Taken For The Alpha ✔️ - 28 - 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: 2453
~Ayah

I step from the bath, reaching for my towel.

My body feels limp and tired, ready for sleep. I'm not sure why I'm so fatigued when I've spent my entire day pacing back and forth, watching flurries of snow dance around outside.

I need to get out again, and soon.

Shuffling back to the bed, I stifle a yawn behind my hand. The room is bathed in a dreamy evening light, moonlight shifting like liquid across the floor.

The sound of mumbling outside my door has me pausing mid-step. Turning slowly, I strain to listen, but the incoherent murmurs reveal nothing.

Moments later, the doorknob jiggles loudly. My heart leaps into my throat, fear stumbling through me as my mind confronts the idea of someone coming to kill me.

And by someone, I mean Raven.

Before I can react, the door opens a crack, and then a little wider. Then, it swings all the way open and Zaon staggers through, his gait so unstable he has to stop to brace his hand against the doorframe.

"Zaon?" I take a tentative step back. "What are you doing in my room?"

He rubs his face with his entire hand, letting out a soft groan.

"I don't really know."

When he lowers his hand to fully take me in, his eyes flare with surprise. My hand tightens on where I keep the towel plastered to my body.

The air turns languid between us, his eyes darkening a touch. I'm naked beneath this towel, and we both know it. Yet, there's something raw and aching about the way he looks at me, and it doesn't feel sexual.

"Is something wrong?" I ask breathlessly. He didn't just stumble in here on accident.

He straightens, seeming to realize where he is.

I think he's a little drunk. There's a heaviness to his eyelids, and an unevenness to his gait. His hair is mussed, half of it almost hanging down to his lashes, curled at the ends from what may have been the steam from his own bath.

At least he's dressed, although half of the buttons of his shirt are undone in strange places, revealing part of his chest and abdomen. He doesn't wear a belt either, his pants hanging low and loose at his hips.

"Who did you think I was when you first met me?" He asks roughly.

I pause. "I thought you were an Enforcer, a second in command or a general of some description—"

"No." His expression becomes strained as he leans his head back. "Not my occupation. Who did you think I was?"

I hold my breath, uncertain of this new terrain we're walking on. I can't tell if he's here to bother me, or if he's trying to clear his conscience. Either way, I'm intrigued.

"I thought you were the kindest, most attentive person I had ever met. I also thought you were very seductive and captivating," I explain softly. "But I didn't know many people at that point, so don't feel flattered."

He looks at me. His eyes don't seem blue tonight. They seem as dark as the night, searching me for answers to questions he hasn't even asked yet.

"Did you ever have doubts about who I was?"

"Not once. Although I'm terribly naïve, clearly," I mumble.

If I'm being honest with myself, I believe I didn't question who Zaon was because I didn't want to know. I was afraid he could put me in danger, that my father would never approve. I was craving the sordid affair with a stranger, and that's exactly what I got.

"I don't know how I became that man for you." He stares straight ahead, lost in thought. "I miss being that man."

He pushes off the doorframe, stepping into the room. The door snickers shut, and I watch quietly as he stalks toward the open balcony doors.

"That doesn't really seem to suit you, anymore," I say uneasily, wondering if I should excuse myself so I can don some clothing.

"I think I was that man before Iris got sick." He steps onto the balcony, staring out at the mountains that wear a moonlight veil. "Now I don't recognize myself."

I follow him to the threshold between my room and the outside world, wary of the cold beyond the wall of magic.

Zaon is in a strange headspace, but I don't feel like shaking him out of it yet. This is the most vulnerable I've seen him.

"Did you feel guilty about tricking me?" I inspect the side of his face curiously.

"I didn't want to think I did, but it still haunts me." His knuckles pale as his grip tightens on the railing. "I hate that I let things get so far without you knowing who I truly am."

Ah, so what he did has been eating away at him. I thought he hadn't considered it since it happened, whereas my mind has personally found its way back to it time and time again.

"As much as I hate you now, those were the best few days of my life." The breeze lifts my hair from my face, caressing my cheeks.

Zaon's eyes are open and vulnerable as he meets my gaze. "I don't want you to hate me."

I glance over my shoulder, deciding that the bedroom is a dangerous place to be alone with him right now. At the same time, I'm standing in the cold, my feet melting the ice below me.

"Why not?" I ask as I back into the room, hoping he'll follow me. He does, filling the space with his presence again.

"There is something about you...something I can't quite figure out." He angles his head. "It scares me being around you."

"I'm not scary..."

I'm barely a person, after years of isolation. The fact that he can see anything in me that interests him is some kind of miracle.

I sit back on the edge of the bed, deciding that pressing myself to the far wall would be ridiculous, even if it is tempting.

"Not like that. I mean that I become someone else when you're near." He lingers near the threshold to the balcony, like he can't risk getting closer. "That is, when I'm not scaring you away."

"You do scare me. I think you're capable of a lot of terrible things," I admit softly, carefully readjusting where I hold the towel to my body.

At this point, my body is entirely dry. I would change, but I don't want to break this moment.

"Yet you're drawn to me," he murmurs, seeing what I hoped wasn't obvious.

"I'm not..." Liar.

He finally steps into the room, approaching me with slow, purposeful steps. "You are. You wouldn't have let me go down on you, even after you knew who I was."

His frankness is disconcerting, but I don't allow myself to bristle. He's right. There is something between us that I've been refusing to acknowledge, and it makes me do irrational acts around him.

"You've given me pleasure I didn't know was possible," I admit softly as he sits down on the bed beside me. "Somehow I doubt I could find that anywhere else, even in my limited experience."

I once overheard maids complaining about how their mediocre lovers couldn't satisfy them. It made me keenly aware of how not all males are able to pleasure females well.

Not like Zaon can...

"You can't. And I don't want you to." The raw ache in his eyes strikes somewhere deep inside me.

"I need to find a husband." I'm not his. He may not want me to seek pleasure elsewhere, but it's inevitable.

He grimaces, like he forgot and is only just not remembering.

"I know." He looks down at his hands. "I'm not going to let my attraction get in your way. I want you to be happy, safe."

"Just not at the cost of your sister," I deadpan. I would draw the same line, if I were him, but it still hurts.

"No." His forehead creases. "But you deserve the freedom you've been searching for. I don't want to become like your father and make you a prisoner."

"You're not my father," I sigh. "I told you who helped me escape and you didn't punish them."

I wouldn't have admitted the names had I not been certain he would refrain from retaliating against them. The confirmation is nice, though.

"They made sure you got back safe. That's what matters," he says softly.

I swallow past the lump in my throat. Sometimes he sounds so earnest, I allow myself to imagine that he cares about my safety because some part of him likes me. It feels juvenile, to be wanted beyond my power by him, but I'm so alone here.

I want to mean something to someone.

"Do you ever think you'll find love?"

"Raven makes that almost impossible." Pain cleaves through his expression. "I'm working on a way to cut out her and her father from my life, but it's very difficult."

It might very well be an unattainable goal, but he doesn't say that, and neither do I.

"Can I ask you something and you have to promise to be entirely truthful?" I turn in my spot so I'm facing him entirely.

His eyes soften. "Of course."

"Did you ever feel anything for me when you were first seducing me?" It's a dangerous question, and hearing the answer frightens me.

But I'm not sure I can sleep another night without knowing.

"I knew what I was doing was a means to an end." He exhales through his nose as he thinks. "But I would be lying if I didn't feel anything, even if I didn't allow myself to think it. You weren't what I was expecting...you immediately disarmed me."

"Do you regret it now?" The air feels heavy between us. I never thought we'd have this conversation.

A deep and inexplicable sadness settles over his features. "I would do anything to save my sister. But if I'm honest, yes, I do."

I blink back my surprise. He must be drunk or... something. It's disconcerting how honest he's being.

"Can I ask you something now?" He asks.

"You can."

He visibly swallows, breathing in slowly, cautiously. He's...nervous. It's not an emotion I would ever expect from an Alpha as powerful as him.

"Can I kiss you?"

My brows raise. "Kiss... you want to kiss me?"

Of all the propositions I thought he might make, kissing me was not one of them.

"Tonight is a bad night for me. I'm missing Iris more than usual and..." He pauses, finding the words. "I want to feel what I felt back then. I want to remember that it was real."

My lips part, his words settling deep inside of me. I never been asked for something with so much quiet, unspoken desperation. It's a raw feeling that immediately unnerves me.

Things shouldn't feel like this between us. It should feel feral, primal, because that's easy. It's just attraction that way.

But this... it feels real. It's more than want. It's a need for a part of my soul, part of my heart. To share in a moment I thought was gone.

He seems to read something in my expression that makes him startle. "Please feel free to say no, though. I more than expect you—"

"No, I want you to kiss me," I rush to exclaim.

I'm taken aback that I said, yet, I feel no regret. I do want him to kiss me.

He leans forward, the tiniest sigh falling past his lips, like he is anticipating being relieved of a great aim.

His hand touches me first, sliding his hand over the side of my face and then into my hair. His touch is so gentle and slight, it makes my skin tingle.

The moment his lips touch mine, I'm free of all my burdens. Everything is gone.

He kisses me softly, tentatively. It isn't like the fervent kisses we've shared before. It's slow and sensual, while his fingers lace through my hair gently.

My head hurts and my heart aches. This almost feels romantic.

I almost forget myself, going to lift my hand to touch him, until I remember the towel covering my body. I suppose getting my hands on him would only accelerate this.

Zaon doesn't appear to have any desire to hurry this along. He deepens the kiss, raising over me a little. His hand shifts again, to my jaw now. It feels like he's cradling me, his thumb soothingly tracing against my cheek.

When he pulls away, I'm breathless and a little dazed.

"How is it possible for it to feel like that?" I don't think Zaon is asking the question to me. He remains close, continuing to touch my face gently, like he's savoring the moment.

I frown. "It doesn't always?"

"No. It doesn't," he murmurs.

I pull away, unnerved. When I kiss Zaon, I feel something in the depths of me that is addicting, and a little frightening. I want more, constantly. I was hoping it was just what kissing feels like with everyone, not just him.

But I get the feeling I'm wrong about that.

"What do you think that means?" Is it just attraction, or could it be more?

Zaon stands abruptly, clearly having sobered from whatever he drunk earlier. "If you think about it too deeply, you might not like what you come up with."

"Why?" I ask, feeling like I'm being left scrambling in the dark, searching for answers he has, but doesn't want to give me.

His throat moves as he swallows. There is something he wants to say, but for some reason, he decides against it.

"Sleep well, Ayah." He bows his head before he quickly departs.

I sigh, a heavy silence consuming the room. I change into my sleeping clothes quietly, considering my strange interaction with Zaon. I wonder if he drank enough to forget it happened come morning.

However, the next morning when I wake, I turn my head to see a vase of peonies on my bedside table. I smile a little, raising my fingertips to brush against my mouth, where his lips touched last night.

The longer I stay here, the more danger I'm beginning to realize I'm in.

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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.