The Ruthless Alpha's contract Bride

Manhattan was a frigid, unforgiving void tonight. The heavy, damp air clung to my skin like a shroud as I stepped off the bus in South Manhattan. I'm a fashion student at NYU-I should be worrying about hemlines and sketches-but instead, I was walking toward the one place I never wanted to see: Rainbow Hospital.

My fingers drummed a frantic, nervous rhythm on the reception desk. "Hello, I'm here for an appointment with Dr. Shepherd," I managed to say.

The receptionist looked up, her smile far too warm for a night this cold. "Just a moment, dear." She checked her screen and nodded. "Please go straight down the hall and turn into the last room on your left."

Every step felt like lead. When I entered the office, Dr. Shepherd was checking her watch, looking relieved. "Shireen, I'm glad you made it. I thought you might not come today."

"I'm so sorry, ma'am," I said, my voice trembling. "I had an unexpected class." I pulled a chair toward her, my hands shaking so violently I had to grip the back of the seat just to keep from falling apart.

Her expression softened as she slid a document across the desk. My eyes stung with tears I refused to let fall. I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants and reached for the pen, but she stopped me. Her gaze was penetrating.

"Are you doing this of your own free will?"

I couldn't trust my voice, so I just nodded.

"You can still back out, you know," she said gently. "The person you're doing this for-the one who needs you to take this-is filled with more venom than you can imagine. Be careful, Shireen."

A shiver raced down my spine. Did I even have a choice? "I am doing this wholeheartedly, with complete sanity, Dr. Shepherd," I replied, my voice meek but firm.

"Please read the agreement, honey, before you sign."

The surgical room was sterile and terrifying. As I lay on the cold table, my heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. I have to do this, I whispered to the empty air, squeezing my eyes shut.

Then came the needle. It was a searing, sharp intrusion. I whimpered, and finally, the tears broke free. Mama, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I love you and Papa, but there was no other way.

After the procedure, they made me rest for an hour. When I finally stood up, the hospital was eerily silent.

"Do you have someone to take you home?" Dr. Shepherd asked.

"My brother is waiting outside," I lied. I shook her hand and started the long, painful walk to the exit.

"Shireen, remember you need to rest!" she called out. I turned and forced a smile that felt like it was breaking my face.

The night was pitch-black. I hissed in pain with every movement, my body feeling heavy and clammy. I pulled out my phone and dialed the number I'd been given a week ago. "Work done. Got the shot. Thank you," I said, hanging up before they could respond.

I waited at the bus stop for thirty minutes before the realization hit me like a physical blow. Nora had mentioned a city-wide curfew this morning-public transport was shut down due to the crime surge. I cursed my own stupidity. No buses. No Ubers. Just me, alone in a part of the city I didn't recognize.

I tried to find my way back, but the streets bled into a secluded, wooded area. This wasn't NYU territory. The air felt different here, heavy with the scent of an unfamiliar pack. I was lost.

Then I saw them. Four men, stumbling out of a nightclub, reeking of alcohol and malice. Fear washed over me, cold and paralyzing. I tried to run, but the anesthesia made my legs feel like water. I ducked behind an abandoned workshop, my heart thudding in my ears.

"She ran this way!" a voice rasped.

I trembled, my wolf instinct taking over for a split second before I peered around the corner. Their eyes were hungry.

"Got you, kitten," one snarled. "Damn, she's a shapeshifter."

"Much better for us, then."

They lunged. They forced me back into my human form, their hands like iron clamps on my limbs. "Please, let me go!" I screamed, but the night just watched. A rough hand slammed over my mouth, stifling my cries.

Between the exhaustion and the lingering drugs in my system, my vision began to swim. My eyelids fluttered, rolling back as the darkness reached for me. But then, a sudden, agonizing fire ripped through me-a pain far worse than any needle, an inferno that burned from the inside out. I AM RAPED.

The darkness didn't bring peace. It brought the end of everything. The silence that followed was louder than the screams.

I don't know how long I lay there on the frozen dirt. But when I woke up, my breath came in shallow, ragged hitches, puffing white against the black sky. I felt hollowed. They hadn't just taken my dignity, but the very marrow from my bones.

Get up, a voice in the back of my mind whispered. It sounded like some sort of celestial power that was bringing strength in me to fight the consequences. "Shireen, get up." This time the voice was louder as if she was right beside me.

I looked beside. Nobody there. My fingers twitched, brushing against the grit of the alley floor. Every muscle protested, a choir of agony screaming at me to stay down and let the cold finish what those men started. But the voice hitherto I heard was now powerful like a thundering echo. The weight of my sacrifice should not go for nothing.

I forced myself onto my elbows, a sharp cry catching in my throat. My body is a map of bruises and betrayal. With a shaking hand, I reached for my phone. The screen was cracked, a spiderweb of glass obscuring the time.

I managed to pull myself toward the brick wall of the workshop, using it to steady my ascent. The world tilted dangerously. I had to get out of this pack's territory. I had to find a way back to the girl who worried about fashion sketches and NYU deadlines, even though I knew, with a soul-crushing certainty, that she was gone.

The winter wind bit into my skin, but I welcomed it. The cold was the only thing that felt real.

Alpha Quinn carried the weight of his name with arrogance and insensitivity. Being the alpha of ForestGrow pack, his power was unparalleled and indestructible, a force that bent others to his will. Women, both human and supernatural, were mere play things to him. Despite knowing him fully their crave to have his attention at least for a night was a fleeting testament to his charm and virility.

He was a blood hungry creature of primal urges, a pundit for every vice that took place in the wicked world. Drugs, illegal trades, black markets-he had his hands in them all. His wealth and influence was a dark web that ensnared all who crossed his path. Yet, beneath the veneer of invincibility, lay a soul as barren as a desert.

Quinn longed for love that his parents couldn't give. His mom left his dad to another wolf. For the hunger of power and wealth, the then Alpha Kappa, his dad, neglected his only child Quinn.

Quinn was brought up by nannies who cared less and worked only for money. Today his reign and kingdoms were boundless, but his heart was a lump of cold, black coal. He was a master of control, yet a slave to his own destructive desires, forever haunted by an emptiness no amount of debauchery could ever fill.

That night, at a party he never wanted to attend, Alpha Quinn surrendered to his body craving. He drank until his senses blurred and smoked weed until his mind went numb. Ten minutes after stumbling out of the club, a curvaceous figure of a young woman caught his eye. Looking closer she was a beautiful girl waiting for a bus. Her silhouette, illuminated by the lonely streetlights, stirred an untamed hunger within him. It subsequently turned to a dark venereal thirst. He and his friends, a pack of wolves on the hunt, followed her. The girl, sensing their sinister intent, began to run, but the deserted street offered her no escape.

Quinn along with his friends cornered her, their shadows swallowing her whole. She pleaded with him, her eyes wide with terror, but the Alpha was an unfeeling monster. Her pleas only intensified his depraved desires. As two of his friends held her limbs, a third silenced her screams, leaving her completely vulnerable.

What followed were agonizing moments for her and sickening pleasure for him. He took her like a beast, devoid of any decency or regret. His friends, waiting for their turn to defile her, were denied. By the time Alpha Quinn was done, the girl had succumbed to the trauma, her body falling limp, her mind shattered.

A friend checked her pulse. "She's dead, there is no fun enjoying a lifeless girl. It's you who is always first." he repelled with anger, poking a finger at Quinn, a mix of disappointment and annoyance in his voice. "What if we are booked on murder charges?"

"Good, all of you will be behind the bars" Alpha Quinn sneered, a cold smirk on his face.

"What about you? You are one among us." The other man said in a sadistic grin.

Quinn didn't give any reply at that moment but he was noting everyone 's emotions. They were only fair weather friends. "She's saved us the trouble. And yeah I am always first in enjoying every girl that comes our way. You have no right to question. Because I am the Alpha." He said with ascendancy and before the friends could understand what he was doing he slit everyone's throat.

"The damn girl was super inviting. But it was too late. I wish I had another chance." He murmured and walked away without a backward glance, leaving her lifeless body behind.

Nevertheless Quinn had no idea Shireen would become the architect of his ruin.

Shireen's pov

The men's faces, their cruel smiles, twisted and blurred. Her body convulsed, a guttural growl bubbling up from deep in her chest. The grip on her limbs faltered as the men stared in stunned horror. "We could be booked on murder charges." One of them said,

To safeguard herself for the little amount of life that was still left in her, Shireen withheld her breath acting dead. She did not want to be a prey to the other men too who were staring at her with hungry faces.

The men screamed, scrambling back in a mixture of fear and disbelief - "she is dead."

"The damn girl was super inviting. But it was too late. I wish I had another chance." The beast, who everyone called Alpha Quinn had a magnificent, terrifying thing of fur and muscle. He let out a piercing howl that ripped through the silent city, a challenge to the moonless sky. Silently guarding her last ounce of energy Shireen closed her eyes welcoming the darkness.

***

Two hours later, Shireen's eyes fluttered open. She hadn't died, but the potent mix of alcohol and drugs in Quinn and his friends had made them think she was dead. Drained and dazed by the effect of anesthesia she struggled to her feet. The sexual attack had left her naked and covered in mud. Scratches and bruises marked her skin accompanied by a searing pain that throbbed in her core. Tears welled in her eyes as she covered her face with her palms. Her sobs were silenced by the emptiness of the deserted street. Shireen ended as a lost soul with her innocence stolen and no one to hear her agony.

She didn't know how long she stayed there, but eventually, a sense of self-preservation kicked in. With trembling hands, she collected her clothes, scattered like discarded memories, and slowly covered her aching body. She longed to call her mother and weep, to tell her sister about the pain of her violation, to have her father's protection and help her seek justice. But in the wake of a turbulent fortnight, her family was not a sanctuary she could seek.

Her bones shifted, cracked, and reformed with a sickening sound. She wasn't Shireen anymore. Her teeth sharpened into fangs, and her fingernails elongated into razor-sharp claws. She was a creature of instinct, of fury, of the ancient magic that now coursed through her blood.

Shireen was gone, and in her place stood a magnificent, wild anthropoid. It was born from pain and revenge unknown to her. And that instinct got her ready to tear her attackers apart. Her body screamed revenge and justice." Shireen was all set even to tear the city apart to get her hands on her assaulter.

The only person she could turn to, the only person she could trust, was her best friend, Nora.

But when she took out her phone from her bag, it was dead, leaving her with no way to call. Shireen began her long, painful walk, her movements slow and crippled, her body in agony, a stark contrast to the strength and determination of her spirit. By the time she reached her friend's house it was the wee morning hours.

"Shireen, what happened to you? I called you so many times last night but your phone was switched off." Nora's eyes brushed down her terrorized body.

Shireen emptied her tears telling everything about what happened. Nora promised her to help by any means. She told everything to her father who was a cop. The kind hearted Mr Sage, Nora's father, promised Shireen to help in the best way he could.

On the same day Mr Sage went to the location where Shireen was raped to do the investigation. He decided he would do his best to the innocent girl who was also like a daughter to him similar to Nora.

Though there were no people to listen or shield her from the atrocious assault, God was somewhere protecting her in his unique way. Opposite the area where she was abducted there was an abandoned building.

Nevertheless nothing was serviceable inside the old construction but there was a hidden camera which mystically continued to work like an Archangel. It recorded everything about Shireen's barbaric assault from start to finish.

Sage instantly knew the crime was a heinous act committed by the wealthy. He was concerned that involving the media would only complicate the investigation, as it would attract unwanted attention to the high-profile individuals involved. Discreetly, Sage handled the case, ultimately concluding that the perpetrator was Quinn, the Alpha of the forest Grow pack.

Alpha Quinn was a ruthless womanizer and an unparalleled beast. He took whatever land he desired, and no Alpha in the world, whether by military force or sheer strength, had ever been able to defeat him.

Sage's hands were tied. It was a heartbreaking truth, but he had no choice but to accept the outcome. He couldn't help Shireen get justice. As an Omega's daughter and a nobody from the Moonlight pack, she was insignificant. When even the Moonlight pack's Alpha was powerless against Alpha Quinn, Shireen was just dust.

Though his heart ached for her, Sage gently advised Shireen to bury the painful truth and try to live a normal life. He bluntly explained that if she tried to pursue the case, Alpha Quinn's power and reputation would easily crush her in court, leaving her with nothing but heartbreak and humiliation. Their family was already handing on a thin thread. With a fatherly affection, he offered to arrange counseling for her as Shireen's assault was not something which could be healed easily. However on the other side he also warned her that if she tried anything against the Alpha, she and her family would be exiled from the Moonlight pack. No Alpha would risk provoking the world's most powerful Alpha, Quinn.

Shireen felt the crushing weight of her despair. She hated herself for her weakness, for the way her spirit had been broken. On that dark night, she reached the forest and looked at the moon from the two branches of the tree. The rays of the Moon Goddess fell on her.

Shireen was the gift of Moon Goddess to her parents. The destiny had always kept close to the one Shireen had sworn she would never need. "I regret rejecting the covenant," she whispered, her voice choking with tears. "But the situation went beyond my control. I was... violated. I don't think I'm worthy of the position anymore."

For what felt like an eternity, the Goddess's deep, resonant voice filled her ears. It was like a lifeline in her sea of pain. She didn't speak of pity or anger, but with strength and purpose. She reminded her that her worth was not defined by the actions of a monster, but by the fire that still burned within her soul. The Moon Goddess told her she watches over all her children, the broken and the triumphant alike. She said her power was a gift for those who would use it to right the wrongs that happened to them. She obliterated Shireen, was born on purpose, and was destined to become the Luna of Alpha Quinn.

As the Goddess spoke, a sense of hope, fragile at first, began to bloom in her heart. Shireen wasn't just a victim; she was a survivor. She wasn't unworthy; she was born with a purpose. The tears on her face dried, and a new resolve strengthened in her eyes. The despair that had held her captive began to recede, replaced by a fierce and burning determination. By the time the rays from the Moon ended, a slow grin spread across her face, a promise of the vengeance to come. She had been broken, but she was not defeated. She had been chosen, and she would rise.

****

A month later, Shireen walked into the ForestGrow pack's head office, her head held high. She wasn't naturally brave, but the injustice she had endured had unearthed a hidden well of strength with an unquenchable need for justice.

"May I speak to Alpha Quinn? My appointment was booked three days ago from this number," she stated boldly, placing a card on the receptionist's desk.

The receptionist checked the name and number, confirmed the appointment on her computer, and then motioned for Shireen to enter the stylish office. "Yes, madam, you can see Alpha Quinn now. Please have a seat while I inform him you've arrived."

The womanizing beast inside had no idea that she was the same woman he had assaulted weeks ago, the one whose life he had turned upside down. He had assumed she was dead. Quinn didn't know that she was not just a victim but a survivor-a woman determined to get justice and reclaim the respect she had lost.

Shireen walked through the oak door and into Alpha Quinn's office with determination. She greeted him politely and presented the pregnancy report she had picked up from the hospital two hours earlier.