Chapter 1 Mate

The Lycan was a wall of masculine muscle behind me. His body heat scorched me even through my wedding dress; his breath seared the shell of my ear as he leaned closer and whispered, "Mate..."

If the last Lycan was The Devil, I thought I might want to go to Hell.

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Helen POV

The Devil's Lair

"You have to wake up now! C'mon, c'mon!"

I forced my eyelids to open. They felt so heavy I thought I would have better luck lifting the world. My head hurt badly and I could feel bruises forming on one side of my body where I'd evidently been thrown down to the ground by whoever had abducted me.

"Wha---?" I struggled to ask, my tongue feeling thick and too heavy the way my eyelids did.

My cheek felt as if it were bruised. I suddenly remembered being slapped and my eyes sprang open as adrenaline flooded my system, telling me to get up, to run, to fight.

The girl at my side gripped my arms tightly. She shook me a little while shaking her own head 'no' at the same time.

"We're in The Devil's Lair. We've been brought as tributes. You can't make trouble or they might kill you before you even get a chance to see him."

"The Devil?" I asked, stunned and suddenly terrified.

Nodding again, the girl quickly whispered, "I'm Donna. My parents saved me to offer him. I hope he picks me! If I become his Luna, my parents will get to live in the Alpha House with me and my whole family will benefit. I'm the first Snow White our line has had in generations."

A Snow White was a werewolf female with pure white fur: the strongest female, the Alpha female, the most desirable and beautiful mate for wolves to have.

The only thing Snow White about me was the wedding dress I was wearing though it was not pristine after all I'd been through.

Pushing the voluminous skirt down, I wriggled around until I was sitting up beside Donna. We were both secured with zip ties at our wrists and thick ropes at our ankles. A look down the row revealed all the women were trussed up the same way: virgin sacrifices for the last Lycan.

Fear prickled through me, making my skin hypersensitive as I grew more and more worried about what was going to happen to me next.

I knew all the stories regarding Alpha Justin, last Lycan and only son of the Alpha King Juden. They called him 'The Devil' because he was a raging beast as a result of his nature.

According to the rumors, Alpha Justin could only be tamed by having sex with a virgin wolf during the full moon. Every pack sent virgins to sacrifice to The Devil. He turned them all away. Cruelly. Violently. Some went crazy from his rejection. What did he do to drive women crazy with only a rejection?

"Your parents sent you as tribute? So are you from Lone Wolf?" I asked, trying to use our whispered conversation to distract me from my panic.

"I am," Donna said, obviously proud of her pack, "What pack are you from? I haven't seen you around."

I could detect a hint of jealousy in the question and tried to suppress a frown. Why would she be jealous of me? Didn't she know what they said The Devil did to the tributes? She had to know I hadn't been offered voluntarily. Did she think I was going to be chosen over her? Over all the other virgin wolves to come before?

"I'm from Fiery Cross Pack. My father is Alpha Henry. I'm a Tiger Lily so I don't go on many outings to other territories."

I was a mixed coat -called a Tiger Lily like the wild princess who had tried so hard to steal the heart of Peter Pan- with fur made up of three colors. My family had hoped for better for me, but my first shift nearly broke my father's heart.

Donna seemed to relax after learning I had a mixed coat. In her eyes, I was less desirable already.

Testing the zip ties on my wrists, I realized I wouldn't be able to break them unless I shifted. I drew my knees up to pluck at the rope wrapped around my ankles, but my fingers weren't strong enough to take the knots apart. I was as helpless as all the other women lining the hallway to the door of what had to be The Devil's Lair.

The heavy wooden door looked solid and intact which surprised me more than it should have. I knew The Devil was supposed to be chained in his chambers. He was said to savage some of the virgins offered to him. He couldn't be too violent behind such a beautiful door, right?

"Tell me how you got here? Please?" Donna asked.

I didn't see how telling Donna about my capture could hurt.

"I made a bad decision. I went to a bar alone. I got drunk. I guess because I don't drink often and I felt confused. Some soldiers came in. They asked if I was a virgin. They laughed at me when I said 'yes' and I was going to slap them for laughing only someone hit me first. I passed out and woke up here. You were shaking me. That's it. The whole story."

"Except for the part about why you were wearing a wedding dress alone in a bar," Donna pointed out.

I shrugged without answering. She didn't need to know everything---and the truth was too humiliating to face when we were already in a terrible situation.

No warning preceded the first she-wolf being pushed through the door. I wondered what would happen for a few seconds at most; the first woman raced back into the hall as if the hounds of Hell were chasing her.

Every she-wolf between me and the door was rejected or sent out in under a few minutes. Tears, babbling, and even a few screams came from the ones The Devil didn't want.

The closer it got to my turn, the more nervous I became---and the more confident Donna got.

I thought Donna would have better luck for sure, but she had barely entered the room before a roar echoed from behind the door and she was thrown out hard enough to leave her in a heap at my feet. Her arm was at a strange angle as she tried to get up; I wanted to go to her only to find myself thrust through the door instead.

I was in The Devil's Lair!

Cold air blew over me making me shiver. I could see little in the darkness of the room even with my enhanced werewolf sight. My hearing picked up the sound of chains -they said The Devil was kept chained all the time because of his uncontrollable rages- and my shivers turned to full body shakes.

"Hello?" I whispered, wondering if talking to him would get me thrown out faster or more forcefully.

The Devil surprised me by responding, "Hello."

His voice was rich and dark and sent a wholly different kind of shiver through me.

I shuffled forward a few steps only to be grabbed up in strong, heavy arms. A wild scent of open forest and sandalwood flooded my nose; I went limp in The Devil's arms rather than making any attempt to free myself.

His huge hands swept over my body, cupping my breasts and squeezing them over my dress before releasing them to rub down my flat stomach to my full hips. I had never been so aware of my body as I was with him exploring my shape over my wedding gown. What would his hands feel like on my bare skin?

I was simultaneously terrified and turned on. I didn't know if I wanted to scream or strip for The Devil; I let him turn my body around and my head fell to the side as he pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the claiming spot at the nape of my neck.

"Yes," I whispered, not sure what I was agreeing to or why except I was and I had to because this moment with this monster? My whole life had led up to this.

The Devil was a wall of masculine muscle behind me. His body heat scorched me even through my wedding dress; his breath seared the shell of my ear as he leaned closer and whispered, "Mate..."

If the last Lycan was The Devil, I thought I might want to go to Hell.

No males had ever been allowed to touch me. I was kept pure.

His scent wrapped around me as heavily as his arms and his lips were hot as they pressed against my pounding pulse at the base of my throat. My heart skipped a beat while my body responded with a flash of heat to match the one ruling the Lycan.

I had never felt so hot, so alive, so aware of my own skin as I was with the Lycan wrapped around me. His hands traveled over my dress again, making me moan as his hot palms cupped my breasts, making the satin of my wedding gown rub the hard peaks of my nipples.

I wanted him to tear my dress off, touch my skin, touch me, touch me, touch me.

He ground his body against mine, making me moan again even though I couldn't feel him nearly as well as I wanted through the yards of material making up my gown.

I'd never wanted to touch a man the way I wanted to touch this wild male.

Reaching behind me, my fingers were nearly claws as I sank them into his hips, trying to get him to move closer. But suddenly, he pushed me away with a hard shove which sent me slamming into the door.