Mated to the Devil Alpha

CHAPTER 2

FLASHBACK

The storm that raged inside the hall was far worse than the one outside. The smell of blood, both new and old, filled the great room. Its red colour soaked into the floorboards painted the walls and penetrated the estate's very foundation. Tension was high in the air, tinged with the prospect of a bad deal. The crimson-stained floor was covered in dancing shadows from the flickering candlelight, a sinister representation of the decisions being made in this harsh, frigid setting.

Sitting at the magnificent table, Riven Stormclaw held the quill with steady fingers. A thick, weighted parchment with sacrificial markings covering it was in front of him; it was a blood pact sealed with the lives of those bound to it.

I was having trouble breathing. Every beat of my pounding heart served as a reminder of my powerlessness.

My stepfather, Riven Stormclaw, who had used me as a pawn to pay off his debts, sat in front of me with emotionless, icy eyes. He sealed the fate he had already determined for me by signing the parchment with blood dripping from his fingers without even looking up.

Kaia, this is it. I couldn't bring myself to say the thing out loud, even though it was screaming in my head. Everything outside of this hall seemed to disappear as the world grew smaller.

Riven wiped his hands with a handkerchief and said icily, "I've done what I needed to do." Everything I had ever known was dead, and the parchment before him was more than just a sheet of paper.

He turned the document in my direction, showing it to me as if it were a prize from a cruel game I had no say in. "It's finished." I looked at the signature, the blood mark that sealed my doom, and my heart pounded in my chest.

Riven, a man who had never once shown me any affection, was now selling me in exchange for territory protection after my mother passed away, leaving me to inherit nothing but suffering.

"No!" I was powerless to stop myself.

The heavy silence was broken by my voice, which was sharp with shock and rage.

"I am your daughter!" An unrelenting ache that went deeper than the chains around my heart filled the hall as my words reverberated off the chilly walls.

Daughter. Once a word of warmth, it now tasted like poison to my tongue.

The harshness of this moment destroyed the illusion of family, the lie he had told me for years.

Riven remained unflinching. His icy eyes, which were as emotionless as the blood contracts he made, met mine without even blinking.

"No," he said firmly, his voice devoid of any emotion. "You are my payment."

The words knocked the wind out of me like a physical blow. I felt as though I were drowning in the harsh truth that this was my new life as their weight weighed down on me.

To him, my very being—my blood—was just money, a resource to be traded. I stepped back, momentarily immobile as the room spun around. No one would listen to me scream and tear it all down.

Here, I was nothing. The debt he owed was my value. My eyes were burning from tears, but I fought the urge to cry. He wouldn't get that satisfaction from me. Everything else he had already taken.

In a flash of dark, overwhelming presence, he appeared as the hall door exploded open with a force that shook the hinges.

“Dorian Blackclaw.”

Taller than any man I had ever seen, he was a shadow passing through the doorway, his presence so overwhelming that it seemed the air itself parted for him.

My heart skipped a beat as I looked into his amethyst, glowing eyes, which gleamed in the gloom.

His icy gaze was fixed on Riven, a silent threat that chilled my blood. Even though it was all wrapped in the silk of control, I could sense the dark power emanating from him—a beast too strong to be contained by mere flesh.

He came slowly and methodically, moving smoothly but with the weight of kings and battles. The kind of presence that made everything around him bend.

Dorian said in a low, menacing voice, "I don't care what you think you've done."

"Now she's mine."

Spoken so confidently that they shook the room's foundation, the words were like a spell. Riven's face revealed nothing, but his eyes darted to Dorian in a calculating manner.

Before I could see it, however, Dorian's hand made a single motion that crushed the parchment sealed with blood into ash. Dispersed like shards of a lost promise, it vanished into emptiness as if it had never been there.

I stared in shock, my heart pounding more quickly than ever. Dorian remained motionless, his gaze now fixed on me.

"Now she's mine.”

His tone was one of proclamation. No room for debate, no question. As his words reverberated throughout the hall, I stood motionless.

For the first time, Riven remained silent as he spoke with such authority and finality. There was no difficulty. No reply. Silence filled the room as Dorian's eyes never left mine.

He was claiming me, not merely bringing me back. I wanted to back off, but there was a weird, unnerving part of me that yearned for the sense of ownership that was unquestionable.

"You cannot claim her as your own." Riven's voice was low, with a growl at the end of his sentences, but it lacked conviction. He was aware that Dorian was not easily intimidated.

Dorian moved forward, his shadow growing larger, engulfing the room in a gloomy presence. He never took his eyes off mine.

"As soon as you signed that agreement, you forfeited your claim. She is no longer your property. I own her.

There was no doubting the sense of power and authority in his words, but the finality in his voice chilled me.

The truth weighed heavily on my chest, despite my desire to resist and pull away. Whether I liked it or not, I had already been claimed.

I stood at the edge of the abyss as the tension in the room increased.

Slowly, Dorian's hand extended, his fingers lightly grazing my cheek, causing my heart to falter. With a voice like the storm itself, he whispered, "Kaia, you'll learn to trust me, but first... you'll have to survive me."