The Alpha's Temptation

Lerna had always been kept under strict guard. She wasn't allowed to meet people or make friends. Slightest of mistakes was not tolerated. Her father, Ukdah, rarely met with her. It was said that he was over two thousand years old and that he had entered immortality when he was in his mid-thirties. Whenever Lerna met with her father, she found him... insane. There was rage in his eyes and a look of madness. The man was ten feet tall and had a body made of muscles that were as hard as steel. In front of him, Lerna looked so petite, like a baby in her cradle.

Barely five feet tall, Lerna didn't even have the typical hydra tattoos on her body. There were a few that coiled from her wrist to her shoulder on her left arm. Other than that, she had a creamy complexion that was the envy of other demon she-wolves. They snickered at her, taunting her as to if she would be able to breed good wolves or not. In return, she pitied them for their limited thinking only of themselves as breeders. Trapped in this filthy cage, they didn't know that a beautiful world existed beyond Hydra.

It was her stepbrother who overlooked her upbringing. She was the last of her father's children. Lerna, a girl, was born to him after a century. Every woman he bedded gave birth to boys who became alphas. Ukdah fathered a dozen alphas over the last century. Now they needed women to mate with. There were none available in the royal bloodline, so Nyxers abducted young women from other kingdoms for the alpha males to mate with.

When Lerna was born from the princess of Black Dunes, Ukdah, had almost celebrated. He wanted to mate more with the princess, but she died soon after giving birth to Lerna. And that made Lerna a very special girl. Ukdah left Hydra six years later for an unknown realm. He hadn't returned ever since.

Lerna's upbringing fell on Felis. Felis was extremely strict and fixed in his thoughts. There were four nannies that surrounded her at all times. Every movement of hers was watched by him like a hawk. He restricted her from meeting men. It was on her twelfth birthday that he told her that she was going to be their royal breeder for the first time. After that he repeated these words to her on every birthday. It was as if he was preparing for her to mate with the alpha males of Hydra. According to the information she received, there were twelve alphas.

Felis was a powerful demon werewolf who also practiced dark magic. He had immense control over every wolf out in the lands of Hydra. The kingdom was impenetrable. No one dared to enter Hydra and no one had the galls to leave it. Over the past few years, his madness was apparent in his eyes. She hated the way the hydra tattoos were growing all over him. They covered his face to the extent that they looked like charcoal marks stretching from his neck and gripping his face like a chalice.

Lerna was scared of him and was always cautious around him. She was afraid that he was going to throw her to twelve alpha males as soon as she turned eighteen.

"Even if it takes twelve years to breed one child from you every year, you will give me royal heirs of Hydra," he had growled from his throne.

Angered at the way he treated her, she snapped at him, "You already have so many royal heirs. Why do you need more? From what it looks like you want to kill me! Have you no compassion for me?"

Felis got up from his throne and had slapped her across her cheek for defying him. She had slid twenty feet across the floor when her nannies had rushed to her. Her lips were split open and a burning pain seared her cheek.

Felis had come and sat in front of her. He clenched his jaw and said, "It is your duty to give birth to Hydraians."

Lerna had started plotting ways to escape. She had somehow cajoled a guard, who was stationed outside her bedchamber to get a horse for her because she had wanted to take a ride into the Crimson Mountains. Little did the guard know that she had taken the horse to use for her escape, that she had planned meticulously over the past year. She had studied the lands of the kingdom in the library. Over the past year she had even collected several things like a saddle, a saddlebag, a stirrup, and had drawn a map with landmarks to reach the borders of the kingdom. Over the last two days she had stolen food to take it with her during her journey out of Hydra.

That night she had covered herself in Hydranian tattoos, mounted the horse that her guard had tied to a post at the back of the palace. She succeeded in reaching the Eridani River. She was on the bridge when like a whirlwind, Felis came after her.

Lerna was looking at the shackles on her wrists. Her body shook with what would happen to her. Felis had punished her severely by putting her in a crypt with five women who were old and now a burden to Hydra. He could have chosen to kill them, but he chose to let them die a painful death. Lerna didn't know what was their crime to die so horribly, but she felt miserable for them. They stared at her with their sunken eyes that reeked of defeat.

"If you move like that, your wrists will bleed more," said one of them in a voice so hoarse that it was gravelly. "Stay put in your place."

Lerna pursed her lips as tears rolled out of her eyes. She couldn't believe that after a year of plotting her escape, she was back in Hydra and in a much worse place. She focused back on her manacles. Could she slide her wrists from out of them? Carefully, she twisted her wrist in a way that they didn't press against the iron. She held the length of the chain with her other hand and was about to pull out when she heard the loud groan of the door opening on its hinges.

"I wouldn't do that."

Her eyes snapped in the direction of the voice that came from the shadows of the columns that were shrouded in darkness.

"Those aren't the normal shackles, Lerna," he said as he emerged from the darkness. "I have infused them with dark magic." He chuckled. "Did you know that if you try to slide your hand past them, you will be further immobilized. The shackles will bind you tighter. If you continue doing it, the shackles will cut into your flesh."

Lerna tensed. She heard chains clanking on the floor as other women hurriedly clambered back to the walls trying to hide from Felis whispering curses.

"Lucky for you that you won't have to stay here much longer. I hope a week was more than enough time for you to understand that you can never escape from me." Felis closed the gap between them. She swallowed hard when he sat down and came face to face with her. He ran a finger down her cheek very softly and said--