My Cruel Alpha, My Sweetheart

Asher

Rebecca's POV

"Aahhhhh..... " I wiped my face after gulping down the entire contents of the coconut water that they gave me. It was pure bliss. I was about to throw the empty shell away when he grabbed my hand again. "Watch it. We are not used to using and throwing things away around here."

He snatched the supposedly empty coconut from my hand and broke it into halves with a smack over his calf muscles. His perfect ribs made me feel thirsty once again. He scooped out something white with his fingers and thrust it into my mouth. I didn't know what tasted better.

The soft, creamy, light texture of that tender coconut meat or his fingers, that momentarily entered and then left the pit of my mouth. I chewed with pleasure and bowed to him, feeling grateful. I was feeling hungry, and this was the first solid food I had that day.

"Thank you." I saw him hand the shells, which were now certainly empty, to his companions. They took it away as if to store it somewhere. There were about a dozen men along with him, and they all looked like they had been through knives and blades quite frequently. All their bodies displayed plenty of scars and marks. "What do we do with this one now, Alpha?" A female one of them asked "Who are you again, and how did you land here?" He asked, coming dangerously close to my face again. I opened my mouth to say something but shut it back again without uttering anything.

" Alright... It seems like she needs some time to open up to me, Mira. Let's put her back in confinement for the time being." Mira came at me as if she had been waiting for this opportunity her entire life.

"No... No... No... Please don't hang me upside down again.". I started to cry and beg as she hacked me pretty roughly along my hair length, dragging me back where I had been chained. He looked at me with what looked like extremely angry eyes. Before I realised it, he pounced right on me, and I closed my eyes in fright. A loud noise of a hard, strong slap rang in my ears, but I didn't feel the pain.

"I asked you to put her back in confinement, not tackle her like that. You should learn to listen to orders properly before acting instinctively." I fearfully opened my eyes to see the girl fall to the ground as her eyes looked him up and down. Her gaze was flickering as if dumbfounded.

" Asher... How could you? How could you slap me for this b*tch? How could you humiliate me in front of everyone? How could you lay your hands on your mate?"

I gulped. His mate? I looked at her as she fumed with hatred and resentment towards me. It felt like she could just kill me with her eyes. Yet I kind of felt a pang of sympathy as I stared at her state. Somehow, it made me feel the resonance of my rejections and betrayals. Yet none of the occasions were remotely similar.

"Giving you the position of my mate was a privilege, Mira, not a right that you can claim." To my utter astonishment and that of the rest of his people, he scooped me up and carried me forward. I thought he was going to hang me there personally, but we crossed the line of my confinement.

He kept walking further and further away from the site of the campfire. I was starting to wonder whether he was going to dump me in the vast stretch of water or feed me to one of his wolves, as he had said. But it seemed like we had reached some kind of settlement. It emerged like a mirage from the surrounding wilderness. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore was the only melody that accompanied the flickering light of their small lanterns. There were tents and huts made of leaves, branches, mud, and wood. They were scattered throughout the area, giving the impression that nothing went to waste on that land. Some huts were made of driftwood, bones, and animal hide, while some other tents were a patchwork of fabric and canvas from old masts and sails.

I felt that the atmosphere was both intriguing and mysterious, hinting at a world beyond what we could see with our pre-programmed eyes. It seemed like a place where the veil between our normal world and the supernatural world was thin, where magic and mystery happily wed.

Perhaps a wild and baseless presumption, but that was exactly how I felt. Asher paused. And so did my heart as his hand stopped exactly at my buttocks. Perhaps another unintentional coincidence. "Would you like to tell me about your real identity now? I am willing to give you a second chance." He placed me down in front of him, and my legs almost wobbled on the wet sand. I took a deep breath and pulled my hair back up in a bun. Then, with my hands over my hips, I looked at him to begin. Somehow, being away from others and alone with him made me want to open up and tell him all about me.

How strange and awkward that might be. I was rejected by my long-time boyfriend, became a substitute bride in place of my sister, and then again, I was rejected by my newlywed husband and abandoned in a ' God knows what ' land, all within a single week.

Phew! That was fast!