Zain’s POV

I made a mental note in my head to thank whoever made me make the wise decision of taking concubines in the first place.

Today, like most others, felt haunting, mundane, and maddening. Ever since I had made the stupid decision of leaving my fate up to the moon goddess and trusting my emotions, my life had begun to go downhill and now, I had to spend every waking day to stop it from plunging into total darkness.

Drowning my sorrows with alcohol had seemed like a good idea at first, but it failed to fully numb and quiet down the demons in my head. What I needed was my Shilajit tea.

From the middle of the hallway that led to my room, I could already hear the haunting tune. If the alcohol I had taken hadn’t completely messed up my senses, the tune coming from my room was Lakme’s The Flower Duet. It was the same classical piece that my mother would play in the palace garden when she was still alive.

Whoever played that tune was either ready to die by my hand or suffer dire consequences for taking me back to the past.

A sense of nostalgia wafted through my senses, increasing my urge to get to my Shilajit tea even faster so that I could end the day already.

Opening the door to my bedroom, what I least expected was to find a blindfolded, half-naked woman with a wooden flute glued to her mouth. All my thoughts went dull for a few moments until I could feel my wolf stirring in me.

A subtle wave of jasmine and vanilla curled up in the air and attacked my olfactory system, making both Ralph and I almost fall off the thin line known as self-control.

Ever since our fated mate betrayed us in the gruesome way she did, my wolf, Ralph, had gone silent on me. He only ever awoke when it was time for battle and bloodshed, yet in the midst of a strange woman who had resurfaced such a repressed figment of our past, he chose to finally resurface.

The redhead never stopped playing her flute even when I shut my doors and stood in front of her.

Her confidence intrigued me.

None of my concubines in the past had ever been this bold. Not even my beta was this bold to approach me like this.

She had to be new.

I made a mental note to thank Meidran for his selection later.

Her ginger red hair flowed down to her back and, oddly enough, I had a strange urge to run my hand through it and maybe even sniff it. Not only had the woman decided that playing the flute in my room blindfolded was the best idea, but she had also decided to tempt my ears as well. The woman wore a long black robe which remained open in the front, revealing to me a lacy black lingerie that helped in pushing out her breasts forward.

The curiosity I felt earlier still remained present, only that some of that energy had morphed into something stronger that traveled head-first to my groin.

After taking my time to study this woman, I finally asked, “Who are you?”

Perhaps my voice had broken her out of a trance because, in an instant, she stopped playing that haunting tune and dropped the wooden flute on the floor right by her side, right before standing up.

She dipped in a low curtsy. “Good evening, Alpha.” Her voice was soft, yet it had a bit of edge, as though my presence hardly did a thing to her.

Who exactly was this woman?

“I asked for your identity and not your greeting,” I snorted.

Once again, the woman went silent, and I began to reconsider if my presence truly didn’t affect her or if she was using a tactic on me. Still slightly puzzled by the woman, I walked around her, studying each part of her body to the best of my ability and as I did so, I felt the presence of my wolf increase even more.

There definitely had to be something special about this woman.

I was done with waiting or guessing, so I made a move I felt would calm both me and my wolf. Letting my hand roam, I reached up to the skin right next to her collar bone and almost immediately the sound of her hitched breathing met my ears. It only propelled me even more. I let my hand move to the edge of her robe and took it off, leaving her exposed in only her lingerie.

An ache began to blossom in my lower body, letting me know that I would need more than just Shilajit tea tonight.

“Take off your blindfold,” I ordered, and she complied almost immediately.

If I thought that the woman was tempting before, then words could not describe when her defiant emerald green eyes met my blue eyes. There had only been a few people to stare at me so openly before and a concubine was most definitely not one of them.

“Does the Alpha enjoy what he sees?” she cooed, making my lips draw into a smirk.

Taking a step forward, I caressed her cheek, and the strange woman before me melted into my touch. Her sweet scent invaded my senses, but this time it wasn’t just a blend of jasmine and vanilla that I could smell. There was also the tempting scent of her arousal.

Had she been waiting for me all this while?

To answer her question, I placed my hands on her waist, pushing her close to me and I heard a soft gasp escape her lips. I could tell that she could feel my erection. “Does that answer your question?”

“Perfectly,” her soft voice answered back.

I wanted to take this slowly. I wanted to know who this strange woman was who entered my room and decided to haunt me with a wooden flute and her intoxicating scent, but my wolf wouldn’t let me. My heartbeats thundered in my chest and I could feel my wolf threatening to come out at any moment if I didn’t take this woman right now.

On instinct, I buried my head in her neck and inhaled more of her scent. I didn’t feel like I could ever get enough of it. I didn’t feel like Ralph would even let me.

Peppering hot kisses on my redhead’s neck, I nibbled on her neck softly until I was sure that it would leave a mark. Tilting her head slightly, the strange woman allowed me to perfectly continue my assault until my mission was completed.

I wanted to tease her even more. Maybe even get to study her body entirely. Each curve, edge, perfection, and imperfection until my wolf and I got tired of her, but Ralph was persistent and the last thing I wanted to happen was to completely surrender all control to Ralph and have him take this redhead himself.

Lifting my redhead up so that her legs were wrapped around my waist, I carried her to my bed and placed her on it gently.

“I’m going to be rough and fast, but I promise that next time I’ll be gentler,” I told her, lying on top of her while one of my hands fisted the sheets beside us.

She nodded. “I can take it rough and fast.”

I never explained myself to any of my concubines, yet I found myself explaining things to her. Although I didn’t know what pushed me to do it, I was grateful for it because her response, if anything, made more blood rush to my eagerly growing member.

With one swift motion, I ripped the lacy black lingerie she had on, leaving her body fully exposed to me.

Taking a few seconds to fully register the image of her nude in my head, I let my hands roam around her soft and tender flesh.

It was only when my hands found the two bountiful mounds of flesh that she began to arch her back slightly. Unable to control myself, I wrapped my fingers around a nipple, gently squeezing and tugging on it.

I did the same to the other nipple before taking her breasts in my mouth and letting my tongue trace, lick and caress every single corner of it.

Her soft moans met her ears and I wished that I could take the rest of my time studying the rest of her body the way I was now, but control was a battle that I had unknowingly gotten into with my wolf, and I was losing terribly.

Reluctantly, I got up and got rid of my clothes. I could feel her eyes on me as I took each clothing off, but there was somewhere that her eyes seemed to linger on the most.

Noticing her intrigue, I looked up. “Don’t tell me that you’re thinking of chickening out now, are you?”

I could hear her heartbeat quicken as she swallowed and shook her head no. “I was only wondering how long I would wait before you fucked me already.”

Once again, I was happy that I bothered talking to her again, because her responses always found a way to send a new wave of erotic energy straight to my cock.

Settling above her again, I parted her legs and ran a finger across her wet folds. “You weren’t lying when you said you were waiting, alright,” I panted.

A small moan escaped her lips, and it sounded almost as melodic as the piece she had been playing earlier.

Before she could offer me any responses, I entered her in one sharp thrust, hoping that I would be getting more visits from my mysterious redhead.

Samiya’s POV

Leaving the alpha’s chambers was not as tricky as I initially thought it would be. By the time I had woken up, his side of the bed was empty.

Standing up from the alpha’s bed, I rushed to pick up my robe and thanked the moon goddess that the little fabric hadn’t gotten torn in the process of my little escapade with the alpha. I also made sure to pick up my little wooden flute as well.

It was clearly still dark outside, and while the fact that the alpha had rushed out so early did have me thinking a lot longer than I should have, I brushed all thoughts aside and stepped out of his room. Now that stage one of my plan had been completed, I focused my mind on the contest that I still had to participate in.

There were only a few guards who stood by the hallways seeing as it was still nighttime and as I walked past them, I caught the majority of them staring at me. They could smell the Alpha’s scent on me. It could be the only reason why they looked at me with curious eyes. The thought alone brought a smile to my face and a warm feeling to my heart.

I had a good feeling that I was pretty much close to winning this contest already.

Slipping inside my room, I locked the door behind me and began to go through my things to find a gown beautiful enough to walk in for the first official day of the contest.

“Maybe you were right,” I heard Scarlet say, interrupting my search.

I rolled my eyes, knowing perfectly what she was trying to say. “That Alpha Zain would make a much better mate for us, both?! Of course, I was right! Did you see the size of that thing!” I mindlinked her, laughing.

“I did. Trust me, I did. But it’s not just the size of his manhood, Miya. It’s his wolf too. He wanted us. I could see he wanted us.” I could feel Scarlet’s energy bubbling inside of me, and honestly, it warmed my heart. I had never seen her this excited about anything ever since Meidran rejected us.

“Of course he did. I played one of his dead mother’s favorite songs. Haven’t you heard the saying that men are more attracted to women who remind them of their mothers? I told you that I could handle things perfectly.”

A small scoff resounded in my head and I stopped for a moment. “Wait… weren’t you the one repeatedly saying that you trusted me?”

“I only said that because I knew that I had no choice.”

“Scarlet,” I called out in a warning tone.

“Just don’t ruin this for us,” was the last thing I heard from her before she went completely silent.

With a small laugh, I continued sorting through my clothes until I found the perfect red dress.

After arranging my dress along with some jewelry, perfume, and the perfect purse on my bed, I stepped into the shower and washed myself. Careful enough to not overpower the alpha’s scent but mindful enough to take all the grime off of my body.

Once that was done and the first signs of dawn began to peek through my window, I got dressed. For my jewelry, I opted for gold, and for my hair, I chose to let it down. Today, I wanted my dress to speak for me before I even got a chance to open my mouth. Like most of my other dresses, this dress had a dangerously deep vee-line that showed a good amount of my bosom while the rest of the dress flowed freely to the floor giving a mermaid illusion.

What I happened to love the most about this dress was the fact that it left my neck exposed just for everyone to see how much Alpha Zain appreciated my neck last night.

Stepping out of my room, I saw a few other women heading toward the room where Meidran addressed us yesterday. Like the guards from earlier, most of the women I passed stared at me with a slight hint of confusion. My guess was that they could either smell Alpha Zain’s scent on me, or they could see the love bruises on my neck, or maybe it was both. Either way, it didn’t matter much.

We all had to wait for about ten minutes for Meidran to show up.

The moment my eyes caught sight of his silver blond hair, the first image that came to my mind was the one of the bimbo from yesterday and how he mindlessly fucked her. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to feel anything, yet I couldn’t stop the rage from boiling through my veins.

As though my emotions were loud enough to call out to the man, Meidran turned to face me and our eyes locked. For those few moments, it felt as though it was just us in the room and there was no one else.

But the feeling did eventually fade when he began to approach me.

My first instinct was to run or avoid him somehow, but my feet remained glued to the ground. The man needed to see just how much I had grown to despise him. The man needed to see that I wasn’t the same helpless omega I was when we were kids or the weak whore he left in the market square two years ago.

So, I squared my shoulders and stood up straight.

A few feet away from me, Meidran paused. His nose twitched, and his nostrils visibly flared up.

He could smell it.

The expression on his face morphed from a mild shock to that of fear as his legs took flight, and he walked towards me even faster. Standing in front of me, he took my hand, shoving me close to him. His eyes searched mine and his brows furrowed. “Zain? Seriously? You spend one night here, and you choose to spend it in the alpha’s bed?” he spat.

Wrenching my hand free from Meidran’s grasp, I felt my anger take a new dimension. “You have no right to approach me or speak to me whatsoever! Last I remember, you ridiculed me for opening my legs, for just anyone, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you,” I fired back, making sure that my voice was low so no one else could easily hear us.

My outburst seemed to annoy Meidran even more because his eyes narrowed further and just when I felt he was seconds from boiling over, a loud voice put an end to our quarrel.

“Meidran, are these all the women that would be competing this year?”

I knew that voice. It was the same voice that could bring just anyone in the Etrana pack to their knees, and it was also the same voice that echoed in my ears as I reached orgasm after orgasm last night. Alpha Zain.

Meidran took a step away from me and spun so quickly that one would even wonder if he had ever been standing a hair’s breadth away from me only seconds ago. “Yes, Zain. These are all the women that applied to compete for the position of your chosen mate this year,” he informed him, stretching his hands.

Alpha Zain nodded and took only one step forward before his nose crinkled. He raised his head further into the air before he began scanning each face in the room. When his eyes landed on me, my heart stopped beating for a split second before I was able to regulate it again.

His eyes remained on me and looked at him with as much intrigue as he did me. Scarlet tried to will me to bow my head or at least avert my eyes, but I refused her with all the strength I had in me. I wasn’t going to back down. Not when I had come this far.

“I hear that you have come to win my heart, yet some of you couldn’t wait to compete and just had to get your action elsewhere, so it seems.” His words bounced off of the walls as he dragged his words lazily like he had been forced to come here.

For a fraction of a moment, I thought that he was referring to me and my heartbeats picked up in their rhythm once again, but when his head finally turned to another contestant, I let out a small breath.

“You slept with my Beta,” Alpha Zain said, pointing at the brunette I had caught fucking Meidran last night. Her lips formed an ‘O’ and her eyes widened as though she was being falsely accused.

Didn’t the fool remember that we werewolves could easily trace scents, especially the Alpha?

Before the woman had a chance to defend herself, Alpha Zain continued. “Congratulations! You have officially failed the first challenge. Guards get her out of my sight.”

Two of the Alpha’s men stepped forward, ready to escort the brunette away from the castle. Just as we were all registering what had just happened, the alpha’s voice clouded my senses once more.

“Redhead, step out. We need to talk.”

Samiya’s POV

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but my gaze remained trained ahead. I could feel Scarlet running mad in my head, but I ignored her and took a step forward.

Noticing that Alpha Zain’s gaze on me hadn’t lost its intensity for even a split second, I continued to walk forward until I was right in front of him before dipping into a curtsy. “Good morning, Alpha.”

“Follow me,” he ordered before taking a slight pause.

“Guards, Meidran. Don’t bother coming with us. I need to speak to redhead alone.”

I heard a few “Yes Alpha”’s and footsteps before I dared to look up again and straighten my back. Not paying attention to any of the Alpha’s guards who still looked at me suspiciously, I followed the Alpha out of the room and into a random hallway.

We had been walking for a few minutes when the man came to a halt, causing me to stop as well. Slowly, he turned. The brown hair on his head was swept back and each chestnut strand he left to fall forward seemed perfectly placed as though he had staff whose primary assignment was to ensure every lock stayed in its perfect position.

Then there were his midnight blue eyes that seemed to bore into my very soul and question just everything there was to me. I had a compelling urge to turn away and focus on something else, but I simply couldn't. The ego in me could never take it. My eyes then fell on the cupid bow of his lips. Each plea, word of praise, and soft moan of pleasure he whispered into my ears last night drove back into the forefront of my mind like a hurricane and I took in a deep breath.

“Whatever you say from now on can either lead to your demise or your favor. Tread carefully.”

Before I had a chance to even respond, the man grabbed me by the wrist, opened a nearby door, and shoved me inside the room.

With lightning speed, he closed the door again and locked it. “Who are you?” he started, resting his back on the wall beside the door he had just shut.

I cleared my throat. “Samiya. Samiya Cordova… an omega.”

He scoffed. “For an omega, you seem to have a lot of sass in you. What the fuck were you doing in my room last night? Why were you playing a fucking flute blindfolded and why on earth did I see you with the other contestants this morning? Are you some sort of spy… a witch?”

“I told you that this wasn’t a good idea,” I heard Scarlet in a shaky voice. Sometimes the she-wolf would make me want to bang my head a million times on any wall that seemed hard enough.

“Shut up and trust me like you said you would!” I yelled back and after a few murmurs, she went silent.

I cleared my throat. “I am not a witch. I can shift for you right now if you want, and I was in your room last night because I wanted you… and from the looks of it, you want me to. As for the song and blindfold, I felt it would leave a good impression, did it not?”

Alpha Zain remained silent. On another occasion, I would have questioned if the man had heard anything I said, but with the way the expression on his face gradually changed from annoyed to curious, I could tell that he had what I said and was most likely pondering on it.

He straightened his back and walked away from the wall. Without a word, he walked past me and my eyes followed him all through his movements. It was only then that I dared to look around the room that I had been shoved into.

I should have noticed it sooner, but I was too occupied with reading Alpha Zain’s mood and trying to calm Scarlet down to realize it. Alpha Zain might just have taken me into one of the prettiest places in his castle yet. Somehow, we stumbled into a greenhouse with rows of different sizes and colors of flowers adorning both the grounds and the walls.

Then the smell came. A deep earthy scent mixed with a crisp fresh tang of damp soil and the aroma of leaves touched by dew as well as blooming flowers hit my nostrils.

Walking forward, my eyes adjusted to the soft, filtered lights that peeked through the glass panes. This place was perfect. I wanted to marvel at the scenery forever, but when I heard Alpha Zain’s voice again, I was harshly shoved back into reality.

“Shift!” It was one simple order that left the hairs on my neck standing.

Reaching for the hands of my dress, I began to pull it down, as I maintained eye contact with Alpha Zain. For a few moments, it seemed as though we were frozen in time until I pulled my dress to the point where my naked breasts were now exposed.

Alpha Zain pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked away. “I said, shift. Not strip.”

“If I shift with my clothes on then I’ll have no clothes to wear when I need to shift back. So, in this case, I believe that shifting would be the same as stripping, Alpha… or does my nudity affect you that much?” I arched an eyebrow, watching closely for the Alpha’s next reaction.

He turned back to face me, his hands falling to his hands and a small crease forming in his eyebrows. “Do whatever the fuck you want, but if you don’t shift in the next minute, then you will have to find out just how I treat spies and witches that manage to wander into my land.” His tone was sharp, yet I could sense the vulnerability beneath his words and I couldn’t blame him, especially after what happened with his fated mate.

In a slightly more hurried manner than I had used before, I took off my dress, placed it on the ground a few feet away from me, and did just as he had commanded.

At first, I began to feel my canines peek through before I completely surrendered all control to Scarlet. It was funny how a few years the thought of shifting terrified me because of the intense pain I would go through, but now, at the age of twenty-three, it felt like second nature and came so naturally.

“Try not to make us look stupid,” I mindlinked Scarlet when I noticed that she was in full control. The bitch didn’t even bother to offer me a response.

I could feel Alpha Zain’s eyes on us. It almost felt like he was looking at Scarlet in the same way he had looked at me last night. I was well aware of how rare my wolf was. Unlike most other wolves, she had cherry red with a mixture of brown fur and almond eyes.

She was smaller than most other wolves and slightly weaker, but she had a certain charm that made her appear like a fox at times. My only wish was that she would act like one sometimes too.

Apparently, I would have to wish harder because I felt her trudge forward to where Alpha Zain stood and nuzzle herself against his leg.

“Goddess, what did I ever do to have to deal with a wolf as needy as mine.”

Scarlet must have heard me because after that she whimpered as if it was her sole intention to spite me even more. Shockingly, I sensed a warm hand run through Scarlet’s fur before withdrawing. Alpha Zain took a step and cleared his throat. “Shift back.”

“Time’s up buddy. Come on now,” I teased.

“Shut up! I can tell that he likes me a lot more than you,” she retorted.

“Yet he wants me back. How comical.”

I could hear her mutter a few curses which only made me laugh. No matter how much I teased Scarlet, I knew that she could never get angry, and soon she released control, letting me transform into my human form again.

Seeing the situation I was in now, I could see why Scarlet so easily let me take control again without much of a fight.

I was sitting next to Alpha Zain.

Naked.

I felt like killing the crazy she-wolf.

“You’re Samiya Cordova. The Wench of Etrana. An omega,” Alpha Zain said, as though he was reciting the words from a book. It felt even worse hearing him speak in the position I was, so I quickly scurried up to my feet.

With the way he spoke, it was obvious he had mindlinked someone to get the information. My guess was on Meidran. What I was curious to know was if he knew the part about Meidran and I being childhood best friends before he betrayed me or the fact that I was his rejected mate. Hopefully, the idiot had enough sense to leave out such disgusting details.

“So you finally believe me now.”

“Yes, and now you have two options. Step down from the contest and become one of my concubines. If you do a good job, I might even make you my favorite and no one will ever refer to you as the wench of Etrana ever again. You’d be set for life. Or you could stay in the contest knowing fully well that I will be doing everything in my power to make you lose. Pick wisely.”