Forbidden Mating With The Alpha

Chapter 1: The Meeting

"This can't be right... right?" Lucy muttered under her breath, a cloud of warm mist flowing past her lips into the air that surrounded her. The atmosphere was disturbingly bright, and her eyes were struggling to adjust. She brought up her hands and rubbed her fingers against her temples to feel for the arms of her glasses, but she realized that she wasn't wearing them, though she could see perfectly well.

"Where am I?" She asked to no one in particular who was present to hear her. She raised her head to examine her surroundings and saw that she was standing underneath a large willow tree. It's dropping branches had leaves that hovered above her head; leaves with a tinted shade of ruby red that was outright unnatural. The branches danced along with the light wind, and her hair joined in on the dance by flailing about and in front of her face.

Her hair was not that long. It was supposed to be shoulder length, and a darker shade of purple instead of the honey-blonde strands that flowed all the way to her waist. Her hair was not the only strange occurrence that had befallen her. As she stood underneath the willow tree, a disembodied growl reached her ears from behind the wide bark of the tree. It sent shivers running up her spine. There was a creature currently hidden behind the body of the tree and she could not bring herself to move because the growl belonged to an animal she did not recognize.

"Who's there? Come on out!" She called out to the creature, her voice being the only thing she could control. And when the humanoid creature slowly made its way around the body of the tree, her throat immediately dried up as her voice escaped from her. It was a wolf-like creature with dark hair and a hideous snarl. It bore its fangs at her and its red eyes gave a menacing glare. The eyes were a ruby red that was eerily similar to that of the leaves. She realized that she had encroached on the home of the creature and forced her legs to move a few feet away from underneath the tree.

"I-I'm sorry... I'm leaving, s-see? I don't mean any harm," she softly spoke with a quivering voice. The wolf lowered its head and ceased its growling, returning to its hiding place behind the tree and completely disappearing out of sight. She had not the slightest inkling as to why she had found herself under that particular tree. The wolf could have lunged at her at anytime if it felt threatened by her presence.

As she walked away from the tree, she noticed that her body was oddly heavy and she was having quite the hard time with breathing properly. Her waist felt constrained and her attire, which was a lengthy, lavish blue dress underneath a black, long-sleeved overcoat, showed a faint outline of a corset, which was the item behind her respiratory issues. She did not recall ever wearing that corset or dress. In fact, she didn't really remember much about herself, let alone her name. All she knew was that she had been sent to a very strange world that she did not recognize.

As though operating on cue, a violent gust of wind blew and she lost her footing, falling a few feet away from she was standing. She fell to the ground, the palm of her right hand in the process, and hissed in pain as she sat up to watch a multitude of arrows that were aflame fly directly towards the tree. They became lodged in the bark of the tree and the surrounding area, spreading the fire in a matter of seconds. She was shocked beyond words, the painful howling of the wolf from earlier reaching her ears. She quickly got up to her feet and watched in horror as the giant willow tree was caught up in a blaze, the red leaves burning to ashes.

"Step back, Rosalie!"

The harsh order that was directed at her caught her off-guard, but she did not stop her movement as the wails of the wolf filled the air. It almost attacked her a moment ago but she did not understand why it had to suffer. A different flame awoke within her. She had to help the wolf that had been protecting its home. But when she did take another step, the gust of wind that followed this time blew her further away from the tree before she could put her life at risk.

"What are you doing? Stop this!" She yelled out to anyone who was out there, desperately turning her head to face the general direction where the thudding of hooves was coming from. She witnessed a group of horse riders riding their horses through the field, all of them holding bows and arrows except for their leader. He rode his dark horse towards her, coming to a halt in front of her so that she would not be able to make her way to the burning tree.

"You did this, didn't you? Put out the fire before it dies!" She yelled at him as he dismounted the horse and got on his feet. She watched with fear and concern in her eyes, waiting for a change of expression on his sightly face framed by ashy, gray hair, but the look of boredom, or rather annoyance, remained. He wore a black jacket with a waistcoat of a similar color underneath it along with black pants and boots; a formal attire that made Lucy wonder what his position was or if he was anyone important. But what caught her attention the most was the hand fan he was holding in his hand. It made her think back to the gusts of wind that knocked her off her feet.

"Why did you set the tree on fire?" She asked as he stepped away from the horse and towards her.

"Get on. It's not safe here," he demanded, reaching out his free hand to grab ahold of hers. She yanked her arm away and moved away from him, watching as his annoyance grew to irritation instead.

"Put out the fire!" She called out to him and he glanced back at the burning tree. The sounds of the crying wolf still filled the atmosphere.

"We cannot allow that creature to make a nest so close to the palace. It and its pups will overrun the forest in a matter of days," he explained, motioning with his hand for her to approach the horse. She would not have any of that. The wolf was on its own and did not have any puppies. She did not fully grasp what was happening, but she did not want it to die for a trivial reason.

So, she feigned compliance and walked past the man to the horse, but instead of getting on it, she ran around it and towards the burning tree.

"Rosalie, stop!" He called out to her and she did not listen. The other horse riders were too far off to reach her. She ran towards the trunk of the tree, ignoring the heat of the flames licking at the branches above her. Her overcoat could protect her from the fire, she thought. All she wanted to do was to save the wolf. However, when she walked around the trunk, she did not find what she expected to.

What she did find was very shocking. It was the wolf, except that it was engulfed in flames and she could no longer see its dark fur or burning flesh. The fire had taken on the form of the wolf and had become one with it. It noticed her standing a few feet away from and lunged towards her. She stumbled backwards over a root in fear and fell down to her behind, coming into full view of the rest.

"Get down, now!" She heard a voice call out to her and brought her head down to the ground. Within a second, the man blew his hand fan towards the fire and a gust of wind emerged from it, moving fast over Lucy's body and striking the fire to extinguish it. Its form vanished completely, leaving nothing of the wolf behind. Lucy stood up, and started to cough violently from having inhaled the toxic fumes. The man walked up to her and grabbed her hand, succeeding this time when she didn't pull it out of his reach. He guided her back to the horse and helped her to mount it, getting on behind her as well.

"Is it dead?" She asked as he straddled her from behind, taking ahold of the reins.

"Hopefully," was his simple reply that she did not acknowledge, choosing to observe the tree as it burned, "What's gotten into you? Why did you approach a wolf knowing that it could kill you?" He asked sternly, but the reality was that Lucy had not realized the possibility of death at the time.

"I didn't... I just, woke up here," she said the last part in a low voice so that he would not hear her. She did not remember how she arrived to that strange willow tree in the first place. There were so many mysteries and many questions that were being piled up without an answer anywhere in sight.

"Who are you anyway?" She asked, turning her head to face him. He looked down at her and heaved a heavy sigh.

"You can call me Creed... " he said, whipping the reins and pulling them to direct the horse in the direction of the other men. From his introduction, Lucy was able to deduce that it was the first she was meeting the man.

"Why are you here and how do you know me?" She asked to have him scoff and bring up a small, handsome smile.

"I am here to court you, of course. I am known as the King's first son, Prince Creed Ashbury The Third," he announced, shocking Lucy to the core. She never imagined that she would one day found her herself bearing the interest and receiving the courtship of a prince. She would not admit it but she found Creed to be strikingly good looking and that the concept of him being interested in her somewhat seemed excitable and immensely confused.

"And why does 'this' prince Creed The Fou-"

"The Third," Creed interrupted her with her a light chuckle the moment her noticed she would incorrectly say his title. She felt her cheeks heat up from being flustered but quickly shook her head to clear her emotions.

"Y-Yes, The Third. Why do you feel the need to court me? I'm not anyone special," she muttered, looking down at the hair draped over of her shoulders. She said that but she did not really know who she was. As far as she was concerned, her name was Lucy but Creed constantly called her Rosalie.

"I want to marry you, of course. You might not think so but you're very special to me," Dante said calmy from behind her.

"I've never met you before," and she said, wondering if she really had met him before. Creed bit his bottom lip and furrowed his eyebrows, an act she did not catch.

"Believe me, you have," and he gave her a quick response, proving that she did know the prince personally. It bothered her that he was completely nonchalant about the whole affair as though her future was not at stake. As far as she was concerned, she was not interested in getting married yet. She was only 19 years old and had a life to live before getting married. Whatever her history with Creed, she would have to reject him in order to give herself time to figure out her situation as she did not remember anything until a few minutes ago.