I am Alpha

Chapter Three.

When Mira and Didra return, they both are carrying multiple large boxes, a guard in their trail carrying the largest of them all.

I'm gaping at the excess of it all. I have never worn any gown that required this much hubbub. Usually I wore one of the same 4 gowns that I had in my closet for events like this.

I am only a ward of the Alpha, not a daughter, nor even close to royalty, so when Mira pulls out the first gown I will be wearing for the day my jaw drops open and hangs there.

I was tied into the dress. It was sleeveless but had chiffon off-the-shoulder straps that made it difficult to raise my arms. Mira swatted my arms down when I tried to test how far they would let me go.

between that and the corset, I felt trapped.

This is not the dress I'll be wearing to the ball. This is the dress I will be using to "greet guests," though I wouldn't be doing much of anything. I will stand to the side of my Alpha and his family, and bow when introduced as the "person of honor."

the dress was green, a brilliantly light mint green, the color almost matched my eyes, but not quite, making the shade of them stand out brighter and darker at the same time. It had pink, blue, yellow and green flowers embroidered to the bodice that trailed down to the midpoint of the skirts which simmered like the snow when I moved.

Mira added some powder that sparkled to my hair to match the effect, and tied a few strands back, pinning them with clips that had moonstones imbedded in each of them.

She pinched my cheeks a little when they finished, Didra merely standing off to the side, head lame as if waiting for orders, but standing a little taller than before. Mira looked up at me with true admiration.

"You are stunning girl. Perhaps you will find your mate today." She beamed, happiness and pride shown on her features as she beheld me.

This is why Mira was my favorite. Not just my favorite maid, but my favorite person. She treated me like family. I've never gotten that from anyone else. Not since I was too young to appreciate it.

"I don't think I should be so lucky Mira." I say, rolling my eyes at the naive thought.

"I should thump you upside the head for rolling your eyes like that at me, but I don't want to mess your hair." She said in that Eastern accent of hers that put a slight light lilt to her to her "R"s and made her "T"s and "Th"s very sharp.

I looked at myself in the mirror while Mira went to send for my guard. My hair flows in elegant waves down my back, instead of the tangles of coily wires it usually was. The dark brilliant red stood out with the green of the dress, complimenting it nicely.

They put me in silk green heels but they only made me two inches taller. My usual 5'9 had me standing tall at 6-foot. And matching green lace gloves to complete the "winter look."

My eyes are lightly framed with makeup and thick upper lashes, and my usually bushy red eye brows are slicked down tightly in twinning shapes, softening my natural expression slightly.I was... radiant. I was the damn picture of grace, beauty, and innocence.

It was wrong.

It's a lie. I think to myself, as I move uncomfortably and ungracefully in my corset, a wire digging snugly into my ribcage.

Jack appears behind me in my vanity, smiling charmingly.

"Don't look at me like that." I glared at him through the mirror, still fidgeting inside my corset, awkwardly and unsuccessfully trying to break free.

I keep looking at him like that but turn to face him. He's dressed in a fancier version of a knights uniform, decorated with all the metals he's earned since joining the Alpha's guard when he was 13.

His blonde hair was slicked back, and a white scar the adorned his face, a single line from his right temple down his eye to his nose. A remnant of the Rogue attack I so very nearly missed.

He still looking at me like that. His light grey eyes twinkling, like he's never seen something quite so beautiful. Something must have clicked in his brain, however, because he snaps out of it and starts smiling at me roguishly.

I decided to stop him before he gets his dirty quip in.

"I don't even want to hear it. I've been up since 4 o'clock in the morning, I've been poked, prodded and pinched for 4 hours straight, and I'm being squeezed like I got a snake tryna squeeze the life out of me before it tries to swallow me whole. So forgive me, but if you could just... save it..." I beg.

He laughs a little, his smile even more wolfish when he offers his arm. "Very well Milady, I was only going to say you look slightly less ghastly than you normally do."

I rolled my eyes, and let my eyes fall on the Guard standing by the door. Xander. The most beautiful man that has graced my eyeballs.

He had short cropped hair like all the guards, but dark and thick, with equally thick eyebrows that framed dark eyes that held not a singled expression. His lips always pressed together and jaw always set.

He looks at me now with a hooded expression, up and down, and though his face is an unmovable mask of porcelain, I swear I see his eyes darken.

Or perhaps I saw what I wanted to see because a second laters he nods at me politely and gestures for me to walk ahead of him. We head down the spiral stone steps of my tower, turning at every floor that was the guards floor or the maids rooms.

Xander is trailing us, as always, a guards "proper" place.

All he did was brood. Guard and brood. His name should be Brooder or something less hot than Xander. I look back at him and his eyes meet mine. I immediately to face back ahead, my cheeks feeling slightly warm.

He would never talked to me unless it was necessary and he never showed a lick of emotion.

Ever. I've never seen him smile or frown or laugh or anything. Even when I'm scolding him for catching me sneaking out. Or when I'm walking out in my night dress to show him the freckle on my thigh that looks like the island of Gnor.

His eyes had darkened to obsidian black then, the only change in his appearance but I swore I felt an aura pulse from him before abruptly ending and he simply ordered me back in my rooms.

My cheeks burn still at the memory.

"The Alpha said to bring you right to him." Jack says, snapping me back to the present.

"Okay, I figured that's where we were goi-" I said but Jack cut me off in a hushed tone.

"I think he's already decided who you will spend tonight with." He whispers and I halted.

"Who?" I grabbed Jacks arm, also whispering. Not because of Xander but as to not draw attention to other listeners in this tower.

"His name is Alpha Brenigan King the Northern Territory and New Moon pack." He answered calmly.

I simply stared blankly in his eyes as I processes. Alpha? Not a Beta or Gamma. But an Alpha?

Not just any Alpha, but one of the more powerful and cruel Alphas there is..

...