The Alpha’s Fated Choice (Alpha's Fated Encounter Trilogy #1)

“Oh, do be quiet.” With his foot, Alpha Black presses down on the arrow protruding from Drew’s back, and my heart nearly stops when Drew screams in pain.

“Leave him alone!” I shout, horrified.

The Alpha gives me a cold smile. “You shouldn’t feel so sorry for him. Men like Drew are loyal to no one. You’ve been comforting him all this time, and yet, you don’t even know that he was the one who brutalized his own mate.”

Every inch of me goes still. My eyes shift toward Drew in disbelief. “No. No, Drew loved Katie. She was his mate! You’re lying to me!”

Alpha Black chuckles, looking down as he grinds the arrow once again, making Drew’s body jerk in response as he coughs blood. “Well? Am I lying, Drew? Tell her. Tell her how you ripped your wife apart while your son watched. Tell her how you obeyed orders like a good little soldier.” His eyes lift toward me, and the enjoyment in them turns my veins to ice. “You should ask him about how his mate clutched his feet, begging for the life of her unborn child.”

I see the tears spill from Drew’s eyes, and I feel sick to my stomach. How can it be? I’ve seen Drew weep over Katie. I saw how broken he was. And all that time, he had killed her himself? And made his son watch?

Alpha Black chuckles once again. “You see, Sophia, you don’t have a very good understanding of how members of the pack security team are chosen. They are the most vile and violent shifters among the pack. The Alpha gives them direction and a purpose. Your precious Drew was the most violent of the bunch. He had a taste for human blood. Liked butchering them.”

No.

“Sometimes people only show you what they want you to see.”

Once again, Elsa’s words float in my head. She called me naïve, and I felt insulted. But she was right. I was naïve. And foolish.

“He was quite young when I recruited him,” Alpha Black tells me. “You were never allowed out of the orphanage grounds, so you wouldn’t know, but Drew used to work in the town where you were born. Everybody who works on the security team in Oakrest was sent here from the same town you lived in. Drew was one of them. The one thing I ask in return for all the privileges these men get is complete and utter loyalty. But you weren’t completely loyal, now, were you, Drew?”

There’s no response from the ground.

The Alpha sighs. “What a disappointment. You had such potential. But then, perhaps it wasn’t your fault. The woman you chose was too nosy. Too caught up in her morals. If she hadn’t tried to interfere in my plans, she would still be alive, and you would have your…What was it again?” Alpha Black laughs cruelly. “Oh, yes. You were going to have a daughter, weren’t you?”

Drew lets out an agonized whimper, and despite my shock and horror at his past actions, my heart breaks for him.

“Stop it!” I scream.

I’m overwhelmed by all of this, by Drew’s true self, by the way the Alpha of this pack is taunting a man who killed half his family under his orders. I cannot wrap my head around what Drew did. He could have taken his family and fled. He could have bought his way out of the Alliance. He could have done a lot of things. But kill his mate? And his unborn child? Why was that the only course of action he saw?

“You’re a monster,” I spit at the Alpha. “You’re the worst kind of monster there is. You made him murder his family!”

“I never said that.” Alpha Black smiles broadly at me, as if this whole thing is just some sort of big joke to him.

“You just said that you ordered Drew to murder his mate!”

“Did I?” He shrugs.

Didn’t he?

“Unfortunately,” he continues, “it seems that Drew here doesn’t seem to understand how lenient I’ve been with him all this time. And neither did he learn his lesson the first time around.” There’s a strain of anger in the Alpha’s voice now. “Drew hid from me the fact that you found your fated mate. He also conveniently did not disclose to me that my own son was pursuing you. And—” his eyes narrow in fury— “this fool was encouraging you to be with your mate when he was fully aware of my plans for you.”

His plans for me? My heart drops to the pit of my stomach. “What are you talking about?”

Alpha Black shrugs. “The shifters of this town had two orders: break you and make sure you never engage in any relationship. They were allowed to treat you in any way that would break your spirit. But like your mother, you’re very stubborn, Sophia.” There’s a flash of irritation in his eyes. “I was starting to sense that, after his punishment, my control over Drew was fading. He was tasked to befriend you, but I was receiving fewer and fewer reports. So, a couple of months ago, I sent someone I trusted to your town. But with all the deaths happening here and the arrival of your fated mate, I knew it was only a matter of time before you slipped from my grasp. So, I’ve come to bring you back home.”

I take a step back. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“My dear girl,” Alpha Black laughs, “you don’t have a choice. Very soon, you will receive my mating mark. Your mother rejected my mark. She refused to be obedient. You’re young; I can still force you into submission. Hopefully, you won’t be as foolish as her. I would hate to have to lock you up as I did her.”

I’m stunned into silence. He locked her up?

When I speak, the words are ripped from me. “You said my mother died in childbirth. You always told me I killed her. Are you saying she’s alive?”

The monster before me smiles again. “Yes. But we’ll see for how long. She refused to be my broodmare, so I decided to use you instead. Why do you think I let her give birth to you?”

I think I’m going to be sick. He looked at an infant, newly born, and decided to impregnate her when she got older?