RIVER BROWN
There are Alphas like Landon O’Connor who are blessed and favored by the Moon Goddess.There are she-wolves like my sister Malia Brown who are destined to be great Lunas as compared to the size of their wolves.Then…there is me, the abomination and apart from me I didn’t know anyone else who was weird until today.Brackenridge is my home. Any other place rumored not to be Brackenridge is cursed and forbidden to step into by not only the alpha but by the Moon Goddess too.These men in front of us are not from Brackenridge.They are cursed by the Moon Goddess.They are…rogues. Rogue alphas.I’m still dazed by everything when Landon’s grip on my arm tightens and he whispers,“Accept my rejection, River. If you don’t, these men will kill us all. Think of your sister and your aunt, do you want their deaths to be on you?”His words cut every nerve in my body and I can feel myself bleed in the inside.The three men are standing a couple of feet away from us looking very much like the rogue alphas we read in books when we were kids.Rogues take what they want, whenever they want.They don’t follow the rules.They kill to survive.Landon cheated on me a few minutes ago, I should accept his rejection but that means he’s freeing me and selling me to the devils.How can he do this to me?I’m helplessly crying right now, pleading for mercy but my mate only gets angry at me.“Don’t be stupid, River. You are the only one who doesn’t fit here, everyone else fits. Why can’t you be grateful and accept that this is your fate? Do it now, River. Now”My throat quivers with bitter emotions, my lips part as I stand straight gazing at the rogue brothers who haven’t said anything since Landon announced he no longer wants me as a mate.“I…River Brown, accept your rejection”Landon doesn’t hesitate when he says out loud,“I offer her. There’s no need for blood shed today”He then pushes me forward like a pig being offered to the slaughter house.Someone gasps in the crowd, her cry so loud it cuts through the silence.“How can you do this to her? She’s your mate! No, no one’s taking my niece. No one’s taking my River”, Aunt Tilda cries in front of me, cradling my cheeks and I only sob harder.“It’s okay”, I whisper. It’s definitely not okay.“Come, we’ll go home. You, Malia and I will go home-you don’t have to- ““Aunt Tilda- ““You are not giving up, River! I did not raise a weak pup; I raised a fighter. Fight, River, please fight- “A throaty and deep chuckle filters through the air, sliding across my skin like fire and ice all at once.“She can try to fight but we’ll devour her before she has the chance”, one of the rogue alpha brothers’ quips.He’s the leader, you can tell by his voice, by his stance and by that jaw he has locked and loaded.He’s the one with the dark hair falling on either side of his forehead and I’m guessing his wolf is also menacingly dark like him.“Take me instead”, Aunt Tilda surprises everyone.“I hate to break it to you but we are here for young blood. You are not exactly young”, the second brother scoffs.This one has brown hair, deep, chocolate brown hair that glints the way his eyes do.“No, I’m the one who’s leaving. I’ll leave with you just don’t…don’t hurt anyone. Don’t hurt anyone please”My sister appears out of nowhere whisking away our aunt back to the crowd.I stand in a throng of people, my dignity in the mud, my tears making me look pathetic.“Walk to us”, the third brother commands.I swallow the lump of shame in my throat and walk towards my doom. Every step is humiliating, every intake of breath splits my heart into two.This wasn’t how my mating ceremony was supposed to be like.The Moon Goddess was supposed to grant me one wish. To grant me the gift of getting marked by my mate tonight.Tonight, however, as I walk to the men who are staring at me like they want to rip me apart limb by limb, I realize two things.The Moon Goddess hates me.And two, I’ll die in the hands of these men before I even get my wolf let alone find another mate.The minute I stand in front of them, all the air is whooshed out of my lungs.One of them smells like sage, another smells like citrus and the last one smells like mulled wine. All their scents mingle together so beautifully, it’s hard not to want to smell the air again.“Strip”, the third brother orders, the one with the blue eyes, dark hair at the roots and strikingly ash blonde hair at the edges.“Let’s see if you are worth not killing everyone for”, the chocolate-haired brother adds.“No. Take me anywhere you want but I’m not going to strip in front of my family, in front of all of them”, I bark.Their leader, the terrifying one takes one step closer to me, the dark orbs he has for eyes perusing my face.He hates me. I can see it in his eyes, in his furrowed brows and I might just hate him too. I hate all of them.“Who should I start with first? The granny who was crying over you earlier? I mean she’s easy game with a thin neck like that. One claw to the neck and she dies right in front of you.Or maybe I should start with the sister? The one in yellow right? She’s a pretty little thing, her screams are guaranteed to be prettier- ““Don’t”, I warn.“You are in no position to negotiate. Now, strip!”One of my hands grips the thin strands holding my green dress up and I slide them down my shoulders.My eyes are downcast that I don’t even notice the brothers have surrounded me, their heights and muscular built shielding everyone from seeing me.The dress wiggles down my waist, slides off my hips and pools to the ground.“Take the panties off too”The panties are off my body at their command as they cocoon me in their scent and their scrutinizing eyes.I’m naked as the day I was born to them. I can feel them sniffing me in and I shiver both from the cold and the situation.Brown Eyes takes his shirt off and throws it to me saying,“Put it on and hop onto Shane’s arms. You are ours now”I put the shirt on, confusion and alarm eating me raw.“Hop onto…what?”“I’m carrying you out of here, princess. We are taking what’s ours tonight”, the one I’m assuming is Shane speaks and I know I’m doomed forever.CONNOR KINCAID“Put it on and hop onto Shane’s arms. You are ours now”I said that minutes ago, my wolf barely able to contain the overwhelming feeling inside of us.Landon O’Connor has owed us for eons and tonight the mission was to take Brackenridge away from him.To destroy him and his weak betas.The mission however changed. The night took us all for a ride and even if my brothers don’t say it, we all felt it. Shane most especially.We are Alphas. Apex predators. More importantly we are rogues and we live by it with pride.Rogues however never have the privilege of getting a mate. Believe me, we’ve searched, and for a time, we were good with that.Mate or no mate, Shane, Neo and I had each other. Brothers till death. Brothers who ruled the world for years without following the rules of this realm.That was until her-The woman with the raven dark hair, full pink lips, high cheekbones and a face so pretty it pissed me and my brothers off.We smelled her in a crowd of people.We k
RIVER BROWNShane is the most insufferable Alpha I have ever met. He might be more insufferable than Landon and that’s saying a lot.Immediately they leave, I stand up and run to the door trying to pull it open.It’s closed shut and I sigh in annoyance.Did they leave me to die alone in this empty cabin? Or are they going to come back and finish the job?I run to the kitchen and I’m met by the grandest kitchen I’ve ever come across.A large kitchen island stands in the middle holding a fancy sink and bowls of fruits that I can’t tell are fake or real.At the corner stands a grey side by side large fridge and Shane’s words ring in my mind.‘Help yourself to whatever you want’I’m hungry and scared and so confused that food is the last thing on my mind right now.The minute I see the barrel of knives by the counter, I take two knives.Knives are good for self-defense. I could stab Shane or Neo or the other guy who hasn’t said a word to me since the party and escape before their wounds
RIVER BROWNThe darkness hovers around them like a plague brought upon by the fury of the Moon Goddess. The scowls on their faces are the same ones I have seen on bandits, rogues and everything monsters consist of. Their eyes, dark, chocolate and blue are so menacing that the more I stare into them the more my bones rattle with fear.It’s been one week in the cursed lands.One week confined to their apartment.One week of being alone with Greta who’s done nothing but been sweet to me.I don’t hate her.But I hate them.I hate Connor because he strangled me. He hurt me; I still have nightmares ever since he choked the life out of me.I hate Shane because deep down I know he doesn’t like me. That he was the first one to order his brothers to kill me.I also hate him because that night in that car, his hands held my waist like I was fragile glass that would snap without him. Like I was important, despite being rejected by Landon.And Neo? I hate his blue eyes; I hate that warm smile he
SHANE KINCAID‘Take a good look in the mirror, son. Look at those eyes, bask in the darkness they hold, be the darkness and embrace what you are. A monster in the making. You killed your mother today, tomorrow it’ll be your mate. Better yet, your brothers’A monster.Being called a monster by my own father hurt when I was a ten-year-old pup. Nineteen years later and I wore the word ‘monster’ like a brand on my forehead.I embraced it and lived like a monster because being one made me feel like a god.A monster owned the whole world.A monster killed with no remorse.A monster was an Alpha without a heart.A monster couldn’t be changed, couldn’t love, couldn’t get hurt.And this monster certainly didn’t have a mate, wasn’t going to mark her and wasn’t absolutely going to fall for her.Ten seconds are gone and little Miss Invisible is still hiding behind my desk, thinking that if she pretends to be invisible, I’ll ignore her presence.The alcohol might be in my system but my wolf and I
RIVER BROWNIt hurts.It also felt good. Felt feverish.The elders didn’t say it was supposed to feel like this. Like falling down a cliff and then landing on a pillow.Guilt curls its cold fingers around my neck cutting my air supply. My heart is thrashing against my ribcage as two men escort me to the car outside.I get into the car without any resistance because what happened a few minutes ago has my mind preoccupied.Shane hates me. I hate him too but why did he do that?Why did I like it? Why do I want more even though it hurts so much down there?Why do I want more even though every minute I spent listening to his words felt like I was being choked again?It shouldn’t hurt but it hurts.It hurts the same way Connor strangled me and looked me in the eye while he did it.It hurts the same way I thought Neo would visit me but he didn’t.My breathing is rugged, my dress is slightly torn at my right thigh and my smell…I smell like Shane, that monster, that bastard—A violent screech
RIVER BROWNXandar Khan is a man of influence.The noise outside this room says so and the pictures of him petting a lion in his office definitely screams Alpha.More than that? I don’t like Xandar, not when I entered his creepy domain and certainly not while he sits in his skull-designed chair that looks like a throne eyeing me like I’m his next snack.Shane didn’t look at me like that. Shane looked at me with…why am I thinking about Shane?I left him. I left them. I’m seated in front of their enemy ready to end them just to get what I want.“You are way prettier than you are in your photos”“Umm…thanks”, I say dryly.What photos?Xandar blows another puff of smoke in the air, his gray eyes scanning me the way his rogue betas glared at me when I arrived.“I trust that my men treated you well before they brought you here?” he asks with a slight furrow of his brows.“They killed an innocent man”, I accuse, Xandar cackles.“Wrong. Any pack member of the Moon shadow pack is an enemy. My
CONNOR KINCAIDX, X, Xandar Khan.The number of times I have imagined ending his life are as uncountable as the number of preys I have eliminated in my entire life.The only reason Xandar Khan was breathing was because Shane didn’t want a bloodshed years ago.Killing Xandar equals bloodshed equals war in New Hawk and as much as we love war. War disrupts peace, war makes the other colonies doubt our power to keep things in check.Today, however, we all know one thing’s for sure.X is a dead man. At least he will be when all this is over.Shane can barely keep it together and I have a feeling it’s because of what he found out today. What he found out before us.Before X and his amateur betas kidnapped River.Before River latched on to Xandar’s promises of destroying us. Before she betrayed us.“I’ll end you and feed your carcass to my dogs myself”The silence is still, we all know what that means.A jealous Neo has just said yes to the agni-kai. He took the news of X having River in hi
RIVER BROWNSummer was beautiful. With waters as blue as the skies where the Goddess resided, with the air smelling like leaves and dried flowers and all things pure.With the sun giving everyone hope that day had conquered night. Summer was my favorite season around the sun.Winter was ugly. Winter was cold. Winter was frostbite and freezing to death.Today, I liked winter.Winter was like Neo Kincaid. Like his blue eyes, like his warm smile, like his lilting voice all rough but caressing like a warm blanket.Two betas pass by me but I hide behind the concrete shivering like a leaf in a hurricane.My mind replays Neo. How he shifted into his wolf, how snowy white his wolf was, powerful yet so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off him, tears pooled in my eyes when I saw him for the first time.Beauty couldn’t compare to Neo. His wolf was striking and in his blue eyes I could see him.I could see the man who offered to fight Xandar for me.I cheered when Neo’s wolf almost killed X’s wo