Alpha Ricardo
"You need a bride who will bear your heir," Kane urged, and I arched my brow.
"Yes, you know I'm not just your beta but your friend, and only I'll tell you the truth." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You can't keep doing this. You need to have an heir." I gazed at him, and he nodded in affirmation.
I scoffed inwardly. Even after Alpha Rufus walked over to welcome me, I still couldn't figure out why I was doing this again.
It was the same usual story, and I knew it for sure, three months' trial, and none had ever lived past it. A bunch of annoying, silly bitches who always got on my nerves.
I stood at the far end of the hall beside Alpha Rufus when my eyes drifted to a tiny little maid. Her arms were curled around a leather bag so tattered it looked like something from an ancient dynasty.
What kind of werewolf still used such a bag? It could only belong to an omega. Yet even omegas got better than that.
I hissed but turned away. She looked so fragile, like she could break at any moment. When Rufus pointed to her, my brows arched.
This tiny little lady before me was going to die in less than twenty-four hours.
"What did she do this time?" Alpha Rufus inquired, turning to the other lady who pointed toward a bloodstained knife in that same wretched, old-looking leather bag.
"She could probably…" she began, but stopped as a guard rushed forward, panting.
"Alpha," he bowed, "there's an issue. One of the guards was found dead on the path leading to the clearing. He had multiple stab wounds, like a knife was used to kill him."
Alpha Rufus's teeth clenched as his gaze fell on the bloodstained knife in the bag.
He picked it up and sniffed it. "How could you?" he roared, and the little lady dropped to the floor, trembling, her head bowed.
"This blood on the knife belongs to a werewolf. It can only mean you killed him!" he thundered, snapping her jaw up. That was when I saw it. Tears glimmering in her eyes.
Normally, I wouldn't care. No one in my position would. But those delicate hazel eyes made my wolf, Hugo, curl deep inside me.
This was strange, certainly was.
"Maybe she doesn't want to go through with the deal," the lady muttered. "That's probably why she resorted to killing, knowing it would only lead to her execution."
Why is her face familiar? Even her voice?
"So you think by killing my guard you can escape your fate?" Alpha Rufus growled.
Just as I turned my gaze away, it landed on the lady. She wore a smirk as she glared at the trembling girl in Rufus's grip.
That grin only meant one thing even though I couldn't still figure out where I had met her before. Something rumbled in my chest, and a deep growl echoed through the hall, making everything quiver.
But then, she lifted her head.
And for a heartbeat, the entire room fell silent. Her lips parted, voice trembling yet sharp enough to pierce through the air.
"I didn't kill him," she whispered. "But I know who did."
Alpha Rufus froze. My wolf went still.
Because the next she did, was to point at me.
*****
Evelyn
I didn't know when I pointed at the Alpha standing next to him. I didn't even know who he was, only that Blair had mentioned him earlier as the one I would be going with.
But what happened next shocked me, as well as the entire crowd, who shouted in awe.
"What games are you playing?" Alpha Ricardo roared, his eyes glistening gold and his brows raised.
He walked closer, and I crumbled on my weak limbs, struggling to move backward. Dread coated my every being, and tears streamed harder down my cheeks.
"You said I did what?" he crouched low, and when his golden eyes met mine, they shifted back to the blue ones I had seen earlier. He shook his head, gritted his teeth, and his hand lifted my jaw.
My God. If Rufus was one heck of a werewolf, the one crouched before me was a hundred times more cruel than I could ever imagine.
I felt blood rushing through my head in quick strides, and I doubted I even breathed at that moment.
My mouth was glued shut automatically, and my body trembled visibly.
He glared into my eyes for a little longer. I couldn't stand his intense stare, and yet I couldn't bring myself to resist his fierce grip on my jaw. Even though I wanted to, how could I, when I felt like a tiny fly in those huge arms?
"Get the papers ready," he said, standing up and freeing his grip on me. Then he turned to the man standing next to him, who handed him a handkerchief. He wiped his hands and turned toward the exit of the hall.
I gasped, my head dropping to the floor in sheer embarrassment, dread, and agony.
"What have I done?" I whispered. I didn't want to face the cruel fate of being executed for a murder I knew I never committed. Yet I never intended to drag the ruthless Alpha, just as Blair had called him, into this.
And now, everything was a mess. What would he do next? The papers he mentioned… What were those?
"You see what I've been saying?" Blair laughed as she crouched beside me, lifting my jaw.
"You're better off dead than alive, and I wouldn't want any less for you." Her eyes rolled from my head to my toes. "You disgust me," she spat in my face.
I watched as she stood to her feet and turned to the maid, her closest friend, and together they left me there, drowning in dread over what awaited me.
One thing was for sure, I knew Blair had a hand in whatever murder she accused me of. And the reason she hated me enough to wish me dead was far more than I could ever imagine.
A line of tears slipped from my eyes… and then the heavy doors of the hall slammed open again.
Footsteps echoed. Slow, deliberate, and cold.
When I lifted my gaze, my blood froze.
He was back.
And this time… he wasn't alone.