Enemy Alpha is My Mate

Betrayal

Caroline stands, staring up at the blue building. She has dark circles beneath her eyes. She hasn’t slept well lately. Her blank eyes shine for the first time in a week after her parents’ death.

Vengeance coils through her gut.

‘He’ll be on the twenty-fourth floor. He lives alone in the apartment and visits the city sometimes. But whenever he does, he comes alone.’

Lee Kael’s words echo in Caroline’s mind. She takes out a single key from her pocket. Looking down, she rolls the digits with a single thumb. When she looks up again, she fists the key until the jagged edges prickle her skin. The veins in her arm slip out angrily.

In the last week, every second was torturous in the absence of her parents. She lived with Lee Kael, the only healer alive in the Park pack. And here she is now, standing like a zombie in front of Head Alpha Kendrick’s apartment building in Seoul. Far away from her pack. Because this is the only opportunity to find him alone and kill him.

Caroline scoffs.

She never saw herself as a killer but someone who thought healers like her parents should die, someone who had the courage to set their house on fire, should and must pass away under questionable circumstances. Just like her parents did.

That's only fair, isn't it?

Or she is just crazy. Maybe she will die herself once she steps into the Head Alpha’s apartment. But one thing is clear. Someone will bleed tonight. She swears to herself that she will not leave the apartment without killing Head Alpha Kendrick.

She takes out the key from her pocket.

She reaches the apartment at the end of the hallway and leans her ear against it. Closing her eyes, she listens. She tilts back, eyes empty. There's no sound in the apartment. But she feels a presence. Lee Kael was right. The Head Alpha is here, and he's asleep.

The stars are with me tonight.

With deftness, Caroline rolls the key in the keyhole, and the door unlocks. She stops, holding the round nub in her left hand, waiting for any movement from inside the apartment, for anyone to move out of alertness now that the front door is open. Nothing. Nada. It’s a pin-drop silence.

So Caroline slips inside.

It's a huge apartment. But without wasting any time, Caroline looks for the master bedroom.

Luckily, the door doesn't make any sounds.

Caroline’s eyes blink fast at the deep darkness in the room. The windows in the room are open. The Moon brings in the beautiful filtered moonlight. It glides down magnificently on the naked figure on the bed. Caroline sneers, tightening her hold on the knife.

The naked back on the bed sleeps soundly. Caroline quickly narrows her eyes to find a tattoo right underneath the neck of Head Alpha Kendrick. A crown of flowers is etched into the skin. But it's small, and even though Caroline’s eyes have settled much better to the darkness in the room, she still can't see anything clearly from where she stands.

She takes a deep breath, takes her shoes off, and balances herself as she walks. She freezes. The figure on the bed moves.

It settles back into the pillows. Caroline grimaces at the head full of glossy hair and swishes the knife, practicing the flexibility of her wrist as she sneaks closer.

Wait, No!

Her Omega wakes up from the slumber after a long time. It starts pacing back and forth in her mind. A flurry of worry hits Caroline right in the face. She shakes her head once. This is not the time to deal with her Omega.

Caroline’s chest rises rapidly, adrenaline rushes in her veins, preparing her to go for the kill. Now she stands right beside the master bed. But the tattoo catches her sight again. The crown has both flowers and thorns sticking out of it. This is a good idea; she should just stab the Head Alpha while he's on his stomach. He will never know what hit him in his sleep, just like what happened with her parents. A disturbing, cruel sneer covers Caroline’s mouth.

Her Omega howls, begging for her to step back. It claws at her painfully from the inside, injecting the thought of changing her decision. It growls when Caroline completely ignores its plea.

Caroline analyzes the figure of the Head Alpha for one last time. His skin is flawless. The back dips down to a small waist, around which hangs the hooks of the jeans he's wearing.

In Caroline’s peripheral vision, the Alpha’s face moves. The black mass of curls disappears. The side profile of the Alpha surfaces with pacified features.

With a lip curled in disgust, Caroline's head tips to the right, glancing at the face of the monster who robbed her of her guardians. Surprise flickers on Caroline’s face. The Alpha continues to sleep on his stomach. Softness spreads in Caroline’s eyes as she draws out the man’s face. She takes a step back, then another. It's dark.

And the moonlight isn't on the Head Alpha’s face; it's shining ethereally on Ken’s back. Caroline’s chest deepens as her core twirls into a vertigo of emotions. Because it has to be Ken. Caroline knows by the mild glow of moonlight on the Alpha’s face that the Head Alpha is Ken.

No.

The Head Alpha is Ken.

Her mate.

A clammy hand slides down Caroline’s face, her legs go weak. She stumbles but catches herself and slides down the wall in front of Ken’s bed. Her ass hits the floor. Her mind goes blank.

Maybe she’s in shock. She doesn’t engage in any thought for a long time as she sits there and watches Ken sleep.

Alpha Kendrick killed your parents!

Lee Kael’s voice ricochets around her.

Why would he do that?

Because her parents had bad blood with his! And he ended it by burning her parents down to the ground. He’s a monster!

Caroline covers her ears tightly. Her chest waves fervently. Tears form in her eyes, her anger rises and reigns over her thoughts. She springs up on her feet, knife clasped in her fist.

She storms up to him sleeping on the bed and kicks him with brute force. It jolts the body to its side, face up. Caroline takes the chance to jump on the Alpha. The body beneath her groans in pain, and eyes slowly open in the dark.

A body pushes her further into the mattress, and Ken blinks at Caroline above him, who hisses at him. The moonlight glimmers on Caroline’s face, sparkling her sharp jaw. Her brown eyes are on fire, and her hand is around Ken’s neck.

Is this a dream?

“Caroline?” Kendrick asks.

“Are you Kendrick? The Head Alpha of the Nightingale Pack?”

He is taken aback by the fierce gaze of Caroline. A thousand questions rise up like thorns in his mind. What is Caroline doing in his apartment? How did she get inside? Is this even real? Maybe all of this is still a dream. Or maybe not.

“Answer me! Are you him?” Caroline thunders.

Kendrick’s eyebrows furrow. His spine goes straight at the tone of the Omega. But he holds himself back from snapping. It’s Caroline after all. He visited Caroline’s apartment a few days back, but she wasn't there.

He didn’t have her number either, so he thought he’d pay the Omega a visit later. How did his mate find him anyway?

Why is she so angry?

Ken’s arm gently slides around Caroline, and he sits up with her sitting astride his body.

The moment Caroline comes in contact with Ken’s crotch, she spikes up from the position and storms away from the Alpha.

Ken’s oncoming smile dies on its way. He gets up from the bed and follows his mate to the opposite side of his room, to the wall that's completely covered in glowing moonlight.

It’s where he sees Caroline clearly. It’s then that the rotten, withered scent of roses and honey reaches him.

“Caroline? What—”

Before he can speak further, the Omega turns and slides the sharp knife through his skin. Right above his n****e. The blade cuts through the skin like it would through butter.

Ken’s skin sizzles.

It’s a long, single cut starting from just below his collarbone to the shoulder.

Precise. But still, it isn't like the Omega is watching herself.

“Carol!” Ken calls, holding her arm. He takes a step back in utter shock as the Omega’s aura changes. Or it changed way before he woke up but was too slow to process it.

“Caroline. My name is Park f*****g Caroline,” says the Omega, eyes ferocious.

With the knife still in hand, she swings it, reversing the direction of the tip.

The cut leaks droplets of blood from a horizontal line in Ken’s skin again, this time, established uglily in his abdomen. The Alpha jerks a step back as another blistering wound opens up in his skin.

Even with two deep cuts, the Alpha does not fall down in pain. The wheels turn in his mind, his eyes quickly reading into the situation. He stares at his hand that covers the gushing wound on his torso. His breath hitches. Slowly, he looks up with horror in his eyes.

Kendrick is not looking at his Carol right now. He's looking into the eyes that suddenly remind him of the ones he loathes. The eyes that he dreamt of killing in his dreams.

Many, many nights were spent planning the death of the people who took everything from him. He is looking into the same eyes of the people he had great contentment in killing. The people who burned his life up in flames. So he returned the favor.

Literally.

Caroline pushes Ken against the wall with a thud. They’re holed up in the corner of the bedroom with darkness surrounding them. Bitterness sparks in his eyes. His pulse quickens. Cruel hatred seeps into his bones, and the name Park rings in his ears.

“How could you?” The last tear gushes down Caroline’s wet cheeks. The knife he’s dug against Ken’s neck deepens. “How could you kill my family?”

“You’re right. I regret it.” Ken’s eyes become wilder than a feral beast. “I regret setting their house on fire. Should have slit their throats with my own hands. For my own mental peace.”

Caroline gasps as pain shoots through her. A rough hand cinches around her neck.

Her grip slackens. The knife slips to the floor. The pressure on her neck is unyielding. Her eyes flare with surprise, and her lungs, they’re on fire, as if shrinking.

Everything goes dark.