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RILEY'S POV
"You are a shame to this Pack, Riley Cooper."
Alpha Nate's gruff tone, cold eyes searching my feeble frame made it clear this man didn't want me.
Why humiliate me?
"You don't want me. Why bother?" I dared not talk back to the Alpha of the southern territories, but not when I was on the brink of death.
Stripped and bruised to the floor with nothing but a ripped brown dress and the ache in my soul to be freed from all this.
"Why don't you just kill me?" I spat the blood in my mouth to the floor, pinning my gaze to the floor, not daring to look at Alpha Nate in his beautiful dark eyes.
His commanders looked quite impatient, glancing at their wristwatches now and then with heavy sighs as though waiting for someone to meet them at the Pack borders.
"I still think we should give her at least a last chance..."
"Oh fuck it Lance," Nate snapped at his second in command, "This whore is plainly an impostor. She has no roots whatsoever to the Wyel bloodline..."
He went abruptly silent, tossed his Cuban cigarette to the floor, stepped on it before taking large strides toward me. Nate took a fistful of my pecan hair yanking me to my feet. The pain it caused, inexplicable.
"Did you offer the goddess some sacrifices just to get fated to me?"
What? No!
I fought to say but my body fought to overcome the pain his grasp rendered to me.
"Fifty million dollars is what I'm making off of your goddamn head, you try to act smart then I'm not going to hesitate to send a silver bullet through your fuckin' head."
"What if the Northerners realize we've fooled them?" Beta Lance tried to reason, "We lied she's a listener, it's why they're buying her but this runt has no wolf."
"We didn't lie, Lance, the test results don't lie," a sly grin tugged the edges of Gamma Dane's lips, "The Northerners get to run preliminary tests. They have what they pay for, just that she'll never play the role because she has no wolf."
"She becomes their headache." Nate chuckled amusedly.
The Northern territories were known for their malevolence, cruelty, and barbarism. There certainly was no way the commanders of my Pack were heartless enough to want me off with them.
This had to be another punishment.
Nate hated to think I was fated to him. The hate and resentment I received from HornSide Pack members seemed to double the second they realized their Alpha had rejected me a few months ago.
The moon goddess never missed a beat to be funny. How in the hell did she expect an ugly and unworthy runt to be accepted by this handsome and strong Alpha? And everyone thought the goddess was smart.
The shiny cars zooming towards us at the border brought a sheer sense of accomplishment perceptible in Alpha Nate's bright eyes and broad grin.
The commanders of the HornSide pack took on a more defensive stance, their hands surreptitiously on the concealed Glocks clipped to their waistband, with their jackets over it.
My heart thumped wildly. Unsure of what was going on, with Nate's grip on my hair hardening, threatening to rip off my scalp.
They waited until the two trucks came to a halt before them and three young men, not any older than Nate and his commanders, came out of the car.
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