Chapter Two
1333 Words
Archer…
Daphne's eyes flung open.
She blinked rapidly, as though it would blow away the name floating in her subconscious.
Wait. How did she know it was a name?
She raised her head to look around her. And immediately regretted it. A sharp pain shot through to the front of her head and she gasped, shutting her eyes.
She gritted her teeth as she lifted herself to a sitting position, her eyes still closed.
Just because she was a werewolf didn't free her from the ugly aftermath of a drunk night out.
But at least she could bear the pain better. She lifted her hand to rub her eyes but suddenly felt a weight on it. She opened her eyes immediately to check if she'd somehow become paralyzed, but instead saw a handcuff dangling from her wrist.
“What the…”
And then her surroundings registered in her head.
She was in a hotel room. And she was naked.
How had she gotten here?
Archer…
The whisper floated through her brain again and pieces of her memory began to float back in with it.
The fight between her mistress and Petra came in first. How she'd gotten around to a club came in next.
But then it was blank.
She looked around again and, not sure who was going to walk through the door, she immediately got up so she could have an advantage.
Her head rang as she moved, but she pushed through it, hurrying into the bathroom to place her feet underwater, so the blood from her brain would drain and make her feel better.
She reached for a towel to wrap herself in and saw her clothes hanging from the rack. They were damp.
She cursed herself, sure that she'd thrown up and whoever had been in bed with her had to wash her clothes.
Even though he wasn't there, she felt thoroughly embarrassed.
X. Ark.
The image of that name, engraved on a belt buckle, flashed through her head. She blinked.
Was that his name? She wondered.
But then who was Archer?
She decided she couldn't worry about that now and hurriedly put on her clothes, wondering what she was going to do about the handcuffs.
She didn't have to worry about it long. As she came out of the bathroom, the key to the handcuffs was the first thing she saw on the center table, glinting in the sunlight.
She hurried over to it and freed herself from the handcuffs.
She'd had s*x last night. That much she knew. And from the looks of it, it'd been crazy.
Another memory piece flashed through her mind: her body hitting a tall wall. A wall that was warm and… Gentle.
She blinked, confused. How could she know that the person she'd bumped into was gentle?
Would someone who'd used handcuffs on her be gentle?
But then she realised she didn't have any bruises nor did she feel sore from any down there.
Her face flushed red as she turned towards the door which had suddenly creaked open.
“Master said to see to anything you needed before you left.” A tall slender woman in room service clothing uttered in a monotone from the doorway.
Daphne blinked, caught off guard.
""I – I wouldn't need anything. Thank you. I – I can just leave?""
The lady nodded and made to move out, but Daphne stopped her.
“Wait. Wait. Who – uh who is he? Why did you call him just ‘master’?""
The lady just looked at her, her eyes becoming hooded.
Daphne's brows rose.
“Well, could he possibly be named Ark?” She asked a bit jokingly.
The small smile on the woman's face answered her question for her: She'd slept with a man by the name of X. Ark whom the staff of a fancy hotel referred to as ‘master’.
*******
For the third week since Daphne's wild night, she was woken up by the very unshakable feeling of nausea.
She hurried to her bathroom sink and emptied the contents of her stomach, crying as she did so.
She knew she was ill, but she didn't have any money to go to the hospital. She'd only just gotten a night job as a cleaner the day before.
She'd been praying incessantly to the moon goddess to heal her so she wouldn't have to spend the very little money she had on hospital bills or drugs.
She didn't understand this illness, she was usually never sick for more than three days. Just as her wounds healed faster than others, her sickness went away much faster.
She drew herself to her feet and looked hard at herself in the mirror. She looked at her pale face, her red-rimmed eyes, her hair-splitting at the ends… she was a mess.
She looked at her scissors and decided she was going to cut those splitting ends. She yanked the scissors and as the tears spilled over she grabbed a fistful of her hair and started cutting.
But then as she watched herself cut her hair in the mirror, she saw something.
The scissors clattered into the sink as she moved closer to the mirror, lifting her hair higher so she could be sure what she was seeing on her neck was what it was.
“It can't be…” she gasped.
It was the mate tattoo.
And it was the mark of an alpha.
She suddenly felt faint and gripped the sink for support.
She'd been marked by her mate.
Her mate was the man she'd had a one-night stand with…
Her heart beat wildly in her chest.
She had been too drunk to feel the mate bond…
But hadn't he felt it?
She slumped to the floor, cradling her knee to her chest and rocking back and forth. She'd barely glanced in a mirror over the past few weeks, she always wore her long hair down… She couldn't have known.
She didn't know how long she sat there but when she noticed through the bathroom window that it was beginning to turn dark outside, she woodenly stood up and mechanically went about getting ready for her cleaning job.
She felt numb. Her mind was probably giving off that feeling to protect her from breaking down. She thought to herself as she went to work.
She resumed her shift, plugging in her earphones as she began mopping one of the offices in the building.
“Hey. That's not what I told you to do."" The head cleaner spoke from behind her.
She jerked and quickly took off her earphones.
“I'm sorry, I thought –”
“You're supposed to start from the highest floors and work your way down.”
“Oh. I'm sorry, I –”
The man gave an exasperated sigh.
""Look, I didn't want to hire someone who didn't have experience doing this, but I just decided to have compassion for a pregnant lady. Don't make me regret this please.""
“Excuse me?” Daphne blinked, but the man was already gone.
Daphne's mop flew out of her hands as everything began to make sense.
The morning sickness, finding most foods disgusting… She was pregnant.
“... Would like to thank you all for the faith you have in me…""
Daphne turned sharply to the television at the sound of that voice.
That voice…
It was so familiar and it –
MATE!
Her wolf screamed as her eyes fell on the man speaking on the television.
It was the news announcement about the new Alpha of the crescent moon pack:
Xander Ark. X. Ark.
Archer rhymed with Xander. That's why her mind had whispered that name at first.
Everyone knew the Arks. But when the memory of that name had popped into her head, Daphne had never dreamed it could be that Ark.
Daphne’s head buzzed with her new reality: the Alpha of the crescent moon pack was her mate and she was pregnant for him.
- Writer
