Only Yours, Alpha

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

AURORAShrill howls, ear-splitting cries, and monstrous growls echoed through the dense fog sitting over the Acheron River. I swallowed hard and inched even closer to Ares, my fingers intertwining with his and my heart pounding in my chest.

Charon stood at the head of the boat, using an oar to propel us forward. While his body remained stoic and almost poise, he turned his skeletal head a couple inches to the left and looked back at me, lifting his nose in the air and inhaling deeply.

“Charolette,” he whispered, his words drifting out over the water.

Ares clutched my hand tighter. He glanced down at me, eyes a blazing gold, and clenched his jaw. “Did he just say my sister’s name?” he asked me through the mind link, his entire body rigid.

I stared back at Charon, scared shitless but refusing to back down. “Yes.”

As soon as I answered, the mind link went wild with our packmates wondering what he could want with someone like Charolette—the woman we had left up on Earth to survive for us, the woman Marcel had come down here to save, the woman who would lead the rest of our pack.

We suddenly collided with the edge of a sleeping giant with red-pink skin, a single horn on the left side of his forehead, and teeth that resembled those of an orc. The boat teetered from side to side, some dirty water splashing over the edge and onto my feet, melting the slippers that I’d birthed my daughter in less than an hour ago.

Wrapping his skeletal hands around the wooden oar, Charon turned back to the front of the boat and gently pushed the oar into the side of the monster’s ginormous belly to propel us back on our path.

The monster turned in the river, making more water spill into the boat, and sank deeper into his bath, bubbles emerging around him. None of my packmates, including Ares, said a word. I wasn’t even sure if any of us had taken a breath since we’d stepped into the swaying boat, in fear we would alert the beasts who’d rip us to pieces and litter us in the water.

“I’m terrified,” I admitted through the mind link to Ares.

We weren’t ready for any of this. How would we know which monsters were friendly and which wanted to tear us to shreds? How would we pass all of them without being caught? Would we ever be able to get out of here alive?

Ares didn’t respond, which meant that he must’ve been terrified too.

He clutched my hand harder and pressed his lips together in a tight line, and then he glanced down at me and gave my hand another squeeze. From down here, I could already see the anxious lines on his forehead, pulled together in a wary expression.

After swallowing hard, I glanced at Charon, who continued aimlessly rowing to the other side of the river through the fog. While I barely could see a few feet ahead of us, Charon must’ve been able to see farther. He must’ve done this thousands of times per day, millions per his lifetime.

Just like Ares and I knew the Sanguine Wilds like the backs of our hands, Charon knew this river so well that—now that he wasn’t distracted by Charolette, nor her scent—he easily swept the boat past monster after monster, not colliding even once with them.

With every monster we passed, my heart pounded harder and harder inside my chest. My breath hitched, and I just wanted this damn ride to be over already. Bile rose in my throat. I didn’t want to be here.

I wanted to be in the Sanguine Wilds with my baby.

Remembering the way Medusa—my own lousy mother—had snatched my daughter right from between my legs and run away from me without letting me see her, I balled my hands into fists and tried desperately to hold back the hot tears threatening to spill from my eyes.

But it had barely been a half hour since I had given birth, and I … I … I just wanted my child.

I held a hand over my empty stomach and bit back a sob.

My baby was gone.

And if I didn’t keep quiet, these monsters in the water would awaken, and soon, I would be gone too. While we might’ve ruled the forest on Earth, down in the underworld, we’d merely be tasty monster food.

Ares wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer, placing a kiss on my forehead and gently rubbing my shoulders. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to end this, and then we’re going to see our girl again.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” I said, clutching him tightly. “You were able to see her. I didn’t even get a glimpse of her face, and I birthed her! I f*****g birthed her, Ares. I don’t know if I will ever forgive myself. How do I know who to fight for?”

Instead of answering me, Ares stayed quiet. He was staying positive for me, but none of this s**t could be seen in a positive light, no matter how damn hard he tried. Medusa had stolen my baby from me and refused to let me see her, and then she’d banished me to the underworld for f**k knew how long.

Minerva moved closer to us and gently squeezed my arm. I glanced over my shoulder at her through watery eyes. While she wasn’t one to smile much, she gave me her best smile that said she’d do everything in her power to get us back to the Sanguine Wilds.

“Your journey ends here,” Charon said, his back turned to us.

Through the heavy moss and seaweed, the boat slowly drifted up to the other edge of the river and up onto solid land. He didn’t step off the boat, but instead, he moved a couple inches to the side to let us off.

Wolves poured off the rowboat and onto the forest-covered land, engulfed in fog. I stood in the back of the boat and stared off into the woods, my stomach in knots. This might’ve resembled our home, but this was far from it.

Monsters and beasts roamed this land freely.

We weren’t safe here. We weren’t safe anywhere.

“Come on,” Ares said to me, taking my hand and moving to the edge of the boat.

After he hopped off, he grasped both my hands to help me off too. But Charon had other plans, as he placed the oar between Ares and me, trapping me on the boat with him. My hands broke from our grip, and I snapped my head up at Charon, suddenly becoming the woman Mom had never let me be.

The alpha.

Or maybe this was the goddess side of me.

I was ready to fight him if he provoked me.

“Charolette,” Charon said, staring down at me through his cold black eyes, “safe?”

Taken aback, I stared at him in confusion for a couple moments until he repeated his words again. Finally, I nodded and said them back to him, unsure of how he knew Charolette or why he wanted to know she was safe.

But as soon as the words left my mouth, he let me off the boat.

I hopped off into Ares’s arms and turned around to see Charon already pulling the boat off the shore to row back to the other side. The boat and Charon disappeared through the thick fog, and my stomach turned.

“This way,” Minerva said to the group, heading through the thick brush. “There looks to be a barrier or gate about a mile ahead.”

We walked toward the black metal gate for five minutes without being ambushed by any undead monsters. It towered at least fifty meters above us and spanned out for miles upon miles. While it looked to be a door that we could walk through, there wasn’t any doorknob.

“What do we do?” Minerva asked.

Feeling uneasy, I stepped back and closed my eyes. This was the gate into the underworld. Once we crossed it, there really wasn’t any getting back. We would be stuck here for hundreds or thousands of years.

“I promised to fight forever to get back to you,” I whispered to myself, gently rubbing my empty stomach.

My baby wasn’t inside me anymore—she was somewhere in the world above—but I would never stop fighting to make it back to her.

She was my only hope that I would have in this darkness.

Suddenly, from above, a monstrous dog with three heads stood on the top of the gate and growled down upon us, warm spit dripping from each foaming mouth. He roared again and leaped down to our side of the gate and between my packmates, baring his teeth.

Cerberus.