Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
I narrowed my eyes at what they were up to. They went to the stage then, and we turned to watch them with the rest of the silent crowd. They shook the mayors’
hands up there first.
“Welcome,” they said in barely audible voices as Nikolai went over to the pieces of paper in the glass bowl on the podium.
“These are the names?” he asked.
Mrs. Cranshaw nodded.
Nikolai grinned and grabbed a piece of paper. He wrote on it, then put it in the bowl. Derik and Braxton joined him and did the same thing. Then they each pulled the pieces of paper out, making a show of it.
My heart was beating so fast. I had no idea what they were doing, but I hated standing out this much. I already did for who I was, and I wanted to slink back into the shadows.
“I pulled out her name,” Nikolai said, slamming it down on the wooden podium.
Braxton held his piece of paper up. “Me too.” He grinned and jumped off the platform with Nikolai.
Derik read his out. “What are the chances?” he played, then joined the other two in circling me, cutting me off from my family.
I eyed them all. “What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Choosing.” Nikolai smirked, and I gasped.
“What do you mean? You can’t… This is a human thing,” I stammered, and Braxton laughed at that.
“You don’t want to be ours anymore, Spitfire?” he asked, the joking gone.
I went wide-eyed at him. Was he serious, be theirs? What did that even mean?
“We owe you compensation, beautiful, for breaking the contract. As payment for what we did to you, you’ll live in the city with us, with all the riches and all the compensation you could ask for.” He sneered at my dad.
“Please, no. Anything but that. She needs to be here, she is to find a husband, her future is everything to me, please don’t take it from her,” my mom begged, tears in her eyes.
She had no idea that I was considering going with them where there was no scorn or derogatory crap because of my birth. No marriage. No husband.
But then I’d answer to three alphas, and what if their attitude on offerings night was just a mask? What if they were nothing like that normally? I was terrified, but I was more scared of staying, so I knew what I wanted.
I turned to the alphas and cleared my throat. “If I said yes, if I went with you, what would that mean exactly?” I asked.
Nikolai gave me a stunning, cunning grin as he walked forward, holding my chin up so I had to look into his eyes.
“It means we’d own you, human.”
That should scare me, should make me say no, but instead it had me even more excited and nodding my head despite my family begging me not to.
The decision was made. I was going to be owned by the alphas.
Whatever that meant.
12. The Promise
“You can’t go with them,” my mom cried. Her face crumpled as if she was in pain, and she probably was. She had raised me for a choosing ceremony I didn’t get chosen for.
I held her against me, patting her hair down, my bag open on my bed, half-packed. I had been given fifteen minutes before I was leaving with the alphas.
My stomach stirred in excitement; I was looking forward to seeing something other than the scorn of the village.
My mother didn’t understand though, she thought I was normal, she had always treated me the same, but it was her own denial.
I wasn’t.
I pulled her back and smiled at her. “I’ll be fine, Mom. They won’t hurt me.”
“They already did!” she cried, then pointed to the bruises on my arms. I went to defend them when she pulled me in again. “They’re werewolves, Lorelai. Please don’t forget that.”
She sobbed and I nodded against her.
“I’ll be careful, Mom,” I promised, then moved away to pack my bag.
I didn’t have much to pack, a few paintings from my mom before her arthritis in her hands got bad, a pillow I’d had since I was born, and then a few undergarments and dresses.
I ran my hand over the notebooks lining my rickety wooden bookshelf. They were all full. My journals with dreams I’d had. I always had vivid dreams, ones I had to write down or they stuck in my brain and I couldn’t focus.
I wanted to take them all, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to carry them and they wouldn’t fit in my pack anyway.
I grabbed my half-full notebook, bound by leather, and chucked it in my bag, hoping the wolves had charcoal or ink so I could keep getting my dreams out of my head.
“Fucking werewolves!” my dad growled from the living area as I buttoned up my pack and walked out of my room.
I had redressed in one of my everyday peasant dresses, then walked into the living area as he kicked the side table that my mother had placed very neatly next to our old couch this morning.
Her favorite potted plant toppled as he growled and fisted his hands at his side.
“I’m going to teach those filthy dogs a lesson one of these days,” he swore, and I swallowed hard.
Now was probably the wrong time to tell him that I was actually looking forward to going with the werewolves. I had no idea what awaited me or what this decision meant for my future, but that was the exciting part.
“Father, I’m going to be okay,” I said, and he looked at me, pausing his tantrum to sigh.
“Maybe, but they should not be able to do this. They broke the contract, and yet there are no consequences for them. I’m sick of them doing whatever they want to us because we are human,” he snapped, and I understood the anger because I had felt the same way about the offerings before I had been a part of it.
I was about to try and reason with him when my brother came in, holding the hand of a girl from the village. We all turned to them as he grimaced under the attention.
“This is Ryleigh. She’s my new bride,” he admitted reluctantly.
She was a plump girl with a friendly face and long dark hair in curls down her front. She had striking eyes, one brown, one green, and she smiled warmly with blushing cheeks.
“Ryleigh? McEevy’s daughter? The farmer?” Father asked, a brow raised, and Lucas nodded.
“Hi,” she said softly, edging closer to my brother.
“Hey, Rye.” I smiled, grateful my brother had chosen one of the girls I didn’t want to stab with my fork at dinner. This one was nice and quiet, keeping her mouth shut and whatever whispers she had out of my ear.
She smiled and nodded once, waiting for approval from my parents.
My mother smiled at her as my father narrowed his eyes on Lucas.
“And this was who you chose? You put her name down?” he asked.
Lucas nodded. “Yes,” he said, and my father finally nodded.
“Then welcome, Ryleigh,” he said tightly, and Lucas visibly relaxed.
Lucas turned to kiss her on the cheek, then turned to Mom.
“Mom, can you take her to our hut next door? I need a minute with Lorelai,” he asked, and Mom nodded, smiling brightly as she looped her arm through Rye’s.
Mom knew everyone in the women’s village and had been friendly with the McEevy’s for years, trading her jams and sauces for cheaper produce to make them.
“With pleasure,” she said, then led them out the door.
I turned to Lucas, but he was glaring at Father.
“She will be a fine wife and mother. Don’t look so disappointed,” Lucas snapped, and my eyes went wide.
I didn’t know people spoke to my father like that, but then again, what did I really know of either of them?
“She’s…not what I expected. You are my son, you outrank them. You had your pick.”
“I picked who I wanted, Dad. She’s got the heart I want for my kids, the love I want for myself, and she has the will to stand up for herself. Don’t write her off.
“But we can talk later, I need to talk to Lori before she goes. Excuse us,” he said, then hauled me into my bedroom and slammed the door.
I raised a brow at him as he turned to me.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?