Broken Slave For The Alpha

Chapter 1

“No! No no, Please. Leave me alone! Please! ” I screamed, my throat burning. But my voice was useless against the pounding footsteps behind me. My father’s warriors were faster, stronger, trained to hunt people like me down.

Their howls were getting closer. Each one made my chest tighten until I thought my heart would burst right through my ribs.

I pushed myself harder. My legs ached, my lungs felt like fire, but I couldn’t stop. My dress snagged at my knees, the fabric already ripped and dirty. My shoes, if I could even call them that anymore, slipped in the mud, slowing me down.

Branches whipped across my face and arms, leaving stinging scratches on my skin. My hair, messy and loose from the bun I tied earlier, kept falling in front of my eyes. I could barely see, but I kept running.

Still, I knew. I could feel it. They were almost on me. And no matter how badly I wanted to escape, I wasn’t fast enough.

If I had already shifted, maybe things would be different. If my wolf had awakened, I could have outrun them. But I wasn’t of age yet. Male wolves got to shift at twenty. For us females, it was twenty-one. I had to wait. Wait, while my father destroyed my life.

“Come back here, Nyra! Don’t you dare run away!” My father’s voice roared through the forest. “I order you! Stay put! Hear your Alpha!”

His command slammed into me like invisible chains. My knees buckled, my body betraying me. I fought it, but my legs grew weaker, heavier, until they gave out.

“No! Please!” I cried, but it was too late. My body collapsed, and I tumbled down a muddy slope. The ground bruised me as I rolled until I hit the bottom with a hard thud.

I forced myself up, dirt sticking to my palms, my chest heaving. And there he was.

My father. Alpha Magnus Dorn. Leader of the Shadowfen Pack. The man who was supposed to protect me. He stood waiting, with Lucian, my stepbrother, and three warriors at his side.

The fight drained out of me in an instant. My knees gave way again, and I dropped to the ground, sobbing. “Please, Father. Don’t give me away. I’ll work harder, I’ll do anything, just don’t give me away!”

Wasn’t it enough? Wasn’t it enough that they had already stripped me of everything? My family had turned me into nothing but a servant, cooking, cleaning, running around for them like I was a maid, not his daughter. And now he wanted to throw me to a stranger. A ruthless Alpha. At twenty years old, I was being sold off like cattle.

“You don’t understand, Nyra!” he snapped, his voice sharp and cold. “Our pack will be in danger. This is the Alpha King’s order! Do you want your stepmother to suffer? Your siblings? Your friends and their parents?”

His words stabbed at me, but I shook my head, choking on tears.

“The king’s demands are final,” he growled. “There is no defying him!”

He snarled and waved his hand. “Take her!”

I screamed, I fought, but it didn’t matter. They dragged me back home and shoved me into the attic, my prison for the last three years.

Lucian pushed me down so hard I smacked the floor. My knees scraped against the wood as I looked up at him. His chest rose and fell, his eyes dark and hungry.

Fear shot through me as I realized where he was looking, at me, sprawled helplessly on the floor.

“Go ahead,” I hissed, though my voice trembled. “Touch me, and you’ll die.”

It wasn’t the first time. He’d tried before, and something had stopped him. Something in his chest, like a warning. But now? I could see the sick desire in his eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” My father’s voice thundered. He stormed in, grabbed Lucian by the throat, and slammed him into the wall.

“You know she’s cursed!” he spat. “Stay away from her! She belongs to Alpha Dimitri now, and she must be delivered untouched!”

Lucian was thrown out like trash. Then my father turned back to me, his face hard and merciless.

“Tomorrow, Alpha Dimitri’s Beta will arrive,” he said coldly. “You will marry him, whether you like it or not.”

I crumpled where I sat, sobs shaking my body.

Memories flooded me, cruel reminders of a different time. When he used to kiss my forehead goodnight. When he taught me how to throw a punch and smiled with pride. When he called me his baby girl.

“Dad, please.” My hand reached out on its own, trembling. “Don’t you care for me at all? You used to love me. What did I do? Why are you treating me like this?”

For a moment, he froze. His jaw clenched. His fists tightened. And I thought, I thought maybe he still cared.

Then he destroyed me.

“Because of you, your mother left me. Because of you, my best friend died. I only kept you here because I promised your mother I would keep you until she returned.”

The words tore me apart.

“She swore she would come back, but she never did. If she loved you, she would have. But she didn’t. She left you. She never meant to return. You were never meant to stay here.” His eyes burned into mine. “By the order of King Aldric, you will marry Alpha Dimitri. That is your fate.”

He slammed the door behind him, leaving me broken on the floor.

Tomorrow I would be taken away. In a week, I would belong to the most ruthless Alpha in the nation. And I didn’t know if I’d survive him.

I curled into myself, pressing my face into the cold floor, and sobbed until my throat was raw. Rage and despair mixed together inside me until I couldn’t breathe.

My mother left me. She abandoned me. Was it my fault? Did she believe I was cursed too?

Eight years. Eight years, and she never came back. Not one letter. Not one word. Nothing.

And now this. Blame. Blame for Beta Alaric’s death. Blame for everything.

When my tears finally ran out, I dragged myself to the window. The moon stared back at me, silver and merciless.

“Moon Goddess,” I whispered, my voice shaking, “have you abandoned me too? Why are you sending me to a man they say is cruel and heartless? Is this really the fate you’ve chosen for me?”

The silence was my answer.

And I knew I was truly alone.