Fated To The Alpha Who Hates Me

Collision

I survived three days in the Bloodmoon pack before Cleo decides I need to be put in my place. I've heard stories about her as the other maids often whispered about it. The crazy warrior who dared to love Silas despite his ruthlessness.

She cornered me in the storage room while I'm hauling fifty pound bags of flour, my wrists still bleeding despite my wolf's weak attempts to heal them. Cleo is everything I'm not. Tall and full of curves in all the right places with shiny dark hair and the kind of confidence that comes from being beautiful and knowing it.

"So you're the Corvane b***h that everyone's been talking about," she barked, blocking the door with her body. Two other female warriors stand behind her, both wearing the same sneer on their faces.

I set the bag of flour down carefully on the table. "Excuse me. I need to get back to work."

"You need to understand something." Cleo steps closer, invading my space. "Silas is mine. He has been mine for years, and some cursed omega isn't going to steal him away from me."

Hmmm. So she doesn't know about the mate bond. Silas hasn't told anyone.

"I'm not interested in the Alpha," I found myself saying, which is the truth but also a lie. I'm not interested in him, but the bond doesn't care about what I want.

"Fine. Because if I catch you looking at him again like you did this morning at breakfast, I'll make your life even more miserable than it is."

She shoves me back and I stumble over, my shoulder hitting the shelf behind me. The rice sacks on top topple over, one of them hitting me hard on the head. Pain explodes across my temple, and I could taste something metallic in my mouth. Blood.

"Oh, sorry," Cleo said, half smiling. "You should be more careful. These storage rooms are dangerous."

They left me on the ground and I allow myself exactly ten seconds of shame and anger. Then I get up, touch the spot where I am bleeding on my temple, and start cleaning up the mess. Because that is what I do. I survive.

When I get back to the kitchen, blood is running down the side of my head. Greta looks over at me and sighed.

"Clean up. You're getting blood on my floors."

I splash cold water on my face in the tiny bathroom, watching the pink water flow down the drain. The cut on my temple is worse than I thought and will probably have to be stitched, but I apply a clean towel over it and hope for the best.

When I came out of the bathroom, Silas is standing in the kitchen.

My heart stopped for a moment, then starts again at triple speed. The bond blazes and my wolf perks up excited at the sight of our mate.

"What happened to your face?" His tone cuts through the air, and the kitchen goes still.

I didn't realize he's talking to me until Greta kned me with her elbow. "The Alpha just asked you a question."

"I fell," I whisper, my eyes fixed on the floor as though I've been commanded to.

"Look at me."

His Alpha command in his voice is unmistakable. My head snaps up, and our eyes lock. The bond surges between us, so strong that I see him flinch. His amber eyes drop to the cut on my temple, and a feral expression crosses his face.

"Who did this?"

"No one. I fell in the storage room."

"You're lying." He takes a step closer to me. "Tell me who hurt you. Now."

"Why should you care?" The words spill out before I can catch them and I saw Greta's eyes widen in horror.

"What did you just say to me?"

I should apologize and beg for forgiveness but something in me snap. I'm tired of being pushed around and treated like garbage.

"You've made it very clear that you hate me," I tell him, my voice shaky but steady. "You've told everyone to be cruel to me. So why do you care if someone hurt me? Isn't that what you wanted?"

Silas takes three large steps to fill the space between us, and before I can even react, he's towering over me. I should be scared. I am scared. But I set my jaw and meet his fiery gaze.

"You don't get to question me," he growls, and I can sense his wolf in his eyes, gold bleeding into the amber.

Before I can respond, his hand shoots out and wraps around my arm, his grip as solid as steel. The moment his flesh touches mine, the connection between us explodes. Fire ignites in my veins, and I gasp hard for air. His eyes blaze gold bright, his wolf exploding free, and I see the moment he loses control.

He drags me from the kitchen, and I barely had time to register what is happening before he's shoving me through the pack house. Pack members jump out of our way. He kicked open the door to his office, drags me in, then slams it shut behind us.

"Have you lost your mind?" he demands, but doesn't release me. If anything, his grip gets tighter. "Do you know what I can do to you for speaking to me like that?"

"Then do it," I snapped back. "Kill me. Punish me. Add it to the list of things I'm guilty of."

His other arm extends and encircles my waist, pulling me back into him so hard that I need to breathe. We're now chest to chest, My wolf is howling, desperate and needy, and I can sense his wolf answering.

"You think I want this?" he hisses, his breath on mine. "You think I want to feel this every time you're near? This need?"

"Let me go then."

"I can't." His arms wrap around my waist, and I feel him trembling.

"Why do you lose control the minute you're near me?" I throw his own behavior back at him, and I see the words land like a punch.

Silas's jaw sets and his hands clamp down around me, choking off my breath. Not tight enough to actually hurt me, but tight enough to remind me how much more powerful he is. His face twisted into something like despair and rage.

"Continue lying to yourself," I tell him, staring into his eyes even as my own vision darkens at the edges. "Continue pretending you don't feel this bond. Continue pretending you're in control. But we both know that's not true."

"I hate you," he says to me, and his voice breaks on the words. "I really do."

"I know." And I do. I can feel his hatred as clearly as I can feel his want, the two bound around each other in a way we're both unable to separate. "But it doesn't change anything, does it?"

For a moment, we just stand there, locked together, breathing hard, the bond pulling so hard it hurts. I can see the war raging behind his eyes, his wolf demanding that he claim me while his mind screams at him to push me away.

Then he releases me so abruptly that I stumble backward, and I barely managed to stabilize myself by grabbing the edge of his desk. He turns away, putting distance between us.

"Leave," he growls, his voice rough.

"Silas."

"Leave!" He turns on me, and the rage on his face makes me step back. "Leave before I do something we'll regret.

I flee, my heart pounding, my body still trembling from where he touched me. As I run through the halls, I can feel his eyes on me, can feel the bond stretching between us like a living thing.

Back in my tiny room, I collapse on the bed and let myself shake. The way he grabbed me. The way he couldn't let go. The desperation in his voice when he admitted he couldn't control it.

This bond is going to destroy us both.

And the terrifying part is that some broken piece of me wants it to.

I touch my waist where his hands gripped me, and I can still feel the heat of his touch burning through my skin.

I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. When the morning finally arrives, I'm exhausted and freezing, but I drag myself to the kitchens because the alternative is being dragged there by force.

Greta looks at me and raises an eyebrow. "You look like death."

"I'm fine."

"You're not, but I don't care. The Alpha requires breakfast service today. We have visitors arriving."

My gut twists. I nod and get to work.

The guests arrived midmorning. When I risk a glance through the kitchen doorway, I see three wolves with the insignia of the Council of Alphas standing with Silas.

My blood freezes. What is the Council doing here?

"The trial was fair," I hear Silas say. "Thalia Corvane was convicted by your own choice."

"Yes, but new issues have arisen." The woman has silver streaked hair. "Alpha Valek was found dead three days ago. Killed in the same precise manner as his mate."

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. Valek dead? Murdered?

"And you think Thalia is behind it?" Silas's voice is threatening now. "She's been in here, under guard, for over a week."

"We're not saying did the killing herself. But there are theories that she was assisted. That all this was part of some bigger plan."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it? Her uncle was manipulative and a schemer. Perhaps this is a genetic thing."

My legs give out, and I fall to the floor. Valek is dead. They murdered him just like they murdered his mate. And they're going to blame it on me.

This never ends.

"Up." Greta's firm tone cuts through my insanity. "You need to do your job."

But I couldn't move. I'm frozen, drowning in the realization my life is gone.

The kitchen door slams open and Silas enters. His gaze falls upon me instantly, huddled on the floor, and something crosses his face. He crosses the space in three strides and yanks me up.

"What are you doing?" he bellows, but his eyes sweep my face.

"They're going to kill me," I whisper. "They're going to blame me for Valek's murder as well."

"No, they're not."

"You can't stop them. You just overheard what they said. They think that I am part of some conspiracy."

His jaw clenches. "I won't let them take you."