Her Tyrant Alpha [EXCERPT]

Chapter Two

Ashelin didn't know exactly how long she stood there, floating in her own mind. She could feel the moon, focusing on its cycles, so she vaguely knew the passage of a day, but mostly she meditated.

Her wolf was the most docile she'd ever been, akin to stretching out next to a crackling fire, tail lapping against a warm hearth rug.

As Ashelin lingered in subspace, she cast out her senses to her new sisters-in-arms. They were opponents, technically, but these women were all here in the same position. Omegas from all over, offering themselves to the alpha in hopes of becoming his true mate—or maybe some didn't hope for it. She didn't know the motives of all of these women, but she would have to find out to gain every advantage she could.

Sometime during the second night, the air shifted, and the woman to her right fell.

Ashelin slitted her eyes open, discreetly watching as two sentinels moved from the beach to the woman's side.

"Don't move her!" A man in a lab coat rushed up the beach, practically flying past Ashelin as he barked the words. "Just let me make sure she's okay first!"

She caught a sweet scent in his wake, something fruity yet earthy, and with a pang it made her think of Gaspard. She swallowed hard, taking in another breath through her nose, out through her mouth. Breathing through emotional pain was just as effective as physical.

But then there was an undertone of something else, something that punched her in the gut with the shock of it. That man wasn't a wolf. He was human. She sniffed as hard as she could, but he was already too far away, and Ashelin had never been a tracker. If she shifted and put her nose to the ground, she would be able to pick up traces in the sand directly where the man's feet had touched, but she wasn't sensitive enough to grab it out of the air.

She couldn't hear what they were saying despite how much she strained her ears, either. She caught hums and murmurs as the doctor spoke with the woman, and then eventually he approved her for transport and one of the guard wolves lifted her up, bridal style, trailing after the doctor towards the grass.

She tried not to make it obvious that she was looking, but her heartbeat thundered in her ears. A human doctor? That was the last thing she'd been expecting to see, and it raised a lot of questions and doubts about what she'd originally thought coming here.

She stayed focused on the water as they left. One down, she thought, and though she didn't wish the unknown woman any ill will, that was one less Offering to deal with. And she couldn't worry about the doctor at this time. That was Future Ashelin's issue.

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

She closed her eyes again, letting the moonlight bathe her in its comforting glow. She tipped her head back, enjoying the moonbeam shower, opening her chest and relaxing her shoulders.

She slowly lifted one foot and rested it on the inner calf of her other leg, balancing in a modified tree pose to centre herself.

Soon enough, her breathing grew slow and deep, her wolf slumbering once again, and she fell into a resting state, balanced in the sand, floating in the light of the moon.