Anaiah’s POV
The intimidating man has a smirk on his lips, my brother scowls and he doesn’t look happy to see him.
‘Erickson, what are you doing in my territory?’ Enrique growls, making the man he called Erickson to tear his gaze away from me.
‘I was hoping we could talk,’ He says in a deep but soft voice, looking into my eyes one more time.
‘About what?’ Asks Enrique annoyed. ‘ You know where I stand, whatever war you want to launch against other packs, I’m not getting involved in it,’ He declares solemnly. The man sighs and smiles at me.
‘I don’t think we have met, hi, I’m Alpha Erickson Jones of the north Lycan pack,’ He extends his hand to me, and I hesitantly shake it. Erickson is tall and muscular.
‘I’m Anaiah, please excuse me,’ I say politely but Erickson holds my hand firmly. My brother growls and he releases me.
‘It is nice to meet you, beautiful Anaiah,’
His gaze is hot and intense, making me feel like he’s undressing me. I shudder and leave the two gentlemen to talk.
‘He wants us,’ chimes my wolf, I raise my eyebrows at that.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I could feel it, his wolf has chosen us as his,’ There is amusement and worry in her tone, I etch my face in confusion.
Two days had gone by and my mind kept wandering to Erickson, he’s 32 years old and one of the richest Alphas in America.
A soft knock sounds on my door and I groan. Mutinta waltzed in with a bouquet of red roses in her hands.
‘Fuck,’ I swear inwardly. Erickson has been sending me flowers every day and a cute note, asking me to go on a date with him.
I inhale the scent of the flowers and toss them away. Enrique told me the Alpha of the north is waging war against the royal pack and persuading me must be his way to punish my mate.
My heartache at the thought of Leondre, and I play with the phone in my hands, debating whether to call him or not.
No, no. I mustn’t, he’s a liar, they lied to me and I’m no one to him as he chose to wed another. Hurt, I go to the washroom.
Wearing a sundance dress and white heels, I head to my favorite garden. I was watching the butterflies and smiling when I felt a presence, his presence.
‘Erickson,’ I mutter, twisting my neck to him. He is standing against the doorframe with a tiny smile playing on his lips and a rose in one hand. Erickson sighs and sits next to me.
‘You’re beautiful,’ He says as he gives me a rose, I only look at it once then at his face.
‘I like Lilies,’ I say, Erickson, extends his hand to me and is making my heart beat wildly and I don’t like it one bit.
‘What?’ I scowl, taking his hand. He puts a strand of hair behind my ear, making my heart flutter as if he couldn’t do more.
‘Let’s go for a drive, you can carry some guards if you’re scared of being alone with me,’ He says quizically, clearly he wants to persuade me to go with him.
‘I’m not scared of anything,’ I retorted, crossing my arms against my chest. He takes me to a car, one of those vintage ones I saw in a movie once. He opens the car door for me like a true gentleman and I get in.
As we drive to god knows where Erickson and I talk about everything and nothing. He is quite interesting and I hate to admit it but I am having a wonderful time. We reached a waterfall and he opened the door for me, we leaned against his car and watch the water as we continued to talk.
‘Do you like parties?’ He asks, looking at me intensely with his hazel eyes. I blinked
‘Party?’
He nodded and explained that there is a company party in the city, I didn’t want to go because the royal pack is just in the middle of it, he sees me hesitant and he holds my hand but I take it back, he raises his hands in a surrendering gesture.
‘Your brother will be there too, and you can always leave whenever you want,’ He insists.
After spending an hour convincing myself, I agreed to go because I needed to see my mate, we have to talk about the way forward and if we are rejecting each other as mates, we should, my heart hurt at the thought again.
‘Okay,’
He is excited at my positive response. My hair was making me uncomfortable so I put it in a messy bun and look back to see Erickson’s eyes were pitch black with lust I started to panic, knowing that his inner Lycan was at the edge, he stands in front of me so fast and caress my neck with his fingers, making chills go down my body. The air starts to get cold against my skin and I step back from him, making his cloudy eyes clear.
‘I want to go back home,’ I whisper, he nods and drives me back to my brother’s pack.
‘Do you always open the door for females?’ I ask.
‘No, only the ones I like,’ He says truthfully.
‘So you like me,’
‘I thought it was obvious,’
I’m lost for words and I settle on,
‘I have a mate,’
‘Which one?’ His question takes me by surprise but I don’t show it, does he mean Amos? How does he know about that.
‘The Lycan King, Leondre Lavista,’ I say confidently.
‘As far as I know, that man is marrying Alaiah, so what will you be? His mistress,’
My anger rise and I slap him across the face, the impact made his head twist, Erickson was stunned while I growled at him. My wolf is fuming, the thought of sharing her mate with another woman made her mad.
I take a step towards him, ‘ Whatever game you think you’re playing, whatever politics you have with Leondre, don’t use me,’ I warn. I turn to walk away from there but he grabs my wrist, spinning me and kissing me forcibly, his lips were soft against mine and for a second I almost let myself enjoy but I’m glad Chalo was there to remind me and no matter how angry I was at Leon, I couldn’t betray him like this, not with his enemy.
I pulled away and slapped him again. This time, Erickson smiled and caress his stinging cheek,
‘Stay the fuck away from me, and I will never accept you as mine,’
I looked into his eyes as I said the words no wolf wants to hear,
‘We’ll see, soon you’ll beg me to take you,’ He sounds confident and I grimaced. Folding my arms against my chest, I went inside.
It was the day of the party and Enrique is in my room, begging me not t go or even talk to Leondre but I’m adamant to go, I turn my back to him and stare into the mirror, I was wearing a deep red dress that had an opening at the back and a plunging neckline, the dress is beautiful and I smile,
‘You look beautiful, sweetheart,’ My brother compliments, kissing my head. Our relationship has developed so much, he makes me feel loved and protected, I know that whatever happens, I’ll always have my big brother by my side and it brings me solace. He smiles at me and kisses my forehead,
‘I’m so glad I found you, little butterfly,’
‘I’m elated,’
Mutinta helps me do my make-up perfectly but before Enrique and I can exit the pack house, a few warriors come rushing to us, panting.
‘What is it?’ Asks the Alpha.
‘The Lycan King is at the border sir,’
My heart thumps out of my chest as different emotions bombard my head space, oh my god, Leondre is here and he’s here for me.
