THE ALPHA'S UNEXPECTED MATE: The Cursed Bloodline

ANGUS'S POV

 The last thing I remembered was the desperate urge to find her.

My blood had been burning with the rising of the eclipse, driving me out into the streets like a rabid animal. And now, she was lying unconscious beneath me on the cold concrete of the alleyway.

 How had this even happened? The cursed blood moon was completely unraveling my control. Her scent surrounded me, it was intoxicating.

 I needed to get away from her, I needed to put miles between us before my beast took over but my body refused. Against my will, my fangs extended with a sharp, aching pressure.

My head lowered toward the curve of her throat. The moment my fangs grazed her bare skin, the last thread of my sanity snapped. I pressed my teeth into the skin of her neck, desperate to mark her as mine, but the horror of what I was about to do forced me away from her.

 Snap out of it! I roared at myself, fighting against my own dark nature. Using every ounce of strength I had, I forced my jaws to unclench and dragged myself back.

I panted heavily, horror rushing through my veins as a thin crimson trail trickled down her pale skin. Leaning back in, I gently licked where I had broken the skin to heal the wound.

"What have I done?" I whispered into the dark alley. She lay still, her breathing steady, her brow tightly furrowed as though trapped in a terrifying nightmare.

She was my mate, the one woman I was cursed never to have and I had just attacked her. I had to get her somewhere safe. I had no idea where her apartment was. I had only one option.

I gathered her delicate frame into my chest and surged through the dark towards my estate. I placed her gently in the center of my bed.

After ensuring she was comfortable, I retrieved a warm washcloth and carefully wiped the cold sweat from her face and neck.

My hand trembled as my thumb traced the faint, reddish mark left behind on her throat. But as soon as my skin touched hers, a jolt of searing heat shot through my palm. She let out a low, pained groan, twisting weakly against the sheets.

 I pressed my hand flat against her forehead. She was burning up. She has a fever. After the horror she had experienced tonight, her human body was breaking down under the shock. She looked miserable, her face contorted in agony. The dark chill carried by my bloodline was the only thing that could pull that heat out of her, I climbed onto the mattress and pulled her warm body against mine, wrapping my arms around her until her breathing finally settled into a peaceful rhythm.

 CLARA'S POV

"Humph... what is going on? Why can't I move?" I woke up feeling completely stiff, my mind fogged with sleep.

But as I shifted, a heavy, solid weight pressed against my waist.

I froze.

They were arms, strong muscular arms. Panic instantly flooded through my mind. I am in the arms of a man.

A MAN.

Holding my breath, I carefully lifted his heavy arm, wriggled out of his hold without waking him, and slipped off the edge of the high mattress.

 My shoes were sitting by the nightstand. I grabbed them, tiptoed to the bedroom door, and pulled it open.

The moment I stepped into the hallway, my breath caught in my throat. The house was beautiful.

A massive double staircase curved down into a grand foyer beneath a towering crystal chandelier. Detailed oil paintings lined the high walls, and glossed marble stretched out beneath my feet.

Everything looked impossibly expensive and antique giving the vast space an eerie, majestic atmosphere.

"Seriously, Clara?" I scolded myself, forcing my legs to move. This was not the time to admire someone's house.

A sudden, sharp floorboard creak echoed from a corridor behind me. I didn't wait around to see who or what made the sound I bolted down the marble stairs and out the front doors. I glanced at my alarm clock and nearly fainted.

 "Thirty minutes." That was all I had before my shift started. I scrambled around my bedroom, grabbed the first clean outfit I could find, and sprinted into the bathroom.

 As the water hit my skin, a sharp sting shot through the left side of my neck. I wiped a circle into the fogged mirror and inspected it but there was nothing.

 All I could see were two faint, pinkish specks that looked almost like mosquito bites.⁠

 "No time," I muttered to myself, shutting off the faucet and drying off. There was no time to think about a luxurious house, a mysterious handsome man, or random neck aches. I was already walking on thin ice with my job.

 I sprinted the five blocks to the restaurant, arriving breathless right outside the front glass doors.

"Not today, Mr Davidson," I whispered under my breath, smoothing down my shirt.

Mr Davidson was standing near the hostess stand, holding a clipboard and wearing the exact stern expression he used right before firing someone. He checked his watch, then looked up at me.

 "Looks like luck is on your side today, Miss Smith," he said dryly.

 "You have two minutes." "You can say that again, sir!" I breathed out, darting past him toward the break room.

By the time my shift finally ended, I felt utterly exhausted. On the walk out, I pulled Ari to the side and whispered about waking up in what looked like a literal palace.

She stopped in her tracks and stared at me as if I had suddenly grown two heads.

 "Clara, did you drink before coming to work? You were sleeping in your own bed this morning, right?. I laughed it off quickly.

 "I sound insane right? ". I hailed a cab to take me home.

As the taxi drove down the street, passing the mouth of the dark alleyway, a series of violent, jagged flashes suddenly struck me. Me stepping into the shadowy alley. I gasped, sitting up straight in the back seat. But as quickly as the images came, they vanished into thin air, leaving my head throbbing with a dull ache.

 "Hmm... peace," I sighed half a minute later, collapsing onto my bed the second I unlocked my front door. I stared up at my ceiling, but an uneasy feeling kept picking at the back of my brain.

 How did I end up in that mansion? More importantly, how had I ended up wrapped up in that man's arms? I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to retrace every second of last night, but everything after stepping near that alley was completely blank.

Then, his face flashed in my mind. The sharp jawline, the dark hair, the impossibly intense eyes. My eyes snapped wide open, and I sat up. I knew him.

He was the rude, jaw-droppingly handsome man from the restaurant table.

How on earth had I ended up in his bed?