Alpha's Prophesied Mate

APM 2

"HELLO?!"

"Hello, Kira. I have been waiting in line for the past 15 minutes; where are you?"

"Kira! It's your sister, Emily; she says she’s been waiting outside for a while now; did you not tell her it’s a house party?" I heard one of my sister’s friends say while handing over the phone to my sister, who made shushing sounds.

"Hey, big sis!"

"Kira? What is she talking about—some sort of house party? You are still coming to the lounge, right?" The queue started moving, and I moved quickly with it into the dark, crowded space to avoid being run over by eager 21-year-olds.

The lounge was poorly lit, with disco lights all over the dark space now filled with writhing bodies in different states of dance. I scrunched up my nose at the smell of alcohol and sweaty bodies that hit me. I quickly found the coat room to continue my call.

"Emily, promise you won’t get mad."

"Oh, I know for sure I am breaking that promise. What is going on exactly? You have 15 seconds, young lady!"

"I set you up with one of my professors at the college, and I just wanted you to loosen up a bit, you know, have some fun," she said with a sheepish voice.

"And you didn’t tell me?"

"Would you have come if I did? Besides, I am trying to help you here; he is really cute," she asked.

"And you don’t mind me missing your birthday for this?" I tried, looking for an excuse to get out of this.

"There was no other way I could get you to dress up and agree to go on a date. It's a sacrifice I would make again in a heartbeat."

"Oh, believe me, I am not sure your heart will be beating by the time I am done with you," I said. "Why would you do this?"

"Because I love you," she screamed in delight, "and you love me too!"

"Fine, but consider this your birthday gift. How do I find him?"

"No problem, I will just have to come ransack your house for my real gift in the middle of the night; also, you don’t have to find him; I already told him what you’ll be wearing."

"What? How did you know what I would have worn?" I was shocked by her audacity.

"Well, you wore your dark green low-necked dress with a slit running up the front and your transparent pumps, paired with your cute silver clutch, right?"

I looked down, and it was exactly as she had described it, down to the last detail. I couldn't stay mad at her for too long.

"I really am that predictable, huh?" I chuckled.

"I’ll be waiting at the bar in my cute glass slippers for Prince Charming."

"Just because they are transparent does not mean they are glass slippers!" She always got angry whenever I mentioned that fact.

I smiled and hung up the phone. I moved towards the bar; since I had dressed up and come all the way, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. I was sure I'd discourage the man at the first opportunity—well, maybe after he bought me a drink, because drinks here looked so expensive.

I found an empty seat at the bar and signaled to the bartender. He was a handsome male specimen, which made me wonder if it was an unwritten rule for all bartenders to be attractive.

He made his way down to me and gave me a heart-melting smile.

"Hey, pretty lady, what can I get you?" I couldn't help but smile at his cute flirting; he grabbed my hand in a flirty way.

"Why don’t you surprise me?" I returned with a smile. "I still have to drive home, however."

"OK, one driver-safety-surprise-me coming right up," he said as he walked away to make my drink.

I turned around on my barstool, taking a quick scan of the room to see who might possibly be my date for the night. As I turned back, I realized a man in a black tee and slacks had taken the seat next to me, with a glass of a brown drink on ice in front of him. He turned to me and gave me a cursory glance; I reciprocated and realized he wasn’t that bad-looking. He, however, had the brightest green eyes I'd ever seen, set in a not-so-distinctive face; he appeared lean but still fit.

I turned to the bartender but caught him flirting with another customer a few stools away. I smiled; he had to make his tips anyway.

The man beside me looked at the interaction between the bartender and me.

"You do know he will flirt with everyone before the night is over; that’s the only way he’ll be able to make his tips."

"Well, I know that; besides, I can’t judge. Whatever gets the bills paid."

"So you don't mind if he's a thief, hmm, says a lot about you," he dismissively said as he turned away.

I was shocked to my very core that this man I had just met in less than 15 seconds had formed such a strong opinion about me. I stood up without excusing myself and went into the bathroom to try to calm myself down. I shot Kira a message as well.

"Where is your professor? I have been waiting for the past fifteen minutes; if I don’t see him in two minutes, I am leaving."

With no reply coming forth, I locked my phone and placed it in my clutch. With a quick glance in the mirror, I wondered if there was anything about my appearance that led him to that conclusion. I managed to style my hair into ringlets for the occasion. I reapplied lip gloss before leaving the restroom, hoping that ‘Mr. Judge You before I know you’ had left.

I looked toward the bar, and he was no longer sitting there. I squealed secretly in my mind and made my way towards the bar, navigating through the sea of bodies pressed tightly against each other, dancing to the loud music. My phone vibrated in my clutch, and I fished for it quickly, hoping it was Kira.

A body strayed into my path; I looked up quickly to apologize but stopped short when I noticed it was ‘Mr. Judgey McNaughty’. He looked different and had this air of danger around him. I took a quick step back, but I was prevented from going too far because of the bodies around me, and I was somehow in the center of the dance floor.

"Dance with me," he said commandingly, his eyes briefly changing to a gold-like hue, but I figured it was just a trick of the colored lights.

I could feel a voice entering my mind, causing my body to comply with his orders even before I could process what was happening.

We moved to the music, while I tried to regain control of my body and move away from him. He, on the other hand, gripped my waist and turned me around so my back was against his. He moved my hair to the side in what looked like a seductive manner to any onlooker.

My body was very aware of the danger I seemed to have found myself in, but I couldn’t move. I tried screaming, but no sound would come out of my throat.

"It's futile; you are under my compulsion," he said sneakily. "I hate women like you; you have absolutely no regard for what sacrifices your partner makes as long as your bills are paid."

For a brief moment, my fear changed to anger at why this man would judge me so harshly without even getting to know me; it quickly changed back when I felt him getting aroused behind me. I tried to get a pleading sentence out about how I was not that kind of woman and how I worked two jobs while in nursing school to support my parents.

"I know you're about to tell me you're not that type of woman," he said, and I wondered if he could read people's minds as well.

"I am going to have the best kind of fun with you, and when I am done, if you are still alive, you will learn to appreciate men and whatever they do for bitches like you."

I could feel tears streaming down my face. He turned around and swiped a tear trail with his thumb, then stuck it in his mouth.

I noticed the nails on his fingers had elongated into claw-like structures; I really wanted to believe it was still a trick of the light.

"Follow me," he said, looking straight into my eyes. His eyes flashed gold again. I found my body complying before I could process it in my mind. The voice in my mind was back, convincing me to go with him.

He led us to the dark alley at the back of the club about two blocks away, toward where I had parked my car. I kept wondering if I could break out of the hold he had over me and run into my car.

"Don’t even think of running," he said, pulling my hand along. To any onlooker, it would seem like we were a couple on our way back from an outing. I screamed internally as he rounded the corner into an alley behind a closed restaurant.

He pushed me sharply against the wall, and my head started ringing with a splitting headache, and black dots infiltrated my field of vision.

I saw him sniffing my neck as he moved my hair to the side; I could feel hair on my neck that wasn't there before. Turning my neck slightly to the side, I saw his face morphing into a snout, which should only belong on the face of a wolf. I screamed at the top of my lungs, but no sound came out. He cackled evilly.

"That’s my favorite sound in the world." I could feel the smile against my neck. "The silent scream."

He ran his snout down my arm and sniffed it; it felt like I was having an out-of-body experience; there was an information overload that my mind refused to process; but one thing was for sure: if I was not stuck in a nightmare and all this was real, then I had no hope of coming out alive.

However, waiting for death was not something I planned on doing. I willed my limbs to move.

"Move! Move!!" I felt my toes twitch and heaved a sigh of relief, but before I could continue my motivation, I felt a sharp pain in my wrist; he bit me.

I somehow managed to find my voice and scream out loud.

"Help me! Please," I shouted, startled.

"Ah ha! Feisty one, I wonder how you broke out of my compulsion, but I'll make you pay for that."

He stopped suddenly and sniffed the air multiple times with his snout.

"F*CK!" He exclaimed, released my hand, and swiftly took to his heels like he was being pursued by hell's hounds. I figured that

was appropriate, seeing as he might be one of them.

Heaving a huge sigh of relief, I watched as my body collapsed to the musty alley floor. Strength completely left my body, and I was drained.

I struggled to get my body to move and get myself into my car before I blacked out completely. The last thing on my mind was, "I never got my driver-safe-surprise-me drink."