CHAPTER 3: ELIAS

As Alpha, I was mostly confined to the comfort of my pack.

It was right in the middle of the other packs. It was both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, I could easily move between packs, I could walk along their borders while keeping away from their territory, but at the same time, I was out in the open. It was the worst place to be in case of an attack.

As one of the last lycans, I had a lot to lose in an attack.

I worked on keeping my pack fortified and keeping people out. My first priority was always the people who lived here—both wolves and lycans. I barely left, unless it was to assess a potential threat and that was why I left last week.

It was meant to be a stake out at the Northern pack. I was close to the border when I got a whiff of her scent. It was so far away and so softs. If I wasn’t a lycan, I’d never have smelled it.

I didn’t even realize when I started rushing towards her. I didn’t know when I broke through their border, but I didn’t care, because something primal urged me forward, something I’d only ever read about.

She was so frail, so cold, and she was barely breathing. I’d carried her without question and brought her back.

It’d been one week of sitting by her side, wondering when she’d finally open her eyes. It was ironic that she chose to wake up the day I finally dared to leave.

“Mate?” she asked, her voice soft and cautious. ”You’re my mate?”

“Yes, but you already know that, don’t you?” I asked as I made my way further into the room.

I hadn’t missed the way her eyes roamed my body, the catch in her throat and how her pupils dilated. She knew what I was to her, whether she’d admit it to herself or not.

“What’s your name?”

There was a beat of silence. “Isadora.”

I murmured her name softly. It flowed sweetly off my tongue, like a reverent prayer. It was perfect.

“You don’t want me as a mate,” she said, looking away. “I won’t mind if you reject me.”

“Reject you?” I scoffed. “Why would I do that?”

“You’re the king.”

“And you’re my mate.”

“So you keep repeating.”

I took the seat next to her bed, the one I’d stayed in over the past week.

Werewolves didn’t see mates with the same reverence we did as lycans. The chances of a lycan ever finding their mate was slim. We lived far longer lives and our mates could be any species: human, witch, werewolf. The chances of us ever meeting were astronomically low.

Most lycans formed partnerships with friends, had children and moved on. It was what my parents did, it was what I thought I’d have to do. She was a fucking miracle, and she didn’t even realize it.

She sat up slowly. The sunlight hit her hair, forming a halo around her. She was so fucking perfect.

“How did you even find me?” she asked. “Your pack is so far away from our pack. How far did I drift?”

“You were still within your pack borders when I got your scent. You were almost dead. How did that happen?”

Her eyes flashed with anger and embarrassment. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.”

“Why?” she snapped. “Because the goddess ordained us to be together? If the goddess had any sense of justice, I wouldn’t have been the one in that river.”

Her eyes were filled with unshed tears, but they weren’t tears of sadness, they were tears of rage. I could almost feel her anger like a raging volcano. It filled the entire room, taking up all the air with it.

“Someone in the pack hurt you,” I deduced and she nodded slowly. “How bad?”

“Terribly.”

“You want revenge?”

She laughed humorlessly. “I want to see him suffer. I want to make him feel even an ounce of what he made me feel.”

“Who is he?”

At that she hesitated.

I waited patiently, silent urging her to give him up, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes.

I reached out for her and let my fingers trail down her cheeks gently. A small gasp left her lips, but she didn’t try to pull back. Her skin was soft and I felt electricity shoot up my arm as I touched her.

I grabbed her chin in a soft but firm grip and turned her to face me. “Tell me who he is.”

She finally met my eyes, and even though she tried to hide it, I could see her emotions like displayed all over her face. I could see the confusion, the anger, the want. Her eyes were like a canvas on display.

Still, she didn’t say a word.

I released her, giving up on her speaking when I finally heard her voice.

“Ethan- the Alpha’s son.”

I went deathly still at that.

Ethan was not my target, but his father was. The Alpha of the Northern pack was knee deep in shit I didn’t even want to list out. I’d been watching him for the past year, trying to get enough evidence to lawfully strip him of his title.

I could do it without proof, but it would strain my relationship with the other packs. The last thing I needed was to have every Alpha terrified that I would come for their title.

“Help me.”

My mate turned to me with furrowed brows. “What?”

“I want his father gone and I want that pack under my control. Help me, and I’ll help you.”

She shook her head. “I’m not going back to that pack.”

“I don’t need you to. Mate with me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You want him to pay, don’t you?” I asked and she nodded slowly. “Be my mate, and I will make all your revenge fantasies come true.”

“You don’t even know what he did to me.”

“I don’t need to know. I just need you to say yes.”

“You’re insane.”

I shrugged. It wasn’t the worst word I’d been called, and it wasn’t exactly a lie.

“I may be insane, but I’m your best shot. If you want to go for the king, you can’t afford to miss.”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, carefully thinking over my offer.

I expected her to decline. It was a brazen offer to make to a stranger, especially one who seemed averse to the idea of a mate. She hadn’t said as such with her words, but I could tell from the way she avoided looking at me and kept her hands folded in her lap.

She wanted nothing to do with me.

I could only hope that whatever Ethan had done to her was greater than her apathy towards me as her mate.

“You’ll help me kill him?” she asked and I raised a brow.

“I thought you wanted revenge.”

“My revenge will be complete when he’s dead,” she seethed. “If you kill him, I’ll do whatever you want.”

I held out a hand to her. “You have a deal."