Sold To The Scarred Alpha King

Florinda Cooley POV:

To clear our pack's crippling debt and protect my wolf-blooded half-sister Kecia, my father sold me-a wolfless reject-to the Romero Pack's third son, Alpha Justen Romero, and tonight is the night the notorious monster demands to "inspect his goods."

Rumor has it that a silver weapon melted half his face to the bone, turning him into a bloodthirsty, disfigured recluse whose agonizing injuries left him completely impotent and twisted with sadistic rage.

I lay rigidly on the massive king-sized bed in the pitch-black room, my body trembling so violently that my teeth chattered in pure terror-until the heavy duvet was suddenly violently ripped away!

A large, calloused hand reached out of the dark, its icy grip clamping down on my shivering shoulder like a demon's claw.

"Ah-!" A sharp scream tore from my throat before I could stop it.

The hand froze. The heavy darkness seemed to thicken around the towering silhouette standing beside the bed.

"Terrified?"

His voice sliced through the dead silence. It was low, gravelly, and dangerously dark, vibrating with a lethal, raw displeasure.

Knowing my father's life-and my own survival-depended on my obedience to this twisted alliance, I bit down hard on my lower lip until I tasted copper. I forced air into my burning lungs and stuttered, "I... I am a little scared. But I can overcome it..."

"Let's turn on the light. Perhaps seeing will give you a sense of security."

Surprisingly, he didn't force himself on me. He sounded almost calm as he reached toward the bedside lamp.

"No!" I cried out, my voice trembling with a desperate plea, and blindly grabbed his wrist.

His muscles felt like carved granite beneath my fingers.

If he turned on the light and exposed that grotesque, melted face, my fragile psychological defenses would shatter instantly. I might actually pass out from pure terror.

No lights. Absolutely no lights.

Justen fell utterly silent. For a fraction of a second, I felt his muscles tense. A heavy, intoxicating scent crashed into my senses-cold pine needles laced with the sharp, metallic tang of raw dominance.

It was pure Alpha aura. As a wolfless, the sheer biological pressure hit me like a physical blow, making my chest heave as I fought the urge to drop to the floor and bare my throat.

He seemed to sense my pathetic state and slowly pulled his hand back from the switch.

Instead, his large hand moved to my face, his rough fingers tracing my cheek. I wanted to violently shove him away, but I didn't dare move a single muscle.

"Alpha..." I whispered, my voice breaking with humiliating subservience. "This is my first time. Could you... could you please be gentle?"

His fingers trailed down from my brow, sliding over the bridge of my nose, brushing against my trembling lips, and trailing down my neck to my collarbone.

My body went completely rigid. I gripped the silk sheets so hard my knuckles turned white, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.

He knew exactly how terrified I was, yet he took his time, his slow, deliberate movements designed to completely crush my willpower.

"Do you know what it means for you to be lying in my bed tonight?" he murmured, the dark rumble vibrating against my skin.

"It... it means that from now on... I am yours."

"Good. At least you have some self-awareness," he sneered softly. "I need a mate, and your father needs money. We are a perfect match."

As he spoke, his heavy hand rested against my exposed skin.

A burning flush of pure humiliation spread across my face. I had never experienced something so degrading in my entire eighteen years of life. I wanted to smash my head against the headboard and end it all. I despised this stranger, yet tonight, I was forced to become his plaything, his breeder.

He was a grown, terrifying Alpha, and I had just turned eighteen.

What a sick, twisted joke my life was.

"You know what an 'inspection' entails," he commanded, his tone leaving no room for resistance.

I squeezed my eyes tighter, a single tear slipping down my cheek. I released my death grip on the bedsheets, abandoning my useless resistance. I braced myself for the pain, for the brutal claiming of a monster.

But then, something strange happened.

His cold nose brushed against the crook of my neck. He inhaled deeply, a long, staggered breath that sent a violent shiver down my spine. His massive frame froze for three agonizing seconds. His Alpha aura suddenly spiked with a wild, chaotic intensity that I couldn't comprehend.

Before I could react, the heavy duvet was abruptly thrown over my head, covering my shivering body completely.

I froze, stunned.

"I've inspected you. You're clean," his voice came from a few feet away, sounding strangely strained and hoarse, as if he was violently suppressing his inner beast. "You are too young and too weak. I will take you when you are truly ready."

My eyes flew open in the darkness.

By the time I scrambled to turn on the bedside lamp, the room was empty.

I sat there in a daze, clutching the blanket to my chest. Did he change his mind? Or was the rumor true-was he really impotent?

The only proof he had been there was the lingering, dominant scent of cold pine mixed with a faint trace of tobacco in the air.

I waited in the dead silence for ten agonizing minutes. When I was absolutely sure he wasn't coming back, I grabbed my cheap trench coat, wrapped it tightly around my shoulders, and slipped out of the room, desperate to escape the suffocating atmosphere of the estate.

But the nightmare wasn't over.

The moment I pushed open the heavy front doors of the compound and stepped into the freezing night, blinding flashes of light exploded against my eyes.

"Miss Cooley! Over here!"

"Is it true you just spent the night with the ruined Alpha?"

A swarm of reporters surged forward from the shadows, shoving microphones and long camera lenses directly into my face like weapons.

My blood ran cold.