The Alpha Heirs’ Prize

CHAPTER 8

Alpha Zayn c****d his head to the side at my words, his eyes going dark and his mouth curling into a frown.

“Say that again, I don’t think I heard you correctly. Who did you kill?” he asked me, even though I knew that he had heard me loud and clear.

“Alpha Marley.” I looked at him, and he looked back at me. The boredom was returning to his eyes, as if he was waiting for me to say something else or continue my story.

“That’s what they all believe, at least,” I added. “I was framed. I didn’t have anything to do with his death, but the knife that was used to stab him was found in my room. I ran away before they could execute me.”

“Hmm,” Alpha Zayn could only hum in response to my story as he stood up.

“I was wondering why you said you killed Alpha Marley anyway,” he chuckled. “You don’t look like you would kill a fly. I know killers when I set my eyes on them. I have trained my warriors to be killers when necessary, and you don’t look like you would kill a person, even if they put you in danger.”

“They said I killed him because I was rejected by his heir,” I continued. “I was also in love with Nathan, his second son, way before I was mated to Daniel. There was a witness who claimed to have seen me, but I didn’t go there, I swear!”

“Interesting,” he said in a slow and taunting manner. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe that’s why you’re in this situation?”

“W-what?” I stuttered, frowning in confusion and desperate for him to give me an answer to everything I had been asking since I was accused of Alpha Marley’s murder.

“Think about it: For families that are next in line for the throne, family comes first. Did you really think you could end up with a brother you were mated to, leaving behind the one you love and vice versa?” he laughed. “Of course they plotted this. They wanted to get rid of you in a way that wouldn’t seem to suspicious. Who do you think benefited the most from Alpha Marley’s passing?”

The silence that followed his question gave me more than enough time to arrive at an answer; Daniel.

“And as for the witness, maybe a little threat or a promise could have made anybody say anything without regret, don’t you think?” He shrugged.

There was no proof that this was all a plan between Nathan and Daniel, but Alpha Zayn still made a scary point that could be true.

A part of me wanted to keep the memories I had with Nathan pure, casting aside the fact that he had chased me all the way to the border and had immediately believed that I killed his father, so I shook those thoughts off my head.

“You don’t have to believe me, Nailea. I’m only speculating here, but I do have an offer,” he said, making my eyes grow wide at whatever it could be.

“You can stay in my pack for as long as you want,” he said. “How does that sound?”

“Perfect! I can’t… I can’t go back out there as a rogue. I don’t know what to do,” I answered with honesty and desperation.

“You’re advised to lay low. If I were you, I would take this as an opportunity to train with the warriors. If there’s anything I know about Marley’s sons, it’s that they will come for you. It might not be today, but they will come for you.”

I plastered his warning in the back of my mind.

“Thank you very much, Alpha Zayn,” I told him.

“You’ll find Reedah right outside the door. Tell her to find you a room to settle in and some clothes to put on.” It was only then that I was made aware of my nude state due to the shifting.

I felt heat flare up in my cheeks as I walked out of the room and found Reedah and Carl involved in an argument.

“And? Did he say something final? Will you be staying here?” Reedah asked, stepping away from Carl as she saw me.

“He said to tell you to take me to a room and find me some clothes,” I said, looking down at my feet in shame for the last request and the heavy presence of my nudity in our minds.

“Come on,” she said, her voice upbeat as she gave Carl an ‘I told you so’ look.

“I would also like to train with you and the other warriors,” I spoke as she took me up the stairs and showed me to a bedroom that was two times the size the one I had back in Moonflower Pack.

“That’s not a problem. You’ll have to wake up very early. We start practice about an hour before sunrise to get more time,” she explained.

As she left me in the room, she smiled and gave me a slight wave.

“Good luck, Nailea. You’re going to need it.”

~

I was not coping in Silverdome as easily as I thought it would be.

“Get up on your feet, Nailea! This is not a playground!” Reedah shouted at me in the strictest tone she had used yet after I was knocked down by one of the warriors during practice.

It had been about two weeks since Alpha Zayn let me stay at his pack, and I had not been able to pin one of his warriors down in a fight, even after all of my training. People were starting to know me as the Moonflower girl who didn’t know how to hold her ground.

Alpha Zayn was also acting strange. He made it mandatory for me to join him for dinner almost every night, making small talk that bored me most of the time and making moves on me that I refused to acknowledge.

“I’m trying,” I murmured to Reedah as I stood up and limped to my seat, where Carl smirked at me as if he was enjoying every moment of my torture and each loss I bore in a fight.

“You’ve lost about thirty fights since you joined us,” he taunted, and I nodded at him in understanding. He always found a way to make fun of me for his own laugh, but I didn’t give him my time of day.

Training was soon over and I made my way back to the house where I found Alpha Zayn sitting in his throne room.

“Nailea,” he called, preventing me from walking past.

“Alpha Zayn,” I answered as I stepped in front of him.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he stated.

“No, I’ve just… I’ve been busy with training, and I need to be half as good as the warriors if I ever want to protect myself, so I was immersed in the whole process, that’s all.” As much as I was saying the truth, I couldn’t help but feel like a liar as well. I was avoiding him.

He got off his throne and stood in front of me. He stretched his hand forward and cupped it around my cheeks, making me hold my breath.

“What…” I stopped as he withdrew his hands and placed it back on his sides as he looked at me with a serious face.

Then, he proceeded to make a request that made my stomach drop to the ground.

“I want you to mate with me, Nailea.”