The Alpha's Bodyguard

The farewell party

Communal Hall of the Gold Moon Pack Orphanage

5 years before the present events

"He is the most handsome boy I've ever seen," said the redhead in a blue dress beside me, immediately catching my attention. I looked away from the punch and focused on what she was seeing.

Yes, he was definitely an Adonis.

My eyes surrendered to his figure.

Not only did his face resemble that of an archangel, with captivating green cheetah eyes that sent shivers through me, but his height and body surpassed that of other boys his age, which couldn’t be much different from mine.

“He must be the Alpha's son, the heir of the pack,” pointed out another girl in a green dress, one of the older orphans who, like me, was bidding farewell to the place that had been our home for the past two years. “He has all the bearing of a successor.”

It was true. That young man was a prince. His facial features, size, and body mass, as well as the innate leader’s demeanor he displayed, were those of a young Alpha.

“I heard he’s still not engaged,” added the redhead who had noticed him first. “There’s also no news of him finding his mate.”

“How do you know all that?” I asked while trying to hide how attracted I was to the young Alpha by taking a sip of my punch.

“I read it on Harmony's blog,” replied the redhead, one of the last orphans to arrive at the center and someone I had never spoken to before. “Don’t tell me you’re the only girl in Gold Moon who doesn’t read the blog.”

“No, it’s the first time I’ve heard it exists.”

The redhead looked at me as if I had shown a mirror to a wild person, but I didn’t care about her look because my eyes were fixed on that dazzling young man. It was the first time I felt attracted to a boy, even though I had already reached the age of majority.

“I think he saw us,” said the girl in the green dress, turning into a bundle of nerves. “Don’t look at him, girls. Act indifferent.”

Although I tried to follow the green-dressed girl's advice, it was impossible. My eyes couldn’t detach from that attractive boy who, captivated by our gossip, slowly approached us.

I felt my legs tremble, turning into a bundle of nerves, and the skin under my black party dress began to warm more than usual.

He was beautiful, the most handsome man I had ever seen, and my eyes were locked on his, and his on mine. He looked at me kindly, which made me even more nervous.

“Pleased to meet you, I’m Alessandro, and you, lovely young ladies?”

My stomach filled with butterflies, and I didn’t hear the names the other girls said, nor did I hear them speak. At that moment, it was only Alessandro and me. Everything else was trivial, insubstantial, non-existent.

Then I felt a slight nudge from the redhead beside me.

“Oh, sorry, my name is Ivania. Nice to meet you, Alessandro.” I smiled shyly, and my lips tightened even more as I saw that he did not take his eyes off me.

“Would you like to dance the next piece, Ivania?” Alessandro asked, extending his hand.

Was this really happening?

Was the heir of the Gold Moon pack actually inviting me to dance?

“Sure. Thank you,” I responded shyly after tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

I took Alessandro’s hand, warm and soft, three times the size of mine, as we walked to the dance floor.

Placing my hand on his shoulder, he put his against the small of my back, drawing closer until our bodies brushed, and then the fabric of my dress wasn’t thick enough to stop feeling the heat he emanated. His cologne was also delightful, a blend of masculine essences and the sweetness of old wood.

“You have a very uncommon name, Ivania, if I may say so,” Alessandro said almost against my ear. The sensation of his warm breath against my neck made every hair on my body stand up.

“Oh, yes, you probably won’t find another girl with my name,” I replied, trying to clear my thoughts with my tongue, a task that was very difficult in front of such a powerful and attractive young man as he was. “Alessandro is also quite unique, if I may say so.”

Alessandro smiled at my observation, and his perfect white teeth, framed by luscious and thick pink lips, transported me to another dimension.

“What are you going to do after tonight?” he asked immediately.

I didn’t understand his question at first because I distorted it and took it in a very different sense than he intended.

“Do you mean after leaving the orphanage?”

He nodded without stopping his smile.

I don’t know why, but seeing his smile, I felt I couldn’t let him go. That I had known Alessandro for a long time, and now that we were together again, we couldn’t be separated ever again.

“I think I’ll join one of the vacancies at the pack's institute,” I said with some blush on my cheeks, unsure if it was correct to end my sentence with the word ‘sir,’ or if I should omit that detail.

I was nothing more than an omega, and he was the Alpha heir of the most prestigious pack in the kingdom.

“I like studious girls, Ivania. Tell me, do you like studying?”

I had no reason to lie because it was true. I liked studying and had finished top of my class. I hoped to easily obtain the scholarship that Alessandro's father had established a few years ago, as part of his benefit programs for the less fortunate in the pack.

“I like it, a lot, yes, sir,” I decided to say.

“You don’t have to call me that, Ivania. It makes me feel old.”

I smiled, and that seemed to captivate him because then his gaze changed, and I felt it was more intimate, that I could trust him because we were something like soulmates.

Was this, perhaps, the feeling mates had when they saw each other for the first time?

Could Alessandro be my mate?

I didn’t even want to think about that possibility because it was madness.

An omega who, for some strange reason, hadn’t received her wolf upon reaching the age of majority, couldn’t be the mate of a powerful Alpha. That was crazy. I was at the lowest of the social hierarchy of the pack, while he was at the top, only one step below the sovereign of all packs, the lycan king.

We danced in complicit silence for a few more seconds until he suggested that I accompany him to the parking lot.

“I forgot my phone in the car, and I think my mother might be calling me. Will you come with me, Ivania?”

I couldn’t refuse and, holding his hand, we left the communal hall and the orphanage building. We walked, under the night sky, to his car, a luxurious sports car where Alessandro stopped me for a moment after picking up his phone. I realized that was just an excuse to get some privacy with me because the device didn’t even have a battery.

“There’s something I’ve been feeling since I saw you, Ivania,” Alessandro said with his body almost over mine and my hips leaning against the car door. “My wolf is restless and keeps telling me that you are my mate, but for some reason, it doesn’t detect your wolf.”

I swallowed.

So…

Was it really happening?

It wasn’t a mere fantasy.

Could it happen that an omega was the mate of an Alpha?

“I…”

“Don’t you feel the same, Ivania?” Alessandro interrupted me. “Tell me you don’t feel it, and I’ll desist, I’ll correct my wolf and make him understand that he’s wrong, that you are not the one chosen by the Goddess.”

I regretted so much not having my wolf.

If I had one, I would surely know, but I was one of those omegas so weak that they didn’t even have one.

“I don’t have a wolf, Alessandro, I’m sorry. I’m just an omega and, despite reaching the age of majority exactly a month ago, I didn’t receive a wolf. I’m sorry. But even so, I feel something; there’s also a pull, Alessandro, I saw it in your smile. I know, yes, that I am, despite not having a wolf.”

The young Alpha smiled.

“That’s enough for me, Ivania. If you have also felt it, despite not having your wolf, then it must be so. We are mates, Ivania. There’s nothing more to discuss.”

Wrapping me in his powerful arm around my waist, Alessandro kissed me.

The butterflies roared in my stomach, and I enjoyed the greatest joy I had ever believed possible.

Finally, after a life of deprivations, I was going to be completely happy.