Alpha’s backup Mate

Chapter 2

Klaus was one of the most handsome and wealthiest men in the Araniea. It was rumored that the ancestors of Alkaris were charged with the protection of the golden apple tree that belonged to Hera, Zeus' wife. A dragon's spirit coiled around the tree to defend it from those who would dare to steal its apples. The tree was somewhere in the palace grounds and was known only to the Royal Family.

Ari had always wondered what it would be to own some of the apples.

"Do you want something, m'lord?" she asked, her voice dripping with a sweet venom. She had been trying to entice Klaus ever since she came to the ball, about two turns of the sand glass. The ball was well coveted, and she had needed her father's influence just to get inside. Her father had had to beg Lex to get Ari an invitation.

Wearing a red silk gown with a plunging neckline and lacy sleeves, she looked resplendent. In fact, she thought that she looked even better than Susan. Ari and Susan had both been vying for Klaus's attention for a long time. They had been trying to sabotage each other's plans to get near him. While Susan was extremely manipulative, Ari was direct. The two princesses were considered to be quite a beauty by their subjects. And tonight, Ari had dangerous plans up her sleeve.

If her plan came to fruition, and she managed to enter his chamber and sleep with him, she knew she had him in her grip. And tonight, she was confident she would do it because she had drugged him.

Quite heavily.

Klaus closed his eyes and pinched his forehead with his thumb and forefinger. The little headache, stemming from the silver goblet of wine that Ari had offered him, had worsened.

All day, he had been thinking about Fred, King of the Hydra Kingdom, wondering when he would attack him next and how he was going to shield his beast from being exposed. He wanted to have fun tonight. But his thoughts kept returning to Fred until… he saw her.

It was said that Hydra spawned werewolves with a demon soul, their bodies tattooed but without a definitive pattern. They grew like a hydra as they aged, stretching wherever they could. Often, the men were marked with black ink that spread all over their faces.

There was a pattern in Fred' attacks they happened once every hundred years. In the last three centuries, his stepbrother had attacked him three times, each time worse than before.

Last time, Fred managed to capture Klaus and leash him, using every possible method to provoke his beast, to expose it. He wanted control over it, for it was the avatar of God. He had once said, "Your beast is exceedingly powerful. Succumb to me, Klaus, and the world will be ours. You and I are two sides of a coin, a demon and a god." He had put visions of empires across the realms at Klaus's feet and promised infinite power to be bestowed in his fingertips. Many had fallen for this temptation, but not Klaus.

"f**k off!" Klaus spat, controlling the beast within him. And after that, he had unleashed his wrath with the help of Nick, who had tracked him down. As he came back, Fred' words boomed in the air. 'I will come back for you or for your mate.'

Klaus was five hundred years old. He had hit immortality when he was thirty.

Klaus had spent that time protecting his kingdom from formidable foes. Along with his friend Nick and his General who served as his beta, Lex, they expanded his reach. The battles were fierce, but with Klaus's shrewd strategies, they always emerged victorious. And now, the Draka kingdom was the largest in all of Araniea.

The other kingdoms wanted to have some sort of connection with him. As Klaus was still a bachelor, they had sent every eligible woman they had to marry him, be it their sisters or their consorts. Recently, one of the kings had even sent his twin sisters, offering him the pair if he so wished. Klaus had used them for pleasure and then sent them back. Both teary eyed as they left, begging him to tell them what they had done wrong.

His kingdom was stable, but according to the Elders, a large threat loomed over him, his kingdom, and Araniea. If he didn't find his mate soon, he would finally lose it all and perish. His beast needed the strength of a mate. They reminded him of the prophecy of his birth.

"Born to the wings

She has a gift

Some say it's a curse

Silver-haired and gilded

Like full moon in the verse.

Find her

Or she will disappear."

Klaus scorned the Elders. His beast was too strong, and he had the confidence in himself that he could defeat Fred on his own, with or without his mate. Fred, the bloody werewolf, was a demon-king's spawn. It wasn't easy to kill Fred, because killing him required ancient magic, a power that could not be found in dusty scrolls or mystic languages. He needed someone to translate for him the tainted book of arcana.

Once again, he pinched his forehead and shook his head hoping to shake the headache off him but it gripped him hard, like a vise. He opened his eyes to the loud beat of drums and fiddles and he scanned the girls around him. Some were dancing, some flaunting their bodies, some stealing glances at him while some fantasizing about him. Why would he need a wife when he had so many women to choose from?

His eyes went back to find the girl who was the object of his fantasy tonight. She wasn't standing in her place. An involuntary shudder of fear passed through him. One he had never experienced for any other woman, not even his mother, who was a sea goddess.

He surveyed the room with his heavy-lidded eyes, searching for the white chiffon or pale blonde hair. She wasn't anywhere. Even Susan wasn't there. From the corner of his vision, he saw a shock of white at the top of the stairs. He got up, wildly swaying on his feet.

"M'lord," Ari called sweetly as she rushed to assist him. "Let me help you." She took his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders and looked at him suggestively. On the inside she was happy that her plan worked so fast and so well. Tonight, he would be hers. She squealed on the inside.

"Don't you f*****g touch me!" Klaus snapped, growling in a slurred voice. He jerked his arm away. "And get out of this palace before I come to my senses, because I suspect you mixed a drug in my wine."

Ari paled, her skin lined with a thin sheet of cold sweat. "N No, Your Highness. I didn't do that!" She didn't expect him to find out about it at all. It was as if he had thrown a bucket of cold water on her plans. No, like a bucket of hot lava from the Black Fang Mountains.

"Get. Out," he barked. "It's just because of your father that I am not throwing you into the dungeons. That act could have put you in some serious trouble." Ari's father, Lukas, controlled the Gulf of Lukas-A and was the king of Aridanus. A small but vital kingdom for trade. It had way too many ships that belonged to Klaus both for trade as well as military purposes.

After giving her a withering look, Klaus made his way through the throng, storming towards the stairs.

Even though the world was in a haze and faces appeared in picture frames, he stumbled to the stairs that led to a corridor. There, he could navigate back to his room. His servants approached him. He ordered water; once he had downed it, he went upstairs.

He grew all the more antsy. His beast was rising, clamoring inside him, even though the alcohol's effect. Where was she?

---

"Go straight and then to the left," Susan said, pointing to the right of a dimly lit corridor. "That's where you are going to find Nick."

A nervous sort of energy passed through her. She held close to her stomach the pill that Susan had given her.

Sensing her trepidation, Susan murmured, "Are you ready? Because if you are not, I will have to?" She trailed off, sending a warning hanging her in the air.

She wasn't. Not at all.

But she needed to be ready. She didn't have the luxury of time. Her handler was standing outside the Great Hall, waiting, watching her. She had to finish the job in no more than two turns of the hour sandglass, and already, she had wasted one. Her pulse pounding, she nodded.

Susan smiled reassuringly at her, and she thought she smiled back.

"Then I suggest that you make haste," Susan said. "Don't come back to me. This corridor leads to a door that opens into the garden. You can exit the palace from there."

She felt dizzy. She hoped to finish her work peacefully and gain her freedom. Heinz had promised her that.

Susan turned on her heel and left. The girl watched her return to the party.

All alone, she felt woozy, chiding herself for falling into a trap but did she have a choice? If she had refused, Heinz would have given her a beating and thrown her into the dungeons of Cetus monastery. And she wanted to spend her eighteenth birthday, which was only three days later, as a free woman.

She looked up and down the corridor, expecting guards but finding it empty. She walked, her hands sweaty, her skin cold. What if the royal guards caught her? Her heart thumped hard against her chest. It was just a matter of time, and then it would all be over.

"Calman's horns!" she exclaimed. She adjusted her mask again.

Sconces on the wall illuminated the corridor. A long, soft rug muted the sound of her footsteps. She caught the smell of night-blooming roses as a soft gust blew down the hall. She took a ragged breath and concentrated, listening out for sounds of laughter. Susan had told her that she should go inside that chamber, where laughter mingled with moans and groans. For the love of her life, why would moans be mingled with laughter? Were they even feasting inside? She had heard some priests at the monastery moaning as they ate but still.

She had walked to the end of the corridor, and there was not a single room through which she heard moans or laughter or even a whisper. Her muscles tensed, and she considered walking back. This time, she was going to press her ears against each closed door.

Suddenly, the door next to her swung open, female laughter trailing out.

Panicked, she quickly backed into the room behind her, shutting the door. She was sure her heart was about to burst from her ribcage. She looked around and found a candelabrum, still lit, and a fireplace burning before a rug. The wooden floors were recently polished, and a table and a chair sat at the corner of the room. A large bed with a canopy was placed in the center. She drew in a deep breath, catching the scent of wax and… mist? Something that reminded her of sea, of brine. She stepped forward to scan the room. "What "

An arm curled around her waist, pulling her back against a man's chest.

"Are you," a deep, decadent voice whispered, "a spy?"

Panic blasted through her, and she was reminded of the pill in her hand. She gulped it down so that she wasn't caught with it. She wanted to turn, but another arm swept around her, stilling her. She gasped as he brought her to his chest. He lifted her off her feet, the heat of his body burning between their clothes. He strode forward, with her in his arms, and he pressed her down onto the bed on her belly. His face buried in her hair, he asked, "Who are you? What is your name?"

She shivered beneath him, a jolt of electricity passing through her. She had never been trapped like this before. Her assailant was surely going to kill her, and she could smell the alcohol on his breath. Raw panic bloomed in her chest. Why was it, though, that her head was spinning so fast? As though she was about to lose consciousness.

Her senses going haywire, she struggled against him, but her movements were like that of a butterfly against a lion. "I…" Her tongue felt swollen. The man was too strong.

"What games are you playing?" he asked as he flipped her over her back, while still locking her with his muscular arms. His deep husky voice stirred her. He traced a finger over her mask. "Tell me, or I have ways to find out."

She wanted to speak, but now her thoughts were oddly slow. "Diva…" It was difficult to keep her eyes open. She faced her captor and, in the darkness, could only make out the jet hair that fell forward onto his forehead, with the silhouette of a long, chiseled nose beneath it. A shadow was cast over his features by flickering flame. The way he embraced her it was an alien feeling.

"Who are you?" she asked, her throat paper dry, her body limp. The pill. It would be her doom.

"That's not important here," he replied. He tilted his head slightly and then his mouth was on hers.

Klaus kissed Diva. And it wasn't a light feather kiss. It was harsh, claiming and deep.

Diva shivered because a new kind of panic flared in her heart and it was all related to the tingles spread all over skin. As he kissed her, her fingers dug into the flesh of his shoulders through his shirt's fabric. She felt something sharp on her lips his fangs. When he pulled away, his fangs scraped her lower lip as he darted his tongue out to lick it.

"Is this your first kiss?" he asked, lifting his head, looking at her with his assessing gaze. Her lips were swollen and glistening by the time he left her, and his erection hardened. His midnight blue hair fell on his forehead. Half of his body was settled over her and he had locked her legs by one of his legs thrust between hers.

Diva thought that he was a stray guard who had caught her and before he would hand her over to the crown, he was playing with her fear. Her senses were going numb by the second. If she didn't get out now, she was going to end up somewhere very dangerous. Her body trembled beneath him. And for all she knew, this guard could just kill her. A chill ran down her spine. "Please get off me," she said, pushing against his chest.

"I don't intend to. For now. Because I feel very nice."

Diva's eyes widened through her mask and Klaus laughed. The way he laughed, it was so throaty and carefree; it vibrated in his chest against hers. A shaky breath left her lips. "Please, get off me because I don't feel nice at all," she said in a low, strung-out voice.

"Then you have to tell me where you've come from," he said, dipping his head in her hair and smelling them again. How could one smell so intoxicating? Citrusy and sweet spices.

"Where are you from?" she redirected the question back to him, fighting the drug's effect.

He chuckled. "I know spies love to play games," he said as his hand went to the ties of her mask.

"I am not a spy," she breathed, as her stomach knotted. What if he opened her mask. Her identity would be revealed. Her Master would be compromised.

His lips curled up as she turned her face to the side, silently asking him not to open her mask. He didn't open it, but trailed his finger on its edges. "How old are you?"

She faced him but didn't answer that. She didn't want to answer that. So, she stayed quiet, her droopy eyes focused on his lips and the cleft in his chin.

"Are you dumbfounded because of my handsome features?" The effect of the mushroom powder that Ari had given him started taking effect. He should have thrown the wine she offered, but he came to know that she had mixed something inside it after he tasted it.

She raised an eyebrow at his cockiness. She changed the topic. Something very hard and heated was between them. She took her finger to it, poked it and said, "What is this?"

His c**k twitched to the point that his balls ached. He hissed and she backed off, scared.

"If you don't leave me, I will call Princess Susan. And then she will take you to the king," she threatened him in a soft voice. "I have heard that he's cruel. He is going to kill you!"

Klaus let out a laugh, sounding surprised. He caressed her gold dust spattered cheek. She was definitely new to this place, his kingdom. He would easily trap the little bird in his golden cage. "I highly doubt he would do that to me. If at all, he would appreciate what I am doing right now."

"Do you know him?" she asked, bewildered.

"I am very close to him," he replied confidently.

Diva's heartbeat raced like a wild horse. She had no chance to leave? But an idea formed. "Then you must be knowing Prince Nick?"

A low, dangerous growl erupted from his chest and Diva winced. Jealousy burned through like whips of fire. "No, I don't," he lied. "Why do you ask? Do you want to seduce him?"

"What? No!" she retorted.

Klaus sagged with relief. He resumed caressing her cheek with his thumb as he gazed at her, enraptured. "You are lovely," he breathed. Nick was forgotten.