Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Alex Heartman

Alex was fighting earnestly for control, he couldn't tell how he felt, but he knew for sure that he wasn't in control of his mind, emotions, and body.

His heart skipped a beat the moment he beheld her eyes. They were softly knitted with the seams of blue. He lost track of time.

As if his hand had a mind of its own, it stretched out to her and she glanced at it.

His guards couldn't hide their shock when he stretched forth a helping hand to the girl in the mud.

The Alpha they knew would never, never help anyone even if she was a helpless old lady or the queen of the universe. Yet, he offered mud girl, who looked all messy and disoriented a hand.

They all watched in forced silence as she took a hold of his hand and just when she smiled up at him with her mud-coated face, he let go of her hand as if she had burned him.

She yelped and fell back into the mud.

Now, that was the Alpha they were well accustomed to.

"What was that for?!" Mud girl yelled at him, frowning deeply in what seemed like anger and confusion.

Surely, she had met her end. No one talked to their Alpha in such a way and lived. His soldiers were certain of it, Gerald most especially.

"Who are you?" Alex asked, trying to sound upset. Rather, he was amused. She had mud all over her face but the way she was looking up at him defiantly, with her petite stature, he found cute-What? What was he thinking? He didn't find it cute, he found it offensive.

He needed to keep his disarrayed emotions in check.

"I believe I asked you a question." Alex cocked up his brows, maintaining a hard face even if he was slowly losing this battle to an overly excited Max.

All he wanted to do was pull her out of the mud and get her cleaned up. He hated the way his men were staring at her curves which were prominent now thanks to the mud coating her body. But he wouldn't, he couldn't show any weakness.

"Maybe if you had been kind enough to pull me out of this mud, maybe, just maybe, I would answer that damn question!" Mia replied in annoyance. She was both offended and confused.

Did he not know she was his mate?

Who was this dude anyways?

Her guess was the commander of the soldiers.

"Lock her up," Alex ordered his guards blatantly ignoring her.

Mia heard him but the words were meaningless, his voice carried all the meaning to her.

And although she couldn't see his face clearly as he stood just in front of the moon from her angle, the authority he held was something else. She felt power flowing around him like torrents and she wanted to bow in reverence.

His voice... Oh, his voice was full of power no being should possess but it was surprisingly soothing at the same time.

She wished to hear him speak again and again.

She took a good look at his body as two guards curled their fingers around her arms. Her eyes ran down his shoulders and strong arms which were under a grey tank top. Her eyes trailed down his strong chest and the desire to skim her fingers over his abs rammed her.

Goddess, he was built!

He seemed like a giant as he towered over her but that was only because she was in a somewhat pit of mud.

She was visibly drooling over him.

She snapped back into reality when his words finally registered in her mind and she was pulled to the solid ground.

"What? You can't do that, You don't know who I am!" She yelled at a retreating Alex. "Come back here right this instance!"

She exclaimed, trying to sound authoritative like her mother but failing woefully as her voice sounded high-pitched, cute, and harmless.

"Offhand me this minute!" She instructed the guards who she was certain were deaf.

"Hey, you!"

Alex could still hear her cry of protest as she was being dragged away toward the cell yard. He wanted to go to her and stop this madness but he couldn't, it was protocol. Anyone found walking about past curfew time would be locked up for three days.

She wasn't just outside past curfew time, but she was also in the woods. The same woods that every wolf in his Kingdom was forbidden to go to after the murder of five wolves. And that, on a night where a spy had been.

He knew she wasn't the spy, it was a man. But there was no proof of that.

He couldn't tell how she looked cause her face was coated in mud but from her accent, and her mannerism, he could tell she had had a good upbringing even if he had noticed her in a maid's uniform.

Maybe she was a maid from another kingdom.

She was most likely from the south then 'cause the easterners, westerners, and northerners spoke differently.

What could she have been looking for in the woods so late at night?

Was she lost?

Were her guidances worried, had she run from home?

Who was she and why was she on his land?

And why on fucking Earth did she make an appearance now, when he had been betrothed to another?

Why did he even have a mate?

Was the moon goddess somehow blind as to what he was? Why would she want to punish someone so much by tying them to a monster like him?

All these thoughts plagued his mind and Alex fought to rid himself of them.

•••••••••

"I'm warning you all!" Mia had been locked in a cold isolated cell for what felt like an hour now and she wouldn't shut it.

The guards were frustrated. They'd never met anyone like her before. She was relentless.

"When my father comes to get me, you and that commander of yours will be locked up just like I am right now!" She threatened.

"Shut it, maid," Gerald instructed weakly.

"What part of I am not a maid do you not understand?!!" Mia yelled, thumping her feet like a child whose cookies had just been snatched from her.

"Get me your Alpha this minute!" She yelled at the young man who stood guard in her cell and whose name she had learned to be Gerald.

"Gerald, I'm talking to you!"

"Shut it, bitch," Gerald replied in irritation.

"When I get out of here, I'll make sure I end you first." She threatened and for a minute, Gerald feared she actually would. Her words sent chills down his spine.

He looked back at her in surprise to see her smiling grimly at him like a psychopath. His heart skipped two beats out of terror but then she burst out laughing– one so contagious, Gerald couldn't hold back his smile.

What was wrong with him? He felt threatened yet he was smiling.

Soon that smile degenerated into a burst of full-blown laughter and Theo and Brian joined in.

Soon they were all bent over laughing hysterically.

Something was wrong with all of them, Gerald was sure of it yet he couldn't help laughing, how quickly she could switch from threatening to grinning was almost surreal.

What was wrong with them?

As much as he tried to stop laughing, he couldn't, and soon, he felt all the tension filter out of him.

He hadn't felt so free in a long while, not since he was a boy.

When her laughter died down, theirs did too and Gerald took a look at his fellows only to notice they were all grinning at him, as he was too... They were happy, but why?

The guards soon recovered themselves and shook their heads in amazement. They went back to standing like statues, wondering what the hell just happened. Something about this prisoner was different. That was for sure.

Mia gave up and sat on the concrete floor with a heavy heart, wondering why the hell she agreed to Isabelle's stupid idea.