Alpha’s Second Choice

Jo watched Dante’s eye in amusement, his golden eyes were now completely engulfed by the silver rings. It was as if he was being controlled by someone else.

‘Mate’, he whispered again as the word sent tingles down her spine.

‘Mate’, Jo mimicked him as she got lost in his silver swirls, they were very hypnotising and easy to get lost in.

‘I know’, he tenderly replied as he touched her face with the back of his hands, scared that he might hurt her delicate features.

Jo did not even realise what was happening, she was not one of them after all. She had read about the mate bonds between the werewolves and used to think how lucky they were. After realising Jayden was her mate, she was even more surprised that mate bonds commonly existed between different species as well. But having seen the true face of her horrible mate, she knew it was not a blessing but a curse to have a mate and to experience the mate bond. You were fated to another soul you did not even know. Jo was glad she was able to grow out of the feelings and attraction she had for Alpha Jayden.

But as she stared at Dante’s eyes, she started analysing what he was trying to convey. She was not very familiar with the werewolf rules in detail but why was he calling her ‘mate’? From the limited knowledge she had about their world, she assumed that she would have to reject and break the mate bond with Alpha Jayden first to have the possibility of getting a second mate. Or were the gods playing a dirty joke on her and paired her up with multiple mates. She did not need a mate at all, not even from her own species, let alone TWO from the werewolf world.

‘You are mistaken.. I’, Jo began but was stopped when Dante put his slender index finger on her lips.

‘Jo, I am happy to know you really are my fated mate. I wasn’t so sure before, but I am now’, he painfully said still holding her in his embrace.

‘I am not. I am just an omega who..’

‘Its okay’, he stopped her for the second time as he closed his eyes, as if he was scared of what was coming next.

‘We are not meant to be Jo’, he dragged each word slowly. ‘Sorry for what I am going to do next. But just know that this has nothing to do with you being an omega’.

‘Huh?’, she asked confused as she tried fighting out of his embrace and he finally let her go.

‘I, Dante…Alpha…. C…Va.. reject.. you…’, each word coming out of Dante’s mouth was foreign to her as she couldn’t make out what he was trying to do. But the word reject hit her like a brick, and she clutched her heart as a dull pain starting growing.

Dante looked worriedly at her, ‘I am sorry again Jo. But I need you to accept my rejection’.

But before they could exchange any more words, they heard the guards returning. Fearing for Jo’s safety, Dante pushed Jo’s stunned body behind a big pillar and went back into his cell, instantly locking it.

Jo did not care about what was going around her as she tried making sense of what happened. Reject? All she heard was his name and the word reject. She didn’t catch the rest of it and she didn’t want to either. The more she thought about it, the more she began realising it.

Werewolves could reject their fated mates if they didn’t want to be together. Dante’s smell, his mesmerising eyes all affected her, just like Jayden’s did on her years ago. The puzzle was piecing itself together. Dante just rejected her because he sensed they were mates. Werewolves had heightened senses, much more than her kind. But how was he able to draw that conclusion through the mask she had on, for her true scent. Even Alpha Jayden couldn’t find out her true scent for years she had been living in this pack.

At that moment, nothing mattered more. Dante found out they were mates and still decided to reject her. Who was he kidding? She knew it was probably because he thought she was an omega? It gave Jo more drive not to reveal her true identity to him now. After all the respect she had grown for him, she felt betrayed. She did not want a mate from the start, YES.

But to think of, how fast Dante wanted to get rid of her hurt. Her past memories started haunting her thoughts.

‘You should have never been born’.

‘You should have never existed’

‘Why are you still breathing?’

‘Make it stop. Make it stop’, she cried as she leaned on the pillar and dropped down on the dark dungeon floors. Through her teary eyes, she looked at the empty cells. Dante was gone. He was probably escorted to the trial by the guards.

‘Did he hate being mated to her so much that he thought death in trial was so much better’, countless thoughts terrorised her mind as she gathered all the courage she had and stood up.

She still had an escape plan to execute and did not have time to tend to her broken heart. This could be dealt with later because right now she had an escape plan to execute.

*

Dante squinted his eyes as the bright lights hit his eyes. Being in the dungeon for so many days and in complete darkness was certainly not for the faint heart.

His wolf, Theo refused to talk to him after he rejected their mate. Even though, Jo had said nothing back, he knew the rejection was final from his side. The last image he had of her, was her standing still behind the pillar, unbothered by anything happening around her. She was probably shocked, and he understood that it was probably hard for her. He only hoped she did not blame it on her being an omega. It was nothing to do with ranks because his reasons were much bigger than that.

‘General Dante, bow before the elders’, Alpha Jayden spitefully said as Dante looked around to see the gathering.

The trial was taking place in the training camp. Everyone was gathered there from the pack warriors, high officials, royal commanders to the elderlies from the Holy shrine. While the pack members observed him with great scrutiny, the royal visitors looked at ease.

The Holy shrine was being represented by three elderlies at the trial.

Dante bowed before the elders out of respect and not because he was told to do so.

‘Its an honour to meet the elderlies again’, Dante voiced.

‘Speak only when you are spoken to. This is your trial!’, Jayden growled at the man kneeling who looked unbothered.

‘He..’, one of the elderlies with a crescent tattoo on his neck began to say but was instantly stopped by Dante.

‘Its okay. Let Alpha Jayden have a fair trial’, Dante advised, infuriating Jayden more. He was waiting for Caleb to finish scanning this pack before he could reveal himself.

‘You don’t give orders around here. This is my pack! Just because you are a royal general did not give you the right for killing my poor Gamma!’, the angry Alpha yelled as Dante looked at him bored.

‘And why did you kill the Gamma?’, the white-haired elderly asked Dante with a smile on her face.

‘Because that bas. tard was abusing two innocent fairies with no grounds’, he replied coolly as he continued kneeling on the floor. Dante did not mind, besides the elderlies were wise and were known to make fair decisions.

‘Lies, those fairies’ lives were nothing next to my Gamma’s. They were just slaves!’, Jayden defended his dead Gamma again.

‘Alpha Jayden, the main question would be, how did two fairies get captured as slaves in your pack?’, it was the third elderly speaking now.

‘I…they were caught in the no-man’s borders as they were causing disturbances’, Jayden lied as he stuttered and broke cold sweats.

‘It is illegal in our werewolf world to hold any other species as a slave. The only exception we have is for trouble causing demons that have been allowed to be hunted during your pack’s annual tradition’, the elderlies continued, bombarding the nervous Alpha with question after question.

‘Wait! This is not my trial. You need to question this murderer instead’, Jayden snarled pointing at Dante.

‘He has been cleared after he answered our first question. His trial is finished However, we need to set a trial to see how you are handling all the slaves in your pack, Alpha’, the white-haired elderly calmly said as she finally took a seat on the chair, confusing Jayden.

‘This isn’t over. Wait, he killed my Gamma. Are you letting him off simply because he is from the royal kingdom? And I thought the elderlies made JUST decisions’, Jayden was getting to his wits end as the crowd gathering were whispering and murmuring amongst themselves.

‘We do make fair choices, but Dante gave us the reason. And that’s all we needed to hear’, the crescent tattooed elderly replied, also taking a seat.

‘And why does his word have so much weightage? Why don’t you need proof or evidence? Surely, there’s more to it?’.

There was only one elderly standing before the trial now. He looked at Dante first who gave him the go-ahead nod. Caleb had just confirmed with Dante that there were no other demon classes present at the trial via mind-link and that was enough confirmation for him.

‘Because the Alpha king would never need to lie’, and with that, the third elderly also took a seat.

Jayden contorted his face in confusion trying to decipher the chaotic trial that was not going the way he had expected. ‘What do you mean? This general’s last name is Castiel, and the current ruling royal surname has Vanslord!’.

‘You are right. But Dante’s last name is not Castiel. That’s his middle name. His full name is Dante Castielle Vanslord. The Alpha king of the werewolf kingdom’. And with that everyone in the crowd started bowing down.

As Dante stood up slowly, he easily broke the shackles with a snap. Jayden was still standing and was looking his way with a stupefied face.

‘Bow before your king, you fool’, Dante’s voice growled as he finally unleased his true aura and powers that he had to suppress for the mission.

Everyone could feel his real aura now as they bowed in silence. Alpha Warren quickly stepped in as he kicked his shocked son in his knees to make him bow down.

With that, everyone was bowing down and paying respect to the Alpha king.

But Dante only had one person in mind, Jolene…..