Sensing the chilling undertone in his words, Miah fought off a shiver, her resistance to domination deeply ingrained. "Were you born a bully? Or do you find you have to work at it?" she retorted, unflinching in the face of his imposing presence.
Alpha Alexander was taken aback by her audacious comeback. With furrowed brows and dark eyes piercing, he towered over her petite frame, his fingers still lightly tracing the delicate contours of her wrists. She was tiny compared to him, yet she challenged him at every turn, leaving him baffled by her boldness.
"Your silence suggests it comes naturally to you," Miah interjected, surprising even herself with her defiance. Was it the effect of the vodka? Or his dismissive attitude towards her feelings evident in his interactions with other women? Or perhaps the uncomfortable truth that, despite his domineering demeanour, she found him undeniably attractive?
Alexander bent to clamp his hands to her waist, and then he lifted her bodily around to face him. ‘By the time I’m finished with you, you will love football—’
Seriously vexed at being lifted off her feet and treated like a child, Miah focused on him with blazing aquamarine eyes. ‘Dream on!’
‘And once you get used to me, you’ll be jealous and clingy, and adoring, just like all the other women I’ve ever known,’ Alexander concluded with raw conviction.
In the grip of his hands, her fingers balled into furious fists. ‘I don’t think you can ever have met a woman like me before.’
His brilliant dark eyes flamed as bright as the heart of a fire, and he looked dangerous, his lean, dark, handsome face taut. ‘Enough!’ he spelt out with critical cool. ‘Have you forgotten why you are here with me?’
Her lashes lowered, and she was suddenly still and fighting to get a grip on her angry discomfiture. His reminder had been timely; she had forgotten. He had hired Mirabella to carry out a role, and so far Miah has annoyed him, disagreed with him, and argued with him. She breathed slowly and deeply to calm herself.
‘That is better,’ Alexander pronounced, and he lowered his arrogant dark head and pressed his lips gently against her lush pink mouth.
"You seemed uncomfortable with the attention," Alexander observed, his gaze penetrating her pale face. "It frightened you—why?"
"I suppose I'm more of a private person. I'm not used to this."
"That's not the impression you gave in your interviews."
Miah tensed, realising that despite feeling safe in his presence due to his unfamiliarity with her sister, he was aware of her sister's interviews and had formed opinions about her based on them. Suddenly feeling exposed, she replied, "Everyone presents their best selves in interviews."
Alexander remained silent, noticing Miah's evasion and pondering the reasons behind it. "You need to learn to relax with me. We'll be flying to London for our wedding in less than a week," he stated firmly.
"London," Miah repeated weakly, feeling even more unsettled at the thought. She questioned whether she could truly go through with the role her twin had agreed to play. "Why London? I mean, this is your pack. I'm sure—"
"Because I respect my elders. Getting married here, in my pack, without my mate would be quite disrespectful," he explained.
"Okay, I understand," Miah conceded, though her mind raced with apprehension.
He sighed, then handed her a parcel. "This is for you. We'll be able to keep in touch now. I've been too distant from this process, my dear."
"Can you stop calling me those—I mean, I have a name, you know," Miah interjected, feeling the need to assert her identity.
He raised an eyebrow in response.
*****
A few hours later, at the guest house, Miah was video chatting with her twin sister.
She took the time to unwrap the parcel twenty minutes later. With wide eyes, her sister examined the mobile phone she had revealed and let out a sudden exclamation. "Oh, wow, I can't believe it. He's given you one of the most expensive phones in the world!""What?" Miah frowned, puzzled by her sister's reaction.
"Jesus, sis, look at those," Mirabella urged, her excitement palpable.
Miah held up the new phone next to her old one for Mirabella to see. Mirabella gasped again. "Those are real diamonds. It's a customised phone. A very expensive one."
"Are they?" Miah couldn't muster the same excitement. While she could appreciate the sparkle of the diamonds, she couldn't see the appeal of such lavish decoration on a mobile phone. In fact, she found it to be an embarrassingly ostentatious display of wealth.
Miah was less concerned about the extravagant phone than she was about the impending wedding. "Why do you think Alexander Bluemoon wants a wife in the first place? Aren't you curious?" she asked, diverting the conversation away from the material possessions.Mirabella, however, was fixated on the phone. "That is worth thousands and thousands of pounds, and I'm more entitled to it than you are!" she declared resentfully, shooting Miah a glance filled with bitterness. "I'm the one who won this job, and now you're getting all the stuff that should have been mine."
Mirabella's expression hardened, and she pursed her lips. "Not really. As long as it's nothing illegal, I couldn't care less why. Maybe it'll give him some sort of tax or business or inheritance advantage, or perhaps he wants a wife to give him a breathing space from all the pushy women who target him.""Alexander certainly didn't strike me as the marrying type," Miah confided. "He also asked me to spend the night with him—"
Eyes widening in shock, Mirabella stared at her twin with a dropped jaw. "He did? He found you that attractive. I bet you thought all your Christmases had come at once. Why did you leave him to come back here, for goodness' sake?"
Feeling her face flush at the revealing response, Miah murmured, "The point is... why did he ask? Since when was sex part of the arrangement?"
Mirabella was still engaged in playing with the phone, and although she tensed at her sister’s question, she did not lift her head for several seconds. Blue-green eyes scornful, she looked over at Miah. ‘Think about what you’re saying. How are you planning to pretend to be his wife without ever sharing a bedroom with him?’
That angle hadn’t occurred to Miah, and she pressed her lips in dismay. ‘I didn’t realise that the job entailed carrying on the pretence that we were a couple behind closed doors.’
Mirabella raised a brow. ‘You can’t be that naïve. He must have a lot of staff, and he wants everyone to think it’s the real deal, not just a select few. Of course, what happens behind those closed doors would be your choice entirely.’
Miah ’s rigid expression of disapproval had eased a little. ‘So there was no prior assumption that there would be intimacy of that nature?’
‘Of course not. What do you think I am?’ Mirabella demanded sharply. ‘But put a young and attractive man and woman in the same room, and nature tends to take its course, if you know what I mean.’
The trouble was that Miah genuinely didn’t know, for she had as yet no experience to equal her twin’s.
‘You can’t still be a virgin!’ Mirabella exclaimed, interpreting her sister’s embarrassment with a look of disbelief.
With a defensive gesture, Miah squared her shoulders. "Why shouldn't I be?" she responded with quiet conviction. "I just haven't met the right person yet, and I'm not ashamed of that."
"Sometimes I can't believe we're twins. We're so different!" Mirabella exclaimed in frustration. "Why do you make sex such a big deal? Is it any wonder you're still on your own? A guy has to tick every box on your checklist to get anywhere near you. This arrangement just isn't going to work."
"What do you mean?" Miah asked, feeling a sense of dread creeping over her.
"I'm the one chosen to be Alexander's wife, and it seems I'm the only one of us capable of pulling it off," Mirabella stated flatly. "Since we can't repay the money, I'll have to get an abortion."
In horror, Miah jumped to her feet. "I won't let you do that!" she exclaimed, unable to comprehend what she had just heard.
"We only have two options," her twin persisted. "You marry him in my place so we can keep the money, or I terminate this pregnancy and fulfil the contract—"
"I said I would do it," Miah retorted, unsettled by her twin's demeanor, knowing how impulsive Mirabella could be. She feared her sister might still go through with the idea of an abortion.
"But you're hesitating at every turn!" Mirabella angrily accused.
‘I don’t call sharing a bedroom with a guy I hardly know a “little” thing...’
‘That’s right, go ahead and make me feel like a total slut just because I wouldn’t have made a big fuss about it when he’s so gorgeous! All right, I’ve had a lot of men in my life and you haven’t, but do you have to be so superior and smug about it?’
‘I’m not superior or smug,’ Miah protested in dismay. ‘Anything but!’
‘Well, you’d better make your mind up fast. Do you want to help Mom or not?’ Mirabella demanded coldly.
And did she also want to be an aunt to the baby that her sister was carrying? Miah added inwardly. She had met the baby’s father, Henry, only that day, when he’d arrived to take both young women out for lunch. Miah had liked him very much and was satisfied that he genuinely loved her willful twin. Right now, Mirabella, however, is less easy to read or predict. Her sister was all over the place emotionally, one moment sentimental about her approaching motherhood and marriage, the next feeling threatened by the awareness that her freedom would be curtailed.
Miah observed her twin's possessive gaze fixated on the extravagantly expensive phone, knowing all too well her sister's weakness for luxury items. Mirabella's penchant for designer labels had led her into substantial debt on multiple occasions. As she looked at the dazzling diamond-studded phone, Miah could sense her sister's internal struggle, questioning whether she had made a mistake in turning down the opportunity to marry a billionaire, no matter how brief or artificial the arrangement would have been.Despite her own reservations, Miah remained steadfast in her commitment to the solution that offered her sister the best chance at happiness. Suppressing her doubts, she took a deep breath and declared, "I want to help Mom more than anything. I'll go ahead with it, no matter the cost."
Only a few hours after their conversation, Alexander snatched up a towel and strode out of the wet room where he had cooled his hot blood under a long, cold shower. It was four in the morning, and he had barely slept. How could he sleep? The girl was always on his mind. He had tossed and turned, as overheated and hungry for a woman as a sex-starved teenage boy. He was not amused by that reality, and he was bewildered and frustrated by the sexual intensity Miah Baker had fired in him. And he knew he could resist her. She had something—something he hadn't seen before—and he was a force not to be reckoned with. Miah was challenged.And he damn well liked challenges. He was an alpha for a reason.With a brooding frown stamped on his lean, strong features, he logged onto his notebook PC and brought up the photo of his bride-to-be. It was a source of irritation that the woman in the picture somehow contrived both to look like Miah and yet not like her. In the flesh, her face was softer and
Bernabe accompanied Miah downstairs. She was thinking about how Mirabella was always seen as more attractive, thinner, and smarter. Mirabella attracted men easily, which had been true since they were younger. Miah felt a pang of pain knowing she once liked their neighbour, Patrick, but he only saw her as Mirabella's sister. She felt guilty for loving him, knowing it was wrong. She never told anyone, even when Mirabella was unfaithful to Patrick. Mirabella didn't mind straying herself, but she was quick to judge their father for doing the same.Miah's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she saw Alexander in the back of the luxurious limousine. He appeared even more striking than she remembered, leaving her speechless and fluttery inside. Despite feeling shy, she managed a quiet "Hi," unable to tear her eyes away from his captivating gaze.“Miah,” Alexander greeted her, his intense gaze noticing her tense demeanour and apparent discomfort, which was a departure from his usual experi
OMG! Was he teasing her over chocolate? That was so unexpected, Miah thought to herself. Of course, she never thought the alpha was capable of doing just that.But who cares? The chocolate was to die for.The meltingly rich taste of chocolate reached Miah ’s taste buds in a gastronomic tide of sensation. It tasted so good, she almost closed her eyes to savour it in full. “That is to die for,” she whispered.Alpha Alexander hissed as he got an erotic buzz just watching her. She was a wonderfully sensual woman, and she could wind him up like a clock. He wanted to scoop her up into his arms and take her somewhere private where he could sink deep and hard and repeatedly into her lush little body until he had satisfied the fierce hunger he was restraining with such difficulty. But on another level, he was enjoying that unusual edge of anticipation, driven by a level of moderation he had never practiced before.Somewhere close by, a phone rang insistently. Miah broke free of the spell holdi
That night, at the pack’s mansion, Alexander growled in his sleep. Again, his past echoed in his dream, and the pain remained.Even though it was his dream, he knew deep inside that it was more than that. It was his past before he became the creature he once hated.Disoriented, a younger Alexander woke deep within the ground. The first sensation he felt was hunger. It was no ordinary hunger, but one of gut-wrenching, skin-crawling necessity. He was starving. Every cell in his body demanded nourishment. He lay there in silence while hunger gnawed at him like a rat. It attacked not only his body but also his mind, so that he feared for all others, humans and newly turned werewolves alike. Feared for himself. Feared for his soul. This time, the darkness was spreading fast, and his soul was in jeopardy.What dared to disturb his sleep? Was he dead? After the rogue attacked him on the eastern boundary, he knew he was dead, but why was he aware of everything? Aware of the earth surrounding
Alexander should have caught the nearest prey and fed voraciously to bring him instant strength, but the dread of being unable to stop himself was uppermost in his mind. He must not allow the beast to control him. He had a sworn duty to his people, to the human race, but most importantly, to his beloved grandmother. She had been his hero, the one he placed above all others, and deservedly so.The smell of blood was overpowering. It beat at him with the same intensity as his hunger. The sound of it rushing through veins, ebbing and flowing, burgeoning with life, taunted him. In his present state of weakness, he would be unable to control his prey or keep his victim calm. That would only add to the power of the demon rising.“Sir, may I help you in some way? Are you ill?” It was the most beautiful voice he had ever heard. She spoke in flawless English, her accent perfect, but he was uncertain whether she was actually human. To his amazement, her words brought him comfort, as if her voic
“Bert, I have to get home. This gentleman needs help. I don’t have time to talk right now. I just stopped by for a few supplies,” Miah said with urgency.Bert Renaldo put his hand on her arm to stop her. “I need you to look at a patient for me, Miah. A little girl. It won’t take that long.”“Not now, I’ll come back later tonight.” Miah’s voice was soft but very firm.Bert tightened his grip, intending to pull her back, but as he did so, he felt something moving along his skin. Looking down, he saw several small spiders with vicious-looking fangs crawling along his arm. With an oath, he let go of Miah and shook his arm hard. The spiders were gone as if they’d never been, and Miah was already walking quickly to her side of the car. She was looking at him as if he were a nut. He started to explain, but when he couldn’t see any evidence of spiders, he decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.Bert hurried to the car, deliberately taking her arm again and bending low to peer in the window at Al
From the air, Alexander could see the estate for what it was. Obviously old, the house was in beautiful shape, and the grounds were meticulously cared for. Everywhere he looked were familiar objects, things of which he had knowledge, but now seeing them in a different light, it was more than that. It was so tangible. It was new to him. The sensation of hyper-awareness of everything made him dizzy in a way that every cell in his body thought. It was oddly familiar but weird in a way that ached his mind. He never once dreamed that he would be someone he loathed.But life continued while he lay sleeping under the earth for weeks or years. He didn't care anymore. He had pressing matters to worry about. His woman.He found Miah as he had left her, her skin so white it was nearly translucent. She was tall, so much younger than he was, and slender, with a wealth of ebony hair that framed her face and tumbled around her body, emphasising her lush curves. He picked her up with great gentleness
The next morning, when Miah returned from her walk, Mirabella video called her, her sister’s face flushed with annoyance, hissing on her the moment she answered her expensive phone. “Where the hell have you been, Miah? I've been calling a million times”“Your phone was off when I got up. I had a few things to buy, and then I went for a walk.“A walk? In werewolf territory? Are you out of your mind?” Mirabella wailed in disbelief. ‘You’re flying to London this afternoon, and all you can think to do with yourself is go for a stupid walk?"Miah compressed her lips. “I don’t know how long I’ll be away. I won't miss this place.”Her sister just rolled her eyes. “Mother came home at lunchtime yesterday. She’s guessed where we got the money from!” her sister told her abruptly.Miah studied her twin in dismay. “How could she possibly have guessed?”"Naturally, she doesn’t know about the marriage-as-a-job angle," Mirabella breathed impatiently. ‘But even though I’m the one who gave the money t