Reborn To Claim The Ruthless Alpha King

Adrienne POV:

I opened my eyes. The light from the crystal chandelier stung my eyes.

The pain of being torn apart by mutant rogue wolves in my past life was still lodged in my bones. But when I looked down-my own hands. A twenty-one-year-old's hands. Clean, without a single scar.

I had been reborn. Back to Selection Day, back to the central contract hall of the King Pack Corporation.

Today was the day every unclaimed wolfless servant was publicly assigned. The nobles sat on the high platforms and made their picks; those chosen signed a lifetime contract on the spot, and those not chosen were sent to the border for hard labor.

The scent of high-ranking werewolves pressed down over the entire hall. Cedar, ozone, deep musk.

"I choose young master Bobby Villarreal!"

A shrill voice broke the murmurs. I turned my head.

My sister, Dayana, was clinging tightly to Bobby Villarreal's arm, her hazel eyes full of greedy triumph. She tilted her head back, smiling at the high-born wolves around her as if she had just seized the crown jewel of the entire territory.

She shot me a smug, venomous look and lifted her chin.

She thought she had stolen my former destiny-becoming the primary mate to the wealthy heir of the Villarreal conglomerate. Like me, she had been reborn.

I lowered my gaze and hid the cold sneer at the corners of my lips.

Let her take him. She had no idea that in our past life, Bobby had risen step by step because I planned every move for him, endured his drunken rages, and quietly stabilized his chaotic bloodline. Without me, he was nothing more than an arrogant, useless Beta playboy.

Bobby was flattered by Dayana's desperate clinging. He pinched her chin with two fingers, his sandy hair falling over his forehead, and gave her a loose, arrogant smirk.

The officiating Elder tapped his silver-tipped staff against the marble floor and frowned down at me.

"Adrienne Harrison, you are a wolfless servant. You do not have the right to waste our time. Make your choice."

Wolfless: born without an inner wolf. We could not shift, we could not link minds, and we sat at the very bottom of the Pack hierarchy.

I took a slow breath, my gaze cutting through the sea of noble warriors to land on the throne-like chair at the highest dais.

Benjamin King.

The Alpha King who ruled the territory and the CEO of the entire King conglomerate. He sat there without moving, turning the black-gold signet ring on his thumb, shrouded in a cold, suffocating aura of pure dominance.

Rumor said an old silver wound had put his inner wolf into a permanent sleep, leaving him sterile, violent, and completely detached from women.

I stepped forward.

With every step, the cold cedar pressure radiating from him grew heavier, pressing on my lungs like lead, screaming at my fragile human body to collapse.

The entire hall fell dead silent. Hundreds of eyes stared at me as if I had lost my mind. Dayana even let out a muffled snicker, crossed her arms, and waited to watch me die.

I stopped three paces from Benjamin's dais. Meeting his cold, cobalt-blue gaze, I sank slowly onto one knee, my back straight, my head bowed just slightly.

"I am willing to sign a lifetime contract with the Alpha King."

My voice was level and clear, echoing through the silent hall.

I lifted the cheap wooden servant token high above my head with both hands.

A wave of suppressed laughter broke out behind me.

"A filthy wolfless thinks she can touch the Alpha King?" someone sneered. "He'll snap her neck before sunset."

Benjamin stopped turning his ring.

He leaned forward slightly, and a low, resonant growl rumbled from deep in his chest. The vibration rattled my eardrums, and a shiver shot straight down my spine.

He did not take the token at once. His cold, calculating gaze dragged over my pale blonde hair, examining my deliberately submissive posture. For a split second, a flicker of dark turbulence crossed his eyes.

I kept my hands raised. Cold sweat had already gathered at the back of my neck.

I knew exactly what he was looking at. He was looking for the ghost of Serena-his deceased cousin, whose fragile features and honey-amber eyes were terrifyingly similar to mine.

Dayana leaned into Bobby's shoulder and giggled loudly. "Look at my sister, trying to climb into a dead man's bed. She's begging for death."

"Noisy."

Benjamin did not raise his voice, but a crushing wave of Alpha's Command sliced through the air like a shockwave.

Dayana's laughter died in her throat. The color drained from her face, her knees gave out, and she crashed hard onto the marble tiles. Bobby staggered back two paces, clutching his chest, too frightened to even help her up.

Benjamin turned his attention back to me.

He reached out. His long, calloused fingers, hardened from years of holding a gun, brushed lightly against the back of my hand as he took the wooden token.

The brief skin-to-skin contact sent a dry heat through my veins. Even without an inner wolf, the physiological intensity of a supreme Alpha made my pulse race.

He pulled the cheap piece of wood from my hand and tossed it carelessly to the Gamma guard standing beside him.

"If you want to die so badly, send her to the kitchen of my private estate."

Benjamin leaned back into the leather chair, his voice carrying no warmth at all. He treated me like an inanimate tool, not a woman.

"Thank you, Alpha."

I pressed my forehead against the cold floor and hid the sharp, triumphant smile curving at my lips.

On the elder dais to the left, Matriarch Eleanor King narrowed her sharp eyes. She leaned heavily on her silver cane, studying my face with intense, calculating interest.

The selection ceremony ended as the nobles dispersed.

I pushed myself up from the floor and smoothed down my plain gray dress without a glance at Dayana. Bobby was dragging her away, and she was glaring at me.

I followed the armed guards down the private corridor reserved for the Alpha's residence.

Benjamin King was called a heartless monster; because of his sleeping wolf, he could never father an heir. But I knew the truth from my past life-his wolf was not dead, only chained by trauma and silver poisoning.

If I played my cards right and used the ghost of the woman he could never save, I would get a child from him and gain the power to crush every single person who had destroyed me in my past life.

A head maid received me at the end of the servant quarters hall and thrust a bundle of crisp fabric into my arms.

It was a maid dress made of pure, unblemished white silk-the exact color and fabric Serena had worn every single day.

In the King Pack estate, white was forbidden. Since Serena's death, no one had dared to wear it.

I looked down at the white dress in my arms, my fingertips turning colder by the degree.

Whoever had shoved it at me either wanted me to live, or wanted me to die.