Owned By The Monster Alpha

Chapter 3

The servants led Lilith through the dim halls. They were not the polished marble corridors of her childhood, but the damp stone passages below. The walls wept with moisture, and torches flickered in their iron brackets.

They washed her in a copper tub, scrubbing away the dirt of the dungeon and the sweat of terror until her skin was pink and raw. One combed the snarls from her golden hair while another pulled a thin, white shift over her head. Nothing else. No corset. No gown. No shoes.

"Please," Lilith whispered as the woman finished tying the strings of her robe. "Where are you taking me?"

The woman wouldn't meet her eyes. "The king’s chambers, my lady."

"I'm not a lady. Not any longer." Lilith jerked her wrist away. "Is he going to hurt me?"

The woman's hand shook. "I don't know. But I've served in this fortress for twelve years, and I've never seen him stare at anyone the way he looked at you." She pulled away. "I'm sorry."

Lilith's stomach clenched. She longed to ask about her family. Had they been enslaved? Freed? Dispersed among the wealthy families? A mirror image of what her father had done to those he conquered. But she knew she had no right to worry.

She had bigger problems like Alpha King Ryder, who despised her with every ounce of his soul, was moments away from taking her virginity.

They guided her through a thick oak door and down one final corridor. At the very end, iron-banded doors rose up. The servants stopped.

"His chambers," the older one said. "He'll be with you in a moment."

They left her alone.

Lilith sat on the floor, clutching her knees. A fire burned in the hearth, casting restless shadows against the stone walls. Against the far wall was an enormous bed with dark furs and heavy curtains—more like a throne than a place to sleep.

She thought of running. The window, the door, the back stairs, they all beckoned. But her feet wouldn't move. Where would she run? This stronghold was his. These people were his. It seemed as if the whole world had become Alpha Ryder's.

The door creaked open behind her.

She couldn't turn around. She couldn't.

"Turn and face me," he commanded.

And Lilith obeyed.

He stalked toward her, and Lilith wondered if this man had ever known what it was to smile.

"Remove the robe," he commanded.

She hesitated. His eyes flashed dangerously, and he licked his lips calculatingly.

She forced her hands to move, pulling the thin fabric from her body and leaving herself completely bare. His eyes never left her face.

"Please... don't... do this..." she whispered.

There was no remorse in his eyes. Only hatred, so raw it chilled her.

"You either take off your clothes," he said, "or I call the guards to help you."

The fire crackled softly. She stood with her hands hanging loose at her sides.

"Please," she tried one more time.

"Guards...."

"NO!" The word tore out of her. "No. I'll… I'll do it."

Hold back the tears, she told herself. But her body refused to obey. Her stomach clenched, tears pricked at her eyes, and shame seared her skin. She didn't hide. She lifted her chin and let him look. If he wanted to humiliate her, she would not go down. She would not be broken.

Still, she felt his eyes on her. They traveled from her shoulders to her waist, then to the curve of her hips. It wasn't hunger in his eyes. It was a calculation. He was measuring her. Weighing her. Deciding what to do with his new possession.

"You're beautiful," he said, as if it were an insult. "That will make it worse for you."

"Why me?" The words exploded from her. "Why not my father? You had him. You could have kept him. Chained him. Turn him into your own personal dog. Why me? Why not the man who actually did this to you?"

Ryder's jaw tightened. "Your father is dead."

"Then his body! His memory! Anything but—" Her voice cracked. "I swear to you, I didn't understand. My father gave me a tonic every week. I thought it was medicine. I thought it was saving me. I never questioned where it came from. I never…" She pressed a trembling hand to her chest. "I drank it because I was dying. I was a child. Please. I didn't understand."

The firelight flickered across his face, carving cruel lines around his mouth.

"Do you know the thing I hate most about looking at you, Lilith?" His voice was quiet, so quiet she had to lean closer to hear it. "It's not that you drank my blood. It's not even that you survived while I was rotting. It's that he had you. He loved you."

Lilith's tears spilled over. She couldn't stop them now.

"I sat in the dark dreaming of the day I'd take something he loved. And now you're here. His greatest treasure." He stepped closer. "The only problem is… you're not enough. You're not enough for what I have in mind."

She couldn't breathe. Her heart slammed against her ribs. Every instinct screamed at her to run, to fight, to do something but her feet were frozen.

She saw it then. Beneath the wrath, beneath the hatred in his eyes, there was something else. Something older. A darkness that had festered in that dungeon for five years, feeding on itself until it became something nameless.

She was meant to carry that darkness. The question wasn't whether she would survive it.

Could she hold the demons he'd been forced to unshackle?

She didn't know the answer.

Ryder's smile didn't reach his eyes. "You may not be enough, but you'll do." He nodded toward the bed. "Get on the bed."

Lilith walked on limbs that didn't feel like her own.

"Lie down."

She obeyed. The bed frame creaked under her trembling.

Ryder pressed over her, and she shut her eyes. She didn't want to see his face. She didn't want to see the hatred in his eyes as he did this to her.

"Open your eyes," he said.

She didn't.

His hand found her jaw, it was firm, not cruel. "You will look at me. You will know exactly who is responsible for this."

Then his hands gripped her hips, fingers digging into her flesh, and she felt him push inside her. Her eyes flew open. He was so big.