Taken For The Alpha ✔️ - 55 - Wattpad
Taken For The Alpha ✔️
by Midika
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Taken For The Alpha ✔️
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.
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Word Count: 2204
Zaon's hand rests securely against my back, leading me to a bench outside in the garden, helping me sink down onto it.
I suck in breath after breath, the cool night air soothing the worst of my panic.
Everything is spiraling out of control. I'm supposed to be finding my mate, but it feels like a hopeless pursuit. Riley believes he is in love with me, and now I'm tied to him until this mess is resolved.
Will I ever catch a break?
"What a terrible, no good night," I mutter as Zaon crouches in front of me.
His hand reaches out to brush the hair from my flushed face. "What happened?"
I pause for a moment, enjoying the tenderness of his touch, the soft concern as he gazes at me. When he is close to me, it doesn't feel as though anything can harm me. It brings a serenity to me that effectively extinguishes the worst of the panic.
"What makes you think one thing happened?" I flop my hands onto my lap, adjusting the skirt of my dress.
"You're clearly distraught. What happened, Ayah?" He leans forward a touch, his words gentle and coaxing.
"Riley confessed his love to me."
Every bit of softness leeches from his expression. "He what?"
"Apparently he's falling in love with me, and that he wants our marriage to be more than duty and...wow, I really can't breathe." The panic is flaring up again, my throat tightening.
A darkness settles over his face unlike what I have seen before. A darkness that speaks to untold pursuits of vengeance were I to allow it.
"He said that to you tonight?"
I nod numbly. "I know, bad timing."
I hope I am not signing Riley's death warrant, but I cannot go another moment without confiding in someone. Blake would try to understand, but ultimately, it's her brother. She will always want to protect his feelings before mine.
"I can sort another male for you. It doesn't have to be Slate—"
"No, it's fine. I like Riley, I just need to think." I lay my cool palm over my forehead, closing my eyes as I summon a slow breath.
Zaon's brows furrow skeptically. "You want to be with him like that?"
Riley will understand eventually that there is no reciprocal feelings on my behalf. He will learn to accept that, and settle as my friend.
Or he won't, and he will end our marriage and put me in danger...
"I feel terrible," I choke out.
Zaon immediately stands. "I'll get you some water. Don't move."
He disappears inside the ballroom, a hastiness to his step that would make me smile were I not so concerned about Riley.
But even more pressing is the issue of my mate. I'm starting to feel more clarity toward it, yet the answer I am leaning toward isn't favorable.
I press my hands against the cool stone bench on either side of me, looking out at the garden. It's pleasant at night, with trees bearing heavy snow and frost licking up the boughs. It's the only place around the property that is moderately flat and provides an extensive view of the distant mountains.
Zaon returns a few minutes later, a glass of water in his hand that is precariously filled to the rim.
I drain half the glass when he hands it to me, the pressure in my chest slowly easing.
"Feeling better?" He asks, shifting to sit next to me.
"Somewhat," I mumble, setting the glass down on the ground at my feet, twisting to face him. "This night is overwhelming."
"You've spoken to a great deal of people tonight. It's natural to feel this way," he assures me.
The problem is, I'm starting to understand what is natural less and less. It feels like I should have a grasp on this, on the mate bond. Every werewolf feels it. Yet here I am, as lost as ever.
"There is just so much riding on tonight." I pick absently at my fingernail. "I don't want to fail Iris."
"You can't rush fate."
I sigh. "No...I suppose not."
After how hard Zaon pushed to have this ball happen, I'm surprised he isn't insisting I go back inside to find this male. Perhaps he has spoken to some of the guests and realized how many of them are not suited for me in the slightest.
He shifts next to me, rubbing his jaw. "I know you don't wish to hear this, but I ask you to reconsider pushing your mate away once he is found."
"I'm perfectly content with Riley," I say uneasily.
"But he wasn't made for you, Ayah." Anguish blooms across his face, like I'm physically paining him. "You're opting out of a once in a lifetime kind of love."
I sigh. Here we go again.
"I'm also choosing not to subject myself to endless amounts of pain. I'm choosing to spare those who come between myself and my mate," I insist.
He knows this. I've made this impassioned speech to him time and time again. After everything him and I have been through, I wouldn't think he would want to encourage this. Has his feelings toward me vanished so quickly?
"You've been hurt in the past, I understand that. You watched your mother be kept alive for years because of your father's love." He shakes his head. "But that was your father's character. It wasn't just the mate bond."
"Were it a normal love, he wouldn't have been driven to do that."
"Your father is a coward. He should have let your mother go, should have ended her suffering," he exclaims. Our animated voices are drowning out the sound of the festivities inside. "He was too frightened of the pain her death would have caused him, so he kept holding on."
I don't disagree that my father is a broken man and that his character contributed to what occurred. But how can I be sure my mate won't be in any way similar?
It's a risk I cannot bear to take.
"Only because the mate bond is so strong, that one's death can cause another," I remind him.
"Your father did not deserve the mate bond he was gifted. He should have faced the pain, and not subjected his daughter to sickness and almost death as a result." His eyes flash. He's angry, but not at me. The thought of what I endured with my father makes him irate.
I turn, rubbing my arms. The cold out here is starting to get to me. "My mind can't be changed."
He exhales abruptly, shrugging off his jacket. Only a moment later, he drapes it over my shoulders, cloaking me in his warmth and his scent.
"I understand what it feels like to be hurt, to doubt something," he says softly. "But what you're giving up, it's...it's life-changing."
"I just want to be free, to be happy. I don't want to be weighed down." I don't want to admit I'm closer to finding my mate than I thought, and I'm frightened of what is going to happen when I release the truth.