Fated To The Alpha's Enemy

Chapter 4

Adora POV

The words hit me like a blade to the neck, but underneath the pain, there’s something else. Hope. Actual hope.

“You will not embarrass this family,” Father continues, his voice deadly serious. “You will not humiliate us in front of the most powerful wolf in the territory. Because if you do, if you somehow manage to ruin this…”

He doesn’t finish the threat, but he doesn’t need to.

“I won’t fail,” I whisper, and I mean it. This is my chance. My one shot at freedom.

“You’d better not,” he says, tossing the envelope onto the table. “Because this is the only opportunity you’ll ever get to be useful to this family.”

I stare at the envelope, my heart pounding. The Wolf Regent wants to see me. Me. After twenty-two years of being nothing, of being worthless, the most powerful wolf in the territory wants a private audience with me.

“Now get out,” Father says, turning away from me. “All of you. I have preparations to make.”

I stand on shaky legs, my mind reeling. As I reach for the door handle, I catch sight of my sisters’ faces. The hatred there is so intense it takes my breath away.

But for the first time in my life, I don’t care.

******

IT’S NOT the vastly expensive cars parked outside that give away how important the Wolf Regent is. It’s not the smell of freshly picked flowers lined in the grand hall that does it either.

It’s the silence. Not the kind that leaves whispers hanging in the air, but the kind that warns.

The air in the grand hall stills, like it’s holding its breath for him. Just like we all are.

He hasn’t even stepped inside, and already the air grows colder, shadows lengthening unnaturally along the walls, as if the mansion itself recoils from what’s coming. We’re insects, and he’s the boot poised to crush us without a second thought.

Then the doors open. And the world tilts.

Zion Ashwood, the Wolf Regent, doesn’t enter like a man. He descends like a force of nature wrapped in human skin.

The heavy thudding sound of his boots echoes off the marble floor, each step a slow, deliberate threat meant to suck the air from our shaking lungs. He’s dressed in black, no one announcing his title, no one carrying his colors.

He’s all darkness executed with brutal elegance.

His frame is built for war—tall, wide-shouldered, unforgiving. Behind him, four guards follow like shadows, but their eyes keep darting to him, wary. It’s like they’re not protecting him so much as containing him.

The rumors didn’t prepare me.

They say he’s fought great battles to be on the throne. They say his wolf is more monster than man. They say no Mate could survive the bond with him, hence he holds an annual Mate Hunt.

And now he’s here. For me.

My pulse goes wild. Every instinct screams at me to run, but my legs won’t move.

My wolf, usually silent and buried too deep to reach, stirs with something that feels like dread.

He’s here.

My stomach twists into knots, breath locking behind my ribs as his gaze sweeps the room…and finally lands on me.

Everything narrows.

He doesn’t look at my father. He doesn’t spare a second for the others. His focus pins me like a blade to the wall. My throat tightens.

My instincts scream. Not to run. Not to submit.

Brace.

He moves closer. One step. Two steps. And each single one punches the air out of my lungs.

No, there’s something wrong.

My wolf growls low inside me. She’s awake now. Too awake. More awake than she’s ever been.

I clutch my dress to stay grounded, but my bones are vibrating under my skin. Her growl turns into a snarl as he closes the final remaining distance between us. My knees lock. My spine tenses.

I should bow. Speak. Do something that doesn’t humiliate me. But I can’t move. Not when he’s this close.

He stands in front of me, taller than I imagined, his face carved in stark lines. A scar cuts through his brow, adding truth to the rumors that the Wolf Regent is not one to be messed with.

I try to breathe, but his cologne, his scent, his dominance is all that I breathe into my lungs, and I don’t like it. I don’t like his scent. And if I thought it was the worst thing about him… no, his eyes are the worst. They are pale, dark, and sharp enough to see through my nerves. There’s no warmth in them. No mercy. Just judgment and something deeper, something that drags my wolf into a frenzy.

He lifts a hand. To touch me. To seal the distance between us.

And I feel it. Her. Just like in my dream.

My wolf surges like a tidal wave about to eradicate everything in its path. Her fury explodes. She doesn’t want to be touched. Doesn’t want to be seen by him.

Too much. It’s too much.

His scent. His dominance that he’s using to try to make me and my wolf submit…I hate it.

And he doesn’t seem to care. Because why would a low-ranked Omega say no to the king of all Alphas?

No sooner do his fingers touch my cheek than my wolf breaks.

Claws tear from my hands before I can stop them. I don’t even think. I s***h.

His cheek splits open with one clean cut that’s bright red.

The sounds, the gasps, the silence afterward… they’re all deafening.

Blood drips down his face, and for a man who could crush me if he wanted, his eyes hold no vengeance. But his guards? They react instantly, blades drawn, their movements a blur of steel swords.

One aims for my throat. I still don’t move. I can’t. Not after…I’ve just destroyed whatever fragile future I had.

Because that’s what I think of first. That’s what has my lips trembling as I formulate an apology, but then—

“Enough.”

His voice stops everything altogether.

The guards freeze. The one with his blade to my throat pulls back, but not in obedience. No, it’s not obedience, because I recognize the emotion I feel coming from him, and it’s fear.

I’m still trembling, my chest heaving, my wolf thrashing inside me like she doesn’t know whether to fight or fall.

Zion Ashwood doesn’t wipe the blood away from his cheek. He doesn’t even flinch as he puts his hand on my cheek again.

“She’s not attacking,” he says coolly. “She’s resisting.”

My Father tries to speak, tries to spin this into it being my fault. Normally, he’d be right, but his throwing me under the bus still hurts a little.

“She’s unstable. She’s an Omega—”

“I wasn’t speaking to you.”

The Regent’s voice is quiet, but it slices through the room like thunder nonetheless.

No one dares interrupt again. Not the guards who clearly have a lot to say. Not my sisters, who are silently hoping I don’t make it out alive. Not my Father, who’ll denounce me rather than let me stay in his mansion after humiliating the Regent under his roof.

This is it, isn’t it?

“She didn’t choose this reaction,” the Regent murmurs, more to himself than to me. “Her wolf did. And her wolf knows mine.”

My breath catches.

His eyes adopt a new emotion. This time, it’s not cold.

“We’re Fated. She’s my Mate.”

Just like that.

The weight of his words and his touch crashes into me. Fated.

No. It’s not true.

I want to say no. Scream it. Deny this binding he just declared in front of everyone, but my voice is gone, trapped somewhere behind my ribs, where my wolf is still snarling and pacing.

I can’t breathe, and yet I can’t speak either.

Everything around me… my Father, my sisters, the guards… fades into white noise.

I don’t feel victorious. I feel defeated.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°