The Rogue Alpha’s Claim

“I own you.”

The words rang in Ariel’s ears as the warning bells went off, and she realized too well that he was right. He owned her in every sense of the word, and a shiver rang through her.

Definitely not a good one.

“You don’t own me, Kane; I am my own person.” She spoke out, inching closer to him in spite of the fear that had her in her clutches.

“If you think so.” Kane sneered, giving her a once-over, and she cowered from his gaze.

“What do you want, Kane?” Ariel sighed, unable to stand the fact that they were standing in the same room and breathing the same air.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“It is simple, Ariel; just eat the food, and I will be out of your hair.”

“That’s it?” Kane shrugged, and she glanced at the food. It looked so delicious; the bacon was cooked to a delicious brown crisp, and the eggs were a little overcooked just the way she liked them, but looks could be deceiving. “How do I know you didn’t poison it?” Ariel asked, eyeing the place even as she stood akimbo in front of him. She still had her sliver jewelry, and if he tried anything funny, she would use it on him.

“I would never-” Kane began, but he knew it was as useless as pouring water on a duck’s back. Instead, he picked up one of the pancakes.

“What are you doing? That is my food.” Ariel’s pupils widened a fraction as she imagined the worst, but he only took a bit of it and placed it down.

Her eyes followed him as he took a bite out of everything, and he finished it off with a big gulp of the orange juice. “Just because I wasn’t going to eat doesn’t mean you should finish everything.” Ariel grumbled under her breath, but of course Kane heard it.

“There is still more from where it came from. Now are you going to eat, or should I feed you?”

Ariel rolled her eyes, annoyed that she had been put under the spot. “Fine.” She lowered herself to the bed and grabbed the fork from his hands, stabbing the pancake and bringing it to her mouth.

Her taste buds leapt as she tasted the first bite of pancake, and she was almost moaning. Was the food that good, or was it because she was starving that she thought it was so good?

Ariel didn’t give it much thought, and she was taking another bite of the pancakes, the eggs, and just a bit of everything.

The worms in her stomach have been starving so much, and now that she saw food, she couldn’t hold herself. She placed the fork down to grab the glass of orange juice when she noticed the brown pairs of eyes still fixated on her.

Did he see her wolf the whole food down?

Shit, Ariel, what happened to table manners? But she masked her embarrassment with a frown, and she looked at me, her left eyebrows rising up. “Why are you smiling at me like a creep?”

“I just love seeing your beautiful face.”

Ariel’s mouth hung open from the sudden confessions, and she wasn’t sure how to react; hell, she didn’t even have a comeback. She resorted to stuffing her face with the pancake that had been drenched with honey.

She cleared the plate in no time and was currently sipping on her orange juice, but from the erect hair on her body, they informed her that the intruder was still here.

“Why are you still here?”

Kane shrugged, not having a suitable response for that. All he knew was that her presence was comforting, and all his troubles just seemed to melt away whenever he looked at her.

“When did you transform?” The question she asked had him whipping his head up so fast that he almost had a whiplash.

“It is called shift, but it usually occurs early, depending on the wolf. I am of Alpha origin, so I shifted early, at the age of ten.”

“Hmm.” Ariel nodded, still trying to process the fact that this man in front of her could transform into a beast at will.

“Was it painful?”

“Like hell, it was. All your bones breaking and realigning is no child’s play, especially at such a tender age. But I had my parents with me, and they guided me through the process. However, it gets better with time; I don’t even feel any pain now.”

Ariel nodded her head, but her mind was still stuck on the fact that he had mentioned his parents. He had never mentioned his parents since she knew him. In fact, none of them here ever mentioned their parents.

Hell, she thought they only became wolves when they were young.

“I don’t want to pry, but where are your parents? You have never mentioned them.” The silence she got was a sign that she shouldn’t have asked at all, and she shifted in her chair.

An awkward silence developed between them, and Ariel was at a loss for what to say. Her mouth opened to apologize, but Kane beat her to it. “And yet you are doing the opposite of what you said, but my parents are late. They died in an attack when I was younger.”

Ariel couldn’t help but feel the sense of sadness that enveloped her as she heard it, but it explained why he does some things that he does. “Is that why you built this mansion-to help people like you and me?”

“Not exactly, I…” Kane began, but the lightbulb went off his head, and he was nodding. “Yes, I guess so.”

“Hmm.” Ariel nodded more to herself. Apart from the fact that he can change into a wolf at his will, he wasn’t so bad. “That mean there are others like you, living around us humans?” Ariel tasted the words in her mouth, not sure if they were the right words to classify her kind, “that we know nothing of.”

“Yes, there are several wolf packs scattered around the world, unknown to humans. We like to keep our identity hidden.”

“And you guys are doing a good job at it. Except for some strange quirks, I would never have known. I wonder if there are other species that I don’t know of.”

“There is a lot that you know nothing of, and it is better to keep it that way. Would you like to see my wolf?”

Ariel was taken back beyond words, and her eyes slowly opened and closed as she tried to process what he had just said.

“Uhm, Kane, just because we are sitting together and talking about this doesn’t mean I am still cool with all this stuff. The truth is, you still freak me out, and I don’t think I can deal with you turning into a wolf.”

A cloud passed through Kane’s face, and his jaw tightened as he ground his teeth on each other. Max, on the other hand, flopped on his spot, his ears dropping in sadness.

No rejection hurts more than this.

“I see.” Kane murmured, but he wasn’t seeing anything; instead, he stood up, stretching his full length and looming over her. “I would have loved to stay and chat, but I have a ton of work to do. Goodbye.”

Ariel watched his muscular back as it rippled with every step he took, even though he was wearing a shirt. She was tempted to run to him and smooth the crease on his forehead, but she held herself.

She had a right to her opinion, and not even Kane would change that.

The door closed with a bang, and Ariel jumped a little, startled by the sound. She looked at the place he had just left, feeling his absence more than she would care to admit, and she released a sigh.

“I hope I am doing the right thing.”

Ariel spent the next day confined to her room, although she accepted the food that came around. There was no need to starve herself anymore.

If they wanted to do away with her, they would have done so since and that was the only reassurance she was holding on to.

Apart from the man in charge of the food, her door was locked to everyone else; even when Toby came knocking, demanding to talk to her, she paid a deaf ear to him.

She needed to ease herself to the fact that these are the people she was going to be staying with for as long as it took for her to get a job and that they were part animals.

She had been using up her time in isolation to learn more about their species-just anything that would convince her that it wasn’t bad to fall in love with a werewolf.

It was on the fourth day that Ariel finally got her answer.

It had occurred to her that this was the way they were born and they couldn’t change it, and maybe because her order of wolfsbane had arrived, she was more confident.

But she was dashing out of her room, and she was walking towards his office, her eyes only on him.

“I am ready to see your wolf.”