The Alpha Breeder

Chapter 2

WHEN my own father sold me to the highest bidder he could think of, I lost the ability to feel again. That’s what I thought. Until then I met my buyer and my heart slammed against my ribcage so hard I thought I would collapse to the floor.

I saw him. Really saw him for the first time. The sheer beauty that he holds is such a perfect contrast to the brutality that they deemed him for. The scars on his face and his body contorted into a striking feature. He was an anomaly. A beast bigger than all the beasts in the world. The king of the kings. The Alpha of all the Alphas. No one knew exactly how he became one. Some said he ripped everyone from their power. Some said he was capable of hunting a hundred people with his own hands. Some said he gained the power to be placed on top of the hierarchy because he was the most ruthless Alpha alive. Everyone had theories as to why, but no one really knew for sure.

I took him in. He stood so tall I had to crane my head all the way back to be able to look into those swirling golden obsidian. He was wearing a casual three-piece black suit sans the tie. His dark hair kissed his forehead in a sigh, strands dancing on his skin.

His muscular frame was nothing I had ever seen before. Even when I have seen a big man wandering around in my father’s pack, I have never seen anyone so packed and built with hard muscles, and perfect lines of veins condoning his skin.

He bore no look as he too, inspected me up and down. He looked surprisingly blank. I was used to expressionless faces in my kind, but it’s like this beast took it up a notch.

The first emotion he gave towards me was the scrutinizing look as he observed me. Out of nowhere, he moved so fast that it took only a second for him to be in front of me. I gasped, my lips parted, as he held my body with one hand above it. My feet dangled, my chest arched high, and my chin held roughly on his fingers.

He frowned. He took a sniff of me, smelling me. And then his teeth snapped open. His jaw went unhinged. He was about to dip his long and sharp canines in my neck when, suddenly, my father’s voice reverberated through the room where he made a transaction with his daughter. “Not here, my lord.”

Rhys stopped. The beast that made other beasts quiver in fear when his name was mentioned stopped inches away from my arching neck. At that moment, so did my breath. I swallowed down the fear, even though my whole body was still frozen in fear.

“You can mark her right when this is over. But not here,” my father continued with the bravado only a dead man could possess. I hate the way I still cared about my father’s wellbeing, even when he sold me to this cruel, cruel man. I tried to get out of the rigid state that he instilled in me, but I failed. “Please, my lord. You may take her now.”

Rhys breathed hard and dangerously. He let go of me, holding me by my waist. His grip hurt just a little, showing dominance and power. He leveled me with a look that hypnotized me not to move. And then, with a move so graceful and agile that someone as big as him shouldn’t be able to do it, he turned back toward my father and had him in his grip for an instant.

I took a sharp breath, wincing as my father was thrown across the wall. His body cracked against the wooden table he landed on. He coughed violently. Rhys signaled two of his guys to hold down my father. He struggled to get out of Rhys’ warriors. Of course, the king of the kings has the best and strongest warrior in the world.

“My lord—“

“You may not speak when I haven’t given you permission yet,” Rhys snarled. He yanked me toward him, showing me to my father as he held me from behind. “And you don’t tell me what to do and not do, you filthy piece of s**t. You are nothing but a low-level wolf, and you dare to tell me what to do with what’s mine?”

I remember thinking that I desperately needed a shower to get rid of his touch on mine. But I knew, as soon as his words left his perfect luscious lips, that I would never be able to erase any traces of him from my body ever again.

“Need I remind you who this woman belongs to now?” Rhys spoke dangerously low. The hissing sound whispered against my neck. I held my breath, for the hands that were holding me in place got stronger and meaner, and the screams died in my throat as Rhys nudged my chin upward and dipped.

He marked me.

Right in front of my father, his man, and Rhys’ set of warriors.

Rhys marked me, an act that was supposed to be so personal, so special, so intimate, he did it for a show of power in front of everyone. I knew what it was even before I fully registered what he did. He was claiming me to the audience.

I was his.

I remember the heat taking over my body. My neck burned with so much fire. He sucked, sinking his sharp teeth deeper by the second all the while circling his arm around my waist, completely locking me in place. All the while, he yanked my hair backward by fisting my hair.

He growled, loud and clear so that everyone could hear. And my body writhed with all sorts of emotions. I remember the need hit me like a truck, as if I was ready for him to do everything he wanted to do to me. Unwillingly, I moaned. The pain turned into satisfaction. Hazed vision met the surprised look on my father’s face. I limped on his arms, my back arched back to him, feeling the need to be as close to him as possible. I didn’t care about anyone anymore. All I cared about was the heat in my body, and the beast causing it.

But, as soon as it came, it was gone.

Rhys nipped at my neck a few times, and then he pushed me down onto the floor. He threw me so hard that my face landed at his feet. I looked up at him, entirely at his mercy. He looked down as he wiped the trail of blood at the bottom of his lip with his tongue.

“She’s mine,” he declared, eyes not moving from mine. “From this day onward, she is mine.”

And that’s when I knew the man who bought me, the cruelest person on earth, was my own mate.

~ ~ ~

In the world I lived in, you had mates. Before you were even born, your soul mate was already decided by the being we called the Moon Goddess. Some liked it. Some didn’t like it. Some worked, some did not. I waited for mine my whole life, only to realize that fate was bringing me to death’s door.

When you reject your mate, you will grow weak. Everybody knew that. You would eventually be fragile because you refused to be with the one who was supposed to be your other half. In my case, it was Alpha Rhys.

There was no way I could refuse, buy, or not buy me. I would never have the power to reject him even if I wanted to. Rhys also would never let me go, because if I left, then he would become frail, and that would be a threat to someone with such a position as him.

He also needed an heir.

A child conceived from two mates who are fated together would be the perfect child. With someone like Rhys, of course, he wanted something perfect. But it was like I was only there for his own satisfaction rather than to be used.

I knew my role. I was his own personal breeder. That time will come. I would have to bear his child, whether I wanted it or not. But even since that night, he had never touched me. Even once.

What was worse is, he would force me to watch as he did it with his saddles, every single night.

He would make me watch as he claimed another woman, after another, after another one, seeing the look on his face, and the pleasure he gave to those women. I would have to stand next to his bed, in his chamber of the breeder, as I liked to call it and watch him sleep with different females.

There was pure enjoyment in his eyes every time he saw me flinching, closing my eyes, or holding back tears as he rode those saddles. He liked seeing me tortured at his mercy. He liked seeing me watch with resentment, as he refused to touch me, his own mate, and would rather sleep with his lines of saddles.

And then he would tell me to go back to my cage. A metal cage right in his own private chamber where he locked me, made me his toy and tormented me every day.

Right now, after planning for three months for my greatest escape, here I was back again inside the metal cage, sagging against the wall because I couldn’t feel my body besides all the aching in my limbs.

I glared at the sadistic asshole as he stared at me from the other side of the cage. “I must admit,” he trailed. “It was pretty impressive how you managed to make such a huge commotion at the party and escaped under the radar.”

I planned to create havoc on a full moon night when his pack always held an event for such a holy night. I succeeded. For a while. Until Rhys got me in the middle of the woods, and then he dragged me back toward his castle.

The castle was built under the suffering of other people.

He pushed his muscular body forward, his dark shoulder-length hair now falling to the front. “That was such a brave act. One that would require a killing if it was up to the law in my land. Those who dare to defy me shall face death.”

“Yes, Rhys,” I spit with so much venom. “Please. Kill me.”

Rhys smiled a terrifying smile. His perfect canines showed under the dim light. “Why do I have to do the only thing you want in here? I told you. You’re mine to use, to touch, and to own. You can only die if I let you. So, you better hope to the Moon Goddess up there that one day, I will show you mercy and give you the death that you so badly want.”

“What do you want from me?” I questioned. I wanted to finish my words with my thoughts. Why couldn’t you just love me like a normal mate?

Rhys grew stern. “I want you as my pet. That’s all.”

“I’m your mate.” The sound that escaped mirrored hundreds of days of exhaustion. Even though I willed myself not to be swayed by him, it was still hard for my heart and my mind to stop feeling for this vicious beast.

It hurt me every time I saw those saddles ride him, touch him, and make love to him. It hurt me every time he made me stand and watch, as he pleasured them. It hurt me every time he refused me as he bought me only to have me by his side, so he would never grow weak.

“You are nothing!” He roared. “Must I remind you where you belong?”

“If I’m your pet, then why won’t you ever touch me like you do with your saddles?” I lifted my chin up. A sudden determination penetrated my body. I was tired. I was exhausted from feeling like this. I needed to get him out of the system. My back straightened, chest heaved up and down. “Or are you afraid?” I taunted him, giving him the only thing he hated in this world.

To be seen as weak.

“What did you say to me?” His voice is a knife slicing through the air. With a dangerous tone, he stood up, gripping the iron. “Am I afraid?”

“Yes. Are you afraid of touching me, knowing you won’t be in control? Are you scared that I would affect you so much? Hm?”

Rhys paused in front of my cage. A growl rumbled low in his chest. His hands clenched into tight fists, and he rolled his shoulders back to release the tension at my taunting.

“Are you scared, Alpha Rhys, that I would hold power over you?” I looked up at him on my knees, inside my cage, knowing that if I failed at this, the only end I would get was his mercy.

Death.

Then Rhys smiled the way Lucifer might smile before he was banished from heaven.

That night, Rhys Ethelwulf finished what he started those months ago at my father’s mansion.

Claiming me.

Mated to me.