Contracted To The Alpha King

Vanessa

“This is the last time I will be helping you,” Lyra says as she throws the little scroll at my chest like it burned her. Her voice, the usual cold and detached tone.

I deftly catch it in my hands, a surge of anger flaring in my core.

“We had a deal,” I reply coolly.

“Well the deal ends today,” she snaps. Her green eyes wide and wary under her wide silken scarf warped loosely around her head, as she looks around. As if expecting someone or something to jump out of the shadows at her. “The Council has started sniffing around and it’ll only be a matter of time before I become a suspect.”

I hold the scroll in my hand, a little too tightly as I think of what to say to that.

Lyra spins around, then turns her head slightly to whisper, “ never contact me again. Goodbye, Vanessa”. Then she was gone.

I scoff and spin on my heels, kicking the pebbles of stones lining my path as I start to march out of the dense wide forest.

A deal was a deal, she can’t just break it off whenever she wants. Whatever, I don’t need her anymore.

I look down at the scroll, knowing it contains a detailed map of the Estate – one I’ll be infiltrating tonight.

Yeah, I’ve got all I need. I just need to fig-

The snap of a twig nearby stops me in my tracks. I wait, trying to control my breathing and my rapidly beating heart. My head tilts to the side, ears cocked as I listen. There it was again, another snap.

I reach over my shoulder, behind me only to grab on air.

Fuck. I left my arrows behind, which was quite uncharacteristic of me. I instead, draw the short blade from the waistband of my jeans and turn to face the source of the sound.

Suddenly, a figure, covered head to toe in a cloak so dark it rivaled the darkness of the night, appears.

“Who are you?” I demand but instead, it lunges for me. I barely dodge the first strike, but a searing pain after let me know my ribs have taken a rough hit.

I double over, trying to take in deep breaths but the figure isn’t that patient. He grabs me by the throat and lifts, dangling me above the ground. His strength is supernatural, and even this close, I can’t make out any outline of his face.

“Vanessa,” he drawls. His voice…it sounds wrong, unnatural. It carries through the air, distorted, like an echo of wailing souls.

I claw at his hands but it only tightens around me. My vision dots with black and, with great effort, I steady my hand, and stab my blade into his flesh. He hisses and drops me immediately.

I crash to the floor in a fit of coughs and curses. This time, I run towards him and land a pretty good strike to his face, he stumbles but catches himself in time.

He starts towards me but stops at the sound of heavy footsteps coming out way, then a menacing growl tears through the air. From the trees, emerges a huge black wolf, about six feet tall. It’s blazing green eyes hateful, it’s mouth snarling with teeth so sharp looking it could cut a tree in two clean halves.

With no preamble, the wolf runs towards the figure at full speed but he disappears, literally, and reappears behind the wolf. The combat is so fast I can barely make each figure out, it is a blurry of movements as fists and canines clash.

Then the figure appears behind me, startling me. “Soon, Vanessa Collins.” Then he disappears literally, again, before I can even ask how he knows my full name, or my name at all.

The first sound of bones cracking catches my attention. I whip my head around in time to watch as the wolf transforms into a full grown man.

He is naked except for a pair of pants I’m wondering how it stayed there. His eyes which are as dark as his hair pierce right through me, a shiver courses through my spine.

He walks towards me, his body rippling with barely contained power, muscles flexing with each step and his gait, graceful. I canty help trailing my eyes down the tight coils of his well defined abs, going lower to the V shape, disappearing into his pants.

“You shouldn’t be here, human,” he says in a deep baritone voice that is used to giving commands and yielding obedience.

I am startled out of the trance his body put me under. My nostrils flaring when his words register. “A little stroll in the woods shouldn’t worry anyone.”

“Not in my territory.”

“Well, I don’t see your name written around here anywhere,” I snap.

Two steps and he is right in front of me. I catch a whiff of his scent – woodsy and salty with just the right sprinkle of dangerous. I lick my lips slightly.

He leans In, his breath brushing my face and whispers, “careful, firecracker. Or I just might take a bite.” Then I feel the sharpness of his canine scraping the side of my neck and I shiver involuntarily.

He takes a few steps back, his dark eyes raking over me slowly, almost stripping me, one cloth at a time. Right then, I notice the mark on his left collarbone – a crescent moon tattoo, pulsing in the pale moonlight like it had a heart of it’s own.

That mark…I know it. Heard stories of it and now, the reason for his commanding aura becomes clearer.

Xander Black.

The future Alpha King of the MoonVeil Pack.

“Leave human, and never come back.” Then he shifts into his huge black wolf, trains those blazing green eyes on me once more, then runs off, until his silhouette fades and blends into the darkness.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Then I hear it. The soft, broken whisper of my name, carried through the night air, causing goosebumps to rise on my body.

I take a step forward to run. Then a second.

Then suddenly, I’m falling, the darkness holding

me in it’s cool embrace before I even hit the uneven ground.