Taken For The Alpha ✔️ - 21 - Wattpad

Taken For The Alpha ✔️

by Midika

YOU ARE READING

Taken For The Alpha ✔️

Werewolf

*18+ read at your discretion!* My hands tremble by my sides. "Don't sleep with her..." He steps toward me, his eyes dark. "Why not?" "Whatever you were planning to do to her tonight, do it to me instead," I whisper.

Ayah has always been unremarkable in every way other than in the power she wields. Since she was little she has been able to heal even the most fatal of wounds. Because of this, her father has locked her away, keeping her powers safe from the outside world. That is, until a man appears below her balcony, giving her a glimpse into the freedom she could finally have. However, the moment she starts to trust him, he takes her captive, revealing his identity to be a powerful Alpha who needs her to heal his younger sister. But when the girl's illness becomes impossible for Ayah to heal, she is dragged on a journey beside the Alpha to find an amplifier. On the way she learns their connection goes deeper than their heated attraction, to a soul bond neither can deny.

Word Count: 2675

As we emerge onto the street, the apothecary door clicks shut behind us. "Who was that?" I question. Zaon immediately launches into an impossibly quick walk. I almost stumble over my own ankles to keep up. That interaction was strange. It can't be only in my own head. There is an intricate history between them, and I hate that I'm curious about it.

"Azalea," he deadpans. "Ian's daughter."

"And you know her?" I watch his guarded expression, and its irritatingly unchanging. He does well at appearing impassive when I'm sure his emotions tell another story.

"I know her well enough," he responds back tightly.

The streets have mostly cleared of the early commotion. It makes for quick walking.

"You love her or something?" I ask warily, looking at his clinched jaw with rapt fascination. At home, Zaon has a wife he clearly cannot stand. Everywhere he goes, he's crowded with adoring females who would do anything for a chance to drag him into his bed. I wouldn't be surprised if he indulged occasionally. What I am surprised about, though, is why I care.

"Love? Hardly." He grimaces at the thought. "Azalea and I have a mutual agreement."

My brows raise. "Meaning?"

He looks down at me, dark eyes guarded and uncertain. He's picking and choosing what he wants to say to me, which means I definitely want to know everything.

"I visit here on occasion, and when I do we spend the night together."

"Meaning?" I press.

He sighs roughly, shaking his head. He's not getting out of this interrogation so easily. Not when I'm picking apart the elements of his life for use later.

"We..." He begins, then cuts himself off abruptly. "Why are you prying?"

"Just tell me," I insist.

He inspects me warily. "Why?"

"I'm curious." I almost groan. I know what he's going to say, so why can't he just say it?

"We sleep together. We have sex," he concedes with a sigh. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

I shrug with one shoulder, looking ahead down the dusty path. I figured that was the case, but hearing it is a bit jarring. Still, the confirmation is beneficial for when I eventually tell Raven.

"You're a married man," I bring up.

"Raven has her fun and I have mine," he reasons. "Raven doesn't know Azalea exists, so she's not in danger. So, when I come here I indulge with Az and-"

I peer up at him. "Az?"

He frowns, meeting my gaze. It's a zap of electricity, making me look at my feet like all the confidence drained out of me. Hearing his pet name for her shows their connection, and that irks me.

"Why is this bothering you, Ayah?" He asks softly.

I pick at my fingernail. "Why not tell her who I am?"

Is he ashamed of what he is forcing me to do? Telling his lover he's enslaved a woman for the foreseeable future may not win him any favours.

"Azalea and I don't talk. We exchange pleasantries then we fuck," he admits. "It's a simple pleasure, that's it."

My stomach churns. I'm disturbed by the notion. Maybe I envy the ability for him to escape reality with her. Or perhaps it is the vulnerability he exposes to her during the act. Or maybe I'm just a downright, rotten jealous person, irritated by the fact that she has him.

I'm just being foolish. I'm tired and overheating in my thick jacket. Nothing else.

"So you don't love her?" I query, kicking at a loose stone on the path. It skitters off, tempting me to go with it.

Zaon pulls a face at the notion. "I hardly know her. I know the basics and that's it."

"And what she sounds like when she cums." I risk another glance up at him.

He's looking back at me with an intensity that startles me. He's looking deeper than skin and flesh, through the window of my eyes and into the recesses of my memory.

"I also know that about you, remember?" His voice is liquid honey, deliciously sweet and thick.

My skin warms. I almost forgot.

I feign a groan, giving an exaggeratory eye roll. "Please don't remind me."

He doesn't utter another word to me as we reach our accommodation. It's a simple inn with vaulted ceilings in the parlour that I marvel at while Zaon obtains the keys to our rooms.

It's strange seeing an Alpha conduct his own affairs without an assistant or some other lackey. He doesn't seem to mind the mundane tasks his counterparts would pay others to do.

And for that reason, I'm alone with him, save for a guard who has been trailing behind.

He guides me up the stairs and to our rooms. He unlocks mine first, pressing the door open for me.

"This will be your room," he says as my bags get placed inside. "Mine is just next door*"

The room is surprisingly large. There's a gaping fireplace and a large fluffy rug in front of it. The bed is wide, clearly intending to be used by two people.

"So I get to hear you bed her all night?" I question distastefully, stepping into the room that smells faintly like oranges.

Zaon leans his shoulder against the doorframe. "You may sleep before then. She's not particularly loud."

My stomach twists at that admission. I don't feel very interested in learning about the girl's bedroom habits.

"And you just trust me not to escape?" I fold my arms over my chest.

Zaon smirks. "Go ahead. There isn't another village for miles. Regardless of how far you get anyway, I'll always find you."

I scowl at him and his irritatingly amused expression. I don't think I like the idea of being hunted down by him, but at this point, I'm almost tempted to risk my life just to avoid hearing him fuck someone else.

"Why are you in pain?" I ask abruptly, just to wipe the smile from his face.

It drops immediately, a shadow weaving into his features.

"I don't know what you mean."

"You need pain management herbs. Why?" I press. He's not going to escape this interrogation. I can see the outline of the bag of herbs in his pocket.

"An old injury that flares up at times. It's nothing."

He turns to leave, effectively dismissing me. I won't miss out on this opportunity to disarm him. Finding out the depths of his pain is another way for me to decipher his weaknesses.

"Let me heal you," I offer.

He turns. "No."

"Why not?"

"Your only objective is to heal my sister. Not me." He grips the doorframe, his indecision clear.

He must be in a decent amount of pain to contemplate letting me heal him. I can understand why he wouldn't want to put himself in a vulnerable position like that with me. That's exactly why I want him to do it.

"I can do both," I assure him. If it's not a terminal ailment, it won't take me much effort at all to heal.

He grimaces. "I...please don't."

"Why?" I press, approaching him.

He holds his hand out, stopping me short, like he can't bear to have me too close.

"There's not much that you would request in exchange that I could grant you," he admits lowly, clearly agitated.

I like seeing him afraid to owe me. It gives him a sense of morality that I wouldn't otherwise expect him to have.

"I don't need anything in return," I assure him. "I'll do it because it's deeply satisfying to successfully heal an ailment."

And the more you trust me, the easier it will be to get what I want later.

And against my better judgement, I don't want him to be in pain. It seems unnecessary to subject him to it when I can do something about it. I might despise what he's done to me, but I'm not that cruel.

Suspicion simmers in his eyes. "Really?"

"But you have to show me the injury. Even if it's old." I raise a brow. I wouldn't be able to survive the curiosity otherwise.

"You don't need to see an injury to heal it, do you?" He sounds wary.

I cross my arms. "It's my only request."

Indecision weighs heavily on his face. He's living with enough pain to contemplate saying yes to my offer, which indicates the level of severity of it.

"Fine," he huffs out, reaching for the hem of his shirt.

My breath halts as he lifts it over his head, discarding it to the left of him.

Swallowing, I search his front for the injury. Nothing is notable except for his exceptionally built body and a few small tattoos I can't decipher from this distance.

Moments later he turns, revealing his back to me.

A small choked gasp catches in my throat. His back is littered with long, aged scars. They span all the way up to hairline, and all the way down to where his pants meet his hips.

"Holy...are these cuts from a sword?" I want to touch them, to feel the brutal ridges of the scars under my fingertips. I restrain myself, not wanting to frighten him off.

Zaon's shoulders are tense as he turns back to face me. He doesn't reach for his shirt. Admittedly, that pleases me.

"Done by my father. He cut my brother and I down our backs and left us to bleed out in the snow." There's a faraway look in his glazed eyes as he recalls the memory.

The torment, the pain...it's alive in him still.

"Why would he do that?" I ask breathlessly.

"A test of strength, maybe. Or perhaps he wanted to see who would crawl back to him despite his cruelty." His voice is hollow and distant. "My brother was my twin. Only one of us could become Alpha."

My throat tightens. "Was?"

"He didn't survive the test."

The words sit stagnant in the air.

"I'm so sorry," I whisper.

Maybe it's foolish of me to care, after everything. Maybe he's using this story to gain my trust, to make me feel sympathetic.

But no part of me, as I sit here, believes he is that evil of a person to orchestrate this. He's telling me this story because it's true, and it still hurts him like it happened yesterday.

"My wounds didn't heal properly due to a lack of care and in my grief I exacerbated the problem," he explains. "The pain is constant, but the flare-ups are the worst."

Unable to restrain myself, I reach out tentatively. He flinches a little as I brush my fingertips over the scars, his shoulders tensing. He doesn't tell me to stop, even as his breath hitches.

"No worry about that now. I can heal this." This should be easy. It will only deplete my energy a small amount.

He turns. "You don't have to, Ayah-"

"I want to." I won't allow there to be any more discussion on the matter. "Knife? I'm assuming you carry one."

He sighs, nodding. Producing a sheathed knife from his bag, he sets the handle on my palm with a significant amount of hesitation.

He shifts to face me as I grip the knife and turn my hand up to face the ceiling. Before I can drag the blade over my skin, Zaon grabs my wrist delicately.

"You've cut yourself recently," he murmurs, drawing his finger over my palm.

A faint red line still mars my skin from where I healed Blake and Riley's mother. Residual magic has almost healed it.

"I...I healed someone," I admit, lowering my gaze. There isn't much point lying about it. I'm sure he already sensed that possibility when I went missing overnight.

I'm not ashamed of what I did, either. I'm not going to apologize for saving someone's life.

Zaon sighs. "Ayah..."

"Later." To silence him, I cut into my skin in one swift movement. "Mind my blood."

He looks away, swallowing thickly. I don't think he has a problem with blood generally, but me bleeding in front of him clearly makes him uncomfortable.

His eyes close as I shift closer to him, resting my bleeding hand against his forehead.

I immediately feel the tether between myself and him. My magic floods his system, searching for what must be sick. It's indiscriminate in its search, flowing with unsettling ease.

There is no wall. There is nothing inhibiting me as my magic works at healing every ounce of injury.

With my eyes closed and my mouth whispering words to an old song as I concentrate, I feel myself distantly shiver.

I've never encountered sickness where there wasn't a barrier for me to cross. Everybody is naturally suspicious of my magic's intent, but with Zaon, his body welcomes me.

I remove my hand from his forehead, blowing out a breath. He should be healed.

His eyes open tentative, before he sighs softly. Every muscle in his body relaxes right in front of me from relief he hasn't felt in a long time.

"Oh...wow," he breathes, staring off into space as he takes in this new feeling.

"Did it work?" I grab a few tissues from the bedside table, pressing them into my palm to soak up the rest of the blood.

"The pain is gone." He looks at me with widened eyes that are viewing me differently than before. "It's all gone."

I enjoy watching the way people change when their pain has been erased. Zaon rolls his shoulder, testing the muscles of his back without the burden of thick scars on his skin.

"Does it feel good?" I ask curiously.

"It feels incredible." He takes my injured hand in his, cradling it gently. "Thank you, Ayah."

We stare at each other for a few moments, our breaths intermingling. His grip tightens imperceptibly around my hand, and his lips part to speak, until his gaze drops to my nose.

I know what he is looking at before I can feel it. Raising my other hand, I touch below my nose, feeling the odd warmth of blood.

"It's okay," I breathe, wavering a little as light-headedness strikes my head.

Zaon grabs my shoulders to settle me. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Healing takes my energy," I remind him. "I just need to lie down."

He helps me lie back until my head is on the pillow. My mouth is dry as he brushes my hair off my damp forehead, the concern in his gaze making my head spin more.

"Just relax. Take as much time as you need," he murmurs tenderly.

"We should leave to see this amplifier soon." I yawn. That's the entire reason we are here, to find this amplifier.

Zaon lays down next to me, sighing from the relief of no more pain. "We leave when you feel better."

I turn my head to watch him as he gazes up at the ceiling. He's settled in, making it clear he's not going anywhere.

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Thank you everyone for continuing to read this story, your support means everything to me (:

If you want to read ahead, this story is 15 chapters ahead on INKITT (@midika) and is 5 chapters ahead on RADISH.