Reborn To Claim The Ruthless Alpha King

Adrienne POV:

I opened my eyes. The light from the crystal chandelier stung my eyes.

The pain of being torn apart by mutant rogue wolves in my past life was still lodged in my bones. But when I looked down-my own hands. A twenty-one-year-old's hands. Clean, without a single scar.

I had been reborn. Back to Selection Day, back to the central contract hall of the King Pack Corporation.

Today was the day every unclaimed wolfless servant was publicly assigned. The nobles sat on the high platforms and made their picks; those chosen signed a lifetime contract on the spot, and those not chosen were sent to the border for hard labor.

The scent of high-ranking werewolves pressed down over the entire hall. Cedar, ozone, deep musk.

"I choose young master Bobby Villarreal!"

A shrill voice broke the murmurs. I turned my head.

My sister, Dayana, was clinging tightly to Bobby Villarreal's arm, her hazel eyes full of greedy triumph. She tilted her head back, smiling at the high-born wolves around her as if she had just seized the crown jewel of the entire territory.

She shot me a smug, venomous look and lifted her chin.

She thought she had stolen my former destiny-becoming the primary mate to the wealthy heir of the Villarreal conglomerate. Like me, she had been reborn.

I lowered my gaze and hid the cold sneer at the corners of my lips.

Let her take him. She had no idea that in our past life, Bobby had risen step by step because I planned every move for him, endured his drunken rages, and quietly stabilized his chaotic bloodline. Without me, he was nothing more than an arrogant, useless Beta playboy.

Bobby was flattered by Dayana's desperate clinging. He pinched her chin with two fingers, his sandy hair falling over his forehead, and gave her a loose, arrogant smirk.

The officiating Elder tapped his silver-tipped staff against the marble floor and frowned down at me.

"Adrienne Harrison, you are a wolfless servant. You do not have the right to waste our time. Make your choice."

Wolfless: born without an inner wolf. We could not shift, we could not link minds, and we sat at the very bottom of the Pack hierarchy.

I took a slow breath, my gaze cutting through the sea of noble warriors to land on the throne-like chair at the highest dais.

Benjamin King.

The Alpha King who ruled the territory and the CEO of the entire King conglomerate. He sat there without moving, turning the black-gold signet ring on his thumb, shrouded in a cold, suffocating aura of pure dominance.

Rumor said an old silver wound had put his inner wolf into a permanent sleep, leaving him sterile, violent, and completely detached from women.

I stepped forward.

With every step, the cold cedar pressure radiating from him grew heavier, pressing on my lungs like lead, screaming at my fragile human body to collapse.

The entire hall fell dead silent. Hundreds of eyes stared at me as if I had lost my mind. Dayana even let out a muffled snicker, crossed her arms, and waited to watch me die.

I stopped three paces from Benjamin's dais. Meeting his cold, cobalt-blue gaze, I sank slowly onto one knee, my back straight, my head bowed just slightly.

"I am willing to sign a lifetime contract with the Alpha King."

My voice was level and clear, echoing through the silent hall.

I lifted the cheap wooden servant token high above my head with both hands.

A wave of suppressed laughter broke out behind me.

"A filthy wolfless thinks she can touch the Alpha King?" someone sneered. "He'll snap her neck before sunset."

Benjamin stopped turning his ring.

He leaned forward slightly, and a low, resonant growl rumbled from deep in his chest. The vibration rattled my eardrums, and a shiver shot straight down my spine.

He did not take the token at once. His cold, calculating gaze dragged over my pale blonde hair, examining my deliberately submissive posture. For a split second, a flicker of dark turbulence crossed his eyes.

I kept my hands raised. Cold sweat had already gathered at the back of my neck.

I knew exactly what he was looking at. He was looking for the ghost of Serena-his deceased cousin, whose fragile features and honey-amber eyes were terrifyingly similar to mine.

Dayana leaned into Bobby's shoulder and giggled loudly. "Look at my sister, trying to climb into a dead man's bed. She's begging for death."

"Noisy."

Benjamin did not raise his voice, but a crushing wave of Alpha's Command sliced through the air like a shockwave.

Dayana's laughter died in her throat. The color drained from her face, her knees gave out, and she crashed hard onto the marble tiles. Bobby staggered back two paces, clutching his chest, too frightened to even help her up.

Benjamin turned his attention back to me.

He reached out. His long, calloused fingers, hardened from years of holding a gun, brushed lightly against the back of my hand as he took the wooden token.

The brief skin-to-skin contact sent a dry heat through my veins. Even without an inner wolf, the physiological intensity of a supreme Alpha made my pulse race.

He pulled the cheap piece of wood from my hand and tossed it carelessly to the Gamma guard standing beside him.

"If you want to die so badly, send her to the kitchen of my private estate."

Benjamin leaned back into the leather chair, his voice carrying no warmth at all. He treated me like an inanimate tool, not a woman.

"Thank you, Alpha."

I pressed my forehead against the cold floor and hid the sharp, triumphant smile curving at my lips.

On the elder dais to the left, Matriarch Eleanor King narrowed her sharp eyes. She leaned heavily on her silver cane, studying my face with intense, calculating interest.

The selection ceremony ended as the nobles dispersed.

I pushed myself up from the floor and smoothed down my plain gray dress without a glance at Dayana. Bobby was dragging her away, and she was glaring at me.

I followed the armed guards down the private corridor reserved for the Alpha's residence.

Benjamin King was called a heartless monster; because of his sleeping wolf, he could never father an heir. But I knew the truth from my past life-his wolf was not dead, only chained by trauma and silver poisoning.

If I played my cards right and used the ghost of the woman he could never save, I would get a child from him and gain the power to crush every single person who had destroyed me in my past life.

A head maid received me at the end of the servant quarters hall and thrust a bundle of crisp fabric into my arms.

It was a maid dress made of pure, unblemished white silk-the exact color and fabric Serena had worn every single day.

In the King Pack estate, white was forbidden. Since Serena's death, no one had dared to wear it.

I looked down at the white dress in my arms, my fingertips turning colder by the degree.

Whoever had shoved it at me either wanted me to live, or wanted me to die.

Adrienne POV:

The head maid was already gone.

The corridor was dark. I stood in the servant quarters, my fingertips brushing over the white silk-cool, so fine it would not survive any force.

When the head maid had pushed the fabric into my arms, she had offered no explanation. She had only lowered her voice and said one thing: "Someone wants to see whether that face of yours can make him break his rule." Then she turned and left.

Someone wanted an heir. Someone wanted to see whether my face could make her grandson break his rule. The head maid was testing me, and she was also pushing me toward death. Either way, I needed this dress.

I stripped out of the gray servant tunic and pulled the white dress on. The cut hugged my waist, the hem falling to my ankles. I let my pale blonde hair down, and in front of the cracked mirror I adjusted my expression. Softer, gentler, with a trace of melancholy. Like a woman about to break.

The clock in the central courtyard chimed midnight.

Tonight was the union ceremony of Benjamin's distant cousin. My memories of the past life told me he would be forced to drink large amounts of silver-treated wolf-bane liquor to hold down his sensory overload in a political setting. Right now, he should be alone in his private top-floor study, suffering it out with his suppressed wolf.

I slipped out of the servant room. The wolfless have no inner wolf, and our scent is so faint it barely exists. In this den full of sharp-sensed predators, having no presence at all was my best camouflage.

Relying on my memories of the past life, I avoided the Gamma patrol shift routes, circled behind the western library, and slipped into that narrow spiral staircase. The higher I went, the thicker the air became. Pine needles, bitter wolf-bane fumes, and scorching cedar pheromones pressed against the walls. My chest tightened, and my legs grew heavier.

The double oak doors of the master suite were right in front of me.

I drew a breath, stopped the trembling in my fingers, and turned the brass handle.

The door opened.

The room was swallowed in darkness, with only moonlight coming in through the floor-to-ceiling bulletproof window. On the leather sofa in the corner sat a massive silhouette.

Benjamin had torn off his tie, his black shirt half unbuttoned. His chest was broad, and a jagged, pale scar ran along his collarbone-left by pure silver. His right hand gripped a half-empty glass of amber liquor, his knuckles white, and low, ragged panting rolled from his throat. The air was full of his pheromones, so thick it was almost suffocating.

I stepped onto the rug. My bare feet made no sound.

But the moment my shadow crossed the moonlight, his head snapped toward me. His cobalt-blue eyes were bloodshot, glowing in the dark with a feral, predatory hunger.

"Get out."

Alpha's Command hit my chest like a wall. My knees went weak and my vision blurred. But I had no inner wolf to force me into submission. I bit the inside of my cheek, and the taste of blood steadied me.

I did not run. Instead, I took a step forward.

Benjamin stood up, and the crystal glass shattered against the armrest. In less than a second he was in front of me. His tall body blocked out the moonlight, and the scalding heat coming off him was like a furnace. His hand clamped onto my throat, his fingers sinking into my flesh, forcing my chin up.

"I said, get out." He snarled through clenched teeth, a dangerous flash of gold in his eyes.

I did not struggle, and I did not claw at his wrist. I let my head tilt back and let the tears float in my honey-amber eyes. The moonlight lit my soft face, and the white dress clinging to my trembling body.

"Ben..." I called softly, my voice breaking into a soft sob. "It hurts."

He went completely still.

His pupils contracted violently, the gold in his eyes wavering, terror and disbelief colliding. The hand on my throat loosened, then seized my shoulder in desperation.

"Serena?"

His voice was hoarse, torn open by grief and confusion. The alcohol, the silver fever, the five years of guilt-all of it collapsed in that moment.

I did not correct him. I leaned my cheek gently into his burning palm, like a frightened small animal seeking warmth.

The last thread of his reason snapped.

A low, hoarse roar came from deep in Benjamin's chest. He yanked me against his hard chest, both arms wrapping around my waist with enough force to almost crush my ribs. His face buried into the crook of my neck, and he inhaled deeply. His hot, ragged breath seared my skin. Before coming up I had deliberately used clean pine soap, covering the scentlessness of a wolfless and giving him an illusion of peace.

"Don't leave again." He growled against my ear, his lips grazing my jaw.

He scooped me up and threw me onto the huge bed. Before I could catch my breath, his heavy body pressed down, pinning my wrists against the dark velvet sheets above my head.

His mouth came down on mine with brutal, desperate hunger.

Adrienne POV:

The kiss was brutal and desperate, full of bitter whiskey and runaway cedar pheromones.

Benjamin crushed my lips almost as if biting, one hand pinning me hard to the mattress until the air in my lungs was nearly wrung out. The silver fever had reduced him to a beast ruled entirely by instinct, and I was his only prey tonight.

I had dared to come here, and not because I was stupid.

That line the head maid had said when she pushed the white dress at me-"someone wants to see"-was my card to play. Someone wanted an heir. Someone wanted a woman who could make her grandson break his rule. My face, which looked like Serena, was the reason I had been chosen. If Benjamin really killed me, that person would investigate, and the head maid would testify. However violent he was, once sober he would not openly defy that person's arrangement.

But the premise was that he had to stay unclear first.

A shrill alarm suddenly cut through the courtyard, and red warning light swept through the gap in the curtains into the dim bedroom. Right after, urgent pounding came at the door from the corridor.

"Alpha!" The Gamma guard's voice outside was anxious. "Border breach at sector four! Rogues have broken in!"

Benjamin's movement stopped. The dark gold glow of the beast in his eyes flickered uncertainly. He propped his upper body up and narrowed his eyes at me. The self-control of a high-ranking Alpha was forcing down his instinct; the haze of the silver fever was receding.

If he sobered up now, I was dead. A wolfless "defective" shoved onto him by his family, appearing in his bed while he was in the grip of the fever-with the violence he showed when clear-headed, he would snap my neck without a thought.

But I was betting on something else.

I immediately arched my back, let the tears slide into my temples on cue, and put on the most fragile, helpless look. I reached out with a trembling hand and touched his taut jaw, stepping precisely on the forbidden ground deep in his heart.

"Ben..." I whimpered, my voice shaking. "Please... don't leave me alone in the dark again. I'm so cold."

That sentence was the last straw that broke his reason. The shadow of that tragedy five years ago instantly shattered his defenses, and the sliver of clarity that had just surfaced in his eyes was swallowed whole by violent possessiveness.

"Damn the border." He growled, and ripped apart my silk nightgown, his scalding body pressing down again with the force to destroy everything.

The terrifying pressure of a pureblood Alpha made my whole body tremble. His lips traveled to the side of my neck, searching for the position of the gland, his sharp canines brushing dangerously against that fragile skin.

My heart stopped. If he bit down now and forced a mark, I, with no wolf nature at all, could not withstand the rejection of a pureblood soul link-I would die on the spot.

"Ben, look at me." I gasped, seizing his black hair and forcing his head up. Then I tilted my neck back and bit down on his Adam's apple, pressing a feverish, desperate kiss there.

The distraction worked. The touch on that vital spot stirred a more primitive conquest in him. He let out a heavy, low growl, abandoned the marking, and drove into me instead, hard.

The storm outside beat against the bulletproof glass, covering the sounds in the master bedroom. Like a beast completely out of control, using the silver fever as his excuse, he vented the madness and hatred he had suppressed over these five years of being forced into a bond with me. I closed my eyes and endured the tearing pain in silence, my mind unnaturally clear.

This was nothing more than the price I had to pay to survive in this wolf pack that eats people. I was betting that he would not recognize who I was while the fever had him, betting that once sober he would not dare to dig deeper because of the name "Serena," betting that the old matriarch would protect me.

It was not until the first faint light of dawn came through the curtains that the long torment finally subsided. Benjamin collapsed heavily onto my shoulder, his breathing gradually evening out, sinking completely into sleep.

I carefully moved aside his dead-heavy arm, endured the pain of a body falling apart, and slipped out of bed. On the nightstand lay a silver letter opener.

I picked up the knife and did not touch my arm-I aimed the blade at the inside of my thigh. An Alpha's sense of smell is too sharp; if the position of the blood scent were wrong, he would suspect immediately. Last night had been brutal enough, but the body of a defective like me still had a faint ability to heal itself, and the real tearing wounds had long stopped bleeding.

I gritted my teeth and cut a shallow line, then smeared the fresh blood onto the tangled white sheets. A wound on the inner thigh could pass perfectly as the blood of a first night, and with the thick sweat and Alpha pheromones filling the room as cover, it would be seamless.

The King Pack's rules had always been strict, and as the matriarch, Matriarch Eleanor required "evidence" of the consummation. Without this pool of blood proving I had become his mate in substance, the moment Benjamin woke would be the death sentence that sent me to the dungeons.

I wiped the blade clean, put it back where it had been, and climbed back into bed.

The instant I lay down, Benjamin instinctively pulled me back into his burning arms. I stared at the sun gradually rising outside the window, felt his powerful heartbeat, and quietly waited for the executioner beside me to wake.

An hour later, the air in the room seemed to freeze solid in an instant.

A terrifying killing intent locked onto my throat and stripped away my breath. I opened my eyes and met Benjamin's cobalt-blue eyes-fully awake, cold as ice. His large hand was clamped hard on my windpipe, and the black-gold signet ring that symbolized the leader's power bit deep into my flesh.

"Who gave you the nerve," his voice was very low, every word steeped in poison, as if the madness of last night had never happened, "to climb into my bed?"