THE ALPHA'S UNWANTED CONTRACT

LIZZY HANK The garden shouldn't have been this quiet. I told myself it was nothing, just the night settling in, just the wind forgetting to blow. But the silence had a weight to it, the kind that presses against your chest and makes your breathing feel too loud, too obvious, like something out there could hear it. I walked deeper anyway. "Alpha Patrick, are you there?" My voice came out smaller than I intended, swallowed whole by the darkness between the hedges. No answer. Just me, and the soft crunch of gravel beneath my shoes, and the creeping feeling that I had made a very serious mistake coming here alone. The garden lamps were spaced too far apart. Between their pale circles of light, the shadows stretched long and hungry, and I moved from one pool of safety to the next, telling myself I was being ridiculous. I have been in this garden a hundred times. I knew every bend of every path. But my heart didn't believe me. It knocked against my ribs so hard I could actually hear it, a frantic, embarrassing drumming that filled my ears and made everything else feel muffled. Calm down, Lizzy. I rounded toward the far corner, where the old rose arch stood, and that was when the hand shot out. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to scream properly. One second I was moving a grip like iron closed around my arm and yanked me sideways, slamming my back against something solid, and a large palm came flat over my mouth, crushing the sound before it could leave my throat. My eyes flew wide. The figure in front of me was massive, broad-shouldered, backlit by the one faint lamp behind them so I couldn't read their face, only the shape of them. Big. Dangerous. Close enough that I could feel warmth radiating off their body even through my panic. I screamed anyway, but it came out as nothing, a muffled, useless sound against their palm. What do you want from me? I threw my weight sideways, clawed at the arm holding me, twisted my wrist. It didn't matter. The grip tightened, effortless, like I was something small they had picked up off the ground. Then the voice came, low, unhurried, right against my ear. "Keep still. You little human." A pause. A smile in it that made my stomach drop cold. "We're here to teach you a lesson." "You should've known better than to mess with the wrong people." That made me angry enough to stop thinking. I bit down, hard, on the palm covering my mouth. The hand yanked away and I ran. Three steps. That was all I got before another arm locked around my waist and lifted me clean off the ground. "You're going to regret this, bitch." The nail came across my palm first. I screamed. Then another drag down my forearm and my legs just, stopped. I hit the gravel and couldn't get back up no matter how hard I tried. I lay there bleeding, shaking, one hand pressed to my chest. So this is how it ends. I had heard about werewolves the way you hear about things that aren't real. I never once thought I'd be dying at their hands in a garden at night. I closed my eyes and waited for the final blow. The roar shook the ground beneath me. I forced my eyes open. A massive dark wolf was moving through them one by one, fast and merciless, like he was swatting flies. Then right in front of me, the wolf was gone, and Alpha Patrick stood in its place, chest heaving, jaw tight. They begged. These same creatures that had torn my skin open, begging. "Run," Patrick said. "Now. Before I finish what I started." They scattered. He turned and walked toward me slowly, like he was trying not to frighten me further. He crouched down, shrugged off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. "You humans are so fragile." His voice was quieter than I expected. "It's okay. You're safe. They're gone." I couldn't speak. I just let him reach for my hand to help me up. The moment his skin touched mine he wrenched back and screamed, a raw, broken sound that didn't belong to a man like him at all. He grabbed my hand again. Nothing happened. He dropped it and stared at me, jaw tight. "What was that? Are you trying to fake a mate bond just to become my Luna?" "What bond?" I shook my head. "I don't even know what you're talking about." "Don't play dumb." "I'm not." I met his eyes despite everything. "Why would I want to be your Luna? You're the last person I want to bond with." His expression darkened. He stood up. "Fine. Then I'll leave you here just like you wanted." He turned and walked away. "Wait…" I tried to get up. My wrist buckled the moment I put weight on it and I went back down, crying quietly, my leg throbbing so badly I couldn't straighten it. He stopped. Didn't turn around. "You humans are so damn fragile." He muttered something under his breath, walked back, and scooped me up like I weighed nothing. I didn't have the strength to argue. His room was large and dark. He laid me down on the bed and I sank into it, exhausted. Then he bent over me, his face dropping close to mine, too close, and my breath caught. "What are you doing?" He didn't answer. Just looked at me in a way that made my stomach flip uncomfortably, like I was something he hadn't figured out yet. Then he pulled back, reached for something on the side table, and sat down on the edge of the bed. A first aid kit. He opened my injured hand carefully and began to clean the wound. "You don't have to do that," I said. "My wounds heal fast on their own." He looked up at me slowly. His eyes held mine for a moment. "You're just a human trying to be strong." His voice was quiet. "That doesn't mean you have to be reckless." I didn't have an answer for that. I looked away and let him work. He dabbed the oil gently over the cuts. "This will keep it dry and help it heal faster." I watched him work. With the anger gone from his face he was, I caught myself, he was handsome. Really handsome. He may not be as bad as I think. Then the pain spiked suddenly in my leg and I hissed, shifting without meaning to. He looked up immediately. "Sorry, did I hurt you?" "No." I shook my head. "I'm okay. I'm better like this." He held my gaze for a moment, then went quiet. When he spoke again his voice was careful, almost casual. "Lizzy." He kept his eyes on my hand. "Did you not really feel anything back there, in the garden?" My chest tightened. I looked at him. He has a mate. I cannot feel things for him. I cannot tell him anything. He was smiling slightly, waiting. Patient in a way I hadn't seen from him before. "No," I said. "I didn't feel anything." The smile disappeared. His jaw set. He placed the first aid kit on the bed beside me, not gently. "Then you can finish it yourself." He stood up and walked out. A FEW DAYS EARLIER The wedding gown wasn't made for running but I ran anyway. I didn't look back or try to slow down, not even for a second. No matter how much pain I felt on my bare feet, no matter how many new injuries I kept getting with every step on the rough ground, I kept going. I had to. I really needed to escape this marriage my stepfather had arranged for me. Instead of his own daughter Julie. I'm just a human. And my stepfather and Julie have made my life a living hell since I was a child. As if that wasn't already enough, now they wanted to send me to die in the hands of werewolves, all in the name of marriage. I would rather die on my own terms than get married to a monster. "Miss Lizzy! She went that way!" They were my stepfather's bodyguards. I ran faster so they wouldn't catch up. I was already getting weak and struggling to keep moving, but I pushed through it. Then a strong hand grabbed me and pulled me into the corner under a large tree. It was dark. Night had settled in completely and I couldn't see his face, only hear his heavy breathing close to my ear. When he grabbed me I tried to stay calm so the guards passing nearby wouldn't hear us, but the way he was holding me bothered me. Something felt wrong with him, like he wasn't fully in control of himself. I tried to break free but before I could move properly his teeth sank deep into my neck. The pain rushed down through my whole body. I screamed and shoved him away with the only strength I had left in me.