Mara
“Your father asked me to take you off his hands,” Jonathan says in a straightforward, almost bored voice. “Actually, he put you on the open market. There was a fierce bidding war for you.”
My eyes almost bulge out of my skull and fresh tears burn my throat. How could my father do that to me?
He did not put me on that market to sell me to an Alpha. It’s a slave market where wolves sell their used up wives or unwanted daughters. Most end up as breeders or prostitutes in the wolf pleasure houses.
“Everyone thought you came with an inheritance and that you were worth the investment,” Jonathan goes on.
I have no idea how much he paid for me, but my father would not have settled for anything less than the compensation Kysan and Lucas demanded. “My father disowned me,” I whisper. “You won’t get your money back.”
“I know. Preston told me.” His eyes slide over my ravaged face. “That is not why I bought you. You do not need to fear me,” he says and leans over to take one of the drinks. “I don’t believe in hitting women…well, unless I have to.”
My stomach turns cold. I’m suddenly and starkly reminded of my place in this world. I’m still just an Omega, sold like a lame horse on auction, only good to be dog food. “Forgive me, Alpha,” I say softly. “If you can tell me your rules so I don’t transgress…”
For a moment, Johnathan just stares at me. “Rules?”
I nod. “For me. I…I don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“You mean you don’t want to get beaten?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he says, but doesn’t elaborate. “I will not beat you.”
“Okay,” I whisper and sip my drink.
He has a strange manner about him. He’s direct, almost detached, and doesn’t appear to be in the least bit interested in me.
“I have no rules for you specifically. All I ask is that you carry yourself with the dignity of a Luna. Your father told me that he sent you to finishing school for Luna training?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
It says a lot about my life that I now look back on my time at the finishing school as one of the best years of my life.
I was the only Omega there, but I held my head down and did my lessons. The other girls at the school were all Alphas’ daughters and loved to taunt me, but at least they were never violent.
Upon my return, and on my nineteenth birthday two days later, I married Lucas in a lavish ceremony. I can’t remember my life before him, and I can’t imagine this new life after him.
“You can come and go as you please. Haven’s Crest is safe. No one here will touch you.”
“Thank you, Alpha. What…my household duties? What are they?”
“Johnathan,” he says. “You are to be my mate, not my servant. I have a full staff.”
He makes me nervous. He has a dark, dangerous aura, yet there’s something about him that I find at once alluring and utterly terrifying.
“I bought you because my pack needs a Luna. Your only duty will be to the pack and to serve them faithfully as such.”
Rhoda said that this was not a pack. And if it’s not a pack, why would they need a Luna?
“The wolves living here are all rogues,” Jonathan says, and answers my unasked question. “Me included. My plan is to form an official pack. I already registered with the council, but they will not recognise us until I have a Luna.”
I don’t talk. I don’t know what to say. Years of silence and obedience have turned me into a mindless, barely functioning, she-wolf. I feel like a moron, but my tongue refuses to move, and my mouth won’t form words.
“I’m given to understand that you are unable to bear children?” Jonathan asks.
I quickly shake my head. “I- no, I might be…I used contraception. I did not want to have Lucas’s children.”
A lazy smile ripples across Johnathan’s mouth. “Clever.”
I don’t think so, but I’m not going to contradict him. Johnathan keeps up a good front, but he exudes danger. The kind that can consume a person if they’re not careful, and I haven’t forgotten Preston’s warning that the Alpha has a temper.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I already have a son,” he informs me.
“Oh. How old is he?” I ask.
“Five. His mother abandoned him right after he was born.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” he says without elaborating, but his chest puffs up with pride when he talks about his child. “His name is Gregory. He is the reason I want to turn Haven’s Crest into a proper pack. I want to leave him a legacy.”
I smile. This is the first time Johnathan has shown any real emotion. He clearly loves his son.
“Do you have any questions?”
“No, Al- Jonathan.”
He opens his desk drawer and removes a thick envelope. “Your documentation is in here. Your father gave it to Preston. There’s also a bank card with a pin. You will need clothes and such.”
A bank card?
He takes another, bigger envelope out. “Your divorce papers. Lucas asked that you sign them within the week and courier it to him.”
I stare at the thick brown envelope in Johnathan’s hand. “Do you have a pen?”
He nods and reaches into his drawer to produce a pen. I pull the documents out of the envelope and start to sign them. “You should probably read those first,” he says, interrupting me.
I look up from the paperwork. “Why?”
“Your divorce is for the human authorities,” Jonathan says and without asking takes the stack of papers from me. “According to their laws, you’ll be entitled to some form of alimony.”
“I don’t want it,” I say. “I don’t want anything from them.”
The Alpha doesn’t answer me. His eyes are flying over the typed pages. When he reaches the third page, he stops “Yes, see…this is what I mean. If you sign these papers, even the house your father bought for you will be transferred into his name.”
“He can have it.”
Jonathan looks up from the paperwork. “Man, he really beat all the fight right out of you, didn’t he?”
Shame starts to eat away at my guts like a hungry caterpillar. That’s the worst of it, I think. The humiliation. The burning, unspeakable shame of it all.
And Haley. My confidant. My friend. I swallow past the tears. I will not cry for them. I won’t.
“Your house is on human territory,” Jonathan goes on. “It does not fall under pack law. He can’t legally take it. That’s why he wants you to transfer it into his name.”
“Why does it matter?” I ask in a husky voice. “I won’t be going back there.”
“You’re not signing this,” the Alpha says, his voice taking on a dark, dangerous edge that scares me half to death.
“I- I have to.”
“No. My attorneys will fight this for you. You deserve that house, Mara. You can sell it, but you are not giving it to that…arrogant asshole.”
My eyes widen a little at his anger. Why does he care? He doesn’t even know me. I’m part of a business transaction and a necessary evil to get his pack recognised by the wolf council.
“Leave it with me,” Jonathan says and presses a button on his desk.
Within seconds, Chad walks through the door. “Alpha?” he asks.
“Show Miss Smith to her room,” he says. “Then arrange for a driver to take her into town.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Chad says. His voice is filled with adoration.
When I don’t immediately get up, Johnathan gives me a disapproving look. “That’s your cue to leave, Mara.”
JohnathanI take out my phone and pull up the listing for Mara. She has been removed from the site, but I screenshot it right before the auction came to an end.I spent roughly half the money in my bank account on her. It’s way more than I can afford to waste on a she-wolf. I did not need someone like Mara. Technically, I can take any mate and declare her my Luna for my pack to be recognised by the council. But I wanted Mara.Establishing a new pack takes a lot of money. Money I don’t have. The modern world destroyed a lot of packs. Humans are encroaching on our territories, and to keep the unknowns, as we call them, out, we have to buy the land that has been our homes for centuries. The human authorities who are aware of our existence also keep increasing our taxes. They are convinced we’re rich even though most of us don’t even have a pot to piss in.Douglas used the word heiress in Mara’s listing, knowing that a lot of Alphas are struggling to get by now and would jump at the chan
MaraI thought I’d enjoy my excursion into town with Rhoda, but I’ve been isolated for so long that all the people made me nervous.Everyone seemed to know who I am. People stopped me to introduced themselves, welcomed me to the town, and asked me if I’m happy to be here, when the wedding would be, if I like the Alpha, and wanted to know who bruised me up. Who dared to touch a hair on our Luna’s pretty little head? Is your father happy with the new arrangement? All questions I couldn’t answer, or didn’t want to answerRhoda was no help. She basked in the attention. Or perhaps people here are just like that and she’s so used to it that she didn't even notice. I couldn’t quite figure out which one of the two it was.By the time we made it back to the mansion, I was exhausted and ready to crawl into a hole. There was a time, not so long ago when I think about it, that I enjoyed going out. I was popular in school - no doubt because of my father's money - and I had no shortage of invitat
MaraThe dining room is one of the smallest places I’ve seen so far. It’s big enough to hold a six-seater table, carved by hand like everything else, a sideboard and serving trolley piled high with food and plates.There’s enough room to move around, but no one’s going to throw any lavish parties in here. I get the feeling that it’s Johnathan’s private dining room, but somewhere in this massive mansion there must be some kind of reception hall for parties. Wolves love to throw parties.Preston is sitting at the end of the table with a lovely blonde woman next to him. She’s dressed comfortably in a strappy sundress. I remember when I was able to wear clothes like that. Jealousy tucks at my heart - not because the girl is a hundred times more beautiful than I am, but because she has the kind of freedom I’ve forgotten.“Hello,” she chirps and sits upright. “I’m Ally, Preston’s mate. You are Mara right?”I nod and smile at her. Like everyone else in Haven’s Crest, she’s almost uncomforta
MaraI climb the steps to my father’s mansion with heavy legs. Haley, my best and probably only friend, dropped me off at the gate because Lucas, my mate, won’t allow me to drive.The guard refused to let Haley in, and I was forced to walk up the kilometre long driveway, while my bruised and battered body screamed out in agony.I haven’t been home in two years. Today is my twenty-first birthday, and my father wanted to see me for the first time since I married Lucas Mattfield - the future Alpha of Red Ridge.I am in a sad state. I’m only allowed to eat once a day - Lucas wants a hot wife - and last night I took a particularly brutal beating. It was one of the worst he’d ever given me, and he laughed the whole time. I think it’s one of the reasons my father refuses to see me. I’m always covered in fresh and healing bruises now, and he can’t stand to look at the thing he had done to me.On the night of our wedding, Lucas took me into the bond room - the place where newly wed couples h
MaraI wake to the sound of tyres humming softly on the tarmac, the woodsy scent of Beta Preston’s cologne in my nose, and the more flowery lavender scent of a woman. Frowning, I sit upright and look out of the windshield of the moving SUV. Ahead of us is a long, deserted road and the setting sun.I have no idea where we are. Red Ridge must be far behind us. I’ve never seen anything so empty and desolate in all my life. The world here is flat, with nothing but the road and grasslands as far as the eye can see. How long was I out?“Hello lovely,” a chirpy voice says from the front seat. “Did yeh have a good sleep?”I look over at the platinum blonde sitting in the passenger seat. She’s in her mid-twenties. Her make-up is heavy, and she’s dressed in a tight, red dress that leaves little to the imagination. All I manage in way of an answer is a croak.“Give her some water,” Beta Preston says, his voice deep and even.He’s a handsome man, with salt and pepper hair, hazel eyes, and a be
MaraI stare in wonder at the winding road ahead of us. It disappears around several bends, leading all the way to the top of the mountain, and the town of Haven’s Crest.Who the hell builds an entire town on the top of a mountain?We crawl up the road. There’s literally nothing between us and a sheer drop into the canyon below, but it’s idyllic, with the green mountain rising up against the bright blue sky. Cotton candy clouds drift in the azure heavens.As we round one of the many dangerous bends, a waterfall comes into view. Rainbows dance in the misty water that vanishes into the pond below. “Wow,” I gasp.“Pretty, ain’t it?” Rhoda says with a soft laugh.I can’t tear my eyes away from the beautiful scenery. It’s like a postcard sent from some exotic place I never knew existed. Far below and in the distance, a blue lake glimmers in the bright sun. At long last, we reach the top. A massive white and black sign welcomes us to *Haven’s Crest - A home for every soul.*I smile wryly.