EXPOSITION In the fictional werewolf territory, humans are slaves to werewolves, and for a human to say 'no' to a werewolf was an offense punishable by death. At midnight, every full moon, humans are taken from each family and offered up for collection to any werewolf that chooses to collect them. Ariana is a beautiful innocent human with a cruel wicked step father, Lucas who was once a beta but fled after betraying his Alpha. All through ARIANA'S childhood, her mother had always tried to protect her from her step father, but after her mother's passing, she is exposed to her step father's cruelty. When Ariana's step father is tired of her, he offers her up for collection night. Ariana hides away trying to escape collection, but inadvertently ends up collected by the Alpha himself, Alpha Jared. When the Alpha learns of her identity, he immediately thinks Ariana to be a spy sent by her step father, his beta. He decides to keep her close as a slave, and his own private sex toy, then he learns she is his Luna. BEGINNING The novel starts with Ariana trying to escape collection night. Her step father has placed her up for collection because her mother is no longer alive to save her. When she overhears a group of werewolves talking about needing a petite human girl to spend the night with, she creeps into a box and hides, but incidentally, the box turns out to be a box containing retrieved papers that the werewolves are taking to Alpha Jared. Ariana falls asleep in the box, and when she opens her eyes, the box has been placed before the Alpha, and she finds herself staring face to face with the most feared, formidable and ruthless Alpha Jared. The Alpha immediately notices her obvious beauty, and decides to sleep with her that night, but when he interviews her and finds out who her step father is, he immediately believes her step father sent her to spy on him. Ariana does not know that her step father was once Alpha Jared's beta, and that he betrayed Alpha Jared. She only knows that the Alpha thinks she is working with her step father. She lies to the Alpha that her step father, Lucas sent her, and that she has information on Lucas. Ariana does this thinking it would give her a little leverage over the Alpha, but it only makes the Alpha mistrust her more, and treat her worse. When Ariana is searching for a means to escape, she sees the Alpha's top secret document, and decides to steal it, hoping to use it as some kind of leverage, but the Alpha catches her. Seeing her with the documents makes Alpha Jared very angry as he thinks she is stealing it to give her step father. The Alpha punishes Ariana by humiliating her through the very act of love making. It becomes clear to Arians that she cannot escape, and must embrace her new status as the billionaire's slave, and pleasure toy. RISING ACTION In a celebration to honor the full moon, Alpha Jared learns that his enemies are brewing against him, and he may never defeat them if he does not find his mate by the time the battle starts. Jared is told that his mate is there, living within his reach, but he does not know who. After learning this, he stops every female from leaving his pack till he finds his mate. The females are eager to be declared as his mate, and so they compete with themselves for his attention, but Jared's wolf does not sense any of them as mate. At this time, Ariana lies to him about her step father, telling him made up secrets of her step father, so that he would let her go. The Alpha believes her, and wants to let her go, but on an after thought, he tells her that it is possible she might be his human mate, in anyway, he has passed a decree, so she can only wait, and leave after he has found his mate. For some reason, a rumor starts that Ariana could be Jared's true mate, and all the females in the park get jealous if this mere human girl, a stranger that would dare to usurp a position they want so dearly. They begin to set Ariana up, making her look bad before the Alpha, till Alpha Jared becomes very angry with her, and her punishments become more frequent. The rest of the humans in the park also hate her. In the midst of her cruel treatment at the hands of the Alpha Jared, Ariana finds herself madly in love with the Alpha. Her life becomes constant agony as her heartbreaks every day at the treatment she receives at the hand of the Alpha, and yet, her heart continues to beat for him. CLIMAX When Ariana finds she cannot take the treatment anymore, she decides to flee. After a well planned escape, she discovers she is pregnant for the Alpha. The Alpha Jared finds out everything she told him about her step father was made up lies. He becomes even more angry with her. When he misses confidential papers from his park, he immediately believes she stole them, and is fleeing with them to give her step father. In anger, the Alpha vows to hunt her down, and kill her himself. When the Alpha finds Ariana, there i
Chapter 1 CAUGHT IN THE BOX
Ariana shivered slightly. She was out alone in the woods and it was collection night. Her mother who had always shielded her from her wicked step father had died a week earlier, leaving her to the mercy of her heartless step father who had just decided that the best thing to do with her was to give her up at collection.
The humans had been slaves to the Werewolves for so long, and every werewolf had the right to command whichever human was close by, saying no to a Werewolf was punishable by death. Yet, every full moon, at midnight, more slaves were collected at human villages to serve the Alpha. Ariana had heard terrible things about all the humans that had been taken. She even heard that some women where forced to make love to the Alpha whenever he wanted.
She hugged herself as the nights cold bit into her tender flesh. The weather was just good for werewolves, but Ariana was a human. It was too cold for her. Her clothes were also torn, the material worn thin, they were not fit enough to keep the cold away, but they did nothing to dim her obvious beauty.
Everyone always said she looked nothing like her mother, and of course, nothing like her step father. While her mother was quite tall for a woman, Ariana was small, barely up to five feet, with small bones and petit features. Her small heart-shaped face was framed by the wildest of curls that managed to add a fragile vulnerability to her beauty. The full pout on her lips that sat naturally suggested a bit of sauciness and seduction, but when the males that were tempted to pull her into the nearest corner and kiss those lips sore looked into her eyes, they saw an innocent, frightened female who had no idea of hauntingly beautiful she was.
She stood now, praying to the moon that no one would notice her and pick her for service at the Alpha's home. She just couldn't bare it if he . . .
They were coming now the Werewolves who rounded up humans for work. Ari breathed a sigh of relief, they seemed to be picking only strong able bodied males . . . till she heard one of them say "Now we've picked all we need to work in the woods, I need just one female . . ." the rest of the werewolf makes with him burst out laughing.
"You never need only one," one of them said.
"And you never need humans," another chipped in. "From what I gather, these humans are so weak, they can't handle the strength of a Werewolf in bed."
The first man nodded. "I know, but this night, I just need a human – a petite, beautiful human female to cuddle with this night, to take my mind off the nightmares."
They started discussing something about nightmares, but Ari could barely hear them. They wanted a petite human female!!! She was a petit human female.
Her heart slammed in her chest, as a fear she had never known before slammed against her heart. She had never known what it was like to sleep next to a male before, let alone a Werewolf male. She had never even been kissed before!
Tears stung her eyes at an awful thought . . . what if he forced himself on her.
There was no time to think, Ari galvanized into action. She needed a place to hide – a little to her left were some boxes that the Werewolves had come with, it was easy. All she had to do was creep inside one and hide till they had finished with their selection, then she'd creep out before they pack up the boxes and head out.
She felt relieved as she creeped in without being detected, but her relief soon turned to dismay as the Werewolves suddenly decided to pack up and go.
She suppressed a sneeze, trying to breathe inside the box that was filled with what looked to be very old papers, as she felt the box she was in being lifted from the floor.
She tried to count the minutes – or hours she spent scrounged up in the box filled with expired papers, but in spite of her awkward position, Ari soon fell asleep. When she woke up, the box she was in was still, she had a feeling it had been placed on the floor. Everywhere was silent, then she heard "Alpha Jared, these are the documents we recovered from the traitor."
Alpha Jared! Ari's heart slammed against her chest for the second time that day as her pulse quickened. Alpha Jared was the most powerful and ruthless Werewolf of all, the Alpha of the entire Werewolf pack. She had tried escaping mere cuddling with an unknown Werewolf, only to be brought before the Alpha Jared himself. She shivered violently, even though the inside of the box was stuffy and hot. Ariana soon found it was impossible for her to breathe.
She suddenly missed her Mother so badly. Her mother who had died of a simple cold and left her all alone to face the dangerous cruel world. Even facing her step father's brutality each day was far better than being the only human, trapped in a box in the midst of Werewolves – and Alpha Jared!
Tears slipped from her clear green eyes as she had the box get unlatched, and then it was thrown open.
Ariana tried to adjust her eyes to the lights in the room, but when she did, she wished she had gone blind instead. Sitting directly opposite her was Alpha Jared himself, and he seemed very angry.
For some reason, Ari's fear was not enough to take her eyes off the Alpha. Something about him was so magnetic, it seemed to pull her in. He was by far the most handsome male she had ever seen. His features seemed so handsome, he appeared to have been sculpted. He was dressed only in black, black leather pants, black boots, and a black shirt that was only half buttoned, displaying a very powerful steel – like chest. The black only seemed to enhance his ruthlessness, add more to his already dangerously handsome look, and Ari couldn't help but wonder if that was the way he always dressed, or he just happened to be wearing black today.
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