The Fae Wolf

AURELIA

Aurelia did not flinch. The Alpha King returned to their staring match with ease.

Destined to be with one another. The girl that was prophesied. Destined to be the most powerful couple with a path either leading to great peace or great destruction. Either would suit the Alpha King.

Alpha King Alastair was unlike any creature living. Revered and feared by the greatest beings to walk the planet. None would dare catch his gaze for suspicion that he had some unknown power.

Like he could kill someone with just one look.

This girl he had found was maintaining his gaze quite perfectly. He was accustomed to all cowering before, any ounce of dignity and confidence left at the door.

There they stood, in a battle of wills.

“Leave us,” the Alpha King boomed. The faint noise of scuffling could be heard from the other wolves. None would disobey the king’s order.

When she could no longer hold his gaze, the weight becoming unbearable to push back, her eyes flickered away.

“I suppose you came for me, then,” Aurelia commented thoughtlessly, recalling his words in her dream. I’m coming for you, little wolf. And so he came.

At her words, she watched his eyes darken to onyx, swirling with apparent rage.

Yet, he was not angry. He merely wanted to watch her, to shake in fear in the realization that she had disrespected her king. And she knew that too.

The two were of matched wits, though neither knew it.

“Your grace,” she added confidently, as if not affected at all by his mood that had plagued the room. In fact, she was wrestling his dominance with all her might.

“Your grace?” Alastair questioned with a menacing tone. It sent shivers down her spine that not even the most frozen weather could evoke.

In one swift movement, he grabbed her neck in his large, calloused hand, wrapping entirely around it. He squeezed gently, tightening with every ounce of panic she did not show.

But she was panicked. Even though she knew the meaning of mates, and knew he could not kill her, she was deathly frightened. She suppressed it all with the power of the self-respect she possessed.

She would not be so easily submissive.

He could not have a mate who did not fear him. He could not have one who would openly defy him, weaken his authority.

“You should remember who I am, little wolf. You may be my mate, but I could squeeze this pretty little neck of yours until you are no longer breathing,” he hissed, looking down at her.

Forcing her into submission.

He received his desired anxiety from her. Thus, he released her.

Though she was not shaking out of trepidation for death. She had embraced death in all its glory.

She had met many mated couples in her lifetime. As much as he might have wanted to, he could not physically kill her. Though the Alpha King defied many laws of nature.

“What is your name?”

“Aurelia,” she replied in a shy voice, though her eyes stayed with his as if they belonged to him. The corners of his lips twitched once again as his hand cupped her cheek.

However, his delicateness was an illusion.

Warmth emanated from his skin, so much so that it threatened to burn her. The tingles pulsed through her and right down to her sex. He could smell her arousal, as she could sense his.

Aurelia found the man in front of her quite the fascination. A game was afoot, a game she was not sure she wanted to play. She knew she might begin to miss her dreary, dull life back in her village.

The king’s hand shot out and grabbed between her legs, making her breathlessly gasp. Her lips parted but no words came out.

“Tonight, we will go to bed, I will mark and mate you and you shall become a subordinate little queen, kept out of sight, for the most part.

“You will bear me a child, a son, and you will take care of him until I train him to be a fierce warrior. I will not love you, but you may love no other man.”

Perhaps he did live up to his name after all. The coldest arrogant misogynistic man.

The Alpha King was not just legend. It was not a rumor that his subjects fell to their knees before him, begging for his mercy that he never granted. He was not a mere myth.

Every word he spoke weighed a ton, falling down upon Aurelia as if he were spitting bricks. And she was being forced to comply.

But she was not a normal wolf. She refrained from using her powers. Only circumstances had called for it. It would take its toll the more she used it, chipping away at her compassionate soul.

Perhaps then she would be compatible with this Alpha King.

“I will not.” Her words came as quite the shock to both of them. “You cannot make me.”

Her hand gripped his wrist tightly. Her eyes attempted to delve deep into his mind, fighting through hefty barriers. But... she could not. Her power was not working.

What was the use of it if not against her enemies, those who threatened her?

She watched as his expression twisted wildly, funneling through several emotions until he landed on one.

“Guards!” he bellowed, almost bursting her eardrums and making her head fuzzy with dizziness. “Escort Aurelia to a silver cell.” A smirk adorned his face briefly, a slight flash, but cunning in its nature.

A silver cell in his dreaded dungeons. How amusing for his little mate to suffer there. He knew very well he couldn’t harm her seriously himself.

Guards tugged at her arms, dragging her through the throne room, much to her squirming and flailing, limbs flying every which way. As the king was almost out of her sight, she took one last glance.

He still wore his callous smirk and held his head high in superiority.

“Where are you taking me?!” Was it back to that lowly pen? Would she see her sister once more? “Release me, you oafs!”

She tried once again to use her powers but could not get a grip on either of them. She was not strong enough to use it without the contact.

They came to a stairway that led deeper into the castle, downward into the bleak darkness. Her fingers scraped against the rough ice walls, however, a spike of pain rushed through her at the contact.

Traveling down the corridor of cells, rabid wolves growling relentlessly in the darkened corner of their new home, she was tossed into the first empty cell the guards spotted.

Her dress was torn into rags from the abuse she had endured throughout her journey.

Her entire body felt as if it were lit aflame. Her skin seared with a heat more powerful than any fire. She wrestled with herself in an attempt to put it out, but she could not find the cause of her suffering.

She would not scream. She would not give the Alpha King that satisfaction. She would only do so internally.

She clambered to the bars, gripping them and stinging her hands also. But she maintained her hold.

“What is this?” she demanded, though the guards remained as stoic as statues, facing the little wolf but not meeting her cold, dead eyes.

She wished to wring their necks, so perhaps they were wiser than she thought. “I asked you a question.” She ground her teeth to fight through the agony.

And then, she finally cleared her mind enough to realize the truth. A silver cell.

Surrounded by silver. A bullet of silver was deadly to a werewolf. Surrounded by it was torturous.

She was impressed by the Alpha King’s method of punishment. It was excruciating, yet this amount of silver would only bring a wolf to the brink of death.

But he had placed her in there.

After hours biding her time, the pain became numbing, tiresome, repetitious.

She had suffered so much of it that she had blocked out her wolf as much as she could, so that she would feel less ache in her human form.

“Do you not speak?” she asked in a gruff tone. Silence was their only response. “Did the king command you not to converse with me? I could be your queen.”

She heard the faintest scoff from one.

“I am your king’s mate. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You continue to disobey him and you’ll stay here forever,” one replied with a low tone. The other guard side-eyed him but uttered nothing.

“The goddess does not make mistakes. If I am the Alpha King’s mate, I must be a match for him. You don’t fear my power?”

“Power? You are stuck in a silver cell, runt.”

“Why does the silver not affect you?” she questioned. She received no response.

They wore armor, she supposed, that prevented the dire anguish she felt.

She examined the distance between the cell and the guards. Could she stretch long enough to grab them both?

It would not be enough to use her power on only one. Then the Alpha King would know. Her unknown power was her savior in a time of need, but not if her enemy knew about it.

With that risk in mind, she lunged, her body thrown into the bars while her arms pierced through the gaps. Wrapping her hand around their ankles, she glimpsed up to meet their eyes.

She did not know whether she could remember how to use her power on multiple targets. It required a concentration beyond measure.

There was once a time where she could use her power to command a whole room of a hundred.

The incident that had poisoned those in her village against her forever, even though they never truly knew what happened.

“You will unlock the door to my cell and allow me to escape. You will wait ten hours before informing the king that I have escaped and that you helped me.”

Perhaps it was the power corrupting her, but she desired their deaths. And so it was done. She would have the Alpha King do her bidding. He would not forgive their betrayal and insolence.

The cell was swiftly unlocked, and she could see the beginning of her freedom. This would only be a start.

The path beyond was unknown to her. She would require more help, and thus, more use of her power.

The heels of her boots were wrecked, dirtied, and corroded. Her golden hair was dyed brown with mud and dust of the castle dungeons. She was in quite the state; however, it would not stop her.

She hurried through the tunnels that appeared to span for miles. They wound tightly, stretching forever with cells of many different tortures. She happened upon a cell that looked rather familiar.

And then another. And another.

“Oh, little wolf,” a voice from behind her mocked, ceasing her in her hurry.

A voice that sent sparks throughout her body. A voice that lured her back to it. “You are quite entertaining.” Malicious, devilish, haunting. Dominant.

She was forcefully tugged back and pulled against a cloak-clad chest. Their bodies on one another sent an array of sparks in her. Due to only their proximity, her underwear was soaked.

His hand snaked around, one resting dangerously low on her stomach and the other around her neck, tightening.

“You see, Aurelia, these dungeons are inescapable if I deem you to stay here. No matter if you are able to leave your cell.

“These dungeons are enchanted, the silver is special, more toxic but not enough to kill you. Yet, here you are, taking me for a fool.”

He was not a fool.

And indeed, she had mistaken him for one.

She had believed he was so blinded with power, authority, and dominance that he would not strengthen his defenses.

These dungeons had been fortified with the greatest sorcerers to be granted stay in his kingdom.

“My, my, little wolf, aren’t we quiet now? You have nothing to say?”

She kept her mouth shut, wisely. It would not do her any good to disrespect him, particularly since her power did not work on him.

She knew it must either be the mate bond or because of his unique power.

She was also insanely horrified by her mate.

Anyone having witnessed the countless bodies of girls she knew pass her and the impulsive yet confident decision in killing the wolf who brought her in would be.

“You have a choice. Come to my bed or rot down here. I will even increase the intensity of the silver in your cell.”

His hand dipped lower, brushing her sex over the sparse material that covered her. She was pulsing with arousal yet she held strong.

“I can feel you want to,” he whispered huskily.

“I’d rather stay here than ever mate with you,” she spat. She could not resist her defiant temptation, as much as she quaked.

“Perhaps your time down here will teach you to watch your fucking mouth,” he snarled, yanking her along by her golden locks and hurling her back into her cell.

She glanced at the dead guard wolves and felt a small victory. Maybe she could use her power in this way to manipulate the king.

She noticed the king was not wearing armor of any sort. The rumors must be true. He was immune to the effects of silver. That was an important fact to know.

The king left his mate to writhe in agony once again. He was curious as to how she escaped the cell in the first place. However, she would soon learn her place here.