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Chapter 6
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Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 7
The night of the ball, every light in Aconitum Hall was lit. Tonight, it’s mostly dark. It’s not as inviting; the towers loom sinister and medieval over the city, blotting out the sky rather than polluting it with added light.I take a deep whiff as I step out of my car. Mother and Father refused to let me take the driver and I’m not sure where one parks at a royal palace. My shoes crunch on the gravel of the small parking area beyond the front porte cochere. I head in that direction, my heart beating in an unfamiliar and worrying pattern. The door opens at the top of the steps, and I expect to see a thrall butler there. But it’s Owen.Owen just opened his front door. Like he’s a person and not a king. I freeze in place. He does, too. It’s a strange moment; before, the undeniable attraction between us was insulated by the presence of others and the appropriateness demanded by our society. It felt like if only we were alone, nothing would hold him back. Now, it appears we are alone,
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 8
He follows that bombshell with, “I hope you like venison.”I stumble into the dining room, where a large table is set for two at one end.“It’s very fresh,” he goes on. “I hunted it myself during the full moon.”I can’t get past his earlier announcement. “You did it?”“Well, you know. The only things to do during the full moon are fuck, fight, or hunt.” He pulls a chair out for me and I sit obediently, out of habit.“I’m not talking about the deer!” I lean toward him as he sits and for some reason, I lower my voice like we’re in danger of being overheard. “You conjured the Right of Accord? Your pack has a Right of Accord?”He nods and lifts his hand to signal the staff for the first course. As the thralls place bowls of pale cream soup in front of us, Owen elaborates. “All packs operate under the same law, given to us by Lycaon the Younger. Didn’t they teach that in school?”I shake my head. “I assumed pack law was just the law of our pack.”“Hmiders for a moment. “Don toon teach chil
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 9
The Dixon family motto could easily be, “If it’s uncomfortable, ignore it.”My dinner with OIfn last week is currently causing my family maximum discomfort, and their unwcausingess to speak to me about it is such a blessing, I practically beam on the ride to brunch and my fitting for my ceremonial dress.Still, my heart and head are divided. While I desperately want to believe Owen can get me out of this mating pact, it’s not as simple as “I’m king, I can do what I want.” He’ll face the wrath of a packaging nightmare. There’s no way Ashton and his family tape nightmaNightmareonelwalkinger them so blatantly.And I don’t know Owen at all. There’s no guarantee he means what he says. Maybe he’s that magnetic and disarming with every woman he meets. There could be any number of potential mates in the pack that he’s considering; there’s no reason for me to believe otherwise, especially when rumors are swirling that he’s in love with the former queen.Still, if he’s serious, dissolution of
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 10
I’m in my room when Tara arrives, and she chirps into the intercom that she’s coming up. Even as kids, we never had to share our space, but we’re all in that my that's that girl's hate Even though Tara and Clare have moved out, their bedrooms are still there, though they’ve been redecorated a bit removed fairy lights and school trophies.My door creaks open and I sit up on my bed, tossing aside my book. “Hey.”“Hey,” she says, and sighs deeply, sliding her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and rocking on her heels.“That bad, huh?” I try to laugh as I swing my legs over the side of the bed, but the mood in the room is somewhere between “right before you find out grandma died” and “the sex talk with your parents.”Not that I’ve experienced either; our grandparents are all still alive and probably have a good hundred years left, and Mother has probably never even said the word “sex” out loud.“You can sit down,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Stop acting like you’re here to break bad n
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 11
I have no idea what I’m doing as I race to Aconitum Hall. I don’t know if Owen will be there or if I can even see him. But he’s the king; it’s not like I have his private cell phone number or anything.Then maybe you shouldn’t be driving over to his house unannounced. My rational mind has a point, but my alarm brain overrides it. I’m not rushing over to his house to declare my love or beg him to be my boyfriend. He’s the pack leader, I’m his subject, and I need help.There’s a gatehouse at the main entrance, staffed by a thrall who looks up from her book with a suspicious expression as I pull up. She reaches to her hip to flick the safety of the gun in her holster before she opens the window.Outside of hunting, I’ve never seen an actual gun in an individual before. That makes me wish I had thought my actions through a little more before tearing over here.“Name and purpose of visit.” Her voice doesn’t go up at the end at all. It’s not a question, but a warning that I shouldn’t be he
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 12
It’s one dinner. Just one, I tell myself as I approach the restaurant doors.But I don’t know if it’s the last time I’m going to have to sit across from Ashton and pretend that I’m going to be his willing little wife. I do not doubt Owen is Owenis going to make good on his promise to nullify Ashton’s lawsuit against me. I just don’t know when. Lupercalia is still two weeks away. Plus, I haven’t heard from the king since the night we almost…I try not to think about that as the maître d’ leads me through the dimly lit main floor, to a round banquette of soft ivory leather. Ashton hesitates there, his coppery hair combed back and brushing the collar of his expensive suit jacket. He rises with a broad smile, takes my hands, and kisses my cheek. “I almost gave up on you.”I wish you would. I physically bite my tongue to keep from saying it. “I’m sorry. I got turned around on the way here.”He frowns as we slide into our seats. “You drove yourself?”“Mmhm,” I affirm through my closed-lip
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 13
Owendoesn’t contact me for a full week.The preparations for my mating ceremony have hit crisis mode. Mother, Clare, and Tara fret over the morning-after celebration. Everything from the guest list to the centerpieces has to be perfectly correct to hopefully erase the stain of What I Did.I try my best to participate if only to keep up the pretense that I’ll be marrying Ashton.His threats haunt me. Nightmares of desperately trying to run from him, only to be dragged back to the pack kicking and screaming have me waking up in a cold sweat nightly. I’m constantly exhausted and on edge, and people are noticing.“The bags under your eyes,” Mother says at dinner one night, making a quiet tutting noise instead of finishing the thought.“I haven’t been dozing well.” Because of you, because of what Father agreed to. Because of the pack and the fact that I’m a prisoner.“Ma’am?” Hudson steps into the dining room, followed by two thrall soldiers with the royal seal sewn onto their Kevlar vests
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 14
I don’t want to feel grateful or relieved that Owenhas freed me from my obligation to Ashton. I don’t want to feel anything other than angry at the man who’s mailing my sisters away, ruining their lives, probably ruining my life, when he finally gets around to sentencing my father.“Thomas Dixon.” Owen’s tone takes on a strangely friendly note that I can’t trust. “You have been found guilty of treason. But you came to my aid and proved a loyal ally during the earliest days of my reign. I wonder what I have done to lose your confidence.”“Your Majesty—” Father begins, but he doesn’t seem to have anything else to say. He just shrugs his shoulders. “I’ve made an error in judgment. Please, don’t punish my daughters for it.”“I’m not punishing your daughters for your wrongdoing,” Owen says, maddeningly reasonable. “They’re being held accountable for their mates’ crimes under pack law.”The other families have been taken away by the guards. Only Ashton, Mother, Father, and I remain. Owen ri
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Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 66
We plan furiously, and fast. Xiao secures a location, a tiny cabin that’s way off the grid in Manitoba. We’ll be isolated from the world, but most importantly, from the pack; they don’t know that our thralls have hideouts all over Canada.Even though she only has to make a few calls, we decide not to let anyone know that we’re leaving. Yet again, we’re bugging out. We’re leaving our kingdom because our subjects want us dead.It’s almost midnight when Owen and I go to my bedroom, and I start hauling out all my luggage.“You don’t have to pack tonight,” he says gently.I don’t look at him. “I don’t have to. But I’m going to.”“You’ll tire yourself out. We’ll have a long drive tomorrow.”I shake my head. “Then I can sleep on the drive.”Owen comes to my side and puts his hand on my arm. “Ella… don’t do this to yourself.”“Don’t do what?” I snap. “Take anything with me to fucking Manitoba? Just resign myself to dying in the wilderness, ripped apart by polar bears?”He doesn’t get angry a
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 65
Do the thralls want to exterminate werewolves? “That doesn’t make any sense. They need us—”“Needed us,” Tara stresses in the past tense. “They have all the arcane knowledge they need now, except for one thing.”“Dominion over life and death.” Owen stands and paces the length of the room.The earlier sense of proactive hope sucks from the room.“They forced you two to breed,” Hannah says. “Dominion over life.”“There’s more.” Tara steers us back toward her research. “After the gods fall and the earth is submerged in water, life begins again. Two humans survive Ragnarök: Lifthrasir and Lif.”“How do they survive the end of the world,” I ask, silently tacking on and who would want to?“They hide. They run away to the woods and hide until everything is over,” Tara says with a shrug. “And when they come out, they repopulate the world.”“That would be dominion over death, wouldn’t it?” Owen suggests. “Rebuilding anew on top of that destruction?”“Are the thralls acting out Ragnarök, then?
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 64
Two days later, we had a secret meeting in the conference room at Aconitum Hall. Just Owen, me, Hannah, Ryan, and of course, Xiao, who stands by, guarding the door.Hannah has us all set up, with whiteboards and different colored markers— “to stay organized!”—as well as notebooks, pens, highlighters, and all types of stuff we don’t need.“You just wanted to take a trip to the office supply store,” I accused her.“I can neither confirm nor deny,” she answers, contentedly stroking a pack of gel pens.“While the abundance of stationary is impressive,” Owen begins, “Let’s start with what we know so far.”The whiteboard reads and writes “weeks” in the upper left corner.All of us, even Xiao, make alarmed noises at the chaotic shape of the letters.“How about someone with better handwriting?” Ryan suggests, tacking on a hasty, Nono offense, Your Majesty.”“He doesn’t get to take offense here,” I remind Ryan. “Remember, this is informal.”“Well, who has better handwriting?” Owen demands, an
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 63
Somehow, in all the ugliness of pack politics and multiple attempts on my life, I forgot about prenatal care.I’m just not sure how to get it, at first. Thralls are in charge of all of our medical care, and I don’t know how much we want them to know. But Owen and I decided that we couldn’t take a chance with the baby’s life.As we wait in the exam room, looking at all the posters of werewolf fetal development and the plastic anatomical model of the baby’s head in the birth canal—no thank you—I find the situation becoming more real by the second.“Did you ever think you’d have kids?” I ask Owen, who’s looking over a pamphlet about the first trimester.He lifts his eyebrows and folds the pamphlet before neatly tucking it into his inside jacket pocket. “I assumed I would. In a hypothetical, detached kind of way. There’s so much pressure to find a mate and breed right away. That’s never appealed to me.”“It’s not so appealing to me, but here I am. In a paper gown.” I laugh nervously. “H
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 62
Tara is dressed all in black, seated on the sofa in the parlor adjoining her room and Clare’s. That door is closed, draped with black bunting.I sit in the chair perpendicular to the sofa and silently will my sister to look at me, to speak to me beyond the mumbled, “Your Majesty,” I got when she curtseyed formally at my entrance, or the offer of a beverage, which I refused.“How are you?” I ask finally.“It’s very lonely here,” she says flatly. “It was different, with Clare. More like when we lived at home before we were mated. We didn’t see each other much when you were away.”“Because you were newlyweds?”She nods.“I understand that,” I try, hating myself for even attempting to link my experience with hers. “Getting caught up in your mate’s life and drifting away from your own.”“It’s a bit different for you. You’re also caught up in being queen.” She finally makes eye contact with me. “Do you think that maybe you got too caught up in it? And that’s why…”She doesn’t finish her sen
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 61
We summoned council members to Aconitum Hall. The Council Chambers are at the ceremonial site, and the ceremonial site is where all the thralls are.It astonishes me that for centuries, no one—except Owen’s uncle, apparently—had cause to suspect the thralls as a source of potential treachery. It astonishes me more that now, with proof, convincing some members of the council is still nearly impossible.“We’ve overlooked a major threat,” I try to explain to the ten men seated around the large table in the conference room. There are only ten of them because we executed the others, which makes addressing this group that much more tricky. I don’t want them to think that they have to outwardly agree with me or I’ll cut their heads off, but that’s probably what’s going to happen. “Thralls are a part of our lives every day. They’re in our homes. They’re in our school, our businesses. And they’re content to do all of that and allow us to live in luxury and ease because they can harness our m
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 60
“Black moonstone.”Xiao drops the pendant, now enclosed in a plastic baggie, onto the table between Owen and me.He leans forward in his chair and reaches for the baggie, but I’m not taking any chances. I smack his hand away with an annoyed, “Don’t touch it!”I’m still shaking, Even though we’re on the plane and safely away from Wyrding House, I’m still terrified that yet another shoe is going to suddenly drop.I made Xiao threaten the thrall pilots and leave a member of her trusted team in the cockpit as a reminder.I am not going to die today.Xiao gestures to the unremarkable-looking cabochon in the pendant. “The assassin who took your hand had some in a bracelet. I think it’s fair to assume that this is what they’re using to change.”I shake my head. “Moonstone is a pretty common gem, isn’t it? I’ve never heard of it… this.”“Maybe that’s why we never heard of it,” Owen muses. “If we knew, perhaps we wouldn’t need the thralls and their rituals.”“There’s thrall magic involved here
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 59
We haven’t been at Wyrding House long enough to completely unpack; Harriet offers to help but I don’t like people going through my stuff. Plus, Owen and I barely bought anything with us in the first place.“I feel bad for Xiao,” I say, taking one of my shirts from the wardrobe and folding it over my arm. It ends up in a sloppy bundle, but it gets the job done enough that I can stuff it into my bag. “She just got here and now we’re turning right back around.”“I’m sure she prefers having you in a more secure location,” is all Owen says, moving far faster than I am.“Do you think they’re going to be breaking down the door any second?” I ask, trying to keep my tone light.“I think the longer we stay here, the more likely that becomes a possibility.” He zips his small, wheeled carry-on. “We have a pissed-off magician who could sell us out to the highest bidder and a house teeming with traitorous thralls.”“Only the below-stairs servants,” I say, mimicking Harriet’s pompous delivery.He
Captured by the Alpha King Chapter 58
se are rough estimates.” Jonah looks between us. “Anything substantial happened to the two of you thirty and six years ago.”My stomach flips over.Five years ago, I invoked the Right of Accord and left my pack.Twenty-five-ish years before that, Owen had done the same thing.I expect to see those facts register on his face, but they don’t. My thoughts are such a jumble, that the only way I can express what’s going through my mind is to whisper, “The Right of Accord.”He blanches.Intrigued by the change in tone, Jonah sits up, giving us an interesting incline of his head. “All right, you two. Spill the beans.”Owen casts a questioning glance at me, but I can only shrug. I have no idea what the rules are about disclosing this information to a human magician. I wouldn’t tell a random human on the street about it, but he knows about werewolves already. Not telling him won’t keep our existence a secret.Owen comes to the same conclusion. “The Right of Accord is a rarely invoked law among
