Stolen Ring: The Alpha's True Mate

Elara POV:

The night my real parents finally sent for me, I found a dying man in the woods.

I had been waiting four days for the wild ginger to open on the north slope of the Cascades. My foster mother's cough always got worse in October, and the pharmacy in town wanted forty dollars for a bottle of syrup.

I tucked the roots into my basket and stood up.

My boot hit something wet.

A dark smear ran across the pine needles. Heavy, dragging footprints led deeper into the trees.

I followed them.

He was slumped against the base of a cedar. Six feet of broad shoulders in black tactical gear, his face streaked with thick dark paint.

His chest barely moved.

"Mister?" I dropped my basket and knelt beside him. "Mister, can you hear me?"

His eyes snapped open. Deep, ice-blue irises blazed with wild fury as his large hand shot out, clamping around my throat and slamming me against the freezing rock wall.

I clawed at his wrist, kicking my legs, but his grip was like iron. The crushing weight of an apex Alpha's Dominion rolled off him, suffocating me.

To the rest of the world, I was a wolfless-born with a genetic defect that left me without an Inner Wolf, unable to shift or use a Mind-Link.

Only I knew the truth buried deep in my veins: I carried the noble bloodline of the White Wolf. Yet because I had never been able to awaken or wield that dormant power, I had zero defense against his crushing aura.

His ragged, scalding breath hit the curve of my neck, followed by a low, tortured growl vibrating in his chest. The bitter scent of wolfsbane leaked from his pores, tangling with the feverish spike of The Heat under the full moon.

I opened my mouth to scream for help, but his lips crashed down onto mine in a savage, bruising kiss. A violent jolt of electricity shot straight from my lips to my toes, making my heart hammer against my ribs.

I pounded my fists against his broad shoulders as tears mixed with the rainwater on my face. Yet the blistering heat of his body and a strange, undeniable pull deep in my soul slowly drained all the strength from my limbs.

Beneath the roar of the storm outside, he tore away my torn clothes and my last defenses. I threw my head back, biting my lower lip until it bled as a tearing pain ripped through my body.

In the pitch dark, a flicker of sanity seemed to return to his eyes. His rough palm cupped my wet cheek, and his hoarse voice murmured an ancient vow against my ear that I could not understand.

My body finally gave out under his relentless power, and darkness swallowed me whole on the cold stone. He had claimed my body, though his fangs never sank into my neck to leave a permanent Marking.

Hours later, the gold faded from his eyes, and he collapsed dead-weight across my chest.

I pushed him off me an inch at a time.

When I sat up, the woods spun. Every muscle in my body screamed. My flannel shirt was torn down the front, the buttons gone, and there was blood on the hem of my undershirt.

I pulled the edges of the flannel together with shaking fingers and wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my wrist.

Something hard was pressed into my right palm.

Just before he blacked out, he had forced my fingers closed around it. It was a heavy ring made of old silver, set with a pale moonstone that caught the dark.

His last words were still ringing in my ears, rough and slurred against my throat.

"I'll take responsibility."

At the bottom of the hill, a fleet of sleek black sedans blocked the road. Thomas, the butler of the Kowalski estate, stepped out in a tailored tailcoat holding a black umbrella.

"Miss Elara, the Master and Madam sent me to bring you back to the capital."

I stared at the man in the suit.

Eighteen years, and not one birthday card. Tonight they had sent a car.

"Are they really waiting for me?" My voice cracked.

"The Kowalskis are anxious to see you, Miss Elara," Mr. Thomas said. His face was polite now, his eyes cold. "If you would hurry. We have a long drive."

As we pulled onto the gravel road, I pressed the stranger's ring against my palm and thought that, after eighteen years, they had finally come for me.