The Alpha's Hunt Chapter 47

Back in the ballroom, the first thing I did was locate Emanuel. He was talking to Alpha Dom and Alpha Eric, two of the most dick-ish men on this planet, and two werewolves I actually wouldn't mind the humans spearing and using in their fields to scare off the birds.

The group reeked of cologne and testosterone with hints of gin blending in swell in the mix.

I resisted the urge to gag when I got close to Alpha Dom, his cologne brought me back to the woods where he almost marked me. It was such a strange feeling to wonder if I would've been better off with him, up until now I would've rather died than even imagine such an outcome but things felt like they couldn't get any worse. 

“Where is Iliana?”

Hello to you too. I thought.

“She’s fine, she’s with Elise getting more wine and champagne. I promise she’s in good company and safe,” I assured him and put a soft hand on his arm. His eyes went down and landed on where my fingers graced his shirt with no innuendo, but if a look could start fires then my hand would've been a pile of ash from the way he was glaring.

I pulled my hand back and held it at my side. Somewhere along the way, I crossed a line but I had no idea where it was. The line was new, there had never been one between me and Emanuel. Even at functions back at my old pack when Emanuel would attend with one of his women he would never turn his head from me. Whenever our paths crossed we would make sure to get a few hours in, to talk and laugh and just be. What happened between now and then to change that? Or was he blaming me for being with Darian?

It wasn’t just the way that his hostile eyes kept me in lockdown as if afraid of my next move, the air shifted around us with an ominous heaviness that weighed on my chest and crushed my ribs.

I felt like a stranger standing in front of him. They had nothing to worry about, what could I do to make them see that? I wouldn't let anything happen to either of them. 

In the corner of my eye I saw someone moving among the people, her smile blinding and perfect and I had to look and see who it was. 

I turned my head and saw Nora, the Bell that Gabe had bought, making her way from hand to hand meeting everyone on the dance floor.

Behind her, as regal as ever in her silver dazzled dress was Abby, she smiled from ear to ear while she talked to the guests. It was the way that she looked completely unbothered and nobody knew what had happened a few hours ago. Her hair had been waved and her makeup accentuated her features, the caramel-colored shadow made her blue eyes pop and they could easily be mistaken as the light in the room. 

I couldn't imagine how many times she practiced that smile to make it believable and I couldn't go on without making sure she was okay. Elise’s words didn't cut it, all they did was make me more worried. The way she talked about cleaning Abby’s wounds. I had to push my worries aside and see for myself that everything was alright.

Watching her glance protectively at Nora made it worse. Nora was my age, was she going to take Abby’s place with the guards? Or worse, with Darian?

I turned to leave when a rough hand grabbed my wrist and held me still.

“Do you regret it?” Dom whispered through his deep grin while keeping a lookout so the king wouldn't see him touching me. 

“Let go of me,” I ordered, more strength in my voice than I'd heard in a long time.

The chuckle that rose to his lips came from a dark place in his twisted core. 

“Answer the question and maybe I will. Do you regret letting that Lycan mutt mark you?”

I had to control my expressions when I felt my eyes nearly bulging out and my fingers coiling to fists. 

“I did not let him mark me,” I seethed. 

His lips pulled over his teeth and he leaned in an inch, not enough to make it obvious to others. 

“I didn’t see you fight it,” 

What a dick. Everyone there saw me begging the king not to mark me, they saw me screaming in pain when he put his mark over Emanuel’s.

He was just saying these things to antagonize me, to get a rise out of me and I wouldn't let him win.

Even though it wasn't in my nature to shut up and bow down, it felt like I hadn't done much else in this latest part of my life.

I was always the one who got in trouble for not shutting up, for biting my tongue in the presence of arrogant men or rude women. What happened to the girl that bit back and wouldn't take anyone's shit?

The amount of times I got cleaning duty at the gym back home because I protected my sister or spoke against the teachers was ridiculous and yet here I stood, in front of Alpha Dom and my tongue twisted in fear of being punished.

I felt my eyes narrowing to slits and I clenched my fist while taking a step towards him.

“Let me go or I swear to the gods I will call over the king and have him rip your head from your body and shove it up your ass. I’ll make sure your face is sticking out with your eyes wide open so that when your pack members see you for the last time, they can all spit in your face which I'm sure they've all thought about doing,” 

The sinister shift in his dark eyes lifted the anger to the surface and it tortured him because he couldn't act on it. 

One wrong move and he was dead. 

Everyone here knew whose house they were in, even someone as intellectually impaired and sinister as Dom knew where he was, and that small part of me that carried the darkness I so often pretended I didn't have tingled from watching the fear flash in his eyes. It was a power I hadn't felt, knowing I could snap my fingers and have a man killed.

What am I doing…

Dom loosened his grip on my wrist and I pulled it back, watching him and wondering where the hell I went wrong. Something was slowly consuming me, filling my body with a tingling sensation, like a black fog that ran through my veins and devoured my soul little by little. 

I hurried away from them and scanned the room looking for Abby.

She was over by the refreshment station and I had to fight my way through the crowd to get to her. Everyone seemed eager to meet the new Bell and the girls were easy to spot seeing as they were the least covered people here. Abby’s dress covered her breasts and lower body while showing her sculpted core. The men were drooling and undressing her with their eyes while Abby was racking up business and nonchalantly brushing off the vicious glares of the women whose voices wouldn't amount to much in this context. Many of the women here either married for money and power, or else they had been prey in the Hunt and had been marked by an Alpha at some point in their life.

Abby lifted her head, the beaming smile dimmed like the sun covered by rain-filled clouds when she saw me and she walked alongside the wall and disappeared in the crowd.

Everything felt off, everyone was treating me like an alien all of a sudden- as though I was someone they had to be afraid of. 

I wasn’t. They were safe with me.

I spotted her crystal pins in that blonde hair and hurried after her into the hallway.

I lifted the bottom of my dress and cursed the heels as I ran down the long corridor but had to stop every few meters to sniff her out and see where she’d taken off.