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

To me, it seems that either Sophia is lashing out by letting Noah court her or she genuinely has feelings for him. I can’t see the latter being the case. I can’t even bear to think about it. Plus, it is simply not possible. With her fated mate in her presence, she cannot be physically attracted to another male. That’s simply how our biology works. Our wolves are drawn to each other, and it’s as if a switch is flipped off when it comes to anyone else.

This is why I can’t understand why my body reacted the way it did when it came into contact with the Wily Vixen. Why was I aroused? This is something I try not to think about, because when I do, it feels like I’m betraying my own biology.

Sometimes I want to bury my head in my hands and scream. This whole fated mate business is messing with my brain. It’s hard to even look at another female, let alone consider the idea of giving the Silver Wolf my mating mark.

The war raging within me is difficult to navigate. I know what I have to do, but my wolf is resistant to the idea. It is obsessed with the female before me—who is currently glaring at me as she holds a bag of frozen peas to her black eye. My beast wants to rip every male in her vicinity to shreds so that no one is left for her to look at but me. It wants to possess her in every sense of the word. I haven’t forgotten our kiss; it was a mistake and one that shouldn’t be repeated, but the sight of her pink lips makes me hungry with need. I want her wrapped around me till all I know is her.

My mission hasn’t changed, nor have my responsibilities, but when I’m standing here, looking at the anger in her eyes, the thinly veiled hurt, I want to forget it all. I just want to take her in my arms. I want to beg her to stay away from Noah.

She says I discarded her, but I have tucked her away in the deepest corner of my heart, somewhere nobody else can reach. I have tucked away every smile, every word, every inflection of her tone deep within me so that I can have it when my heart is breaking and I feel lonely. This is the most difficult sacrifice I’ve ever had to make, and I can see that I’m not the only one who’s suffering.

“Don’t, Alex.” Her voice trembles as she says my name, and I belatedly realize that I have approached her, and my hand is now touching her cheek.

I should move back. I have to move back. I cannot trust myself not to cross all the lines today. Not when she’s so vulnerable before me.

When I don’t budge, I suddenly feel something sharp pressed against me. Sophia’s voice is hard now.

“Step away.”

It’s a knife. She’s holding a knife to my side.

I go still at the realization.

Instead of anger, excitement flares to life within me.

I want to test her. My wolf wants to see if she really will stab me.

Shifters prefer strong mates, and boy, is Sophia strong. My heart is palpitating with feverish exhilaration at the way her piercing gray eyes are flashing at me in fury, at the roaring challenge in her expression as she dares me to make a move.

I can stop her if I want. All I have to do is twist her wrist, and the knife will slip from her grasp. But it seems I want to tempt fate. I want to see how far my woman will go to make her point.

My fingers caress her cheek, and I can feel the tremor in her hand as she pushes the knife against my already injured side.

I consider stepping back. She doesn’t want me touching her, after all.

But as my thumb traces her lower lip, I see the cloudy desire filling her eyes. My wolf is circling inside my mind, desperate to claim its mate, to mark her so she can never leave us. She still has a strong grip on the knife, and when my mouth descends to hers, she presses the blade against my side, breaking skin, even as her own lips part.

The heat is instantaneous, a kaleidoscope of colors and a scalding desire that refuses to lower in intensity. It’s like giving a thirsty man a drop of water. He just wants more.

My other hand seizes the back of her neck as I kiss her deeply, our teeth clashing, my tongue exploring that sweet mouth in the filthiest of ways.

I don’t know how to stop myself. She’s not pushing me away. She’s not stabbing me. She’s just holding the knife there, against my ribs, as she kisses me back. I can smell the faint scent of my blood in the air, but I’m too far gone to care.

Her lips move clumsily against mine, hungry for more, and I oblige. I hear the soft moans spilling from her lips, and they drive me on. Both of us are far too bruised and broken to do anything more than this, but the taste of her mouth is like an aphrodisiac.

I can feel my cock harden as I realize she has not yet lowered the knife.

She’s actually managed to cut me to some extent. Instead of worrying, my wolf is quivering with excitement. At the very basic core of us, we are creatures who are violent by nature and who value strength. The fact that she has managed to nick me is a display of dominance, and my wolf wants to put her in her place, to remind her that he is the one who is dominant in this relationship.

But as I continue to kiss this woman, I know she will never bow her head before anyone. She’s too fiercely independent, too hardened by her own trials and tribulations. Vulnerability is a weakness in her view. Especially around me.

Sophia thinks I do not understand her or know her, but I’ve spent a lifetime observing people in order to get a read on them. It was a survival skill as a child navigating a treacherous battlefield, and now it is second nature to me. I can read this woman like the palm of my hand. She wears her emotions on her sleeve. Perhaps it’s because we’re fated mates, but from the moment I met her, even when I found her frustrating, it felt like I had known her my whole life. Her presence is a breath of fresh air, calming to my chained beast.

She is a source of light in the midst of never-ending darkness. If she could see herself through my eyes, she would not look at me with such hurt and anger. If she could feel an ounce of what I feel for her, I doubt she would let me do what I intend to do—which is to crush my heart into rubble.

“If you dig that knife any deeper,” I breathe roughly, “you’re going to cause some irreversible damage.”

It’s as if my voice has woken her up from a long dream. Her eyes become alert, and I see shame in them, followed by dark fury.