My Egyptian Alpha

Chapter 1: Escaping to Egypt

The light river breeze stroked my ivory colored face gently and played with my strawberry red hair as the boat comfortably went down the stream of the river Nile. If I had planned it better, I would have enjoyed an upper Egypt Nile trip, but Cairo had to do for now. 

The sun was setting in the west and made the sky glowing a wide range of red and orange, as if it was on fire. I felt relaxed and almost sleepy from the motions of the boat and the view.

"Do you need anything Ma'am?" one of the servers asked me. I took a glass of mango juice from the tray he was holding and thanked him. He passed on to the other passengers while I continued to look at the sunset.

Suddenly people started to talk more eagerly to each other. They were pointing towards the pyramids which slowly came into view. It was magical. They were like black tiny triangles in front of the burning red light. I smiled to myself. This was definitely worth it.

Hi, my name is Rose Williams and I have escaped from my parents in London.

My father had arranged for me to marry a man named Harry Davies. I didn't want to marry Harry Davies. I wanted to be free. Marriage wasn't for me. I wanted to explore the world so that's what I did. The night my father told me that he had arranged a meeting with this Harry, I disappeared. It was a business deal. Marrying into Harry's family was pure business from my father’s side, where refusal was not an option.

I didn't want to be used as a business deal stamp. I am a human. A woman. Not an object. I didn't understand why they kept having such medieval thoughts on marrying off their daughter. All my friends had chosen their partners by free will. Even they were also daughters of big business owners, who could have done better for their business with a marriage deal. So why would my parents try to force me?

It almost ruined my mood to think of it. I shook my head and focused back on the sunset which started to become a black, starry night. There were still some visible rays from the sun, but the process went very fast now. At least that’s what I thought. Maybe it was normal for the Egyptians to go this fast from day into night.

An earlier night meant more moonlight for me. I could sit outside and stare at it for hours. It was like a magnet to me.

I heard some street dogs bark on land and the car horns honked unstoppable. I felt like this was home. This was the place I wanted to be. Not in a piss cold London with Harry Davies. I almost gagged at the thought.

A few hours later, the boat docked, and all passengers walked off. The streetlights made it feel like it was still daytime. Walking along the river before I caught a taxi made me relax even more. It was just what I needed.

The taxi driver was super chatty, and I didn't mind for once. He asked how long I had been here, why I came and what I thought about Cairo so far. I told him to let me off a few minutes walking from the flat I rented as a safety precaution.

I love to travel, but I was a bit anxious every now and then, which occurred regardless of where I went.

Inside the flat was a mess. My suitcase was open, and my clothes lied everywhere. There were leaflets from restaurants on the table. I picked up one of the leaflets and looked at the pictures of the menu and numbers I assumed was the price. It was fairly cheap. I called the telephone number on the leaflet and managed to communicate what I wanted to order. After a while the order arrived, I ate and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up early, got my stuff ready and went off to the pyramids. Finally, I got to see one of the worlds wonders up close! I was super excited as I saw the pyramids getting bigger the closer I got. It was stunning.

I was surprised to learn that the sphinx was so far away from the pyramids. That's not the impression you get when you see the pictures. In reality I couldn't even spot it from where I was heading. I located a tour guide close to the gates and asked him to guide me.

He asked me whether I wanted to go by tour bus, camel or horse. I chose horse. That sounded more fun to me. We went to the stables and he talked to the stable boy who ran to prepare the horses for us.

My horse was brown with white socks and a white star. His horse was just brown with one white sock on his left front foot. As we mounted the horses and started the tour he told me the history of the pyramids. The sun was almost at its peak and I felt the sweat start to run down my back. We ended the tour at the sphinx, and I took a lot of pictures during the whole trip.

Back at the stables I paid the guide some extra tips and thanked him for his generous guiding. Just as I turned around, a man came out from the stables. I froze. His hair was pitch black, his eyes were grey to the blue side, opposite to mine which were grey to the green side, and his skin was golden. He was well trained, but not bulging. His smile was dazzling. A voice inside my head screamed Mate. What was that? I ripped my stare off the man to see if I found the source of the voice. No one looked suspicious. I felt the man eying me. It made a heatwave go through my body. What was this? Did I imagine things?

He didn't move. He just stared shamelessly at me. The guy who had been my guide slapped him on the back and they exchanged some phrases I didn't understand and then the guide laughed and went into the stables.

The man came closer to me. He looked like he wanted to eat me. I got scared and at the same time I felt that I would let him eat me at any time. I got scared from that thought as well, but I didn't flinch a millimetre. I stared him dead back in the eyes.

"Hi" He said. His voice was like a lullaby tune. He smelled like musk and apples. I loved apples. Could this man be more attractive?

"Hi" He repeated after I didn't answer him. I blushed.

"Hi" I said. My voice was weak. Mate!  Screamed the voice again. I looked around in confusion.

"Are you OK?" He said in clear English without accent. I nodded. Embarrassed. I was never shy around strangers. This was new to me.

"My name is Rami." He stretched out his hand to greet me. I took it. It felt like a thousand lightning strikes hit my hand where our skin touched. I couldn't let his hand go. He didn't seem to want to let go of mine either.

"I'm Rose." I finally said. My voice was like a whisper.

"Nice to meet you Rose." He replied. "Do you mind walking with me? You lead the way of course. And could I have my hand back?" He shook his hand slightly to signal that I should let go of it. I quickly retreated my hand and smiled shyly accepting his offer for a walk.

He explained that the tour guide was his friend and that he sometimes went to see the stables to chat when he was free. He himself was the son of the owner. They had a big business in the tourism industry all over the country. It was so that they could control what the tourists could and couldn’t see.

"Why do you need to control what the tourists see?" I asked curiously. He stopped walking looking at me like he saw me for the first time, which he kind of did as we just met ten minutes ago.

"Us" he answered while keeping his eyes on me. I was confused. He was very visible. Why would he try to keep tourists away from himself? I stared blankly back at him.

"You are not aware?" he asked me in a low voice.

"Are you not..? No, you definitely are. You reacted just like me when we saw each other." I let him keep talking.

"How can that be though" and then he suddenly started to ramble in Arabic, then grabbed my hand, dragged me quickly through roads and allies until he stopped a taxi, pushed me into it and it drove off.

I didn’t refuse anything. Even when I was confused as heck and my anxiety went through the roof, I trusted this guy I just met with my life. We sat silently together in the taxi, as it was slowly making its way through the heavy traffic.

At the destination, Rami paid and guided me to a big villa further down the road. He opened the door to the gate and told me to enter. Which I did. I don’t know why. I was always careful with strangers when I travelled alone. The thing is, this man, he didn’t feel like a stranger at all.

Inside the villa, the air was cool on my heated skin and my eyes adjusted to the different lights. A woman was passing carrying a tray of tea. She looked at me and then at Rami.

"Rami, are you home already? And why didn’t you tell me you would bring guests? It doesn’t matter there is plenty of tea and snacks. I will go get you some, dear."

"Thank you, mom" he said as he quickly kissed her cheek and grabbed my wrist to bring me to an office-like room before his mother could ask any questions.

"Where are you from?" was the first question he asked after a long and a bit awkward silence.

"I am from London" I said wondering what he wanted with this information.

"How about your family. What are they doing?" I eyed him suspiciously. What did he want with my family information?

"My father is doing a very successful business. My mother works with him. They have a lot of employees."

He nodded. "So he is the Alpha" he whispered.

"Uhm, he is the boss yes. You can call it Alpha if you want, but that's not how it really works in English" I tried to correct him.

"How was your childhood?" he then asked, totally ignoring my remark.

A knock on the door and it opened widely, his mother elegantly stepped in.

"Here is some tea, dear. And the biscuits you love so much." She put it on the table and looked lovingly at her son. He rolled his eyes and answered her in Arabic. She looked a bit offended but turned to me, smiled and left with a nod.

"Your childhood" he reminded me when the door was closed behind her.

"Normal I guess. I loved going for walks and I have travelled a lot. Because of my father’s success, he could afford to send me wherever I wanted to go. Actually, I am here because I am trying to escape an arranged marriage for his business connections.

An unexpected growl came from Rami and I jumped in my seat. He excused himself.

"I see. Have you ever experienced something weird during your life? Supernatural weird."

I had just taken a sip of my tea and showered him with it in surprise. Supernatural? Do they even believe in those stuff here? I shook my head. Never.

He touched my arm. Sparks went through my skin immediately at the touch under his fingers and I looked him in the eyes.

Mate

I was scared now. Was this some sort of trick to steal my money? Or even r**e me? I was in a stranger’s house, drinking the liquid of people I had never met before. Now I started to question my own sanity for following a stranger just like that.

"You feel it, right? You hear it. It says Mate." It wasn't a question. He knew what I felt. He knew what I heard. I nodded a weak nod.

“I don’t understand this. Why don’t you know anything about it?” he asked, expecting me to answer. I was confused again.

“You are a werewolf” he said. His expression was dead serious. I blurted out laughing and fell down to the floor, tears running down my face. Werewolf. It was too funny. If he was a con man, he was a very bad one.

I heard him growl again. A little louder and with more authority this time. I stopped laughing immediately and sat back on my spot on the sofa.

I looked at him through squinted eyes. I wanted proof for this unnatural statement. It was like he read my mind because just then, his eyes went yellow. His teeth became fangs. His nose became a snout and his skin grew fur.

A huge wolf standing right in front of me where Rami just stood. Unbelievable.