Alpha's Surrogate

4. Virgin.

Once Xavier had laid his cousin’s body to rest for a proper burial, he wasted no time in storming the Ardara Moon Pack’s territory to bring them to justice. He did not give his enemy a chance to defend themselves, he meted out the same merciless death to all that confronted him that had been given to his defenseless cousin.

“My son couldn’t have raped or murdered your cousin, Alpha Xavier!” Alpha Sawyer persisted in striking at others, so that he could maintain a struggling hold on his hubris. He had placed too much blind faith in his sons’ education and upbringing, thinking that it would mold their characters into upstanding young men. He continued to defend his son, refusing to submit.

“That’s right! My brother was falsely accused. It is all part of Alpha Xavier’s strategy to get rid of us,” Noah accused.

“You little fucker! Are you delusional enough to think that our Alpha is here to negotiate with you?” Kaiden punched Noah in the jaw. “ We’ve already won, your territory is ours now.”

“Don’t touch my son!” Sawyer roared.

‘Sawyer, set your pride aside and consider our children's futures,’ Luna Martha mind-linked her mate, but being obstinate, Sawyer disregarded her entirely. ‘They will find any of the members that have hidden themselves and kill them. If they do, that means they will find our daughters,” she reminded him.

Xavier recognized that Sawyer and Martha were mind-linking. He watched as Marhta’s panic became more and more apparent. Xavier’s patience had reached its end. He had no intentions of entertaining himself with their family drama or the Alpha’s and his heir’s delusions.

“Fighting the weak and wounded is for vermin like your son. They are merely wasting my valuable time. Finish them…” Xavier paused in the middle of signaling his men when his nose picked up an unusually delightful scent.

There was a great deal of arguing going on around him, yet Xavier could sense the slightest shifting of air taking place outside of the room he was seated in.

‘What’s that?’ His wolf Dean became abnormally active. Xavier peered over his shoulder at the wall behind him, it seemed that the lovely aroma was coming from back there. ‘Someone is back there!’ Dean barked.

Concentrating his sensitive ears and nose on the area behind him, Xavier picked out the heartbeat connected to the source of the fragrance. The person was hiding behind the wall. Through the delicate sweetness of the aroma he could discern that it belonged to a young woman. Knowing that she would be little to no threat to him, he chose to ignore her.

"Kill them all!" Xavier ordered his wolves as he rose from his chair.

‘The person behind the wall’s heartbeat just started racing as if it was going to burst out of their chest,’ Dean told Xavier. Dean was exhibiting a great amount of apprehension over losing someone important, even though they had not laid eyes on the young woman.

‘Alpha Sawyer lied, claiming that he only had two sons, yet whoever is hiding behind that wall is in all likelihood a member of the Alpha family,” Xavier smiled coldly. ‘They have the audacity to hide family members after their son killed an innocent!’

“Behead them all!" Xavier ordered his men.

"Stop!" A voice that had never spoken out in opposition reached Xavier’s ears. Xavier came to an abrupt stop as the woman that had been lurking behind the wall chose that moment to reveal herself to a room full of enemies.

“How dare she raise her voice to the Alpha!” One of Xavier’s most loyal pack members was furious over her outburst.

“How audacious!” His men fully intended to attack the young woman for her insolence, that was until receiving a mind-link from Xavier stopping them.

'Don't touch the she-wolf,' Xavier glared at his men from the corner of his eye. They immediately lowered their heads and eyes in a sign of submission, though they could not help but wonder why their Alpha had stopped them from ensuring he received the respect that was his due.

Xavier slowly turned his head, finding a pair of chocolate brown eyes boldly meeting his. Abnormally, for the first time in what felt like eons, both Xavier and his wolf took a moment to admire her curvaceous figure that in his mind gave her the appearance of an angel.

Her delicately featured face, with its large chocolatey eyes, complemented her naturally soft red lips well. Luckily for her, it seemed that her eyes were the only trait that she had inherited from her father. Her exquisite skin was smooth and make-up free, she did not need it to make herself beautiful. Her flowing long brown hair framed her face, emphasizing her grace.

Kiara laid eyes on Alpha Xavier for the first time, a man that struck terror into the hearts of those in the werewolf world at the mere mention of his name.

‘Why did his wolf come forward?’ Kaira puzzled over in her mind at seeing his wolf’s eyes. They were a dark green with flecks of black and gold, the color reminded her of a thick pine grove in the forest when light passed between some of the boughs, creating shadows. She knew though that the color actually indicated his supremacy among the werewolf kind.

“Please stop,” Kaira pleaded, pulling Xavier out of his thoughtful admiration of her.

Her courageous gaze was one of the things he found cutest about her body. She stood there staring directly into his green eyes, something that most grown Alpha’s had not attempted.

“Be careful,” Aidra held Kaira’s hand. Xavier looked at the two sisters. Just as he had predicted, Alpha Sawyer had sought to conceal his two daughters from him.

"Kiara! What the f**k are you doing here?" Noah yelled from behind his sisters. “Don't stick your nose into the business of men,” he growled.

Adira mind-linked Noah with a piercing glare. ‘If Kiara hadn’t intervened on your behalf, your miserable head would no longer be attached to your neck. You ungrateful blow hard.’ Her arrogant brother did not appear phased by her comments.

Xavier’s menacing scowl landed on Noah as it was his whiny voice that had disrupted the moment he was having.

“You worthless piece of s**t, shut you f*****g mouth.” Kaiden followed up his instructions by smashing Noah's face into the floor.

Xavier turned his full attention back to the woman before him. He had learned her name, Kiara. Even something as simple as her name piqued Xavier’s interest.

"Kiara! Why did you leave your room? Get out of here!" Luna Martha struggled against the two pairs of hands, forcefully holding her down. A sense of absolute terror seized her the moment that Xavier's eyes fell on her innocent daughter.

"Mom, don't worry about me. I refuse to let any of you die," she promised her mother while continuing to maintain eye contact with Xavier.

“Oh,” Xavier’s brow furrowed when he noticed the outward facade of her confidence.

Kiara's heart raced in her chest, she could tell from his body language that her confidence was provoking him. Yet no matter how scary or ominous she found him, she could not deny even to herself that she found him devilishly handsome.

Everything about Alpha Xavier could be summed up in a single word: imposing. He dressed in high-end clothing but that did nothing to dimension the sheer size of the man. At 6’3, with broad shoulders and well built layers of muscles, he would command attention in clothing from a big box store. When his well groomed hair, distinguished nose, and sharp jaw effortlessly combined, his wicked good looks gave the appearance of having just stepped off of the glossy pages of a magazine. Even the mysteriously rich scent wafting off him towards her nose was decadent, though she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was.

Kiara realized for the first time in her life that this was the personality of a true Alpha. This man had no need for words to warn his enemies of the danger he presented, standing in the presence of his aura was enough to both frighten and attract those around him to power. Her egotistical brother didn’t have even a tenth of Xavier’s presence in the room. All he had ever known how to do was bark and make rash decisions like an untrained puppy.

"I …” Kiara began to speak, only to be interrupted again.

"Kiara, go to your room. That's a direct order!" roared Alpha Sawyer. Kiara’s father, as usual, had no issues using his Alpha tone on her.

Kiara was surprised to hear him actually call her by name. She could not recall the last time that he had used it. Was he worried about her well being? The unadulterated loathing she saw in her father’s eyes proved her assumptions wrong.

“I’m sorry.” For the first time in her life, Kiara decided to completely disregard her father’s direct order. As it stood, they were all going to die, making his command counterproductive. Instead, she elected to disregard him in the hopes of saving those she cared for. Then if she lived she would face the consequences of her actions.

“Get out of here right now!” Sawyer snarled his final warning.

“You dare to growl in my presence?” Xavier’s enraged gaze was drawn to Sawyer. "Rip his throat out," Xavier sneered. Kaiden buried his long, bloody claws in Sawyer's throat, on the verge of ripping it apart.

"NO, PLEASE STOP!" Kiara begged Kaiden before her petrified gaze returned to Xavier.

"Please don't kill them. Don't kill my family or my pack." She slowly drew closer to Xavier in her panic. Xavier studied her worried expression so closely it felt like he was memorizing every detail of her face. Her lips looked so wet and soft, he couldn't help but lick his own in response.

"I wonder why?" He asked. Kiara was surprised by his inquiry. His question appeared to be legitimate. Her pack had been the one to wrong him first, he had been the one to suffer the loss of a family member.

“Can we talk?” she inquired, realizing that he had grown as cold as he was when she first entered the living room.

"How can a girl like you talk to him? You need to keep your distance!" Noah yelled.

Noah had no respect for Kiara, and she had no expectation of him ever being kind to her. However, as a direct result of his insult, she now appeared weak in the eyes of her enemies. She could not ignore the fact that Xavier was drilling a hole in her face with his eyes, but she kept her head held high as she waited for Xavier's response.

"Let's talk," she repeated. “Alone,” she added.

“Don’t you dare!” Sawyer snarled in warning, which Kiara ignored.

Xavier loved the reaction this situation was eliciting from Sawyer. After soundly defeating the Ardara Moon Pack, he had accumulated so much power that he could strip Sawyer's daughter naked in front of them if he chose. Yet he was nothing like them.

"I don't talk to children," Xavier responded, dismissing Noah and Sawyer's statements just as Kiara had if they no longer held any power here. At the same time, he gestured to Kiaden to firmly wrap a strip of cloth around Noah's mouth to prevent the pup from barking further.

"I know I'm younger than you, but I do know what I'm talking about. Please hear me out," Kiara requested. She would lose everything if she couldn't convince Xavier to change his mind and talk to her.

Xavier was slowly being lured in by Kiara’s despair, drawing closer to her one step at a time. She said she wasn’t a child? Yet she had no wolf, as far as he and Dean could tell.

“How old are you?” He placed his finger under her chin, raising her face up to inspect her angelic perfection up close. Dean, his wolf, groaned in need. Xavier had breached his own rules.

For the first time in two years, he had finally touched a female. His s****l urges and hunger had been pushed to the brink. As an Alpha male and werewolf, he had barely been able to hold himself in check. He never imagined that after he rejected Petra, that it would be so hard to suppress his s****l urges. Still, his hatred for women had always prevented him from approaching them up until that point. Self-inflicted hand jobs had been the only source of release and relief that he’d found.

The touch of Kiara’s supple skin on one of his fingertips caused his blood to heat and rush through his body with lust. Dean urged him to touch more of her, as much as he possibly could. Kiara gazed up at him with an innocence that was pure seduction. Xavier became nervous that he would somehow break this fragile angel before him. He could hear her rapid heart rate and feel her body trembling under his slightest touch on her chin. He knew at that moment that she had never been touched by a man before him.

"I'll be eighteen in three days," she replied. She was worried about stammering in front of him, so she was so focused on his touch. Although he seemed cold, his touch was soft and warm. Even though it was the barest of whispers against her skin, it felt like she was on fire from his touch.

"Lead the way," Xavier said, forcing himself to remove his hungry fingers. Kiara's heart filled with hope over the fact that Xavier had chosen to listen to her.

“This way,” she nodded, indicating that he should follow her.

"I refuse to allow you to be alone in a room with a man!" Alpha Sawyer shouted furiously.

Kiara trembled in fear. Sawyer had never physically abused her, but her innate fear of her father was greater than almost anything else, even death.

"I don't sanction this either!" Noah had somehow been able to remove the gag from his mouth.

"We'll all die if I listen to you. Why can't you see how dire the situation is? I'm sorry, but I can't obey you,” Kiara answered, walking away. Xavier followed behind her.

"What a w***e!” Noah jeered. “How could I have forgotten that women communicate with their bodies?" he chuckled.

Ignoring her brother the best she could, Kiara squared her shoulders and bit her lip to keep her emotions at bay. Noah had resorted to calling her names almost every day of her life. She had never felt offended by it until he had done it in front of Xavier.

“Mmmurrh!” Kiara froze when she heard Noah trying to scream through the gag in his mouth. Upon turning around, she saw that Xavier had stabbed the palm of Noah’s hand with a large hunting knife. The harder Noah struggled against Xavier, the further up Noah’s arm Xavier’s dragged the knife fileting it open.

“Please, stop!” Kiara ran over to grab Xavier’s hand before his blade reached Noah’s exposed jugular.

When Xavier felt the gentle warmth of Kiara’s touch on his skin, he shifted his dark green eyes to her. She was trembling in trepidation, her body had grown numb from the shock of the dire situation, and she could not help the stubborn tears that continued to pool in her eyes. Despite the male members of her family mistreating her, she refused to stand by and allow them to be killed. She could see from the look on Xavier’s face that this irritated him.

"You need to think twice before opening your mouth again! Next time I won’t be so tolerant," Xavier snarled, baring his teeth in Noah’s face as he stomped on the still bleeding hand.

“Mmmurrh!” Noah squealed like a pig behind the gag.

“Let’s go,” Kiara hurriedly took Xavier's hand so that she could lead him up the stairs to one of the rooms before the men in her family made another monumental mistake. Adira followed behind the two of them, taking up a position near the top of the stairs.

"I'll be standing here the entire time. Dad and Noah will think that I went into the room with you. They can't come up here to check since they're being held captive. Make the conversation quick," Adira encouraged quietly, so that it could not be heard downstairs, but Xavier, who stood next to them, had heard every word. After glancing at Xavier, Adira murmured to Kiara. "Don't lock the door from the inside and yell for me if you need me," Adira urged loud enough to warn Xavier that if he had any unsavory plans for her sister, he should reconsider.

“Alright,” Kiara nodded to reassure Adira, not glancing at Xavier.

Kiara escorted Xavier to the room in the middle of the hallway instead of her own. She shut the door quietly behind them. Once inside the medium-sized room, Xavier took in his surroundings only to realize the scent permeating the room belonged to Adira, not Kiara. Why had she brought him to her sister's room? Kiara turned to face the Alpha, who had strangely become silent after committing such intense acts of violence.

"What's wrong?" she inquired, concerned that he would not let what Adira had said slide. It was then that she followed his gaze down to where she was still holding his hand! "I'm so sorry," she withdrew her hand from his. That was incredibly embarrassing.

Xavier observed the blush spread across her cheeks, she immediately moved to hide it from him when Kiara remembered why she was there with him. Yet she was not sure where to even begin to start this conversation.

"What do you want to talk about?" Xavier made it easier for her by starting the conversation.

"My mother filled me in earlier about the reason behind your attack on our pack. I know that my words are little in the way of atonement, but I'm truly sorry about what happened to your cousin. I still can't believe that my brother committed such a heinous crime. I sincerely apologize on behalf of my family and my entire pack for his actions," she bowed her head in a sign of humility.

This was the first apology of any type that Xavier had received from the Ardara Moon Pack. He stood there in awe that it had come from the Alpha family's youngest member. The adults of this Alpha family had simply opened their mouths spewing further excuses for their kin, which in turn gave him further reason to kill them all in the most agonizing way possible. On the other hand, Kiara was honest and mortified over her brother’s actions.

"If you believe that with your apology, I’ll allow your family to live, then you’re mistaken." Xavier wondered whether he had given her the wrong idea when he had consented to speaking with her. He had ceased trusting in women years ago. Perhaps she had been toying with him the whole time, using her innocent face to her own benefit.

"I know," Kiara admitted with a hint of panic while staring down at the slippers on her feet.

"If you know, then this discussion is pointless. You want me to let go of your family and you know that there is no way that I’m going to do that," Xavier asserted with a tired sigh as he turned to face the door so that he could exit the room.

"But haven’t you exacted your vengeance already?" Kiara asked. Xavier turned to face the anxious young woman. "You've already killed Lewis. He was among those that raped and murdered your cousin. He and his friends should be the ones that bear the consequences of their wrongdoings. You've already taken your revenge. So why continue?" She came to a halt when the weight of her emotions constricted the world around her, making her breathing labored and rendering her weak. "Please don't kill my family. Please…" she begged.

"You’re absolutely correct. Our vengeance was achieved with the death of Lewis and his friends." Xavier leaned against the wall by the door with both hands tucked in his pants pockets. His statement caused hope to grow in Kiara’s heart. "However, things don't work the same way in our world as they do in the human one."

"What exactly do you mean?" she asked. Xavier glanced witheringly at her pale face. He knew that he had just dashed what remained of the hope she had to save her family.

"When flour is ground, the weevil is crushed along with the wheat. Similarly, when it comes to a pack, the consequences of a single person's actions must be borne by their family. Or in a situation like this, when it is a wolf from a ranking family such as an Alpha, the entire pack. For years, your pack has broken werewolf laws. Despite our peace agreement, your brother along with his friends barged into a female-only hostel, then raped and murdered my cousin. You’ve no clue how her family members are doing. Her parents were only given one child. Even though she was born blind, her parents refused to abandon her."

“Blind?” Kiara felt as if she had been turned into a block of ice at this latest revelation. Her animalistic monster of a brother had squarely placed her and her family in a quagmire from which there would never be an escape. She felt ill over the knowledge that she had shared a womb with that vermin.

Kiara had lost all confidence in her ability to plead for the lives of her family members after discovering the whole truth. Mustering the last of her courage, she drew her gaze up, daring to meet Xavier’s cold stare. She couldn't persuade him to alter his decision.

"What are you intending to do with my parents?" she ventured to ask, her heart throbbing in despair. She was embarrassed by her own query, but she needed to know if they would be granted proper burial or not. She recognized that after taking such bold actions as speaking to an Alpha, that she was sure to die before her family. Xavier wasn't sure if he should answer her question truthfully or not, as she seemed to be desperately trying to hold back her tears. "Please tell me," she begged.

"The Alpha and Luna will be beheaded. Once they are dead, what’s left will be left for the animals to do with as they see fit,” Xavier explained his ancestor’s battle traditions which he had every intention of following.

“What?” The ground disappeared from beneath Kiara’s feet.

"Your brother will suffer the same fate as your father since he was named heir and would’ve been named the next Alpha," Xavier added. In the back of her mind Kaira was aware that this would all be happening in the course of the next few minutes. She also could not deny that if the Adara Moon Pack had been the ones to win the battle, then they would have executed the same punishment on the Sirius Bright Pack. However, that did not help make it any easier for her to accept her family's fate.

"What about my sister? What will happen to her? She isn’t the Luna. She is innocent." Kiara hadn't even bothered to think about her own situation, instead focusing on those important to her. Instead of responding to Kiara, Xavier’s eyes bore into hers. Kiara impatiently waited for his answer, but he simply turned and walked away. What did his silence mean?

"Will she be taken as a prisoner of war?" Kiara staggered when she remembered how women from defeated packs are taken as s*x slaves. A s*x slave that would be taken by every man in the pack. They end up killing the woman in the process. "I’m prepared to be punished in place of every member of my family," Kiara announced.

Xavier's hand came to a halt as it hovered over the doorknob. He turned, his brow furrowed toward Kiara, who knelt in subjugation before him.

"What are you doing?" he growled. Though Xavier had spent at most a total of ten minutes with her, he knew with certainty that she wasn't someone that submitted easily. Yet she was willing to do anything for the sake of her family, despite how some of them treated her.

"Please forgive my family. You can kill me in their stead,” she offered herself as a martyr.

“You're willing to die for the father who hates you and the brother who calls you w***e? Why not only beg for the lives of your mother and sister?” Xavier questioned.

“My father would never be able to live with the loss of another son, if something happened to Noah. Mom would not be able to survive if something happened to my father. When it comes to Adira, she will follow my mother anywhere, even if it's to the gates of heaven. This family is a chain, everyone is linked to each other, making it so I can’t choose one without spurning the others,” Kiara explained.

“You forgot to include yourself in your family chain,” Xavier pointed out.

“No, I didn’t. I was never part of that chain to begin with. So nothing will change if I’m no longer here,” Kiara’s lips curled into a small sad smile. “You can cut my head off or chop my body up into pieces. You can feed my body parts to wild animals or whatever you believe is necessary. I’m ready to bear whatever punishment you deem fit on behalf of my family. As long as my family and our innocent pack members are no longer responsible for Lewis' and his friends' sins. Please…” Kiara couldn’t hold back her tears any longer.

Xavier sat on the floor across from her while watching as fat tears escaped her wet lashes. He could not believe that this beauty looked even more beautiful while crying.

"It's impossible," he said, glancing down the V of her white blouse that revealed a glimpse of her breasts. Her top was thin, and he could plainly tell that she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath it.

"Then take me as a slave," Kiara countered.

“What?” Xavier’s eyes snapped up at hers.

"You intend to murder us all in retaliation for the insult delivered to your family and pack, right? You've already slain Lewis and his friends. So you have gotten justice for your cousin. To satisfy the other reasons you’ve mentioned, if you take me as your slave, I can make up for your loss. I’ll obey you in all things, doing anything that you wish. I swear that I won’t cry if you beat me. I'll take the beatings and spend my life as a slave until you're satisfied. But first, you have to let my family go. You have to let them live," Kiara attempted to negotiate a bargain.

She was well aware that what she was offering him would ruin any type of future that she had. However, being dead would be worse than being a slave.

"This deal sounds appealing. However, I don't mistreat females or pups, so there's no way I'm taking you on as a slave," Xavier brushed away her tears, only to have fresh ones take their place on Kiara’s cheeks.

"Then what do you want from me? I’ve nothing else to offer you," Kiara admitted. She had run out of ideas.

"Are you a virgin?" Xavier's question was straightforward as usual. Kiara was stunned, she could not mask the horrified expression on her face. Why would he possibly want to know about the state of her virginity? His eyes had changed hue to a deeper shade like earlier, his wolf was close to the surface. She kept staring at him in horror as he waited for her response.

“Yes,” she couldn't escape from this question. Kiara’s response sent a sense of relief through Xavier’s chest. Dean growled with delight. Xavier and his wolf had already discussed and decided exactly what they needed from this woman.

“There is something I need you for. If you agree, I will spare your family and what remains of this pack,” Xavier offered.

“Really?” Kiara was stunned. He had finally come up with something she could do to save her family. She was hopeful and terrified at the same time of what he was going to say next. "What do you expect from me?" Her voice came out as little more than a whisper. Xavier ran his fingertips across her delicate lips.

"Be my surrogate," Xavier proposed.