The Alpha and His Deadly Beauty

Not My Mate

At the place where people never bother to look, a creature crept slowly underneath a door. It stretched its body a little to fit into the little space. Without difficulty, it had arrived at the other end of the room.

It waited a few calm seconds. It wiggled its sensitive antenna in order to feel any temperature change.

When it decided that it was safe, that no one would barge in the door any moment, it crawled to in front of a mirror. Then, in a blink of an eye, red specks of dust started encircling it. Its torso lengthened and stretched beyond nature would allow as some of its feet retracted to the body.

Its body soon turned into a big lump in front of the mirror and still, it kept on getting bigger and bigger. Until it was finally about the height of a human.

Scarlett sometimes liked to imagine the sound of her bones cracking every time she saw herself change. For example, the moment her head had formed. CRACK. The moment her spine grew. CRACK. And when her fingers popped out one by one. CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

In reality, there was no sound whatsoever. And the change took place in a second so no one would truly notice the lump or the clouds of dust in between change. But as Scarlett had observed herself for years, her eyes could make out every single thing her body went through.

The red cloud of dust grew big as her body grew. And soon her eyes popped out. Then her nose and her mouth.

Before long, she was already staring at her naked self.

The red dust disappeared. The sound of bone snapping in her head was gone. What was left was a pale girl staring back at her. She looked sick.

Suddenly, she barfed as she felt bile rising up to her throat. So, she quickly went to the bathroom inside her room. She stumbled along the way but managed to grab the sink hard before she let out her last supper to the porcelain object.

She must have let out all of her previous meals. Because after the throw-up, she felt truly empty inside.

Wait. Maybe it’s not my stomach that feels empty… it’s my chest. Ha!

Scarlett turned to the sink to let water washed what was once inside her stomach. She then washed her mouth to rinse off the rotten taste. Then she washed her face vigorously.

For the second time, she took a look at herself in the small mirror above the sink. There were deep creases underneath her emerald eyes. Her cheeks seemed a little gaunt –at least to her.

Well, she had been running all night long. So perhaps she was tired.

After finding out about her mate –No. Let’s call him a different name.

After finding out about the man the Moon Goddess chose without thinking whilst she was perhaps drunk or intoxicated, she ran with her wolf form. She ran out of the city and through the sands of Kumbai desert.

She ran until her feet felt like giving up. Until she could not even stand properly anymore. Then she collapsed in the middle of the desert.

Scarlett did not know whether she was in her wolf form or not. But she remembered looking at the moon above her. Almost a perfect full moon, accompanied by lots of small stars.

She stared at the moon for what seemed like the longest time. Before finally she raised two of her hands and gave two huge middle fingers to the sky object.

Wait… Then I probably was in human form. Hmm… or was it in my wolf form but I imagined the middle fingers?

She shook her head. Her memory seemed foggy. And truthfully, she did not care to remember it.

All she knew was she already gave the Moon Goddess a piece of her mind.

Though she was not a believer.

Ever since the destruction of her clan, she begged the Moon Goddess to save her from the further predicament. Thinking about the days she used to pray to the non-existent Goddess, she spotted hard to the sink. When her eyes returned to stare at her own reflection, there was anger in them.

The Goddess never existed. She was not real. If she was, then she would be another spoiled as.s princess who never bothered to help those in need. A Goddess that was content with having people believing in them but did not think she had to work for that belief.

Scarlett spitted to the sink again.

That Goddess could go to hell! She should have visited Tollyria and see what hell truly looked like.

No. Scarlett did not believe in the Moon Goddess anymore.

‘What about our mate?’ A voice echoed in her mind.

“He is not my mate,” Scarlett gritted her teeth as she growled the words one by one.

‘A mate is a proof that the Moon Goddess is real,’ said the voice again, ‘If not, how could one feel the instant pull of attraction –of the bond out of nowhere? It is the Moon Goddess’ design–‘

Before her wolf could finish her sentence, Scarlett growled yet again. “So what? Just because some Goddess that never bothered to show up when we were struggling… decided to play games with us with– with this sick joke… we’re just supposed to throw away everything and be a girl blindly in love?” Her voice had risen without her noticing. At the last words, she was literally screaming at her own reflection.

It was absurd. How was she supposed to throw away all the anger… and hatred, and hurt just for the sake of ‘true love’? How was she supposed to justify all that she had been through in order to accept the man that the Moon Goddess chose for her?

“The Moon Goddess is a f*****g i***t,” she murmured. Her voice had become raspy after the screaming.

Was she just to accept the will of a goddess that she believed was no longer real?

Before her wolf could answer her, the door to her room was opened by force. Without looking, Scarlett already could tell who it was.

She had been caught to return without succeeding in a mission. All this time, she had a reputation that she never missed a single target. All assassins and the people telling her tales in pubs were astounded by her clean record.

If Scarlett could be honest, she tried so hard to have that reputation. Because she just was lazy… to undergo the punishment.

Yes, every fail mission would bring forth punishment enacted by the one and only Fig the Punisher. The dwarfed man was truly hired by the guild for that one purpose. To give each assassin and thief in the guild an incentive to succeed.

After all, one could only hold on to several punishments before their bodies gave up and began to break. And trust, Fig accepted the job not because he cared about the guild. No. He accepted the job because it gave him thrills without having to do illegal activities in the city. Where else could he get a list of people to be ‘punished’?

“Let me get dressed first, Fig,” Scarlett finally said, “I’ll be with you shortly.”

Though Scarlett could not see, she was sure the dwarf had on a sickening smile. A smile that promised pain.