The Alpha and His Deadly Beauty

Time Mocks Us All

The last thing Scarlett needed was a mate.

Mate, the half of your soul. Mate, a being that would finally complete your existence in this world. A being that would sweep your feet away, cherish you with love, and gives you eternal happiness.

How romantic, don’t you think?

How hideous, was what Scarlett thought.

It was an awful description of a person. The very word puts a person as if he or she is a tool meant for the other’s happiness. As if one could not get their own fulfilling life.

As if one is not complete with the other.

Scarlett never believed those words.

She believed she was perfectly fine on her own. She was content without ever finding her mate.

Lots of werewolf children love to fantasize about their mates. Sometimes they put on overwhelming expectations and would be disappointed. Most of the time, though, they just hope and never find one all their lives.

Scarlett knew this because she was once part of a werewolf clan. And not just any clan. She was part of the Dire Wolves clan. Unlike ordinary Canis lupus, or as you know as wolves, dire wolves are bigger, larger, and stronger.

They were bigger, larger, and stronger. 

Dire wolves have not been seen in a decade. It used to be the ruling clan of all werewolves clan. Or they liked to call it “the Alpha clan amongst all”. And at the top of the alpha clan sat her father, Grey the Protector. He was named so because he dedicated all his life to the protection of all werewolves. That, Scarlett, could guarantee. She had seen for herself how hard her father had worked.

But some did not like her father’s ideals of making peace with all other kinds; humans, faeries, even witches. Mostly, the alphas of all other clans. They wanted to rule the world as their own. They wanted to be at the top of the food chain.

So the next thing Scarlett knew, the dire wolves' village was ravaged by the traitor alphas at the dead of the night. There was fire, claws, snarls, bites. And blood. Lots of it.

Scarlett was the only survivor.

That made her the only dire wolverine left in this world.

She had to make hard choices to survive. It was hard. At times, she felt like breaking and stop doing anything. But she was alive. And she would continue to do so.

There were good days. And there were bad days.

Her survival at the age of nine started with bad days. Days she had to scrape food from the street. Days she had to beg for the tiniest crumbs. Also the days she had to steal.

Even the days she had to sell her body.

Then the good days came. She was adopted by a royal couple from Tollyria, brought up like their own daughter, along with the other two adopted girls and their birth daughter. She thought they adopted her because they knew what she was, what she could do. And that was perfectly fine for her. She did not mind helping them. Because they had helped Scarlett the most. They extended their arms when no one would. They gave Scarlett a new home, a new purpose, and a new name.

Apparently, every royal generation in Tollyria chooses their own last names. It was a sacred act for them because Tollyrians believe that names hold meanings. That names have power and are prayers that should be answered.

Scarlett and her sisters had chosen their own purpose in life.

Dawnless.

She was Scarlett Dawnless.

The good days were beyond good.

The good days, unfortunately, did not last long.

Scarlett did not know what went wrong, or how things exactly came to be. But five years ago, everything crumbled apart. The once benevolent king that she knew changed suddenly. The people were unrest as violence, famine, and sickness grew in the country. It had gotten so bad and dangerous… that they sent Lyria, the birth of Princess of Tollyria to get help from neighboring countries.

That was five years ago. They had not heard back from Lyria at all ever since.

The only thing keeping Tollyria together in the following years was her adopted sister, Sania. But even she could not hold a crumbling nation forever.

When the king realized that Sania had been secretly disobeying his orders, he burnt her. Along with all remaining Tollyrians.

Now that … was four months ago.

The last thing Sania told her was to run. So, she did.

Again, she became the only survivor.

Coward.

She ran without stopping in her dire wolf form. She passed the Kumbai Dessert and finally, she arrived in the City of Corpses. The vilest and treacherous city to ever existed on the continent. A city full of glamor and riches during the day but at night… assassins roamed triumphantly.

She knew then that if she wanted to survive; she had to become an assassin. Thus, she joined the Red Crows Guild and became an assassin. Luckily, her sword and magic training during her stay in Tollyria paid off. She was never a gentlewoman. She could be feminine, yes, but she could also be deadly. And even during her years serving as a Tollyrian princess, she had killed people. Bandits, assassins, traitors, spies. But never civilians.

With her red flowing hair and green piercing eyes, she was an enchantress. She did have ‘The Enchantress’ as her nickname in Tollyria. And she knew how to use her charm to lure people.

Within weeks, she had gained popularity as the Rouge Assassin. No one had seen her face. She was not stupid. But people had taken a glimpse of her rouge hair while she slit a person’s throat. Or when she opted to use poison, she would dress up in a red dress and applied her favorite rouge color lipstick. So that when her partner died after some time in some pub or ball, the witnesses reported ‘the lady with the red dress.’

In the City of Corpses, she had a new name. The Rouge Assassin.

That night, she was on another mission. The guild had given her a target. As always, she made sure to check the target first. Because as an assassin in the City of Corpses, she had a code. She would not touch civilians and children. So, she had to make sure that the target did deserve to die. Luckily, according to her, the nobles and wealthy people in the City of Corpses all had shady businesses.

It made it easier for her conscience to kill them.

This time, she had to kill Trey Moonchaser, the alpha king of the Moonchaser clan.

Her eyes lit up as she read the name ‘Moonchaser.’

She did not even do her usual routine background check to accept the mission proposal from the guild. As soon as she saw his name, she accepted the mission within a heartbeat.

Her heart thumped fast and wild. She felt the tingling in her fingertips.

She wanted to immediately kill that man.

The man whose father led the attack on her village years ago.

It felt like a dream to be able to see that name after so long. She once dreamed of revenge during her bad days. But she almost forgot about it because of her good days.

Time is a funny existence. It mocks you. It taunts you with things you could not have in an instant. It tests your patience every time.

Thus, when Time finally gave Scarlett an opportunity, she would not let this pass.

Until she finally met him.