Rejected, then Reborn

MEETING HIM IN PERSON

Shame.

Pure, unbridled guilt.

For some reason, that was the feeling that hit the Alpha King when he heard the scream and turned to look, only to see the beautiful girl he had rescued… but it was quickly gone, quickly replaced with anger. “What are you doing here?” The dagger he was holding fell to the ground with a clattering sound as he inched towards her. He took great pleasure in the way she quickly took steps back to keep as much distance between them as possible.

She was scared.

Good.

She needed to be. For he, was the big bad wolf… her worst nightmare,

But much, much worse than that.

So she needed to know who he was, right at the start, before she got any crazy ideas in her head, like thinking of lying to him.

“Are you dumb?” Reed snarled, already becoming impatient with her when minutes passed and she wasn’t saying a word. Goddess, he hoped she was not one of those empty airheads, who were just beauty and no brains. But she quickly surprised him though, for when she opened her mouth, her voice was clear and calm, even though she was scared out of her mind, “T-there was no one in the room when I woke up, s-so I decided to find someone I could talk to. I just wanted to say my thanks before I left. I heard voices while I was in the hallway, and my search led me here.” She finished tentatively.

Damn Xavier!

Reed cursed in his head angrily.

The i***t had just one job, one f*****g easy job, and he had failed at it. He just had to watch over the dame, but he had f****d it up. And now she was here. At the last place he expected her to be.

“Look, I don’t want to cause any trouble… I don’t care about anything going on here,” Lacy’s gaze shot to the man in the torture seat breathing heavily in momentary relief, and she quickly turned away from him, “All I need is to be shown the way into human territory, and I’ll be on my way.”

In all this, Lacy wondered why her ‘supposed mate’ hadn’t sensed who she was yet. She had seen this go down an awful lot of times to know that he should have been growling the entire place down this moment, howling to everyone who cared to know that she was his mate, itching to touch her all over, to claim her as his. f**k, the mental imagination alone was erotically stimulating.

But nothing like that was happening.

And yet, there she was, losing her senses over him.

Too far gone to even care that someone was literally dying right before her eyes at his hands. Wait, scratch that, she did care, but it wasn’t exactly as though she was in the position to put a stop to it.

Not if she wanted to live anyway.

Perhaps, it was because he wasn’t exactly a werewolf. He had all the characteristics alright, but he had looked way different from the wolves at Blue Valley. Bigger. Even more frightening. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t sensed her yet, maybe they had a different way of noticing their fated mates.

“What is your name?” The question snapped her from her musings. “Lacy.” She answered, wincing slightly as the man neared her. Gods, was he handsome.

“What the f**k are you doing in my f*****g territory?”

Oh, he had a dirty mouth.

And he was apparently forgetful as f**k too. “I already told you, I got lost from my camping team and stumbled further into the woods. I was chased by men who oddly shifted into wolves and in evading them, I happened to chance on this place, I had no idea that this was different territory, all I want to do is go back home,” Lacy could feel a little bit of irritation starting to boil up within her, because granted, the man was a huge hunk—a very handsome one too, but if he thought he was going to intimidate her into making a fool out of herself, then he had another thing coming. His next line of questions surprised her though, because they were totally unexpected just as much as they were confusing. “I’m not buying your crap about being lost, dame… I heard you say the word, ‘mate’ before you passed out. You know about the mateship process, which clearly means that you’re no ordinary human. You’re a grey mortal. So where is your mate? Is he werewolf, or some other kind of supernatural being? Was he the reason why you were chased into Lyken Territory?”

Lyken Territory?

Grey mortal?

What was he talking about? And why was he asking her who her mate was, as though he was not the same person? “This is Lyken Territory? I—I have no idea what all of that means, I’m just a human girl, lost, with no knowledge of what all of t-this is, I just want to go back home,” This time, she let a few teardrops fall, painting the believable notion that she was some helpless, defenseless girl… it wasn’t that difficult, seeing as she had so much to cry about already. Lacy didn’t know what was going on, but even she knew that men were seldom immune to a woman’s tears. It was what Lacy was counting on to make it out of there alive.

But Alpha King Reed was not buying it, he could smell the fear in her voice, sense the lie in her tone. She knew more than she was letting on, and even worse, she was lying to him about it.

Gods knew if there was anything he hated more in this world, it would be liars.

He closed the distance between them, watching with amusement as she backed up further and further until her back touched a wall and there was nowhere else to turn to. A surprised tingle shot through his hand and over his entire body as he reached for her pretty neck and squeezed, shocking him so much that his defenses went down for a minute before he quickly brought them back up. “You know one thing I hate… what’s your name again?”

“L—Lacy,” The poor girl managed to choke out.

“Right, Lacy… I hate liars, and you, clearly are one. I could kill you right now, you know... tighten my hand some more around your pretty neck, snapping it in one swift motion,” He whispered softly, slowly trailing his other hand across her skin, from her shoulder down to her collar bone. He had meant for it to be threatening as f**k, but from the beautiful sigh of relief she let out, and the way her eyes closed in pure ecstasy, it was obvious that fear was the last thing on her mind. Reed pulled away as though he had been burnt, not wanting to look at her anymore. He felt highly disgusted at the way she seemed to be throwing herself at him—even though something was telling him that she wasn’t normally like that—and yet, he had felt a weird connection between them that confused him greatly… hell, it scared him too. But he was in no way ready to explore whatever it was or come up with possible reasons as to why it was happening, and so he turned his anger and irritation to the man being tortured instead, going right over to him, looking every bit majestic even though he was dressed in just dark sweatpants with a matching sweatshirt.

He shot Lacy a sudden wink, a grin breaking out on his face as though he hadn’t been glaring at her just a while ago, bringing to view the dimple on his chin, confusing the hell out of the poor girl. Just when she thought he couldn’t get any more handsome, fate just had to douse the fire with some more gasoline.

“I think I’ve tortured him enough, don’t you think so too, Princess?”

“Yes. Yes please.” Lacy quickly replied, shooting the equally relieved man in question a quick glance, a tingle shooting across her entire body at the term of endearment, even as she willed herself not to find any hidden meaning to it.

Reed did not mean for that nickname to slip out of his mouth, but it was all he could think about as he watched her leaning against the wall in her regal-looking clothes… looking like something out of a fairy tale— a dainty, little princess.

Granted, her clothes were ruined with dirt and grime and plant juice, but it didn’t diminish her other worldly beauty one bit. If anything at all, it only enhanced it, painting the image of a distressed lady about to swoon any moment from now perfectly. He liked the enthusiasm with which she answered his question… liked the way this sudden light had appeared in her eyes— a beautiful hue that for some reason he wanted to see stuck on her face forever. Clearly, she thought he was going to let the vile man go. Her lively smile and excited eyes were enough indication of the unspoken words, but too bad his next line of actions were going to get rid of all of it.

Reed moved fast… so fast that Lacy would not have caught it had she blinked.

His right hand became hairier... bulkier, and then before Lacy could process any of it, claws shot out of that same hand, violently ripping the heart from the chest of the man in the torture seat, the bloody mess splattering all across the room, a lot going on Lacy’s white dress, a few drops splashing on her face.

Lacy let out another scream of horror, the sound changing to that of retching as she hurled her guts out at the sheer goriness of the entire situation.

“Take care of the mess, Skip,” The Alpha King ordered one of his men, heading for the door, not even bothering to shoot her look as she bent, a hand on her chest as she heaved profoundly, “And you,” He gestured towards a short, but very burly bald headed man, “Throw her in the dungeons, I’ll deal with her later.”

And then he was gone.