My Alpha, My Saviour

Chapter one

CASSANDRA.

Cassandra used to have a wolf, but five days after she turned eighteen, she lost her.

She still remembered what happened as if it were just yesterday.

On the night of her eighteenth birthday, she accompanied her half-sister to a festival. Chaos erupted, and they tried to run away.

People were shouting, and then the stampede happened. They got separated, and the next thing she knew, she was in the middle of the swaying crowd, being pushed by everyone who wanted to get away from that place.

She stumbled and gripped the arm that was nearest to her. She felt the spark travel all over her body, activating the bond between her and her fated mate.

Yes, she touched her fated mate that night.

His masculine scent enveloped her senses all at once, putting her in a trance. It was too late when she realized the crowd had already pushed her. But she saw him, he was tall, and he towered over almost everyone, and she knew it was him. Her fated mate.

He kept turning around, as if looking for something or someone. She tried to call his attention, but no matter how much she screamed that she was there, he couldn’t hear her. Until he was already too far.

Until she lost him.

But she knew his name and who he was. She had always watched and admired him from afar. She couldn’t believe he was hers.

She tried to find him in the crowd, and when she couldn’t, she hurried home and told her family about it.

Finding a fated mate is a rarity. Not everyone was lucky enough to find their other half.

So she was excited, beyond ecstatic. She could finally get away from this house. She didn’t care that he was famous or had money. All she wanted was a chance for a better life. A life away from being her family’s slave. And maybe, he would let her continue her studies.

But her happiness was short-lived. The family that she grew up with didn’t believe her. Her stepmother slapped her, and her sister laughed at her. They called her a liar and a lunatic, especially when she told them his name. They said, like her mother, she wanted prestige even to the extent of lying.

She kept telling them she wasn’t making up stories.

She begged them to take her to him so she could prove it. They agreed, and they planned their visit to his territory. But she fell ill after a few days and spent a couple of days in bed.

Then one morning, she woke up and her wolf was gone. She had no idea what happened to her. Her father said she might have been too weak, that her wolf didn’t survive when she got a high fever.

The day of the meeting finally came.

She, together with her whole family, traveled to her mate’s pack. All the way to his territory, she kept rehearsing the things she would tell him. She was filled with joy and excitement at the prospect of becoming his mate.

Her mate was an Alpha, which meant that she was his destined Luna.

Despite not having a wolf, she wanted to believe he would still accept her. A fated mate is a blessing, and not everyone is fortunate to have one.

She was expecting that meeting him would become the best day of her life.

But the exact opposite happened. It became the worst.

Alpha Marcus of the Knight’s Stone Pack appeared in front of them and growled, “Mate,” like she knew he would.

Yes, he found his mate.

But it wasn’t her.

It was her sister, Natalia.

Her whole world crumbled as the life she envisioned for herself was stolen before her eyes. She watched in agony as Alpha Marcus held her sister’s hand and introduced her as his mate to the people around them while she was pushed back and ignored even by her whole family. But like always, she kept her mouth shut.

She was confused. She almost believed she’d gone crazy, hallucinating like what her family had been telling her.

Until she found the cuff links that she was able to rip from his shirt when she grabbed him on that festival night. His initials were carved into it. Yes, it could be anyone, but in her heart, she knew it was his.

For many months, she held on to the only thing that connected her to him while she watched her sister bask in the love and attention that he was giving her, a life that was supposed to be hers.

She eventually reached a breaking point. She confronted her family and told them that she would tell her mate the truth. They laughed at her.

They told her to go ahead and make a fool of herself. But the next thing she knew, she was thrown into a small and dark room that was locked from the outside. She was not given food and water for many days. It had nothing except a blanket that smelled like someone had died on it.

There was no light, no bed, or chair. So she comforted herself by hugging her knees every time she thought about how her family had wronged her.

Her only source of light, the small gap in the wall that let her see outside, was also her source of misery. She could see whenever her mate would come and visit her sister. She witnessed it when he asked permission to take her home.

This was what they’d been waiting for. He would finally make her his Luna. And she heard when her stepmother talked about getting her out of the way, permanently.

It served as the wake-up call she needed. Her family had no intention of keeping her alive. So when her stepmother came in to give her something to drink, which she knew must be poisoned, she slammed the wood of the broken chair that had been sitting in the corner onto her back. She collapsed on the dingy floor, and Cassandra wasted no time running out of her prison.

She ran out of the house and out of their lives.

For many days, she kept running. She was hungry and worn out. She was moving with no food or sleep, but she kept going. She had no idea where she was headed. All she knew was that she needed to reach the city so she could start asking about her mate.

But it didn’t come to that. Someone found her in the forest and offered to help her.

Dominic.

Her first mistake was thinking that many people out there had good intentions. The next one was believing that Dominic was a friend and that letting him take her to his home was a good decision.

She managed to escape from hell, only to find herself thrown back into it. Only this time, it wasn’t just her freedom that was taken from her. Dominic broke her body and whatever was left of her spirit.

Yes, he married her, but he had been a husband from hell since day one.

He assaulted her and took her virginity on their wedding night. No matter how much she pleaded that she was in pain, he didn’t stop. And it kept happening. Day after day. Night after night.

He wanted a son, and he wanted her to give him one.

She couldn’t do anything for her life anymore. She was already trapped in this hell, but she promised herself that she would never give him a child. She would never allow her child to experience the suffering she endured.

So, she applied what she had learned about herbs. The years of playing alone in nature and studying things on her own led her to learn to make an herbal tea that could serve as a contraception for women.

It came in handy, so she made it tirelessly and drank it religiously.

She succeeded. She never got pregnant.

It frustrated her husband, and he didn’t hesitate to show it. She got hit, kicked, and spat on. She had heard every demeaning name a man could give to a lowly female. She took it all. But she didn’t stop making that herb potion, and she didn’t stop drinking it.

Eventually, he grew tired of waiting and took in women as his mistresses. They came, one after the other. If, after a month, they could not get pregnant, they were cast out, and another one would come.

Except for her. She remained in the house. She was the legal wife but was treated as a servant. Even his mistresses, regardless of their length of stay, held a higher status than she.

But it was better that way. With his mistresses around, he would only use her when they couldn’t satisfy him.

So her life just became a cycle of pain and sadness, and she just let it take her where it wanted her to go. She had also come to accept that the fated mate she touched and scented that night was not the Alpha that was mated to her sister. She finally let go of any thoughts of him, together with her dreams and her hope that better days would still come for her.

She was living day by day, expecting nothing. She cowered in the presence of guests and rarely went out of their house. Her small room in the basement was her favorite place. It was better than the big room she had to be in whenever Dominic wanted her to pleasure him.

She thought she had already experienced the worst that life could give her.

She was wrong again.

Tonight, Dominic decided it was time to share her with another man.

“Did you shave like I told you to do?” Vivian, Dominic’s current mistress, held her by the ear as she dragged her out of the guest room they allowed her to use while she put on the clothes they wanted her to wear.

Cassandra nodded.

“Now, if he tells you to open your legs, open them! If we hear him complain, you will get more than what you got last time.”

She was referring to the lashes Cassandra was given when she shoved the plates off the dining table when Dominic told her she needed to have s*x with his guest. She was whipped, but they treated her the next day so that no scars would show.

“Did you hear me?” She pinched her ear, and Cassandra flinched, still being dragged toward the stairs.

She nodded her head, a little too much, so she would see her response.

They reached the third floor, where Dominic’s guest was staying, and they stopped a few doors away from his.

“Here, put this on.” She took out something from her pocket, a veil that would conceal her face, leaving only her eyes exposed.

“Do not take it off until you’re in the dark. Or he might get turned off if he sees your ugly face.”

Cassandra nodded. She didn’t contest. She knew she didn’t look the same as she did when she first arrived here. She was already too skinny, and her skin was too pale.

After she placed the veil on her face, she scanned her clothes one more time. She had given her a costume that resembled Jasmine’s clothes in the story of Aladdin. Only hers were not harem pants but a long skirt with a long slit. Her breasts were pushed up, and her stomach was exposed. She also had nothing underneath her skirt.

She was told not to struggle during the act, but she knew she still would. She was already expecting she would get sore after he was done with her.

Not only because of s*x, but because she knew she would be hit in the process. She kept telling herself this would just be another episode whenever her husband would touch her. It was the only way she could stomach this.

Vivian knocked on the door, and after a while, someone inside responded.

“Come in…” His deep baritone voice sent shivers down her spine.

She couldn’t explain what emotion rushed through her, but she didn’t have time to contemplate as Vivian already opened the door and slightly pushed her forward.

“Make sure you do whatever he wants.” She reminded her again before she fully pushed her forward and closed the door behind her.

The room was dimly lit, and the man waiting for her was sitting on a chair facing his desk, but he slowly swiveled around to look at her, making her mouth drop open when she finally saw his face.

“Mate…” She mumbled.