All Chapters of The Alpha’s Secret Hybrid Mate: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

☉NAIDA I heard the drums first. The sounds of celebration filtering in from the windows set off a splitting headache between my temples. Groaning, I peeled my eyes open, realizing that my entire body was aching. The room was dim, and it took a few blinks to get accustomed to the fact that meager rays of moonlight were the only source of light in here. I tried to sit up and realized that I was holding something solid. My head felt so hazy, coupled with the headache, so I was too disoriented to even realize what it was. A metallic smell hung heavily around me like a shroud and it intensified with each passing second. Then it finally clicked. It was blood. “W-what…?” I croaked, bringing my hands closer to my face. There was blood coating my skin, and a large, sharp knife wrapped within my fingers, caked with blood. My heart pounded, as I looked around me, noticing that there was blood… everywhere. All over the floor, congealed, darkened pools of it… and to my horror, my eye

☉NAIDAScreams echoed through my head, coupled with distorted images of Alpha Cassian. First, it was his flashy smile, illuminated by the moonlight. Then it was a bloodied face with the skin peeled right off. The peeled skin lay at my feet, with a dripping knife in my other hand. The next image that filled my vision was Cassian's lifeless green eyes, with blood flowing out of them. Execute her! It was Nysa's voice, so warped and guttural, with a barrage of screams, roars, and bloody flashes that jolted me awake. I sat up from the bed of hay I was curled in, gasping and clenching my heart. It was pounding so hard that the sounds were deafening against the silence of the night. I looked around the small cottage, trembling and trying to calm myself. The old witch was lying in her bed, seemingly fast asleep but it was hard to tell. I had spent two days with her, and realized that she led a very weird lifestyle, sleeping at odd times and staring into

☉NAIDA Bloodied, warped green eyes. A dripping knife. Flashes and screams. Blood everywhere. All of the floor, pools of it, in my hands. Images and echoes of the mutilation drowned my senses. Most of that dark, sticky blood dripped down my hands. All over my hands. She put a knife to his heart! Execute her! The accusatory screams were so jarring that my eyes flew open to meet darkness. I was panting, sweating, trembling. For a moment I had no idea where I was, so I panicked, flailing my arms to feel the walls around me. It felt like some sort of enclosure, and I began to feel claustrophobic, gasping for air and scrambling to my feet. My body hit a door and it fell open, and I crashed into a hallway that was so bright it hurt my eyes. Wincing, I pulled myself up, looking back at the enclosure I had just fallen out of. Brooms of different sizes lay scattered all over the place, and I sighed. I had fallen asleep in a broom closet. I moved to rearrange them when a haughty voic

☉NAIDA I was curled in my bed —the best kind of bed I've slept in except Alpha Cassian's bed— still shriveled up in fear and anxiousness when the door to the room opened. I peeked out of my sheets, paranoid, but it was just Eolia. She was holding a tray of steaming hot food, wafting out aromas that made me realize I was actually starving. “One perk of getting kitchen duty? You get the best servings of food before the other maids,” She winked, “without Freya's knowledge, of course.” As she placed the food on the simple wooden stool between our beds, she took a better look at me. A frown covered her soft features, “What happened? You look even worse than you did this afternoon. Didn't you catch up on your sleep like I had advised you to?” I slowly sat up, crawling over to the edge of the bed. This used to be the bed of another maid, but Eolia told me her roommate had the misfortune to be taken by one of the lords visiting the Alpha, who wanted her as his personal sex slave —one

☉NAIDA It was a blood moon. I was curled against the window, staring at the cloudy night sky, with the full moon larger and redder than ever, sitting ominously over the castle. It was the night of the ritual, and the distant sounds of howls echoed across the lands from beyond the castle walls. Goosebumps covered my arms. Despite the huge feast, the castle was silent, save for some drumming from deep within the dungeons underneath the castle. “What kind of ritual takes place in the dungeons?” I had asked Eolia. She only told me the ceremony started outside, under the red moon, before moving underground. Sounded pretty terrifying to me. I pulled the blanket over myself, settling into the warmth… but then through the window, I spotted a maid stumbling across the grounds, like she was about to collapse. She was crying, falling and getting up, falling and getting up until she got to a tree, resting against the trunk. Alarmed, I called out to her, “Hey, are you okay?” She l