The Alpha’s Enchantress

Intruder

“Do you even know what you’ve done, Nyxara? I told you to run!”

“I told you not to compel me again!” I said softly from where I now sat in a hotel room he had found for us which should be safe for now at least.

“I did that because I knew how stubborn you could be.”

“You didn’t think I was going to run and leave them to kill you, did you?” My voice was unusually soft, and that was because I was preoccupied, staring down at the wolf head tattoo now inked into my palm. It had appeared after the stranger shook my hand. A proof of our deal.

“I could’ve handled them—”

“We both know that is a lie,” I said, and after a moment, I looked up at him with a sigh, “You are safe, aren’t you? I am safe too. So, what are you worrying about?”

“This,” He pointed to my hand, to the tattoo sitting there. “This is what I am afraid of. We are faes, Nyxara. We don’t recklessly make deals or swear oaths because it is blood binding to us. You’d have to fulfill them or die.

I stared at the tattoo more carefully now. Was that why it had appeared?

“I promised to grant him just one thing. Perhaps it’d be something within my abilities.”

And what abilities do you have? A voice chided in my mind. I had no abilities. What would someone with that kind of power want from me?

“If it was any other person, then it would’ve been fine. But that man—he…”

Somehow, I could taste Uncle Tom’s fear. It was spreading around rapidly. So I raised my head towards him again and asked, “Who is he?”

He looked at me for a long time as if deciding whether to tell me or not, then he opened his mouth to speak.

“He is Draven Kronar. Ruler of the werewolves, master of the night and king of beasts. He is the most dangerous person I have ever known, and he is the same person your mother has been hiding from for the past twenty years.”

The same person.. the werewolf king? I couldn’t believe it. Plus it wasn’t adding up.

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”

Uncle Tom threw me a look.

“I mean, if he truly has been searching for me then… he wouldn’t take his time to make a deal with me. He’d have just kidnapped me and I would be powerless to even fight back.”

“That is why this is even more complicated. I don’t know what he is thinking. The man has always worked in mysterious ways. I… he even killed his own men so brutally.”

I didn’t want to recall the gruesome sight, but I did. The heads of those men falling off their necks so easily.

Did he do that to fool me? To make me think that he wasn’t with them?

I could see the worry etched on Uncle Tom’s brows. He was scared too.

“So, he has Mom?” I asked and he nodded slowly.

That meant I should be expecting to see him again. He was going to come to me to claim his own part of the deal, and I’d use that chance to ask him about my mother. He better not have harmed her, because then… I felt my fist clenching at my side, both fear and anger curling at my throat.

Uncle Tom gave up the bed to me and slept on the cold floor. We couldn’t be in separate rooms because we—I wasn’t completely safe yet. That night, I had nightmares of furred beasts with claws and blood dripping from their fangs.

I woke up with a start. And to my surprise, Uncle Tom was not where he had been or anywhere in the room. It was also morning and I was alone. But it wasn’t that fact that made my eyes go wide, or my feet go cold.

It was the stranger sitting at the edge of my bed, looking startled, as if I’d caught him when I wasn’t supposed to.

Instantly, the sight of him tearing out the heads of those men from their necks filled my vision and I shuddered, backing away from him against the bed.

“What are you doing here?” I barked, looking around. Where on earth had Uncle Tom gone?

“Relax,” he said cooly, then patted the space next to him. “Come. Sit with me.”

“In your dreams,” I said. “I might not have known who you were before, but now I know.”

A ghost of a smile crawled up to his lips before it disappeared. “And what am I, little star?”

“Y-you’re a beast.”

He laughed. He was just sitting there, head tipped back, chuckling effortlessly and somehow, even his chuckle sent shivers down my spine. I just couldn’t tell if it was the bad kind.

“This is not funny.”

“It’s not?” he c****d up a brow and his expression turned serious all of a sudden. “Did he tell you what we are then? Did he tell you that you belong to me?”

My eyes flared at that. “I do not belong to you.’

“Oh, it is a privilege. To be one of mine.”

One of his? Does he keep a harem or what?

No, Nyxara. Focus. Ask him about the most important thing.

“Where is my mother?”

He blinked. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised by my question or not, but he didn’t reply right away. “You tell me, Is she dead already?”

“D-did you kill her?” My voice broke and he frowned at me.

“I haven’t seen your mother in twenty years, little star.”

That’s a lie. Uncle Tom said he had her. Uncle Tom said that person at the boutique had been one of his men!

“You’re lying to me.” I said, “At the boutique that day, you sent your man to attack us, and he took her.”

“I recall doing no such thing.” He hissed. “If I took your mother, little star, then I wouldn’t be afraid of telling you that I have her. Perhaps she might’ve offended someone else.”

“No. Uncle Tom said…”

“Uncle Tom?” he c****d a brow, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Is that what he told you he was named? Interesting…”

What… what was he talking about?

“Do you really not have her?” For some weird reason, I believed his words. “Those men yesterday, you didn’t send them?”

“Why would I hurt my own men? I hope you do not think that I would do that to please you.” He looked at me like I was unbelievable. His gaze was lethally trained on me.

My eyes began to water. I didn’t know what to believe. The stranger in front of me or Uncle Tom’s words. Obviously, it should be the latter, but there was something pushing me, especially when I looked at the stranger. There was something about him that made me want to believe him.

“I can help you find her,” he announced, causing my eyes to instantly snap to his.

Our gazes locked. I was breathing hard. With his presence, the space had become so thin.

His offer, of course, would come with a price, a condition.

“Come with me. And I’ll make sure you find your mother.” His eyes held mine for a long time, and it remained like that, my heart racing, thundering against my chest.