All Chapters of Taking a Chance with the Crippled Alpha: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Elara’s POVI didn’t even realize I was holding my breath until my chest started hurting.The hall had gone dead quiet—like the kind of silence that pressed against my ears. The kind that told me something was about to go very, very wrong.And it did.“Lord Vale,” the attendant called out.My stomach dropped as a sick,twisted chill crawled up my spine.“Your ward, Lyria Vale, has been chosen.”For a second, I didn’t react or move.I didn’t even blink because my brain just refused to cooperate.Then I saw my father.And that’s when it hit hard.His face looked like someone had just gutted him alive.I had never seen my father cry but then I saw actual tears slide down his face in front of an entire hall full of vultures pretending to be nobles.That’s when the world snapped back into focus. “No!” I gasped because the name they announced, belonged to my little sister, step sister if I had to use the technical term. I didn’t hear the rest of it. Didn’t care about the fake “congratulations,” did

Elara's POVI couldn't sleep much.Umm, honestly, not even for a second.I just lay there,staring at the ceiling,replaying everything. Over and over and over again like some cursed loop I couldn’t shut off.My entire life was playing backwards… then forward and then in a mess… By the time the sky started turning pale, I gave up. “Great,” I muttered, dragging a hand down my face. “First night in this palace and I already hate my life.”Romantic.I pushed myself out of bed, still in yesterday’s mess of a dress—wrinkled and ugly now, exactly like how my wedding was… “Step one,” I said to myself. “Coffee! Before I murder someone.”---The kitchen was surprisingly easy to find.And thankfully empty.“Bless whoever invented silence,” I murmured as I rummaged around until I found what I needed.A few minutes later, I was leaning against the window with a steaming cup in hand, taking slow sips like it was the only thing keeping me tethered to sanity.And then I noticed the training ground in th

Elara’s POV I stared at the impeccable specimen. To me, he looked nothing more than a demon, freshly out of hell, trying to test out its tyranny on lower mortals. Disgust curled deep inside my stomach!“Royal property, huh?” I repeated under my breath, my lips curling. “Are you actually serious right now?”The crack of tension in the air was suffocating. The men, my comrades,the ones I had just been laughing with—fighting with—were now on their knees, heads lowered like criminals waiting for judgment.For what?Touching me during training?“This is some next level shit,” I muttered, shaking my head.Dustan didn’t even look at me when he ordered the punishment.As if he was just making a passing comment. “Have them whipped.”My spine went rigid.His words reverberated inside my head. All of them, all those strong, well built men bent down so easily in front of this gimp.and by no means I was making fun of his disability.However he was definitely retarded- no soul, no humanity, no moral

Elara’s POVI had nothing else to do, so I decided to explore the Central Market instead.And like always, the market was a riot of colour, and noise! Vendors shouted over one another, hawking everything from fresh bread to secondhand boots to bolts of exported silk that shimmered like captured sunlight. Children darted between the legs of shoppers, laughing at some game only they could see. Somewhere, a donkey brayed. Somewhere else, a woman was singing…The kingdom looked happy and the packs well satiated. At least from the outside. I used to come here often… But that was ‘once upon a time'... I wanted to lose myself in the chaos again, to become just another face in the crowd, to forget for one hour what I was expected to become.But soon, whispers started following me like shadows."Heard she's the one from the borderlands.""Can you imagine? An Alpha, even if it's a cripple, dickhead like Dustan, settling for that?"“Shhh! Do you have a death wish?!”"She's not even pretty. Lo

Elara’s POVI raised the second glass in a toast. "I'll drink to that." Finn, or whatever his name was, laughed beside me, his fingers still resting on my thigh.He didn't have a glass. I didn't care.I downed mine anyway.The room tilted slightly. Or maybe that was me. I gripped the edge of the bar and blinked hard, trying to make the world stop spinning. It didn't work. But the spinning felt good. "You are cute when you are drunk," Finn said."I'm not cute, dickhead." I turned on my stool to face him, nearly losing my balance in the process. His hand caught my hip to steady me. I let it stay there. "I'm fucking magnificent."His grin widened. "Yeah? You’ve got to prove it then."Something reckless snapped inside me. The part of my brain that cared about consequences—about who I was, about what I shouldn't do—had drowned somewhere in that second glass.I grabbed Finn by the collar of his shirt and yanked him close. His breath hit my face. It was disgusting,sour with ale but I didn'