Becoming Alpha Roan’s

Life On The Line

Lena's POV

The Realisation of what Roan meant was like swallowing a cup of rusty nails.

A handsome, powerful Lycan wanting me? It was every beaten down human woman's fantasy, the daydreams we’d share with each other in between bussing tables, at the park watching the privileged shifter children we cared for play and live their perfect lives.

So why did my chest tighten with familiar terror at the thought of agreeing to Roan’s offer?

"You don't want me." My voice sounded too soft for the conviction I had been aiming for.

I was telling not begging him to see reason.

"No. I need you," Roan whispered, but he might as well have roared it. "I have an image I need to protect, one that requires a mate and child, children. You just are a perfect fit for the part."

"So would a million other women who would kill to be your mate! Women who are not me!" My voice had taken on a shrill edge from panic, but it was a reasonable response to what he was asking of me.

He was supposed to be dead by now, for Goddess’ sake, and I was supposed to be in the getaway car heading for Golden Peak and then my new life with Winny and Timmy.

How did things go to s**t so quickly? Why did I allow myself get dragged into this mess?

"I am not the woman for this. Please."

Roan's brows furrowed as he searched my eyes for something he did not find.

"Do you know why Gordon chose you to play my bride?"

I shrugged. "It never came up."

The less you knew, the better. That's how things worked in Golden Peak.

Roan’s lips parted but then he closed them, rethinking what he was going to say.

"It does not matter." He decided, like he wasn't making the choice for both of us. "I was promised a mate and the second you said your I do's, you agreed to be mine. Whatever offer I make to you is out of my kindness and a duty to my wife and mate. You have this moment to decide if you are her or the stranger who just tried to kill me."

His eyes darkened, claws tracing against my racing pulse in a silent threat.

A memory of warm eyes and a warmer smile popped up.

My friend Katherine, married and mated by her werewolf boyfriend she treated like her god. He treated her like a god would a slave and when she finally got the courage to go to the law and find help, she quickly learned he had more right to beat her to a pulp every day than she did to leave him.

Her eyes were so cold the day he packed up their things, after deciding they had to move away from negative influences – Winny and I, to save their dead marriage.

That was the last I ever heard from her, or Vera, Gwendoline, Helen, and all the other girls who got saved my their wolves in shiny fur.

Human women were playthings for shifters, convenient endurers of what she-wolves refused to because otherwise meant being just human, not the coveted shifter-dependent human tag that followed you to job interviews, health care and every Goddess-damned thing that mattered in this world.

The little I knew about Roan painted a depressing picture of what life as his mate would be like.

I understood enough of shifter law to know that once he marked me it was quite literally till death did us part and I couldn’t imagine my life becoming that, as pitiful and meaningless as it already was.

Suddenly, anger burned in me, that he thought he could take over my life so easily. Like Gordon in all his meanness and every other shifter who had ever made me feel small by virtue of my humanity.

I spoke with that anger clouding my mind before I could think twice.

"You're as pathetic as they say if you've got to threaten your way into getting a mate."

My teeth hurt from how fast I clamped them shut, wide eyes watching Roan's eyes narrow, cold silver-blues losing what little warmth they had held.

"That wasn’t what I..I didn't mean to..."

I shuffled backwards as he advanced, discreetly glancing over to the edge of the bed where the dagger had fallen over.

Could I reach it in time?

My back hit the large stack of pillows and Roan moved quickly, caging me in with his hands.

I was trapped, his legs tangling with mine to stop them from kicking, and the ease he did it in almost had me bursting into tears.

"You can't force me to be your mate. It's against your laws. What would the Goddess say?"

"Why would the Goddess care about a pathetic mongrel like me?" He threw the words back in my face as he threaded his fingers through my hair.

Roan yanked my head back, baring my neck to him, and I cried out in pain, my fingers digging into his shoulder, not to hurt him–as if I could, but to ground myself and remind him he was handling a delicate human.

"I'm sorry! Please!"

I forced out in a last attempt to stop him as his nose trailed over my cheeks, leaving goose bumps in his wake until he arrived at that junction in my neck he always went back to.

Roan paused, the puff of his breath against my neck making me squirm and him tighten his hold on my hair.

I released my grip on his shoulder, hope growing in me. Had I gotten to him?

Pain contorted his features as his canines grew from his gums, sharpening at the tips before my eyes.

He brought his hand up to his mouth and I paled when he suddenly sunk his new fangs into the flesh of his palm, drawing blood.

"What are you...mmhm!" He pressed the bleeding hand against my mouth and I turned my head to the side, smearing the warm liquid against my lips and cheek.

"Be still, damn you!" He growled viciously, and I flinched back without meaning to.

His stony expression flickered, revealing discomfort and regret but the change was gone as soon as it came.

"This is going to happen, Lena. The least I can do is make it as painless for you as possible."

He offered his bleeding hand again.

I wanted to scream, kick, claw at him like the very shifters I despised but it wouldn't matter.

There was no escaping this.

Defeated, I slowly parted my lips and wrapped them around the wound.

He shivered when my tongue brushed against his skin while I tried not to gag at the metallic taste flooding into my mouth.

Satisfied, Roan refocused his attention on my neck, his face tucking into that area with the familiarity of a rabbit returning back to its burrow.

My hands clenched into fists, and I gently gnawed my teeth into his fleshy palm as I prepared myself for the pain to come.

He swiped his tongue against the area, once twice and then widened his jaw for the bite.

The first sensation was a tingling pierce of needles in my neck that was not unbearable.

It lured me into a false calm, then the burning came when molten lava was shot into my veins.

Roan crushed me into the bed as I began to struggle and claw at him.

His palm held back my screams and my teeth clamped down so hard it would have broken through flesh if he was human.

The light above me began to dim and the last thing I saw before I succumbed to the darkness was Roan licking my blood off his lips.