THE ALPHA’S HATED CONTRACT MATE

ATTICUS"While we understand your pain, Alpha Atticus, rules are rules and our rules are sacred. We can't just break them. Failure to find your second chance mate before your 30th birthday, you'll be removed from the Alpha King line."The remembrance of those words, said to me during the last council meeting made my blood boil hotter than anything, it pushed my wolf to run faster in the forest. I was howling, tearing through bushes and trees."You have just six months left, Alpha Atticus. Six months to say goodbye to the palace if you fail to produce your second chance mate."I ran faster, my anger increasing. I wasn't angry at the elders for demanding that rules must be upheld. It was up to them. The rules are sacred and there'd be severe consequences for breaking them. I was angry at life, at fate, at death that snatched away my first mate, the love of my life, and our unborn child. I was angry at the people who killed it. Who tortured and tortured her till she died. I ran faster,

ATTICUS"Are you for real?" Lilith asked as we entered my room. I ignored her as I took off the clothes I had hastily put on at the shed."You've really brought her here after buying the idea that she's your mate? Come on, Atticus, you know more than anyone how much of a conniving bitch that witch is. I'm sure she faked a mate bond with you because she knows how desperate you are to have a mate so she'd survive since she was going to die!"Her words were starting to irk me but I ignored them. My relationship with Lilith was complicated. She was neither someone I liked nor hated, she was someone that I had to hold on to, the only link to Rachel. She was Rachel's best friend, her childhood friend. She had known Rachel all her life and holding on to her was like holding on to Rachel. It was the only way I could hold on to the memories of my dead love.I felt that familiar pain I always feel anytime I remember Rachel. It was like a vice, tightening around my neck, squeezing and squeezing

HERAI choked and I instinctively clutched at my chest as if that’d soothe the pain I was feeling. Wanni’s smile widened and her chants grew louder, fuelling my discomfort even more.This can't be the end. I can't go down like this.I tried to hold on, to reach for the core of my powers and fight this. But I couldn't. The feathers were changing colors and my mouth was opening to confess the crime I had committed.Before the words could leave my mouth, I felt a sudden overpowering energy. It drowned the discomfort I was feeling and soothed the pain in my heart. Instead of the pain, something else was growing, a gravitational pull, one so intense that my head whirled up and my eyes met the vicious ones of Atticus. From how his jaws were locked, it was obvious he was feeling this thing too. Whatever it was. The fake bond was getting strengthened and it was overpowering the effects of Wanni’s chants. Someone was helping me. Someone powerful was helping me.I looked around the room. Ever

ATTICUSI stormed down the hallway, rage simmering under my skin. I couldn’t remember ever being this angry before—furious with her, furious with myself. My jaw was clenched so tight I thought my teeth might crack. How the hell had I let it happen? How did I lose control like that, especially with her?Hera.The same woman that was probably responsible for Rachel’s death. And I had touched her—worse, I had wanted her. My body had betrayed me the second I laid my hands on her. I couldn’t fight the pull, the attraction. I had kissed her like a madman, like I needed her. And I fucking hated myself for it. The fact that the first woman I touched in years was the one responsible for taking Rachel from me—it made me sick.And the worst part? The thing that made me want to punch something until my knuckles bled? I was turned on by the fact that I’d made her feel good. Her moans, the way she responded to me—it was burned into my mind.I stormed into my room, my chest tight with anger and

HERAHeads turned. There were the elders in the room, their faces startled and confused as they stared at me, but I ignored them all. My eyes were locked on Atticus, who stood at the head of the table, his expression unreadable.“What the hell is this?” Elder Ayo growled, rising from his seat, but I didn’t spare him a glance.I stormed toward Atticus, my body trembling with rage. “You!” I spat, my voice echoing through the large chamber. “What the hell have you done?” I snapped at him. Atticus’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he remained calm, his gaze steady. “If you have manners, you'd know that this isn't…”“I don’t care!” I cut him off, my voice shaking. “You think you can just strip me of my powers, have me beaten, and throw me into some maid’s uniform like I’m nothing?”The room fell silent, the elders exchanging shocked glances, but I didn’t care. I was beyond caring. All that mattered now was the man standing in front of me.Kai, his beta started to make his way toward me but