The Lycan's Hidden Queen

A Wh*re For The Alpha

Arya POV

I push through the heavy swinging doors of the industrial kitchen, my chest heaving as I gasp for air. The room is completely empty, the catering staff out in the main hall serving the guests. The bright fluorescent lights overhead buzz loudly, but the sound is nothing compared to the roaring in my ears.

I stumble toward the massive stainless-steel prep tables and grip the edge, my knuckles turning white.

My chest physically hurts. It feels like someone reached inside my ribcage and squeezed my heart until it bruised. The mate bond is a living, breathing thing, and it is screaming at me for putting distance between us. It wants me to run back out there. It wants me to drop to my knees and submit to my Alpha.

I bite down on my lower lip so hard I taste copper. I will not go back out there.

"Rosie."

The voice sends a violent shockwave down my spine.

I spin around. Liam is standing just inside the swinging doors. He took off his suit jacket, rolling up the sleeves of his expensive black dress shirt. He doesn't look guilty. He doesn't look like a man who just shattered my entire world. He just looks tired.

"Get away from me," I whisper, my voice shaking as I take a step back.

Liam sighs, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair. He steps fully into the kitchen, the doors swinging shut behind him, trapping us alone. The intoxicating scent of pine and rain floods the room, making my head spin. I hate that my body still craves him. I hate that my biology is betraying me.

"Don't be dramatic, Rosie. You need to calm down and let me explain," he says, taking another step toward me.

"Explain?" I let out a harsh, broken laugh, wiping the wet tears from my cheeks. "Explain what, Liam? Explain how you stood on a stage in front of hundreds of people and told them you didn't have a fated mate? Explain how you chose my sister—the girl who literally kicked my bucket over and laughed at me this morning—to be your Luna?"

"I did what I had to do for the pack," he says, his voice taking on that calm, annoying Alpha tone. Like he is speaking to a stubborn child. "This is a business, Arya. Sterling Cross is a billion-dollar empire. The board of directors demands a strong image."

"You promised me!" I scream, unable to hold it in anymore. The memory of his hands on my face just last night flashes through my mind, making my stomach churn. "Just twenty-four hours ago, we were standing in the woods. You held me. You told me you didn't care about pack laws. You told me that I was the strongest woman you knew, and that you were going to claim me today. Was that all a lie?"

Liam's jaw ticks. A flash of irritation crosses his blue eyes. "Grow up, Rosie. We aren't ten years old playing in the woods anymore. This is the real world. I love you, but you don't have a wolf. You can't even tap into the pack link. If I stood on that stage and claimed a defective Omega as the Luna of the most powerful pack in the country, the board would have stripped me of my Alpha title before midnight. Sienna has a pure white wolf. She has connections. She secures my position."

I stare at him, completely horrified. The boy I loved is gone. The man standing in front of me is a cold, calculating stranger who cares more about his stock prices and his title than my soul.

"So that's it," I whisper, my voice hollow. "I spend three years scrubbing floors, waiting for you to save me like you promised, and you just throw me away for a title."

"I am not throwing you away," Liam says, his voice dropping low as he closes the distance between us. Before I can back away, he grabs my arms. Tingles erupt across my skin where his hands touch me, but the feeling only makes me feel sick.

"Listen to me," he urges, looking down into my eyes. "I didn't reject you. I just didn't claim you publicly. I still want you, Rosie. My wolf is going crazy for you."

I frown, confusion cutting through my grief. "What are you talking about?"

"A compromise," he says smoothly. "Sienna will be the public Luna. She handles the galas, the board meetings, the pack politics. But you will be mine. I'll move you out of the basement. I'll get you a luxury apartment downtown. I'll buy you anything you want. You'll never have to scrub a floor again. We can still be together, Rosie. You'll just be my shadow mate."

Bile rises in my throat. I stare at him, praying this is some kind of sick nightmare.

"You want me to be your secret mistress," I say, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "You want to marry my sister, let her parade around as your Luna, while you sneak into my bed at night."

"It's the perfect solution," Liam insists, his grip tightening on my arms. "Everyone gets what they want. You get a better life, and I get to keep my mate and my empire."

"Are you out of your mind?!" I shove him hard in the chest, breaking his grip on my arms. I stumble back, looking at him with pure disgust. "I am not a dirty secret, Liam. I am not something you hide in an apartment downtown while you play house with my abuser. I would rather rot in the basement for the rest of my life than share my mate with her."

Liam's eyes darken. The gold ring around his iris expands, swallowing the blue. His wolf is pushing forward, angry at my defiance.

"You don't have a choice," his voice drops an octave, laced with a terrifying Alpha command. "You are my mate. The goddess made you for me. I am not letting you go."

"Watch me," I spit back. I straighten my spine, ignoring the agonizing pain in my chest. I will not be his cake that he gets to eat in secret.

I look him dead in the eye. "I, Arya Vance, reject you, Liam Cross, as my mate and my Alpha."

The second the words leave my mouth, Liam roars. It isn't a human sound; it is the feral, terrifying roar of a challenged wolf. He crosses the kitchen in a blur of speed, slamming me back against the stainless-steel prep table.

His large hands grip my shoulders, his fingers digging painfully into my skin.

"No!" he snarls, his face inches from mine. "I do not accept! You are mine, Arya! You belong to me!"

"Let go of me!" I cry out, struggling against his massive strength. I push at his chest, but he feels like a solid brick wall.

The kitchen doors fly open, hitting the walls with a loud bang.

"What the hell is going on in here?"

Liam freezes. He turns his head, and I look past his shoulder. Sienna is standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips, her green eyes blazing with fury. Several elite guards and a few board members are standing right behind her, peering into the kitchen.

Liam instantly drops his hands from my shoulders and steps back, putting distance between us.

Sienna stalks into the room. She looks at me, taking in my messy uniform and the tears on my face, and then looks at Liam's flushed, angry expression.

"Liam told me you were clumsy, but I didn't realize you were a psycho too," Sienna sneers. She stops right in front of me and, without any warning, her hand flies out.

Smack.

The sound of the slap echoes loudly in the quiet kitchen. My head snaps to the side, my cheek instantly burning with a stinging, hot pain. I taste blood on the inside of my cheek.

"How dare you throw yourself at the Alpha on his coronation night," Sienna raises her voice, making sure the guards and board members by the door hear every single word. "You break a tray of glasses, ruin the toast, and then try to seduce my mate in the kitchens? You are a pathetic, disgusting Omega."

I look at Liam. I wait for him to defend me. I wait for him to tell the truth—that he cornered me, that he grabbed me, that we are fated mates.

But Liam just stares at me. He looks at the board members watching from the door. He looks at his new, pure-blooded Luna. And then, he seals my fate.

"Guards," Liam says, his voice totally devoid of emotion.

Two massive warriors step into the kitchen.

"The Omega attacked the Luna," Liam lies, his eyes completely dead as he looks at me. "Take her to the dungeon. She can stay in the holding cells until I decide what to do with her."

"Liam, no," I whisper, my heart shattering into a million unfixable pieces.

The guards grab my arms, hauling me roughly away from the table. I don't even fight them. The betrayal is so heavy, so absolute, that it drains every ounce of fight left in my body.

Liam turns his back on me, offering his arm to Sienna. She takes it with a victorious smirk, and they walk out of the kitchen, leaving me to be dragged down into the dark.