Alpha's Virgin Claim

CH3: Nadia's POV

I downed the third glass of alcohol in one go, not caring about the bitter unfamiliar burn that trailed down my throat. It scraped against my tongue like punishment but I welcomed it.

I had slipped into this underground club right after crossing the borders of Bloodmoon Pack territory. I'd heard whispers and intrigued mentions of it from the omegas when I worked as a janitor in the beta's mansion. Back then, it was just another place that existed outside the reach of my kind.

Now I came here to drink the pain away. To burn out the ache Kaden left in his wake.

I thought rejecting him would at least bring me some satisfaction. That he'd stagger, feel a fraction of the agony I did. The bond was supposed to hit him harder. He was the one meant to double over from its sting and I was supposed to feel only the echo of it.

But nothing happened.

Not a tremor and definitely not a twitch.

I had looked him in the eye and severed the thread between us and he hadn’t even flinched.

"How dare you take what’s mine? Even if I didn’t want you before, you don’t get to decide when it ends.”

That’s what I expected to hear. Those exact words. That was what the Kaden I remember will snap and say.

He had always masked his pride under a calm facade during the six months we courted. But I knew better now. That his pride was deep-seated and coiled in him like a serpent.

The Kaden I remembered would’ve been furious. Not because he loved me but because I, a mere omega, had dared to end things and several the bonds with him.

But instead, he'd laughed.

A slow, mocking chuckle had slipped from his lips, slicing deeper than any growl or threat of his could.

“There’s no need to bother yourself, Nadia,” he'd said coldly. “I already rejected the mate bond with black magic the night I found out you were my fated mate.”

That was the moment the betrayal sunk its teeth in. He'd secretly and silently broken the bond using the forbidden ritual, so I wouldn't feel the rejection. So I wouldn't pull away before the surgery.

He didn't allow himself to be bound to me at all but he'd let me believe the illusion all so he could exploit me. He made sure I stayed docile and unsuspecting until after the surgery.

And yet I had been enslaved to him emotionally and spiritually all these while but to a lie.

No wonder my wolf couldn't surface despite how long it's mate had found her. Because the bond had been severed without my knowledge.

I tipped the fourth glass to my lips, gulping it down even as my vision blurred and the world started to spin.

I wasn't built for alcohol. I’d never had a drink before tonight. Never been in a club. But here I was, slumped at the edge of a bar counter, trying to drown in something that didn’t taste like water I was used to.

I slid two crumpled notes across the counter as payment for the numbing I’d tried and failed to buy.

Everything tilted. The lights, the floor. And even my head. I was too dizzy now to drink more unlike Mirabel.

She would’ve laughed if she saw me now. I’d overheard her too many times bragging to her fellow gammas how she could down twelve glasses of the same drink and still walk straight.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips.

My eyes drifted to my phone, the screen glowing softly in my hand.

I thought of calling her just for someone to talk to. Just to scream or cry or curse at Kaden and Ryan for using me all these while. She had been the one to tell me about the betrayal after all.

But I stopped myself before I could.

She hadn’t told me out of care. She’d told me while sneering mocking ad relishing my humiliation.

I wasn’t going to give her more ammunition to do more. To laugh at the omega who believed she'd become Luna.

Better to let her think I was curled up somewhere sobbing. For her to assume I shattered.

But I wouldn’t call. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing how deep this wound bled.

I’d bleed in silence and alone.

Minutes passed and I rose unsteadily from my seat and headed for the staircase leading to the room I’d booked upstairs.

Only one thing had brought me here tonight.

The call boys.

I’d overheard countless whispers from other she-wolves about their talents, how skilled they were at giving a woman exactly what she needed. Mirabel, of course, was one of their loudest fans.

One in particular, had stood out on the glossy brochure they handed out at the entrance. His name was Kade.

Tall—more than six feet—and shirtless in his photo, his abs carved like sin and his smirk daring you to break your own rules.

I’d read enough steamy romance webnovels to know what they said: the taller they were, the bigger they packed and a big c**k meant deeper pleasure, a stronger release, a louder moan, and maybe a moment where the pain in your heart finally went quiet.

I picked up my phone and dialed the number next to his image. My eyes never left his face as it rang. He was the tallest on the list.

That was why I came here tonight.

To lose myself in temptation I had denied for far too long.

I had been nothing but loyal to Kaden. I saved myself, my body and everything for him—waiting for our mating ceremony, for the night we would finally complete the bond, for the moment I would feel chosen.

But it was all a lie. A cruel fantasy. Castles I had built alone in the clouds and left to crumble.

“Room 420,” I said to the voice on the other end of the line, my own voice slurred from the alcohol swimming through my bloodstream. I dropped the phone back into my purse, my breath shaky.

I swayed on my old heels as I made my way up the stairs to the room I’d booked ahead of time—booked long before I even knew I would have the courage to actually go through with this.

I stumbled into the room, the door clicking shut behind me.

The moment I entered, I peeled off my clothes and slipped into the white lacy nightgown I had bought at the departmental store earlier. It clung to my curves like a second skin, the sheer fabric whispering over my flushed body.

I was drunk and hopelessly lost in the haze. But not just from the drinks I had.

I was burning.

Lust pooled hot and heavy between my thighs, and I didn’t even bother to suppress it. My omega pheromones thickened the air, wrapping the room in a cloying heat I could barely breathe through. I let them flood out, reckless and wild.

Pheromones like mine, an omegas were dangerous. They didn’t just tempt—they commanded. They stirred the deepest, most primal parts of men. Discipline? Training? Control? They rendered them all useless. It was like a bleeding body in an ocean of sharks but I didn’t care.

I switched off the light and sank onto the edge of the bed, shrouded in darkness and heat. My chest heaved and my skin throbbed as I waited.

Then came the knock moments after. It was soft at first, almost hesitant, but it struck me like lightning that I froze.

It was too early.

The call boy I ordered had said he still had two clients to service before me. There was no way he’d be here this soon.

And yet lust clouded logic and I brushed away the unease scratching at the back of my mind. My body was far louder than my thoughts.

I walked to the door, unlocked it, and stepped aside. He entered without a word.

A tall, powerfully built man.

My gaze roamed the silhouette before me as I checked out his height and briefly wondered how loaded he would be down there.

“I’ve been waiting for you for so long,” I whispered, even though it hadn’t even been an hour since I started.

The darkness cloaked us but I saw the glint of his teeth—he was smiling.

There was something off about the way he did but desire overruled my doubts.

I reached up, dragging his face down to mine as he was taller, crashing my lips into his in a hungry and needy kiss. It felt like I’d lose myself in it. My body molded into his, aching desperate.