No one dared to move closer to her. The situation was mysterious beyond their comprehension.

Alpha Torin was reeling with the new revelation that this girl before him, who had lied, died, awakened, and went through this thorough transformation before him, was his mate.

That single world exploded his skull like a war drum.

“She’s a demon”

“She’s cursed, she should be killed!”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life.”

“This is strange”

Different comments went on around the scenerio. But Alpha Torin was experiencing something totally different from everyone else.

Alpha Torin’s fingers twitched at his side, craving either to pull her into his arms or snap her head from her body. The pull was violent. Savage. He’d never felt anything like it, and it sickened him.

He wanted to have her. He wanted to kill her.

“Leave. All of you,” He suddenly ordered, and none of them dared to hesitate. They started leaving the scene one after the other till it remained him, Beta Caleb who had been watching with an entirely different thought of his own, and Luna Athena.

Beta Caleb was having a great moment of shock. Freya’s female form was so damn familiar that he wondered if she was the same person he had held in his arms, kissed and made love to multiple times over in the past.

Her name was Penelope.

Freya looked exactly like his ex-lover who died two years ago. Whose death surrounded by mystery still haunts him every single day. And watching Luna Athena killed Freya, and her coming back to life with this thing going on with her drove his mind to a single question—Could she be his Penelope? Did she have the power to wake from the dead now? But he dared not say anything about his thoughts. Not yet.

He could only hope Alpha Torin wouldn’t try to take her life.

“You too, Caleb. Leave.” Torin’s voice snapped him back and he gave an uneasy nod, looked at Freya who was now lying unconsciously on the floor, and then he exited the scene.

“Leave, Athena” He said next and she gasped. “What do we do about her? We should be making a decision together, not…”

“Don’t make me repeat myself!” Alpha Torin growled and she shook. Her big cat found its way to the scene, meowing repeatedly. Athena swallowed, digesting her rage and fear, then picked up her cat and left the scene with shame.

But she didn’t go far. She lurked behind a pillar and watched Alpha Torin, overly curious to know his next move.

The Alpha strode towards Freya, his powerful frame lowered and lifted her off the ground, carefully. Then his intense gaze ran over her pretty face, her half-length hair that she had cut to disguise as a male, her voluptuous body figure, and the blood that had stopped seeping from her chest.

He growled. He was angry, but being in this proximity with her, holding her, made him yearn for her more than anything he had ever yearned for in his life.

Luna Athena’s grip tightened around her big black cat as she watched Alpha Torin take her away.

“If the bitch is not yet dead, I will kill her again.” She muttered bitterly under her breath.

*

Freya jolted awake with a gasp. At first, she struggled to comprehend where she was or remember what had happened before now.

Stone walls surrounded her. The air was damp and heavy. Chains rattled faintly in the distance, then she processed it. She was in the dungeon.

Her head spun.

She sat up too fast and then froze as her skin buzzed with sensation. Every sound scraped against her nerves like sharp metal. Her senses were now sharper, and her vision was clearer. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

She looked down, as she felt a burn on her arm and her breathing ceased. There were symbols, looking like five different letters etched on her skin in a language that she didn’t understand. She wanted to believe someone had written this on her while she was unconscious but the burn she felt from it said otherwise.

Her hands trembled.

“What… what is this?” she whispered, feeling horrified.

She remembered it all…the scream, the fire in her blood, Luna Athena’s blade slicing into her chest. She had died. She was sure of it. So why was she awake?

“What am I?” she whispered.

Her body trembled as panic curled its claws through her.

She stared at the dungeon bars. “They know,” she breathed. “They know I’m a girl.” She muttered as more memories dawned on her. She felt doomed.

They would kill her. There was no way the vicious Aloha would spare her.

Her mission was dead. She had failed.

Tears burned her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She dropped her head, biting her lip so hard she tasted blood.

Then… she heard it. Heavy footsteps inching closer. Her blood boiled. She could smell his scent. An endearing scent that drew her in yet made cold fear coursed through her.

Alpha Torin stood at the bars, tall and still, his gold eyes burning through the almost dark area that only had one dimmed bulb illuminating from a far distance like molten steel. He didn’t speak. He didn’t even blink.

Freya’s breath hitched. she could feel him than she saw him.

He was watching her like a predator studies its prey. But behind that cold fury, something else burned. A wild, uncontrollable fire that wanted to consume her whole.

“Who the hell are you?” His angry baritone voice filled the space. She couldn’t answer. She expected him to come in and remove her head from her body, but that hadn’t happened.

He stepped closer, rage radiating off him like heat.

“I won’t ask again. Speak. Or I’ll rip the truth out of your throat myself.”

“I-I don’t know what happened,” she stammered. “Please… I swear…I didn’t mean to…I don’t understand what’s happening to me!”

Alpha Torin watched her a little longer, scrutinizing her like he was trying to figure out what to do with her. And when his gaze dropped to her arm, he stopped. He got more alerted as he saw the sigils on her arm clearer, then his gaze snapped to her face which wasn’t looking at him, but averted to the ground.

He didn’t say another word. He turned on his heels and Freya heard it as his footsteps grew farther and farther. Immediately the door slammed shut, Freya didn’t have much time to think before two huge guards entered, stone-faced, their boots echoing like thunder and worsening the uncomfortable air around her. Freya stumbled back with clenched fists.

“Don’t touch me…what are you…”

They seized her and dragged her across the cell. Cold iron cuffs locked around her wrists and yanked her arms wide against the wall.

“Let me go!” she screamed, struggling violently. “You bastards! Say something!”

They didn’t even look at her. They left in silence, leaving her spread and chained like a wild animal they saw her as.

Meanwhile, back in the Alpha’s luxurious mansion, his grip tightened on the arm of his throne, claws pushing out from his skin. He stared at nothing, his mind spinning.

A mate. It had taken him this long to find a mate he connected with only for him to meet her under this circumstance.

That was his mate?

A liar. A spy.

His wolf raged. His soul pulled. He didn’t know which part of him wanted her more…the part that wanted to claim her, or the part that wanted to snap her neck.

He could barely stand to breathe. The thought of her made him overly horny and also boiling with the need to kill.

“Alpha…”

He turned his head slowly, dangerously.

Luna Athena stood at the edge of the throne room, her head bowed.

“I acted without your command,” she said softly. “I only wanted to protect the pack from a liar like her.”

Torin’s gaze turned to ice, his eyes pinning her with lethality. He couldn’t even hear her. He was ravenously in need of a woman in his bed tonight. But sadly, this one didn’t entice her, no other person would. Only the one who looked scared, helpless, yet strong, and disgustingly pretty that he had almost broken into the dungeon bars and pinned her down earlier could satiate this hunger that he couldn’t explain.

A mate he wasn’t willing to claim, but her body, he wanted.

“Leave, Athena. I’m hungry to kill. Don’t fall victim.”