FOUR

RALIA

I was confined to my room after that, and not even Cheyenne was allowed to see me. I spent the first few hours in fear of what would happen, if my family would listen to the Alpha, Lord Lesley, and spare me, or if they would go ahead and have me flogged.

    I could already figure out what had happened. James had set me up to cause misfortune for one of my sisters, or my other brother. I was so tired of my family using me as a mere pawn in their childish games of jealousy.

    I heard Helena was set to marry a Count, and this was no small feat because Helena is now considered to be quite old and still unmarried, plus a Count is quite powerful. I learnt James sent me down dressed like a whore so that Alpha Lesley would defile me, and then Helena’s luck would be spoiled.

    A tear slipped down my cheek and I did not bother to wipe it. The makeup Cheyenne put on my face was probably spoiled by now. I just wondered why my family could not blame James instead for what had happened, since it was obvious he planned everything, and I was only obeying orders. It was typical of them though to always use me as their scapegoat. I was the one who could not fight back, the one who had to take every scolding with a smile pasted on my face.

    I wanted to vent, to cry, throw a tantrum, tear at my hair, and throw things about in the room, but years of being told to keep my emotions under control did not allow me to lose it even in the face of these circumstances.

   Feeling tired although I had not done any physical work, I went to lie on the bed – fully clothed. I really didn’t have the strength to take anything off.

    I closed my eyes and tried to day dream of the fantasies I and Cheyenne always sketched. I would be locked in my tower room just like now, when I would hear some commotion outside, and throwing open my windows, I’d see a handsome thief trying to get away from an angry crowd –

   We always had our own different version of Rapunzel, and the Cinderella story too. In the Cinderella story, Cinderella did not have just two wicked step sisters, but five wicked blood sisters and two mean brothers. Needless to say, Cinderella was me.

    I could not find any joy in my musings anymore, and still feeling agitated, I swung off the bed – then a thought occurred to me.

    Slowly, as my heart started pounding in mismatched patterns, I drew close to my window.

   I wondered why I had never thought of it before, but suddenly it occurred to me to try to escape. Maybe it was the fear of getting flogged for the first time, or the aftermath of being held in a strangers arms, but for the first time, I felt it was possible to escape, to be free.

   My window overlooked the overgrown weeds in our backyard. No one really visited that place since my father died, and whatever flowers where there were long since choked by weeds.

   The window seemed a thousand feet high above the ground, and from the way the house was built, there was no way I could make it down there alive if I tried to climb down.

   I had to think fast. I needed a rope – the curtains. I could use the curtains and the bedsheet as a rope, and all my dresses too. Keep tying them together until it was long enough to get me to the ground. I was finally making my own Rapunzel story!

   A giggle escaped my lips at the thought of having the curtains and bedsheet for my hair, then my face grew serious as I set down to business.

   I had torn down the curtains from the window, turn them up into two long strips, and was now tying the strips together with the ones I had cut from the bedsheets when the door was thrown open and I heard someone step in.

   My heart skipped several beats as cold fear gripped me. If my family had wanted to flog me earlier, they would want to kill me now.

   My hands shook on the pieces of cloth I held, and tears burned my eyes, but I could not bring myself to turn around.

   “Well that saves me the stress of taking an unwilling woman.” A stranger’s voice said from behind me. This was the same voice that had laughed at me somewhat tenderly after asking if I had ever taken a lover.

CHSPTER FIVE

RALIA

   My heart beat sped up now, and I could feel my pulse beating erratically in my veins. I still did not turn around.

   “Well are you going to at least let me have a look at you – be sure I made a good bargain.” Alpha Lesley snapped, though he added the last bit in a more patient but insolent drawl.

   Feeling insulted, I finally turned around. “I have no idea what bargain you have made Lord Lesley, or why you think it should concern me.”

   “Oh the little kitten has teeth.” Lesley replied smiling, but unlike the amused tender smile he had earlier when both of us lay together on the bed, this smile was cold, cynical, and didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Keep your wit with you little kitten. You’d need it being mated to a dark Alpha.”

   I blinked in confusion. What was he talking about. I I knew very little about werewolves and Alphas. I could not possibly be his mate. I cleared my throat and was about to tell him just that when he stepped forward, and I was forced to step back so that I would have toppled out of the open window if he did not catch me.

    His hand held my weight effortlessly, one hand circled around my waist. With a tug, he drew me closer so that I could feel the heat of his powerful body radiating.

   “I’m going to ask you once Ralia. Would you come willingly, or do I have to tie you up and throw you over my shoulder?”

    Maybe it was the way he said my name that hypnotized me, to hear my name from his musical deep voice. I don’t know what it was, but I nodded. I nodded even though I did not trust him, and somewhere deep down in my belly was the fear that the horrors I was already used to in my house would be far worse than what this unknown Alpha would do to me when I was completely his.

LESLEY

She lay with her head against the window as we rode back to my house. She seemed a bit dazed, out of reality with what was going on around her, and I could not quite blame her, I felt the same way too.

   I am the dark Alpha, a werewolf that got stronger by each dark or horrible deed. I had no business mating or having pups. I had not even planned to mate, ever!

   So why was I sitting in a carriage with a dark haired human girl, heading for my house!

    My eyes went over her again, for the tenth time. She was beautiful, I’d give her that. Her curly black hair framed her heart shaped face, and her eyes were closed now, so that I could appreciate the length of her sooty lashes.

    Her rosy cheeks were tinged just the right shade of pink, and her perfectly bowed mouth with that generous lower lip, the color of crushed berries, looked like they had been created solely for kissing.

   I reached out and pressed my lips against them, and her eyes flew open. I saw the fear that was briefly registered there, before they were shut again – tightly this time, as though she were bracing herself for some kind of punishment.

“Open your eyes Ralia.” I commanded, and I watched those lovely green eyes stare at me in reluctance.

    I could still see the fear there, buried deep inside, but there was a new curiosity. It made her look even more desirable. I wanted to take her there and then even though I knew she wasn’t ready. After all, if I took her against her will, it would only add to my power as one more dark deed I had done, but as I looked into those innocent green eyes that were beginning to stare trustingly into mine, I knew I could not do that to her – she should not get too trusting with me though, that I was unwilling to hurt her now did not mean she was forever safe around me.

   “So, have you lived all your life in the tower?” I asked, consciously trying to put her at ease.

    She nodded but didn’t reply, so I tried again. “What were you going to have done if I hadn’t interrupted you? Were you trying to escape?”

That brought a smile from those perfectly bowed lips, and I could see how even more beautiful her dimples made her look.

   “I was going to try to escape.” She grew more serious. “I don’t know why I have never thought of escaping in the past though – maybe I just didn’t want to hurt my family –”

   “So what changed?”

   She lowered her lashes a bit. “They were going to have me flogged –”

   “Ah! For James’ deception. Had it never occurred to you to be angry with the way you were being treated?”

  “But that would hurt –”

  “My family!” I finished for her. Did she not think even just one angry thought in that heart of hers. Her innocence was endearing, but if she was going to survive as my mate, she needed more than just innocence.

   I pulled her into my arms again, roughly. I wanted to drive her over the edge, bring out the fighter in her, the spunk, but like I had expected, she seemed only scared as she settled more comfortably into my arms, her green eyes searching mine with an innocent curiosity that was as endearing as it was annoying.

    “You better enjoy these moments of kindness from me my little mate.” I murmured. “They are the last you are ever going to get. Welcome to life as the dark Alpha’s mate.”