Captive Mate Series

~Alpha Kian~

My mate is the most ridiculous person I have ever met.

A human with no prior training or idea about pack wars and warriors. And yet, she thinks she can win a fight against me using her tiny dagger. Me, the strongest alpha that any pack has seen in a century. I was already rocking it much before I took over the Storm Moon Pack from my dad recently.

As I lie awake in my bed thinking about my chosen mate, Adalyn, and wondering if I am doing the right thing by ignoring the Moon Goddess's choice, I sense that my mate, Nyla, is somewhere near me. She probably wants to kill me once I fall asleep.

I killed everyone Nyla cared about when I attacked the Red Crescent Pack. She was Alpha Wyatt's true soulmate; the Alpha who was going to be coronated the Alpha King, and she was going to be his Luna Queen. How could my dad and I let that happen? Why would we submit to a weaker pack than ours? Maybe if this happened two years back when the Storm Moon Pack was unknown and unheard of, sure. But not anymore.

Just like Wyatt had Nyla, I once had a true soulmate too, Leah. She was everything I ever wanted, and pack wars or claiming territories was the least of my concerns or interests. I just wanted to raise my pups with her. The day I lost her, I lost my humanity too.

My pack turned from being nameless to one of the most feared in just two years. I trained my warriors hard, and we took over lands far and wide. There is a lot of blood on my hands, but I have no regrets. I only carry one regret: failing to protect Leah.

As the next Alpha in line, my pack needs a Luna. My chosen mate, Adalyn, is a perfect fit. Smart, strong, and beautiful. I don't feel a thing for her, which is great. She can't be my weakness, and she is just like me.

"I don't want my mate to be my weakness either. I will kill him when I meet him," she said when I had my doubts. She was power-hungry, just like me.

Little did I know, I was going to meet Nyla one fateful day when my pack and I made a surprise entry to disrupt their coronation ceremony. The minute I killed Wyatt, the Moon Goddess with her cruel sense of humor made Nyla my second chance mate.

A mate who is seething with a vengeance. Being a human, she does not feel the mate bond like I do. I did well so far by avoiding her or deadpanning every time I saw her. But her scent is irresistible. It is very different from Leah's, and yet, it has the same effect on me.

The smell of rain and raspberries assaulted my senses before I heard her footsteps. Not sure how long she lived with Wyatt, but she was clueless about werewolf senses. She wasn't being particularly quiet and stealthy at this moment either. The door creaked open, and I closed my eyes immediately, pretending to be fast asleep.

I could hear the rustle of silk as she walked closer to my bed. She hesitantly raised that silly dagger again, ready to stab me. Seriously?

I grabbed her by the waist and slammed her against my mattress, pinning her arms above her head. Her eyes widened when she realized her dagger was in my hand now.

"Let go of me!" She writhed against my grip and tried to knee me at the same time.

"Did you really think you could take me down with this?" I felt like playing with my prey.

She punched me in the chest as I ripped her blouse with the dagger. A rush of emotions assailed me that I long forgot about.

"Please, let me go." She covered her nakedness by crossing her arms against her chest.

Her blush pink lips glistened in the moonlight. I crushed my lips hard against her, kissing her deeply while holding her down in a tight embrace. She whimpered and stopped struggling. For a moment, it was like she could feel the way I did.

A low growl escaped me as I kissed her more passionately, pressing my lips along the side of her slender neck.

"Kian..." She moaned my name and pulled me closer.

"Do you really want me dead?" I whispered against her ear, cupping her breasts with my hands.

She moaned again, arching her back and giving me more access to her body. I lowered my mouth onto her chest as she tugged at my hair, gasping for breath.

I trailed kisses down her stomach, finding and nibbling at her sweet spots before going further down. She sat up as if a bolt of thunder hit her. I don't think I would have stopped anytime soon if she hadn't come back to her senses like that. My canines were elongated, and my wolf was urging me to mark her.

'Calm down, Rex! I can't mark her. You know that better than me.'

He wouldn't stop growling and whimpering as Nyla got up and snatched my blanket to cover herself.

"Lend me your shirt!" She sounded pissed, but more like pissed at herself than at me.

I pulled her close again, straddling her on top of me. A moonstone pendant hit my chin and a golden light flickered inside it for a second before disappearing. She put it back inside the blanket to hide it from me.

I pulled it out again to look at it properly.

"What is this? Doesn't look like a moonstone." It had an intense blue color, but the golden glow inside it looked unreal.

Her voice faltered before she put together an audible response, "Nothing. It glows like that every full moon. Nothing special about it."

Had I known what it was, I would have destroyed it right that moment and returned her where she belonged. Clueless as I was, I restrained her in my embrace and showered her with kisses, unwilling to let her go.

My mate.

Six Weeks Earlier

~Nyla~

I was the happiest person in the world. Life was treating me really well, and I got everything I wanted.

At least that's what I thought. I was too naive at that point to know that life didn't give a hoot about our wants and dreams. What life offered to us was more like fish bait, only to entangle us into a deeper abyss of sorrow and pain.

Was I in the mood for such deep thoughts and realizations? Hell no! I was in the la la land.

I was standing on the west balcony of the palace, overlooking the fiery skies and the lush, landscaped gardens. In less than a year, this place had become more home to me than where I spent most of my life. This was Wyatt's home, and now mine and our upcoming pup's.

Until I met Wyatt, I thought soulmates were a hoax made up by the elders to push young people into forced marriages. I wasn't a wolf or a human, but I still felt an intense connection to him because of the mate bond we shared. It was surely a thing.

"Daydreaming again? Did you name your unborn child the dozenth time already?" Wyatt's sister, Skylar, teased me as usual.

"Oh, shut up, Sky!" I giggled as we went back into the castle.

"Your dear husband has turned the kitchen into shambles. He needs you for moral support because rest are all pouncing on him with jibes."

"Gee! Hope he doesn't ask me for help."

She chuckled, "Gosh, I hope not! We all know what a terrible cook you are."

"Ouch!"

There was a sparkle in Skylar's eyes. Her porcelain skin was glowing with health and her clear blue eyes were oozing happiness, just like mine. She was pregnant too, but unlike me, she was not due anytime soon.

I was still wrapping my head around how werewolf pregnancies were different from human ones. Wyatt kept my identity a secret because he believed his pack would not accept me as their Luna. Some of them already resented me for not being one of them. Wyatt told them I was a human, and so they all thought I was weak and didn't belong.

"It does smell funky. How can he make a dessert smell so bad?" I asked Skylar as we neared the kitchen.

"He will get there by tomorrow morning."

Wyatt's folks, which were the Red Crescent Pack, followed a lot of customs and traditions that the rest of the werewolf world forgot about. When we get coronated tomorrow, we will all be wearing traditional clothes, and the new Luna Queen is supposed to make a dessert to offer a spoonful each to the crowds who attend the event.

Knowing my excellent cooking skills, everyone voted for the dessert part to be excluded from the event. But the Luna Queen believed that offering dessert to those who bless us would make their blessings come true.

Wyatt took up the task of making the dessert on my behalf, but he only found out today that cooking was rocket science indeed.

"That makes two of us," I said, pinching his nose.

"Don't even get me started." He pretended to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

Skylar tasted a tiny piece of the fancy pudding he failed to make. Her face scrunched immediately in disgust. "Not sure about blessings, but they will surely curse you if this is going to be the end result."

I tasted some to see if it was really that bad. Wyatt looked at me with a cute face, as if it didn't matter what everyone else thought as long as I liked it.

"It's not that bad," I said, trying to suppress my laughter. The custard in it was burnt and undercooked at the same time.

Everyone protested at once while Wyatt flashed one of his sexy smiles at me and picked me up to place me on the kitchen counter. I looked at the door to escape, hoping that he didn't offer more to eat. It was so bad that I felt nauseous.

I melted into his arms as we both ignored the rest of the folks and kissed.

"My Nyla likes everything about me, even a horrid pudding I make." He laughed as he realized I was trying to ignore the dessert's aftertaste in my mouth.

He dropped the kitchen towel next to me in resignation. "Well, I give up! There will be no dessert from us."

Skylar and others sighed in relief.

"Alpha, we got the news that the New Moon Pack will be arriving in another thirty minutes." One of the Omegas informed Wyatt.

"We should get ready to receive them," he told me and turned to the Omega. "Get rid of this smell before the others show up for dinner."

"Vance!" Wyatt called out as his Beta walked into the Great Hall while I was going upstairs. "Is everything fine with the guests?"

"So far, so good. The Storm Moon Pack won't be here until tomorrow," Vance replied.

"Oh good, fewer folks to worry about."

We have been receiving guests all day today. There were over three hundred people on our grounds already, with another five hundred or so to show up early tomorrow.

Wyatt passed more orders to Vance and asked him to let his Gamma know he wanted to meet him as well. Nothing turned me on more than watching him talk to his pack members about warriors and defense strategies. The commanding voice and confidence he exuded were so sexy.

I stared at his short, straight blond hair and blue eyes as he relayed a few instructions in a serious tone. Such a perfect man! How did I get so lucky? He did not reject me despite the odds, and sharing my secret with him lifted a huge burden off my chest just before our mating ceremony.

All that happened many months ago, and yet it felt like it was only yesterday when I was his shy and scared bride. I had imagined many scenarios with him as his weird mate, some good and some bad, but reality turned out far better than any of those imaginations.

I loved him and his family, pack, everything my new life gave me-everything which was going to be destroyed by one man the very next day-by the ruthless Alpha Kian of the Storm Moon Pack.

~Nyla~

By 5 AM the next morning, every dressing room in the palace was cluttered with hair and makeup products. The Omegas were hustling around while Skylar and Maya fussed about spa soaks and wraps in flowers and seaweeds.

Maya was like me, not a human or a werewolf. Wyatt found her the same day he found me and agreed to take her in when I asked him to. Having her around was like having a piece of my home with me. To the outsiders, she was a rude, violent woman who wouldn't waste a second snapping their heads off. Wyatt never liked her around me. But she was different with me, she loved me and put me before her own needs or safety. I would do the same for her.

"Our soon-to-be Luna Queen will get a full body treatment." She said to the girls who were ready to pamper me.

"No scented oils and all, please. I feel nauseous." I told them before closing my eyes.

Ever since I woke up, I have been feeling the jitters. Probably I wasn't ready for the responsibilities that came with the Luna Queen title. Or maybe I wasn't after all ready for this wolf pup growing inside me. Whatever it was, I wanted this mild panic attack to go away soon.

While the girls did all the work, I dozed off in exhaustion. Wyatt and I stayed up all last night thinking about how our lives were going to change. He was more than ready to claim his father's title and was extremely excited and wouldn't stop talking. His mother came knocking at our door at the crack of dawn while we were still talking.

After two hours of scrubbing, cleaning up, manicures and pedicures, Maya and Skylar took turns to annoy the pack's top hairstylist about what hairdo would look best on me for the occasion.

"I already know how I want my hair done," I interrupted them and pointed to my dress, "That dress will look best if my hair is straightened out to longer waves. I am bored with tight curls anyway. And those heavy updos give me a headache." I seemed to struggle a lot with smells and headaches this month.

"As you say, Your Majesty," Skylar grinned.

"I am so excited about this dress!" Maya squealed and brought it for me to put on.

I wondered what Wyatt was going to wear. He looked darn hot in his crisp shirts and impeccable suits. I was sure he would look equally dazzling today in the traditional wear as well.

"Oh, wow!" I exclaimed, along with Skylar and Maya, when I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I guess we look our best when we are happy and smiling, but with this dress and makeup, anyone would look gorgeous. I was proud of my hair that hung like a dark river, touching my waist. The wispy ringlets around my face and the subtle highlights on the top looked too perfect.

"I love this, Kylee! Thank you so much." I hugged the Omega who did such a fantastic job with my hair.

She was a human, just like many other Omegas in the pack. Wyatt told me that sometimes the pups don't inherit the werewolf gene, despite having two werewolf parents. Such pups were weaker, even with good training, and fell terribly short in strength and speed when fighting against werewolves and vampires. If they didn't turn by the age of thirteen, which was the age to confirm for sure that they lacked the gene, they were assigned Omega tasks.

Kylee had become more than just my hairstylist. She was my guide to help me understand the human ways. I learned a lot from her about the human's ability to hear and smell and how it compared to an alpha versus an omega wolf.

Apparently, the alphas didn't just have superior training or strength, they also had a stronger sense of hearing and smell than the other wolves. I was really poor at remembering these things, despite seeing how Wyatt could hear someone talk at the palace entrance while we were dining in the Great Hall at times.

I wasn't just poor at remembering so many details. I was also not very good at fighting or using weapons. Maya and I started training with the pack warriors the day Wyatt accepted me as his mate. I was too scared of the speed at which the weapons moved. It was hard to pick something new after living for twenty-two years as a completely different entity.

That wasn't the case with Maya. She was strong and fast, and she took Wyatt by surprise when she fought and won a duel just two weeks after starting her training.

"I think you can also be as fast and strong if Maya is your kind and managed to learn so quickly. You just need confidence and rest will take care of itself with some hard work."

With his encouragement and Maya's support, I did get better over the months, but I was still not as good as her. She picked new skills every month and turned into a killing machine in half a year. Now, even Beta Vance fears her abilities and keeps asking Wyatt if she was really a human as she claims to be.

"Snap out of it!" Skylar shook me lightly, complaining about my recent tendency to drift off into thoughts too often.

"You two look so pretty! We are rocking these traditional outfits," I said.

"Let's take a picture," Skylar said, grabbing her phone.

"We look so colorful. Am I not a little too flashy in this yellow?" Maya cringed at herself when looking at our selfie. She was never happy with her selfies. Skylar and I knew very well our words of assurance were wasted on her, but we still tried.

"You look fabulous, woman!" Skylar said.

"And this edgy asymmetric haircut suits you really well. So badass and beautiful at the same time," I added. She was convinced for a moment before finding something else to complain about.

"But this neck is plunging too deep, don't you think?" She asked me.

"It's called a plunging neckline. Hello? You wanted a sexy 'plunging' neckline dress, remember?!" She did not care about going traditional when shopping for a dress.

Skylar, on the other hand, walked out of the room confidently in her halter-neck mermaid dress in pear green. The color of her clear blue eyes popped out, and those ash blonde locks were so fine and glossy. She was as gorgeous as her brother.

My dress and the finished look were supposed to be a surprise for Wyatt, but I think he already knew I would be wearing purple. It was my favorite color. I stopped wearing it too often only because he mocked my lingerie, calling them a little too purple.

Well, he would forget all about the color when he sees how hot this dress is. I had my doubts about pulling off a sexy dress during the last month of pregnancy, but not anymore. An ornately embroidered high-waisted dress with sheer full sleeves and multiple tulle layers that pour into a huge, flowing splash of purple and gray.

"Absolutely stunning!" The Queen smiled warmly and took my hands into hers as I walked out of the dressing room.

She froze the next moment, and so did Skylar.

"What's wrong?" The expression on their faces scared me.

"Got a mindlink from Wyatt. The pack borders have been attacked by the Storm Moon Pack. He had to leave." The Queen responded.

"He said not to worry as it could be a false alarm," Skylar assured me.

Attack by the Storm Moon Pack. The name sent chills down my spine. It was only last night that Wyatt told me about them.

"Nyla...!" Maya wrapped her arm around me as I leaned against the pillar for support.

"I think my water just broke."