheeks again. I didn’t know anything about this new Alpha.

What kind of person was he?

Kind?

Ruthless, just like Father?

I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was better to live in this hell I was in right now than move to a new one.

I finally put the clothes in a basket, braided my hair into French braids, and headed out to the river. My hands and feet were dirty from mud. I had been working in the garden before Nerrissa called me.

Even though Nerrissa treated me badly, she was the closest thing I had to a mother. She had raised me and taught me how to read and write. Maybe she did all that to please Father and switched when she realized he really didn’t care about me.

Soon I reached the river. There were trees all around and nobody in sight. Under the scorching hot sun, I began to wash the clothes. My hands soon wrinkled because of the soap.

I hung them on trees to dry and moved to sit on a log against a tree, waiting patiently for the clothes to dry.

The moon had begun to rise. I looked around. Maybe it was not a good idea to wait here until they dried.

But if I left them here, somebody could take the clothes and Nerrissa would punish me. I sighed. Would I have to sleep out here like last time?

I had once returned without the clothes and she had flogged me with a cane, forcing me back out. “What if somebody steals the clothes!” she had shouted.

I stayed outside the cold night, hungry and shivering.

I stood from the ground and wiped my body with my hands. My feet crunched the dry leaves as I began to search for a soft spot to sleep.

Squinting so I could see under the moonlight that covered the place, the sudden sound of a strained groan halted me in my tracks.

My head swung to my left.

“Hello?”

There was no response. Was it a wild animal?

My whole body trembled at the thought. I couldn’t protect myself, especially since I didn’t have a wolf.

I quickly turned around to run off. “Argh!” Another groan halted me again. This time I was sure it was a person.

I turned around. My eyes fixed on the ground where I saw a man’s figure, his hand clenched tightly against his stomach. He wore a white sleeved shirt and a pair of black pants.

He didn’t seem to be from around here.

I slowly moved closer. Now I could see red blood coming from his lower abdomen.

He was injured.

His head turned to me. “H… H… Help… me,” he managed to say.

I moved to kneel beside him but didn’t touch him. I hesitated. He looked almost lifeless. What if he died on me? What would I say?

Nerrissa would beat me again and accuse me of killing him. Even if she didn’t find out, the gu

ilt would kill me.

Before I could make a decision, I felt his hand wrap around my arm, smearing blood against it.

“Please… help.”