The Billionaire Alpha's Hated Mate

Lilac’s P.O.V:

‘Run, little wolf…run!’

The words kept reverberating inside my head as I dashed past the forest giants, going deeper and deeper into the forest with each step I took.

It was dark, and with each step further into the forest, it kept getting darker. The canopy provided no scope for light and the only thing keeping me from turning insane was this insatiable urge to just ‘run’!

‘Run, little wolf…run!’

Who was it? Whose voice did I keep hearing? That daunting, sardonic voice that kept running through my mind on repeat despite me not wanting to hear it. It was scary, that voice, and yet, I had no idea why I was scared of it.

I had woken up in the middle of these dark woods, with no idea what time it was or how I even reached there. All I could remember was fire and smoke and screams…so many painful screams that made a shiver of fear run down my spine.

Something had happened to my pack…something terrible…and yet, I couldn’t remember what.

I remembered running, my parents sending me out of the packhouse through the secret underground tunnel and then running through the darkness to end up in the middle of the woods before I had fainted from exhaustion. And when I had woken up…that voice had appeared in my head and it just wouldn’t go away.

Suddenly…I heard rustling in the woods around me; the sound of soft foot falls in the grass that was barely audible. If I hadn't been a wolf, I might have never heard it in the first place, but now, the sudden noise made me halt in my steps and look around the darkness to find whatever had made the noise.

My hair was plastered to my face as perspiration dripped from my forehead and my clothes were plastered to my body as if I had just taken a shower. I was exhausted beyond words and hungry. My entire body ached from the constant run and even now, the words kept telling me to just ‘run’!

A movement from behind caught my attention and my head snapped in that direction to judge the danger even as my heart thrashed against my chest in fear.

Glistening white teeth came into view first, followed by two pairs of deep golden eyes. I heard a sound come from one of the creatures and it sounded oddly like a ‘giggle’…but it wasn’t a happy giggle…in fact, the sound made my blood freeze in my veins as my hands turned cold from terror.

Hyenas…

Without thinking twice, I turned and I ran. Faster than I had before.

The giggling sound came again, before the sound of paws on the wet grass became louder…drew closer.

Dear goddess! If the Hyenas caught up to me, I was going to die. They weren’t shifters, but the wild ones that were known to ferociously tear apart its victims before devouring them whole. And I wasn’t a grown wolf. I was a pup of thirteen, a perfect prey for the wild ones.

A half-broken log of wood suddenly came into view. I had failed to notice it while I had been too distracted while trying to run from the predators that had almost caught up to me. At the rate I was going, I had no way of stopping myself in time before my foot collided with the log. My legs were too short to jump over the log anyway. There was no escaping it and there was no stopping either if I wanted to live.

Just when the huge log was only a foot or two away, I made a feeble attempt to jump over the log…failed miserably.

As expected, my leg hit the log and I went flying forwards to hit a tree in front of me.

Pain exploded all over my body as I yelped out while falling to the ground with a loud thud. My breathing was heavy and my heart threatened to burst out of my chest with just how fast it was beating.

When I was finally able to open my eyes and look down, I saw blood gushing out of my leg. There was so much blood that the white pants I was wearing was completely stained a dark red. But my leg wasn’t my primary concern right now…being eaten alive was. And as I watched, the two spotted Hyenas came to a stop a few feet in front of me; their jaws open as if in a smile as saliva dripped off the gap between their teeth.

I managed to stand up on trembling feet despite the pain. But I was trapped. There was nowhere to run and I couldn’t climb trees.

This was it…and even the predators knew that. They stood at ease, circling me to find the best way to jump. They had me trapped, right where they wanted me and with the scent of my blood in the air, I was doomed without a doubt.

My vision blurred at the edges, telling me that I was at my limit.

I was out of breath, hungry and so, so exhausted. My mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts and overwhelming emotions that I had no way of controlling. Fear and panic and hopelessness. And if I tried to run once again…this was going to be the end of me. And besides…where would I go? There was no route left for escape…

No…I didn’t want it…I didn’t want to die…

‘Run, little wolf…run!’

A scream of frustration tore through my lips as that voice came to haunt me once again. I couldn’t! I just couldn’t run anymore!

What was wrong with me? I needed help! I needed someone to save me from this madness! I wanted to live!

The sound of a twig snapping reached my ears and I instantly became alert.

The night was quiet; too quiet for my liking. There was no moon, no starts and the darkness felt like it was trying to swallow me whole. All of this was making my chest tighten to the point where it hurt to even breathe. Clutching a hand to my chest, I dropped to my knees.

The hyenas must have heard the sound too, because they momentarily looked alert as they began sniffing the air.

I was going to die, wasn’t I? Either from a panic attack or by whatever was out there in the bushes aside from the hyenas. Because I could definitely hear the sound of leaves rustling, like something was making its way to me right now.

And that was when I looked up…and met blood red eyes.

It was glowing in the dark, only a few meters in front of me.

A scream got stuck in my throat.

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. No scream…no breathe…

I was frozen still.

Because red eyes meant only one thing. A rogue wolf. The most ferocious of our kind.

But just as fear started to claw at my heart…my wolf stirred inside my mind. A sudden sense of calm descended upon me as my jumbled thoughts untangled themselves to leave me with…nothing. Only a sense of peace and tranquility.

Even the voice in my head stopped telling me to ‘run’.

Was this how it felt to die? Calm and peaceful until I got devoured?

And then the creature of the night walked out into the clearing and away from the shadows, just as the blurriness of my vision spread all over my gaze.

It was a pitch black rogue with red eyes. And yet, I felt no danger towards it…no more fear.

The hyenas took one look at the stronger, larger predator and started running away in the opposite direction, without so much as a look my way. Even the ferocious predators of the wild knew not to mess with a rogue wolf.

But as the back rogue turned towards me, completely unfazed by the hyenas…I felt electricity zap through my entire body, startling me even further. I was no longer afraid of this wolf…and I knew that it wouldn’t kill me…it was a feeling so deep in my gut that I couldn’t even explain why I felt it.

It wasn’t until I spoke the words out loud that I realized exactly why I felt safe with this gigantic beast the color of darkness.

“Mate…” I whispered, giving voice to the knowledge that my wolf was already aware of the second my eyes locked with his.

And then I found myself falling back as all the energy drained out of me…and everything went black.

Lilac’s P.O.V:

“She’s a fucking child, Luca!”

The sudden roar of a sound startled me into consciousness, making my heart thrash against my ribcage at an alarming rate.

Where was I? What was going on?

I felt too weak to get up; my hands and legs felt like they were made out of lead. My head my throbbing in pain and I couldn’t feel my legs from the waist down. It made the fear in my chest grow even stronger, especially when I heard even more shouting.

“You said she was your mate, didn’t you? Why does it matter how old she is? Do you even realize how incredibly lucky you are to have even found her?”

“I can’t believe you’re saying this! Did you even look at her?”

The words stung, even though I didn’t know who it was that spoke them.

I was lying in a completely white room, on a large hospital bed hooked to several monitors. With the curtains drawn all around the room, I couldn’t tell if it was day or night or if I was actually even in a hospital.

The previous events all came to my mind. The fire and screams from my pack…my father telling me to escape…passing out in the middle of the forest…waking up to find the hyenas and then running…the rogue wolf…my mate…

It was a near impossible experience, finding my mate at the age of thirteen, almost fourteen.

All I could remember was that a wolf didn’t sense its mate until it turned eighteen years old. Then how was I able to tell that the rogue wolf was my mate? Had I been hallucinating? And how did I end up here in the first place?

If what I encountered at the forest was a rogue…then I should be dead by now…torn apart and slaughtered in the worst way possible…and yet, here I was, still alive and healing and in a place where two people were fighting over me…and one of them might possibly be my mate, and he did not sound thrilled.

“Yes, I looked at the child. No one is asking you to mate with her now. Just let her stay in the pack. Let her tell us wh-”

“She’s awake.”

Even before I could process the fact that I had been caught red handed, the curtains were ripped aside from one corner and a bright light fell on my eyes, causing me to momentarily close them as the panic set in.

“Get up. Stop pretending!”

The harsh words seemed to be coming from right next to me and that startled me into opening my eyes again and I looked up into the face of an extremely handsome man…with red eyes.

Calling him handsome wasn’t enough, but I didn’t seem to have the words to describe him otherwise. He was wearing only a pair of black shorts and his entire body was bare. His long hair reached his shoulders in an unkempt manner and he was very tall, over six feet. He was also built like a tank with hard muscles and a tattoo covering most of his chest and his arm. But what stood out the most were the red eyes of a rogue wolf in the man’s face and the look of pure disgust as he looked down at me.

My wolf whimpered at the sight of his hated gaze as I physically cowered away from him. Even though his gaze was that of a rogue, the power emitting from him was that of an Alpha. Which was impossible…right? How could a rogue be an Alpha?

Why was he looking at me like that? What had I done to him? I wanted to go home…I wanted to go to my mom…

“Child,” a softer voice coming from the other side of the bed had me turning towards them. “Can you speak to us? Who are you?”

This man seemed to be the same age as my father and he had short blonde hair that was cut close to his skull. He wore a grey shirt with black pants with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had kind green eyes and he didn’t seem to give off the hostility that the rogue Alpha was giving off.

“L-L-Li-Lilac…” I told him with much difficulty; my throat parched and my body numb from fear.

“Lilac?” He offered me a genuine smile. “My name is Luca Hunter; I’m the Beta of this pack. Which pack do you belong to?”

“D-dawn Wo-od.” I managed to get out past trembling lips.

“Dawn Wood?” Luca’s eyes widened as he looked up at the Alpha almost in alarm. “That pack…”

“W-what?” I looked at the two older men in alarm. Something wasn’t right and whatever it was, I had a feeling that it was about to change my life forever. “W-what ha-ppened to my p-pack? My p-parents…?”

“Child…” Luca swallowed hard, lowering his eyes. “Your pack…it…no longer…”

“It’s gone and your parents are probably dead like everyone else in the pack.”

The harsh voice had me looking up at the Alpha…until the blow finally registered in my brain and my world crumbled down on me.

“Alpha!” Luca’s voice sounded harsh, but it didn’t quiet register. All I could think about was that my parents were gone…they were gone…I didn’t have anyone anymore…

My lips quivered as tears spilled from my eyes uncontrollably.

Dead? My mom…my dad…they were dead…gone…

“Lilac,” Luca’s hand gently pushed the hair off of my forehead, but it didn’t stop me from trembling. “Do you have anywhere else to go? Any other sibling or grandparent?”

“N-no…” my voice broke as sobs escaped my lips and the trembling continued to wreck through my body. “A-all o-of them…t-they…t-t-th-”

“Everyone in your family was from the pack? Both your parents?” Luca asked gently, his hands softly running through my hair in a comforting manner.

I couldn’t speak. My voice was gone. All I could do was nod as broken sobs escaped my lips and the trembling continued. I was unable to control any of it and when I had expected the only other person that I now had…my mate…to provide me comfort…all I could feel from him was hostility…

He didn’t have to say it out loud for me to understand. It felt like a rejection already…like he hated my guts…

Before I could look up into his cold red eyes, desperate for some kind of acknowledgement despite the hostility radiating out of his body…he just turned and left, pulling the curtains closed on my face harshly.

It made me tremble even harder, the sobs came even louder.

“I’m so sorry, my child.” Luca’s voice provided some kind of comfort as he spoke the words like my father usually would. “Have faith in the Goddess. You’ll find your home.”

He moved away from me after he wiped my face of the tears and then followed the other man outside.

I curled up on myself, wrapping my arms tightly around me, even though I still couldn’t feel my legs. Sobs tore through me violently as I felt a sense of helplessness like I had never felt before. Over the course of one night, everything I knew was gone. And to top it off, I didn’t even know what had happened to my pack. I just couldn’t remember.

“What will happen to the poor child now, Alpha?” I vaguely heard Luca’s voice from the other side of the curtain. “She will stay with us…right?”

“Are you insane?” The Alpha snapped at Luca in a harsh voice, making me flinch. “The other wolves will never allow it. Dawn Wood was an enemy pack! They had been after our land for years! You think the pack will just let their spawn waltz right in and stay here?”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” This time, Luca’s voice was a little harsh. “If you have so many problems with the child then you could’ve just let her die in the woods last night! Why bring her here and be so harsh to her when she just found out her parents are dead!”

“Do not question my authority, Luca!” The roar reverberated through the room with the power of his Alpha wolf in his voice. It made my wolf whine in submission…made my lips quiver even harder in helplessness.

“Call the pack to the meeting hall.” This time, even though his voice was soft, there was still a sense of authority in his voice. “Let them vote for her. If they want her to stay, then she stays. Otherwise, we drop her off at a nearby orphanage.”

I was stunned into silence.

Vote?

For my survival?

Out of everything that I could have expected to happen…this wasn’t it.

I just lost my entire pack…my entire family…everything…and now, the man who was supposed to be my mate, my protector…he wanted his people to vote for my place to stay in this pack?

The betrayal stung straight through my heart and I felt at a loss for words. I felt absolutely empty…like there was a void in my heart…

However, at that moment, I had no idea of just how much more difficult this situation was going to be. And I wish I had never found out.