Aria/Lysara’s POV

My eyes had begun to clear now, the painful watery mist covering them drying off. My previously throbbing sex had begun to ease too, but it still felt sticky and wet from my own juices.

It took a little while for me to fully register that I was in his arm—Alpha King Kael. The warmth of his big body, strangely soothing around me, the heat from him engulfing me. His boots clinked against the stone floor as he carried me through massive but decorated hallways in his sprawling castle.

I looked up at him, and our eyes met. His ice-grey eyes looked right into mine, as I did his, and his gorgeous face melted into a warm smile.

Due to the generational rivalry and hatred between my pack and his, and the fact that he likes to stay away from the spotlight unless necessary, I hadn't really seen him or met him before. And from the rumors I had heard of him, I had been led to believe he was not just a monster but that he looked like one—looked awful and ugly. Yet the face staring down at me was well far from that. He was perhaps the most handsome werewolf I would ever see. His jaw was a sharp, aggressive V, and his cheekbones were raised high slightly, enough to flush his face with that toxic yet entrancing masculine beauty that rivalled a god’s.

The little beard on his jaw had the same rich, onyx black hair as the one on his head. He was a specimen of manly beauty, as he was a monster. Yeah. Only a monster would relish such a game as he’d just pulled off in his basement. Only a monster would watch five ladies get shot just because they couldn't fuck themselves enough and not bat an eyelid.

Yet, smiling down at me, grinning with the whole of his face, was not a monster—crazy maybe, but he looked nothing like a monster right now. 

His eyes trailed over the body I had inherited from my reincarnation, with raw, unfiltered lust, centering especially around my full, round breasts. “You have a beautiful body, Lysara. I believe you would make a perfect sub for me,” he said.

I had no idea what to say to that. So I just responded with a fake smile, stretching just my lips in response to him.

The more the silence stretched on, the more the scene in the basement replayed in my mind. I had been too busy trying to survive that I didn't really get to see how the other girls died. But I could still remember Lisa’s voice. It repeated in a loop in my head, and with it, a gnawing feeling clawed at my insides. I didn't know why, but I felt guilty too. They had all died because of me, died so I would live. My existence robbed them of the life they would have had.

He finally stopped. I stirred gently from his chest, and I looked around. The room was large, very large, with a massive king-size bed sitting right at the center, silk curtains, Persian carpets, and state-of-the-art furniture. It looked like a billionaire's room. Yeah, most Alphas were billionaires, but most spent prudently. Alpha Kael wasn't one of those who do.

“This is your room, Lysara. Your home for as long as you live.” He said, spinning around on the spot gently, with me in his arms.

Some ladies dressed in uniform pinafores stepped out of the bathroom, and Alpha King Kael handed me to them as if I were property. “Take care of her.” He said.

“Yes, Alpha King,” they chanted in unison.

He flicked his gaze low to me then as the maid turned around with me. “After you are washed and dressed, then you will receive your collar, and you will fully become mine.” He said, sounding like he was making a declaration to himself.

The maids carried me into the bathroom, which was another large room. Behind me, heavy, powerful footsteps retreated from the room, and so did his unique scent. I didn't know why I had the urge to turn back to watch him, but I fought the urge, suppressing it with the whole of me, my fingers pinching hard into my lap. Don't let the nice man act fool you, Aria. Don’t. He was a monster, remember? A cruel and ruthless and heartless monster, and he is your enemy. 

The smell of jasmine oil was quick to replace the scent of Alpha King Kael, and it stung my nostrils hard even before I saw the large bathtub filled with water and scented with the oil.

The smell was sweet, yet overwhelming, as the maids dipped me into it. The water was warm against my body, and I relaxed into it, flowing with warmth. It was a struggle not to purr against the soothing feel of the liquid washing over my skin.

The maids took my hands, some took my feet, and some my body, and they all washed me up, rubbing the loofahs and soap over my smooth skin.

I was finally helped out of the water and toweled until I was clean. I was stepping out of the bathroom when the multiple scents stabbed my senses first, and then I heard the hushed whispers.

I stepped out of the bathroom and was greeted with the sight of five ladies dressed like princesses in expensive silk dresses, sitting around the room.

They were very beautiful, with sublime hourglass figures just like the one I had inherited.

“She is the new sub,” one of them chimed excitedly. She had strawberry-blonde hair, which dropped down her shoulders in gentle waves. Her seafoam-green eyes were wide with naïve wonder. Her dimples were her most principal feature. They made her look surreal, almost like she’d stepped out of a Disney storybook.

I had no need to think deeper to know they were my rivals, or as Alpha King Kael puts it, Subs.

One of them bites down hard on an apple, her lashes flipping at me. She had wavy chestnut-brown hair, worn loose, with lavender eyes that shimmered as she talked. “She isn't a big deal, Eira.” She responded to the other lady—Eira. “I bet she wouldn't last long. She’d probably end up dead like her predecessor or take over Vyxen’s loser role.”

“Come on, Sarya. Don't intimidate the lady.” Eira chided.

Sarya just hissed, biting down at her apple. She turned to another lady, who, unlike the others, seemed a little muscular in body tone but yet was built with a sensual hourglass figure like the rest of us. She was tattooed from her neck down to her lean, manicured fingers. “Who do you think, Rheza?” Sarya asked. “Think she will last long.”

Rheza eyed me, her golden eyes darkening, hooded beneath her forehead a bit. “I can't say, Sarya. But one thing I know is she is inheriting Vyxen's loser role after she is fully collared.”

Sarya chuckled. “It's the pattern. She loses for a while until finally, after the third game, she collapses to her own death, and then she is replaced." Sarya bit down on her apple again, the sharp slice of her bite slicing through the silence in the room.

I decided not to mind what they said, as my eyes jumped from one to another, taking them all in. I had no idea what this was all about or what game they were talking about, but I couldn't shake the feeling that my existence in this harem depended on my relationship with them.

I traced their necks with my eyes, realizing that they all wore necklaces of different types on their necks, of different colors, and glinting with different stones.

One of them, the most dressed, who had a large queeny crown on her head over long black braids, undoubtedly Alpha King Kael’s queen, walked up to me. She held her head high, her neck straight, and was poised. She looked like a beautiful mannequin, as she didn't smile either. Her face was locked in an expression that echoed she was all business.

She held a long ruler in her hand, slapping it against her other palm as she approached me. The maids dropped back from me the moment she stood before me.

“What is your name?” she demanded. Her tone was loud and authoritative. Her amber eyes bore right into me. Up close, her skin, a shade of burnished bronze, glowed.

I debated with myself on an answer. I didn't want to look like an easy target for bullies, nor do I want any fight with anyone over a monster like Alpha King Kael. I struggled for a long moment until I finally answered. “Lysara.”

“I am Nahlia, the Queen Sub, and by that, the Luna of this pack. And that is Maera…” She pointed with her ruler to the last lady in the room, the quiet lady, who just hung statuesque against the door with an ethereal poise. She had waist-length platinum-blonde hair and icy blue eyes—so cold, they seemed carved from glacier glass.

“That is Rheza, Sarya, and Eira.” She pointed to the other three. “Vyxen is the loser in the last game, so she is in isolation. You will still meet her. Or she will meet you. But for your sake, I hope you meet her first.” She forced a grin.

Then she sighed. “Introduction over, now the vetting stage.” She breathed in a queenly, aristocratic manner. In two quick flicks of her ruler, my bathrobe came undone, falling to my feet, leaving me completely naked again.

What the… I moved low to pick it up quickly, but she slapped her ruler against my arms. It was a thick wooden ruler. It slammed against my skin like I was flogged with it. I snapped straight, pain jarring up my arms.

“What the hell was that for?” I snapped, glaring at her.

She didn't seem to bother. Instead, she just slapped her ruler again on my breasts, this time gently, lifting them up with her ruler as if there were a pair of commodities on a table.

“Perfect, just like he likes them.” She muttered to herself, taking a quick expert survey of my breasts.

I tried to cover my nakedness with my arms. Obviously uncomfortable under her eyes. But her ruler slapped my arms again, spreading them apart.

I winced in pain, grinding my teeth hard on each other. I eyed her. I was about to protest when her ruler slapped my sex hard.

I hugged myself tight, rubbing my thighs against my sex, trying to quell the pain jolting like an electric charge from my sex up to my head. And the whole room, except the maids and the miserable queen Nahlia or whatever she called herself, erupted in a fit of giggles.

Nahlia turned to the maid then. “Shave these nonsense hairs off her sex, and get her ready to be collared. Everyone is waiting for her in the collaring party.”

She looked to me after, staring right into the heat in my eyes for her, while I was still rubbing my thighs together against my sex trying to quell the sting of her slap with the ruler. She grinned down at me. “Welcome to hell, Lysara.”