An Alpha for the Stolen Princess

*Ember*My stomach turned as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were the same striking shade of blue that they had always been, but now they were heavily rimmed with kohl and shadow. My strawberry blonde hair was piled on top of my head in an intricate series of braids, not falling in a smooth cascade down my back like I was used to.But the part that made me shudder was the dress, if I could even call it that. The sheer piece of white silk barely covered the swell of my breasts before it looped down to hug my hips, ending at the very tops of my thighs. Beneath, my feet were bare against the cold stone floor of the antechamber.“I am Ember Moonrise, sole daughter of Luther Moonrise, Alpha King of Silver Crescent. This is my duty,” I whispered to myself. I tried to make the words sound strong and confident, but the quiver in my voice didn’t quite go away.“You’re damn right, girl,” a voice boomed from behind me. I jumped and spun, my heart hammering in my chest. My

*Ember*“Moon Goddess, please don’t let Lukas take me. Please let the stranger come in time,” I prayed under my breath. The maid who was helping me into my dress glanced at me quizzically. I blushed, not realizing that my words had been audible.“I was just wondering what we would have for dinner,” I muttered, and the maid nodded. I hoped she believed me. The last thing I needed was the maid chattering to her friends about a stranger whisking the Alpha King’s daughter away.“Done,” the maid said, straightening and bustling out of my room. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and grimaced. The dress, black this time, was just as bad as the one my father had forced me to wear the previous night. The silk clung to my thin frame, etching every bone and dimple in shadows. The bodice was almost painfully tight, constricting my breasts and pushing them up uncomfortably.The maid had done her best to cover the bruises on my face with makeup, but it only made the ugly black and purpl

*Ember*The rest of the week passed without any sign of the hooded stranger. There were no more roses, no parcels of food, no chocolates.I was still afraid of what would happen if Lukas came for me, but I was also angry. Maybe the hooded stranger really had been Lukas or one of those Alphas from the party. After all, it seemed like a cruel trick to play–shower me with food and flowers, toy with my heart, and give me a little glow of hope, only to disappear into the shadows without a trace.Luckily, one of the kinder maids had noticed the shift in my mood and had taken pity on me. The night before, she had smuggled me a book from the library. I didn’t get to read often, as my father had forbidden me from entering the library. Even so, I snuck into the room often, pilfering books and returning them before they were missed. Once I had a tome, I would tuck it beneath my mattress until I was done with it. If the maids had ever found my secret stash, they had never mentioned it to me, or

*Ember*“I want you,” I murmured again into the darkness as the hooded stranger slid the strap of my dress down my shoulder. His motions were agonizingly slow.Unable to hold back, I closed the distance between us and found his lips with my own, crushing myself against the strong breadth of his chest. A low chuckle rumbled from his throat at my impatience, and he deepened the kiss as his hands began to unlace the back of my dress.Cool night air licked the skin of my back as the dress fell open and began to slide down my arms, the front held up only by the closeness of our bodies as passion poured from our lips. The stranger slid a hand down between the fabric and my body, splaying his fingers at the small of my back and drawing me even closer to him. I moaned at the heat radiating from his palm.Excited by the noise, he dropped the hand lower and slid it under my ass, jerking me up quickly. Reflexively, I wrapped my legs around his hips and then gasped into our kiss as I felt his

*Ember*I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. The last thing I remembered was lying in the strong arms of the hooded stranger, wishing that I could see his face while I traced the outline of the scar on his broad back with my fingers. But now, I found myself sitting up suddenly as somebody pounded on the barricaded door to my room, and I realized that I must have dozed off in the night.The guards must finally have come for me, and the last thing I wanted was for them to see that I had spent a lustful night with a strange shifter. Panicked, I turned to the other side of the bed, only to find the rumpled sheets and nobody else in sight.“Where are you?” I whispered desperately, my eyes raking over the room. There wasn’t anywhere for him to hide, other than the bathroom.Moving as quickly as I could, I darted into the bathroom, but there was no sign of the stranger there, either.He had left, and he hadn’t taken me with him.“No, no, no,” I chanted, tears springing to my eyes.Beh