Chapter 3 Give in to the devil

NYX

‘Mate!’ Halo whispers weakly.

Yes, I was sent to kill him.But I didn’t intend to do that by being his mate.

I didn’t expect to be that.

Fear grips my neck like a vice.

He is a killer— a psychopathic self-sufficient bastard whose death will call for celebrations in all corners of the world and I am…what?

His mate?

I wobble on my knees, my eyes bulging with a mix of fear and apprehension. Anger simmers through my veins.

I choke on the bitterness that twists in my lungs and look up at him. Even though most of his face is concealed in the dark, he’s still starkly different than I expected— young, charming, not the haggard, miserable old man I always imagined.

Every inch of my being screeches in denial and disgust for this unfortunate, primal connection I have with a mass murderer.

Twenty-four years of my life and I find my mate now? Why!?

The moon goddess must be playing a cruel joke. Silence takes space between us, the rest of the world blurring like a backdrop as his black eyes flicker to mine and stay.

Calculating.

Assessing.

And all these are done with irritation so pristine I could almost taste it.

Panic surges through me, I groan in pain from the blistering ache that scrubbed over my bones, none more hurtful than this killing realization that the man I was sent to kill is my fated mate.

My mind spins through an array of emotions.

The infamous killer, bastard of the century, and everlasting arsehole is standing just a breath away from me and I can’t move a muscle, talk more of slicing through his decayed heart.

“Take your eyes off the Alpha, you despicable thing!” The guard who hauled me to him yells, sending a nerve-wracking kick to my side.

My pain blinds me and I drop to the floor like a carcass, incautiously grabbing my side which may have suffered a cracked rib or more.

A tear runs down my face.

“Screw you!” I retort to the guard, a dead smile resting on my lips. “Your oppression, listening, and following orders without a backbone will be the cause of your miserable death!”

The guard, agitated, twists his large hand around my locs and yanks me up with it.

“Should I behead her first? Make her an example for the rest that might be tempted to display stupidity in the form of defiance, your Highness?”

The guard's voice cuts through the haze cast over me by pain, bouncing off the shells of my ears like a distant echo.

“No.”

I hear him say, his deep voice curt yet firm. One single word polluted by a questionable amount of authority.

“Have her taken to my chamber. Now,” Alpha Kane commands.

“T-the slave?” The guard stutters, leaving me to land on my knees.

I wince, cradling my aching ribs.

Alpha Kane steps forward, his eyes not once wandering to mine as he says to the guard in a tensing, malicious tone, “Have me repeat that once more and you’ll be in awe of which of you gets beheaded first.”

Without further hesitation, I am being barreled through the sand, past hallways, and prying eyes, and finally, into a home of marble and gold.

I see where all the money he’s gotten from ruining innocent lives is being invested into—furnishings while other families, like mine, can barely afford a roof over our heads.

Thanks to Alpha Kane’s psychotic desire for conquests, my pack’s heritage has become no more than history— fleeting tales of once-upon-a-time in the moonlight. He’s killed us all, taken over our demographics, enslaved us and he’s not going to stop.

Glancing around, It’s glaring that I am the cheapest thing amidst these plush rugs, velvet chairs, and crystal chandeliers.

The same guard laughs loudly as he perches me to my knees.

“You should have settled to have your head cut off. Now, you will beg to die, child. What the Alpha will do to you is far worse than death.”

I wipe my bloody nose with the hem of my faded, tattered shirt.

“I am counting on it, monkey.”

Fury clouds his expression but before he raises his filthy hand, the metal doors spill open, and Alpha Kane’s presence is announced. The air grows hot and the chamber, smaller.

Tighter.

This moment is everything I have waited for. His tall, muscly frame looms into sight, wearing an air of arrogance and undeniable confidence that made my heart thump.

This fear I am feeling is a fierce reminder that I am in the presence of the devil himself. My hands start to tremble.

My mother’s life is on the line for this. I will do everything it takes to save her. To give them a better life.

“Get out, all of you!” He roars. “This instant!”

The gossiping maids and lingering guards scurry out with practiced immediacy like a storm is about to erupt.

In seconds, the room is cleared. I gaze down at the carpet without a word.

Don’t break.

Don’t—

“You are an Omega,” he announces briskly, rolling his tongue as he says the words. “I can smell the weakness, the pathetic energy reeks off you.”

How wrong he was.

“Of all our kinds, Omegas are the most despised by me.” He roams around the room, giving a lecture I can’t care less about.

I nod like a little girl. The only thing more overpowering than the hate I feel for this monster is this feeling that stirs and swells within me.

The feeling of…

I can’t explain it. I do not know what it is.

Alpha Kane walks closer. I feel the warmth roll off his chest as he crouches before me, unbelievably close. His scent fills up my nose, slithering its way through my senses.

I stop breathing, scared to inhale the air he’s polluted.

His index finger reaches to my face and he slowly trails a slow, intentional like to my chin, leaving a burn in its wake.

My heart thumps like it is a beat away from an explosion.

“Look at me, weak thing.”

I concede, holding my breath as my eye met his again in the light. My breath hitches.

His eyes aren’t black after all like all the people say. It’s a stormy brown, like an unsettled storm or the view of hot chocolate in a colorless glass. His fingers trail from my chin down, settling at the base of my neck.

An unknowing gasp spills from my lips.

No one had told me to beware, that this devil wore the skin of an angel and embodied the sight of one.

His thick yet finely carved brow flick up, amusement crossing his chiseled face as he watches me.

I can feel the heat of his breath ghosting over my face— sharp, scorching like it knows exactly what it does to my insides.

My stomach twists but not from fear, but something far worse— the shame of me wanting to curl into it.

“What’s your name?”

“Nyx,” I whisper in a hush, my voice barely audible. My hands twitched by my sides.

“Nyx.” He repeats, tasting the word like it’s something sour. “Hm. Nyx. Your name is just as weak as you.”

His voice had been low, almost curious but now, something primal snaps loose and the softness curdles.

A guttural growl slips through his chest and in the next breath, his hands clamp around my throat. The air disappears before I can gasp and my feet leave the ground as he slams my back into the wall with a bone-rattling crack.

“Who else knows?!” He roars.

I shake my head. Or at least try to. My vision blurs. My head pounds and panic bursts through my spine. I claw at his wrist, choking, blinking against the hot tears stinging my eyes.

“Don’t lie to me, Omega!”

My legs kick uselessly beneath me. “N-no…o-ne.”

He doesn’t care. He sees nothing but disgust…and me.

“Why?!” He snarls, his lips curl in disgust. “Why would the moon curse me with you? A pathetic, disgusting thing like you?”

I am not going to die here.

Not by his hands.

Not today.

I sob. It slips out, cracked and humiliating. To kill him, I need to survive this day, to earn his trust, somehow.

He slams me to the ground like I weigh nothing. My body folds against the cold floor as I drag in a ragged breath, coughing and trembling.

“Omegas are disappointments,” He scorns. “You will be beheaded by morning. If you think being my mate will save you, think again.”

I hate him.

God. I hate him.

“Now, get out before I speed up your sentence!”

I uncurl and stagger to my feet, dizzy, tired, exhausted and, above all, disappointed in myself for failing this mission.

I waddle to the door with my shoulders trembling violently as I wept.

I see all the reasons he’s called the Devil’s reincarnate.

“Wait.”

I pause, barely hearing him close in before I am jerked around by his firm grip and slammed against the door.

Alpha Kane holds both my hands up and pins them over my head, trapping me against the door.

Wearing a sardonic grip, he lowers his lips to the nook of my neck, taking in a whiff of my scent.

“I might as well get something out of this embarrassment,” Alpha Kane mused. “On your knees, little Omega.”