Rejected and Pregnant for the Alpha King

The dress was so tight that it was almost impossible to breathe. And it was red. Of course it was. How else was I supposed to draw the attention of the kind of powerful men that my father wanted? The red lace bodice hugged my cleavage tightly before hugging my full hips. The thigh – high long slit was the only reason I could even walk at all. If it wasn’t for the slit, I probably would have fallen flat on my face when I walked out of my room dressed like a high-class p********e for the first time, especially since my father insisted on the 6-inch golden strap sandals tied tightly around my ankles. Still, the dress was so tight and the slit so long that I wouldn’t be able to sit down without hiking the dress up and exposing myself. But that was what my father wanted, and whatever Daddy wants, Daddy always gets, your feelings and opinions be damned. The only time Daddy wanted me to sit was if I was straddling someone’s thigh. Today, the target was Alpha Ryker Thorne of the Bloodmoon Sovereign Pack. Tonight, I would serve my father’s purpose, maybe for the first time, I would actually make him proud of me because this was the night I would finally be liberated from under my father’s thumb … only to belong to someone else. Well, not much liberation, actually, but I will finally no longer have to endure being paraded like a prize cow. I knew nothing about this man, Alpha Thorne, but I could only hope and imagine that he was a much kinder man than my father. Which wouldn’t be too hard because how many people can be as brute and arrogant as my father? As far as I am concerned, anyone could be kinder than Darius Nightor. As if he sensed the train of my thoughts, my father’s hand tightened painfully around my arm. “Smile,” he growled under his breath. “You look ugly when you turn down your lips like that.” Fighting the urge to roll my eyes until they got stuck to the back of my head, I forced the brightest smile that I could muster. Being born to a man like Darius, I have learned to control my emotions and just do what he demands of me. No one denies my father and lives to tell the story. As for me, denying him meant bruises that other people couldn’t see. The man was the devil himself, and he would draw blood in the eyes of everyone, even in front of the man that I was supposed to be dressed for tonight. And you know what? No one would blink an eye. He would even be praised for it. The ballroom was large and beautiful. Even though I would rather be anywhere but here, I still couldn’t resist admiring its beauty as much as I was allowed to. It was glitz and glamour and bright with crystal chandeliers hanging overhead. I would have loved to spend my time walking around the black marble tiles, admiring everything, but I couldn’t because all eyes were on me. The crowd parting as my father and I made our way through it would not stop staring. Especially the women. In a place as classy as this, my little slutty dress was definitely out of place. All the women were dressed like queens and princesses, adorned with feathers and tulle. No one, not a single one of those women, was dressed like I was in my revealing red lace. Since I had such a young, supple body, my father thought it useless for me to wear a bra or anything else that would at least make my dress a little bit decent. One wrong move and my fragile little dress would slip, and this party would instantly become triple X – rated. We stopped walking, having come to the heart of the party, and my father leaned in close so that only I would hear what he had to say. “f**k this up, Elara,” he growled threateningly, pausing dramatically so that every word he said etched itself into my brain. I knew what he wanted. He wanted to see my fear, my pain. I cut him a glance from the side of my eyes, noting his smug, evil smile, “You know what will be waiting for you when you get home,” he added. I uselessly tried to straighten my spine. There was no amount of beatings and imprisonment that I wasn’t used to. No matter how hard I tried to be brave in the past, my spirit always broke under my father’s torture. I have seen my father and his men use hot pokers, silver needles and stakes to torture men twice or thrice my size. I have seen him torture a wolf in human form to near death. I watched him wait for the man to heal before doing it all over again. That was just the kind of man my father was. Every time I looked at him, I saw a monster, everyone else saw a god. I nodded that I would behave. He didn’t need my approval, though. He turned away, clearing his throat as he tapped a man on the shoulder. When that man turned around, I held my breath. I had dreamt about the man that I would be forced to marry ever since my father first broke the news to me. I had hoped and prayed that he would not be an old man with one foot in the grave. A man who wanted a nanny – wife by his side at his deathbed. The moon goddess, for all her faults, was kind enough to let me have this one wish because Ryker was a handsome man. And he was young. Maybe a few years older than me, but nothing too alarming. That was a small relief. And yet as quick as that relief came, came the thought that maybe I would have preferred if Alpha Ryker had one foot at the edge of the grave, that would save me from the torment of having to spend this lifetime with him. “Alpha Nightor,” Ryker said in greeting, his face impassive. Then his eyes landed on me. There was emotion on that face. Surprise, then obvious anger. “This is your daughter?” he asked. More like snared. I tried to swallow past the nerves in my throat. “Yes, this precious jewel is my daughter, Elara Nightor.” If I weren’t so busy trying not to puke all over my dress, I would have rolled my eyes at the fake pride in my father’s voice. Instead, I bowed my head and curtsied as deeply as I could manage in such a tight dress, hoping that my belly would behave and not give up on me at a time like this. “Trust me, she will make an excellent mate for you.” And that was why we were here: Ryker needed a wife. So, many other young women here and I were being paraded for him to make his choice. Of course, my father didn’t want to chance that I would be rejected even though, as he said, Ryker didn’t really have many choices. Of all the women he could choose, I was the one most suitable for Alpha Ryker. According to my father, none of the other women had my pedigree. My father had come from a long line of alphas. They were practically royalty. My mother was nothing more to him than a pretty face suitable for breeding. She was, according to him, a tramp hitchhiking along the road. “You have her face and body,” he would always say. “Ryker should not be able to say no to you.” And from the way Alpha Ryker stared at me, my father was right. Just then, my father’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, his mouth thinning into an almost invisible line. “I’m afraid I need to leave,” he said by way of excuse. “I trust that you will take care of her and get her back home in the morning, Ryker?” I didn’t miss the salacious tone of his voice and the meaning behind his words. My skin crawled, and once again that urge to vomit nearly tore through the muscles of my throat. My father winked as he dropped my arm, his eyes boring into mine with unspoken instructions of what I had to do. I forced yet another smile for his benefit, but as soon as he turned to leave, the tension eased out of my body, nearly leaving me boneless. I always felt that way every time my father left. One monster was gone. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Ryker came up behind me, his hand dropping in front of me as he said, “Can I have a dance?” I turned, keeping my smile pasted on my lips. Now it’s time to see what kind of monster I would be marrying.