Astrid's POV

It was surprisingly cool to be a surrogate.

Imagine that. It was cooler being a person who sold their body for money rather than being a powerless omega.

I was given a big room on the top floor with windows that had a magnificent view of everything.

No one disturbed me and Alpha Jaxon didn't come to force himself on me or anything else like I feared. In fact, I would have thought that they had forgotten I was in the house if not for the servants that attended to me.

Yes. I now had servants. Servants that brought me whatever I wanted, cleaned up my room, styled my hair even though I was going nowhere and dressed me up.

They attempted to bathe me as well but I drew the line there. I wasn't a child.

I wasn't allowed to work hard - so as not to strain myself and affect my conception - so I always had a maid on hand in case I wanted to change or do anything strenuous.

I slept well for the first time in a long time.

I ate and gorged.

And I grew bored.

I know what you are thinking. For someone who was used to suffering surely I should have enjoyed the welcome change and milked it for what it was worth.

But I was used to working. To doing things. Sitting idle made me feel like I had things to do that I was ignoring. My body was just used to suffering to relax.

So I explored and tried to learn everything about my new home. That was how I found myself in the library for the first time.

The librarian bowed when she saw me making me startled.

"Good day my lady, how may I be of service?"

My lady? I was now a lady?

I felt instantly self-conscious. Maybe she was mistaking me for someone else.

"Don't worry, I can find my way around."

The librarian followed me into the library and refused to let me be.

"As a surrogate, you must not do any hard work."

I paused, turning to look at the librarian. "How do you know I am a surrogate?"

The librarian looked at me looking faintly embarrassed. "Only the surrogates can wear blue silk here."

I looked down at the ocean blue dress that I was wearing. Somehow I hadn't noticed that all my dresses in the closet were varying shades of blue until she said it.

From the pale blues that looked white to the darkest blues that seemed black until hit by a ray of sun in the right direction.

Even my clothes advertised what I was. How crazy was that?

"Alright." I tucked my hair behind my ear. "But you don't need to bother. I don't intend to stress myself. I just want to look around and read a book or two."

The librarian didn't seem to hear my silent plea to be alone. "I will help you with the retrieval of the books."

I finally allowed her to tag along with me because what other choice did I have?

She helped me retrieve the books that I wanted then I dismissed her and read.

I found myself returning to the library often and becoming better acquainted with the different librarians.

Initially, I just read novels but on my second day at the library, I saw a military journal and thought to myself. What better way would I get to research on the mysterious Alpha King but in the library?

I would need all the knowledge I could to find him after I left this place.

It must have been close to a week that I had been coming to the library when it happened.

"We have to close the library."

I looked up from a particular interesting story about my father to Wendy, the librarian.

"May I borrow this book then?"

Wendy smiled at me apologetically.

"It is too heavy to have in your room. You may try to lift it without any of your maids present."

She was right. I would try to lift it. It was just one book, I knew that the Crimson Moon pack was anxious to have a child but this was ridiculous. At this rate, if I got pregnant, then they would never let me stand up from the bed.

I blinked at Wendy.

"But I am so bored. I never have anything to do and reading books is the only time I feel like myself." Tears filled my eyes. "I have not even been with Alpha Jaxon. You shouldn't bother about me carrying heavy loads."

That was another thing that bothered me as well. I felt guilty for all of this princess treatment when I hadn't done anything to deserve it.

"These are the rules." Wendy shrugged but I could see the sympathy in her eyes. "But. I can leave you the key to lock up later."

"You can? Thank you!" I nearly jumped as I hugged her.

After Wendy left, I realized something. This was the first time I was completely alone in the Crimson Moon pack. This might be the only time I would have an opportunity to escape.

I didn't want Alpha Jaxon to punish the librarian but my Dad was still out there.

I glanced at the closed library door that my guard stood behind, my heart in my throat. If I wanted to escape, I would have to use the window.

I looked for a window that would be best for climbing out and I lifted my leg to climb out only to hear footsteps behind me.

I froze. I was so done for.

I turned and my jaw nearly dropped in shock. "Xavier?"

My former mate smiled at me brightly.

"You don't need to pass a window, I'm here to take you home."

****

Xavier's POV

"This is all your fault! You are a disgrace."

When Astrid left, I was the one who took all the blame.

"Father, how was I to know that she would escape?"

My father had been inconsolable.

"If you had not been so mean to her, she would not have escaped!"

I knew he cared for the omega as much as I did. He only cared that our only shot at the throne was at stake.

"Father-"

"She is our ticket out of being oppressed by Alpha Jaxon and your ticket to the throne!"

Alpha Jaxon's swift and total rise over the years had humiliated my father and when he finally began to show off his strength my father never forgot or forgave.

He would not be satisfied until he had shown that upstart his place.

"I will find her and bring her home." I promised my father.

But the truth was even if he hadn't demanded it, I would have gone after her anyway.

My wolf wasn't letting me be. He wanted his mate and he wanted her now.

I couldn't touch Lyra much less kiss her even when I wanted to and the past nights before I left the pack, I couldn't sleep without Astrid's scent next to me.

Her omega scent was slowly driving me mad. I had never felt this way before and even when I saw what she had done to Lyra's car and my car, all I could do was fight a laugh which was ridiculous since I didn't even like her.

I tracked her scent to a shady-looking hotel then it was gone as though she had simply evaporated from there but I knew what territory I was in and the only people who could mask a scent like that.

It didn't take long to find the bounty hunters.

I showed her picture to the head of the hunters.

"Where is she?"

The burly man didn't even look at the picture as he drank his beer, his men around him primed for violence.

"Don't know her."

I dropped a wad of cash that had him glancing at the table.

"Does she look familiar now?"

The man grinned showing his yellow, slightly blackened teeth.

"Add another and I'll see."

I added another stack of cash.

He nodded and his men greedily pocketed it before he turned to me with that same annoying grin.

"Don't think you can get her back. Sold this one right off to Alpha Jaxon. Messing with the Crimson Moon pack will get ya killed."

The Crimson Moon Pack had her?

I growled at the head of the slavers and he looked frightened for a second. "She is mine and I will get her back."

Then it was a matter of preparation and greasing the right palm and I was in.

It was harder than I thought sneaking into the Crimson Moon territory but the person I bribed informed me that Astrid frequented the library so that I didn't waste time.

I just watched and waited for the right opportunity. Now was that opportunity.

I looked at my mate standing in front of me. She was perfect. Everything I wanted.

Her hair was no longer greasy but glossy and fell in full dark curls around her. Even her face seemed to glow in this dim lighting, her green eyes as pale as jade.

She seemed different.

Instead of her coming running into my arms, Astrid maintained the distance between us.

"I am not going back with you."

I was shocked.

"You would rather stay here locked up with a murderer and a terrible man than return home?"

Her eyes burned with more anger than I had ever seen in them.

"The Moonshadow pack was never my home. You and all the other pack members made it clear. Besides, are you not a terrible person as well?" Her anger was not that of an omega but a princess. "You broke our bond immediately after you found out I was your mate."

I was running out of time. I folded my hands together acting remorseful.

"I made a mistake. I'm sorry. Please give me another chance."

Astrid looked away from me.

"I can't. I can no longer trust you."

My anger grew and I could no longer pretend.

"You give me no choice. I will take you back home forcibly."

Astrid's eyes widened with fear.

"What?"

I pulled her arm and yanked her forward ignoring her struggles.

"You have been brainwashed by Alpha Jaxon."

She pushed against me.

"No, I have not. Let me go!"

I yanked her harder and she gasped in pain.

"Am I interrupting something?"

I looked to see who was interrupting. It was Alpha Jaxon.

Alpha Jaxon's POV

I saw the shock spread across their faces as they processed my presence.

The man who held Astrid in his arms let go of her slightly, probably from the shock but that was all she needed to pull away and race away from him to hide behind me.

This close, I could perceive his scent on her and it enraged me. How dare this man touch what wasn't his?

If not for my need to check up on Astrid after the librarian had informed me via the pack link of her leaving Astrid alone in the library, I would have never known.

This rage I was feeling was unfamiliar.

I didn't even know Astrid all that well but I was bothered. Bothered was an understatement. I felt undeniably possessive about her.

She was mine. I had bought her straight and clear and she had also agreed to our bargain.

The man in front of me looked and smelled strangely familiar and there was the look he had been giving Astrid.

I was willing to bet that this was her former mate who had been stupid enough to let go of someone like Astrid. I would never make the same mistakes as he had.

I called out to my men who were already in the library.

"Seize him!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He spoke up finally, his voice aiming for brash and lackadaisical but his nervousness crept into his words. "I am the heir to the Moonshadow pack."

I hid my surprise. No wonder he smelt familiar. Like his father. So Astrid had lied to me in the car as I had suspected. I would deal with her punishment later.

I lifted an eyebrow unimpressed at the sight of Finn's son.

"And that matters to me how exactly?"

Xavier seemed flustered by the fact that I wasn't immediately bowing over just because of who his father was. "No matter how powerful you are, Alpha Jaxon, even you cannot kill the heir of an Alpha unprovoked."

Did he really believe that nonsense? No wonder he had been fearless enough to sneak into my property. Someone's head would also roll for that later.

"You have trespassed on my property, boy." My annoyance with him was also growing. "You have also touched another of my property without permission. I am well within my rights to kill you immediately."

"Your property?" Xavier seemed confused initially. Then he seemed to understand what I was saying as his gaze cleared and panic returned.

He moved forward trying to Astrid from behind me.

"Astrid, tell him that I am your mate!"

Her grip on the back of my shirt tightened.

I growled at Xavier. "Talk to me, boy, not her."

Xavier turned to me, obviously annoyed at being ignored by Astrid.

"Call me boy one more freaking time and I will-"

"You will what? What can you do to me?"

I interrupted him. Had he been about to threaten me? Goddess, the boy was more than beyond dumb.

I took a slight step up to him, enough to scare him but not enough to dislodge Astrid's grip on my shirt.

"You are weak and pathetic. Same as your father. Even if I were to kill you right now, your family would be unable to do anything about it."

Xavier's voice shook as he responded to me and the light whiff of his fear hit my nostrils.

"You will start a war."

I folded my hands.

"And I will end it. I will add the Moonshadow pack lands to mine and your names will be forgotten."

Xavier growled at me, his eyes growing darker. "Over my dead body."

I smirked at him.

"As you wish. Lock him up, Caleb."

"Yes, Alpha."

Caleb began to move forward quickly.

Xavier threw one more look in my direction but not at me, at Astrid perhaps.

"I'll come back for you, my mate."

Then he was running. There was only one door in and out of the library and I and my men were blocking it but I shouldn't have bothered because he ran and shifted mid-leap, breaking the biggest window in the library escaping through.

"Go after him and don't return without him dead or alive. " I ordered my men and Caleb and some others went after him through the windows also shifting as well.

The rest of my guards went out through the door to circle him leaving Astrid and me alone.

She sagged against my back as though she were tired but I was far from done with her.

"You lied to me."

***""

Astrid's POV

"Huh?"

I paused at Alpha Jacin's words. What did he mean by saying that I lied?

That was when it came to me. How I had beaten around the bush to explain the tie of Xavier to the Moonshadow pack. Xavier's true identity.

Oh Goddess, I was so done for.

Alpha Jaxon didn't wait for me to respond before his hand wrapped around my arm removing my fingers from the back of his shirt to pull me in front of him.

His steely eyes glared at me without even a hint of forgiveness in them.

"Are all the words from your mouth lies?"

I couldn't meet his eyes. I was too ashamed and scared.

"I'm sorry."

He seemed confused. "Sorry?"

I folded my hands together anxiously running my fingers together.

"I thought that you would give me back to Xavier if you knew he was my mate as well as the heir of the Moonshadow pack."

Alpha Jaxon released a sigh then his hand went to my hair and I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for him to pull on it or hit me.

Instead, Alpha Jaxon simply stroked my hair like I was a child but the way he looked at me was anything but that. His gaze was burning me up from the inside out.

"And why would I do that?" He said finally and I was left scrambling for words.

With him being an Alpha like them I thought they would have more in common and it would be a smarter deal for him to give me to them and simply find another surrogate.

Alpha Jaxon was still stroking my hair.

"I've told you that I do not care for what the Moonshadow pack thinks." He pulled me close to him with one smooth movement and my breath caught as he spoke directly into my ear softly. "Only what you can do for me."

The feel of his breath against my skin made me shiver or it might have been the cold air coming in from the broken window courtesy of Xavier.

Alpha Haxon dropped a kiss on my exposed neck and my body melted against his.

"Are you cold? Do you want me to warm you up?"

He didn't wait for my response before his hands began to wander all over my body touching my neck, my breasts, squeezing my ass.

"Alpha Jaxon." His name left my lips as a moan before I was even conscious of what I was saying.

He kissed my neck again and this time, his tongue darted out tasting me and licking the salt off my skin. "You smell divine."

My fingers were buried in his hair now even though I had no conscious memory of even touching it.

"Please." I moaned.

I didn't know what I was asking for. I had never been with anyone like this but he seemed to understand what I couldn't say as he lifted me, his hands going under my ass.

He placed me directly on top of the librarian's massive desk. My cheeks flushed but he wasn't even done yet.

He began to push up the voluminous skirts of my gown pulling me to the edge of the desk where he pressed up against me, his erection rubbing against me and making me feel so darn hot.

I moaned louder and Alpha Jaxon kissed the top of my breasts making me shiver.

When he raised his head, his eyes were darker and his voice laboured.

"Today is your ovulation day, right?"