An Alpha for Valentine

INTRO

VALENTINE

I met my mate two years ago. It wasn't at a function. It wasn't under the perfect glow of the goddess' light. It wasn't bright and beautiful like I had imagined it all my life. It was brutal.

Dinner had just finished, and the table was a mess of half-eaten food and dirty dishes. I had been chatting and laughing with my mother while my father sat at the head of the table, smiling indulgently at us. It was happy and peaceful, a rare sight but anything was possible during our holiday at the manor. It was the only time in the year my parents could be actual parents rather than the enforcing Alpha and Luna of the Monarch pack.

I was just finishing up clearing the table, stacking the dirty plates in a pile to wash later, when I heard the knock on the door. My mother, who had been chatting with me as I worked, called out, "Who is it?"

There was a pause before the stranger on the other side of the door answered, "The Crow brothers."

As soon as those words were spoken, the room fell silent. My mother's face paled and my father's hands clenched into fists. I did notice the change in the atmosphere, but I chose to be blind to it. I was curious. Who were these brothers if they could quickly dampen everybody's mood? I was going to say something to break the silence, but my mother put a finger to her mouth, a stern warning to keep my mouth closed. She then approached me and took the dirty plates from my hands.

"Go to the bathroom and lock yourself in. No matter what you hear, do not come out," she whispered with tears reaching the corners of her eyes.

I wanted to argue. I wanted to ask questions, but the look in her eyes told me whoever was behind that door, they weren't there with pure intention. Like all successful packs, the Monarch had enemies. Were these brothers one of them?

"Mom..." I stuttered. "I'll get help..."

"No Valentine," My mother chastised, occasionally looking at the front door. "If his children are here, then we can assume that the sentinels guarding the manor or anyone close enough to help us are already dead. No one will help us. So you have to do me a favor and hide in that bathroom. It is us they want. If they have us, they'll have no reason to kill you. You can carry on our legacy as Luna of the Monarch pack."

"No..." I whimpered, taking a step back. "No..." I wished I could say I was frozen in fear then, but my legs worked. Too well. My heart was pounding against my chest as I ran. I could hear the splintering of wood and the roars that came from behind the door as I scampered for the bathroom. I didn't make it. The door flew open when I reached the bathroom door. That was when my parents' screams filled the air. The brothers... They were hurting my parents.

I couldn't look. All I could hear was their continuous scream for mercy and the blood-curdling sound of tearing flesh. I made another stupid choice. Despite my body opposing the decision to walk into danger, I did. I crawled into trouble. The smell of blood and fear filled the air, making it hard to breathe. I wanted to run, to escape the horror that was taking place in front of me, but my feet were rooted to the ground. I stood behind a wall that hid me well but still offered me sight. What I saw was horrific. My father had been first. His body, lying on the ground, was a grotesque sight. It was mutilated. His limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and deep gashes and cuts covered his skin. His eyes were still open, but I could tell he was no longer with us. All that remained of him was the terror in his sunken eyes.

The killers were enjoying themselves, relishing in the power they held over their victims. The brothers were twins—an abomination to the werewolf community. My eyes traveled away from my father's body, and I looked at my mom. She was looking right at me. Her mouth didn't move, but her eyes told me so much. She could tell I was there, and she was begging me to hide. Tears streamed down her face as one of the brothers approached her, a twisted grin on his face.

"You shouldn't have stood by him. You were Luna through birth."

I knew what would happen yet I couldn't bear to look away. My stomach twisted, and the dinner I just had threatened to force its way out of my mouth. But I couldn't risk it. Even when bits and chunks made their way back to my dry mouth. I shut my eyes and covered my mouth to stop the vomit from forcing its way through. But my ears were left unattended.

I heard evil. Oh, he took his time with her, savoring her screams and pleas for mercy before finally ending her life in the most brutal and gruesome way possible. I had looked at the last minute. It had taken just one perfect slice to open her up. I watched my mother choke on her own blood, holding her throat as she desperately tried to keep her spilling life force in place. It was futile, and I saw it all. I couldn't move; I couldn't look away. I was transfixed, unable to look away from the horror unfolding before me. And then it was over. Her gurgling stopped, and her frail body gave up. She dropped flat on the floor, and all that remained of the horror in front of me was silence and the sound of the killers' labored breathing.

The brothers looked around the room as if scanning for other survivors. That was when one of them looked my way. I could feel his eyes on me. A twisted smile spread across his face as he wiped the blood in his hands on his jeans.

"Jason, I will go wash up. I feel disgusting."

The bathroom. That was why he had been looking my way. Maybe it was paranoid to think this murderous stranger knew his way around our house, but I couldn't take any risk. My strength returned, and I ran into the bathroom as quietly as I could.

I hid in the bathtub, shielded behind the shower curtain. My breathing was hitched, and the space I chose to hide in only made my breathing labored and loud. I stopped breathing entirely when I heard his footsteps approaching the bathroom. It was louder with each step before it finally came to a climactic stop. My soul left my body when I heard the doorknob twist and the door creak open. He was inside. I sank into the tub floor and hoped he would be quick with it. I could still see his shadow lingering. I remained in silence, holding my breath as he moved around. I figured he wanted to wash the blood off his hands before he got on his way, but then the strangest thing happened. When I heard him open the sink valve, I felt a strange sensation wash over me. It was like a pull, a magnetic force drawing me towards someone. Him. I couldn't explain it, but there was there like madness forcing me to follow. The air was thick. Almost intoxicating. I couldn't ignore it, and admitting that made me go livid.

He must have felt too. Because his shadow crawled into the space, I had hidden myself. I looked, frozen, as his hands tore the nylon curtain away, and he looked right at me. I didn't know what to do or say. My mind was blank, and my heart was racing. He looked at me with a cold, emotionless expression, and I knew there was no escaping this situation.

"Just do it," I stuttered. "I don't want to be your mate. Reject me and finish what you came here to do."

My body shook even harder. I was terrified. I was scared, sickened, and disgusted. I expected some reaction, but the man didn't speak. He didn't even show any signs that he understood me. Instead, he staggered backward before walking out of the bathroom as if nothing had happened.

"Come back here!" I screamed. "Kill me! Reject me and kill me!!!"

But he didn't hear me. He didn't acknowledge me. In his haste to leave the bathroom, he slammed the door on his way out. I met my mate on the night my parents died. Devin Crow, the man the goddess handed me in her infinite wisdom, was their killer.

***

VALENTINE

NOTE: The events of this chapter take place during the mating ritual that happens in Alpha’s Captive.

My mom once told me as a child that my first heartbreak would be the first and last time I would ever truly love. Being a hopeless romantic, I hated that thought. To never love that deeply again. I remembered whispering to myself whenever I could, that I would never let anyone take that from me.

If I could turn back the hands of time, I would. It wouldn’t be for love either. It would be for the memories. To be a teenager and love recklessly. To see the crash and burn coming but stay anyway, because those delicate moments mattered.

But I didn’t have those memories. My first heartbreak wasn’t what the average girl went through. He didn’t cheat on me. We weren’t even together.

The first time I met Devin Crow, I was innocent and naïve, living a simple life with my parents. In a matter of seconds, he took that away from me. A simple life. A predictable future. Devin Crow murdered my parents and inadvertently bound himself to me. But instead of finishing what he started, he refused to reject me.

I was certain the reason he spared me that horrible night was because he was in shock. So, the second time our paths crossed, I begged him to reject me. There was no chance in hell we’d end up together—yet he wouldn't let me go.

I remembered how confused and scared I was, unable to understand his motives. I believed that with time, he would come to his senses. That he would realize denying both of us our true mates wasn’t worth my suffering. But time, which was supposed to heal all wounds, did nothing to appeal to his better nature.

The third time I met Devin Crow, he threatened to take away the last good memory I had left of my parents—the Monarch pack. It was either an alliance that would allow the Monarch to operate with sovereignty or submission to the Crow pack. I had no choice. I agreed to become his Luna, a part of his pack.

It was my duty as Luna. As the only child of Monarch royalty, I had to keep the fire burning.

The fourth time I met Devin Crow, he was inside of me and I was inside of him. It wasn’t just sex. The ritual was an avowal—of body, mind, and soul. I didn’t just have access to Devin’s innermost thoughts. I had access to his memories.

It started with a voice.

"Cessair, how could you betray Lucius?" the voice cracked as she demanded an answer.

My eyes flicked open to a familiar setting. I was standing at a dinner table. My father sat across from the woman who had spoken. She looked familiar. Pearl Crow. The pack’s healer, the twins’ biological aunt, and the only surviving elder of the Crow pack after the massacre.

"Lucius," I muttered. The late Alpha of the Crow pack. How did my father betray him?

"Spare me the disgust, Pearl," my father replied. "The Silverlaws would have come for your brother anyway. If I didn’t lend them a hand, someone else would have."

"Who?" Pearl demanded. "My brother trusted you. He saw you as family, but you only saw him as a means. You sold him out for money. One of the very things the convergence was going to fix."

"The convergence was never going to happen. It wasn’t the way the moon goddess programmed us to be. Your brother’s ambitions killed him. Do you even know how terrible Lucius’s vision must have been for the Silverlaws to want him dead? They saw into the future. He was building another Babel tower. Werewolves at the top of the food chain? The balance would tilt—and not in their favor."

"No!" I yelled in their direction, but they couldn’t hear me. This was a memory. A ghost of the past.

"Stop this!" I screamed. "My father would never do this. He was a good man."

"Wow," Pearl scoffed, voice thick with restrained fury. "So you didn’t want that? To not have to fear the monster hunters anymore? I call bullshit, Cessair. You did this out of jealousy."

"And what would I have been jealous of?" my father growled, banging the table so hard Pearl winced. Still, she didn’t back down. She had something to say, and she wasn’t leaving until she did.

"That you weren’t the one," she said. "If the convergence had succeeded and all the packs in Wentworth swore allegiance to my late brother, he would be the only Alpha. The supreme Theta. A god. The thought of losing your fickle little title repulsed you, didn’t it?"

"Watch your tongue," my father warned.

His voice was cold. Heartless. Nothing like the man I remembered. He was calm, collected—too calm. Like a man who truly believed he had done the right thing. There was no empathy in sight.

"So you betrayed him for money," Pearl said, near tears. "Do you know what that cost us? What it cost me? My brother and his wife are dead. My nephews are orphans because of your selfish ambition. And I hate you for that, Cessair Monarch."

The fire in her eyes could burn cities. She stood and walked toward the door. The guards opened it, but just before stepping out, she turned back.

"I hope you get what you deserve, Cessair."

The door shut. I was left in the room with my father. As the scene faded, I clung to the only thing I had left—denial.

This is a lie, I repeated to myself like a mantra.

But with every repetition, the words lost their strength. The truth carved itself into the deepest parts of me. Then, I heard his voice—Devin’s.

"Without the lie you tell yourself, you will be nothing but a shell."

My orgasm rushed in a second later. But I didn’t feel a thing.

Abigail had been right in a way. There was a reason the goddess tied me to a murderer. She wanted me to know the truth. The truth was that the parents I adored weren’t who they said they were. The cruel persona I saw in that memory still burned bright in my mind. My parents were murdered because they helped orchestrate a genocide that nearly wiped out the Crow pack.

“Are you alright?” Devin asked softly, watching me force my numb body to sit up.

I wished I could answer him. But I couldn’t. I was still reeling. I looked up at the moon. Acting on the belief that the moon goddess was there, watching me, I whispered:

“How does this make things better? How does this explain anything? How could my parents be monsters?”

Devin stepped closer. His hand reached for my arm.

I flinched.

"I know this is a lot," he said gently. "But things are never black and white. People make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes destroy lives."

“I don’t want to hear it,” I snapped, tears pooling in my eyes. I faced him, scanning his expression for deception.

But all I saw was honesty. Concern.

"All this time, I thought I was suffering because of you. I grieved them. I hated you. I sacrificed everything because of them. The only reason I completed this ritual was to preserve the Monarch legacy and their memory." My voice cracked. “I gave up the hope for a new life to keep a legacy built on blood and suffering.”

"You don’t have to carry this alone," he said, stepping closer. "Whatever you need, I’ll be there."

I pulled back. “I don’t need you to be.”

I was about to say more when a wave of dizziness washed over me. I staggered.

“Valentine?” Devin caught me, worry in his voice.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words didn’t come. The world spun. My knees buckled. Devin’s arms wrapped around me, steadying me.

The last thing I saw was his face closing in, just before everything went black.

VALENTINEI felt groggy and disoriented as I slowly come to, the world around me slowly coming into focus. I tried to move, but my body felt heavy and unresponsive. My mind raced, trying to piece together what happened, but my memories are hazy and disjointed.Then, it all comes flooding back. Literally marrying Devin Crow was not just a nightmare. I had actually done it, thinking it was the only way to salvage the momento my parents left me. The name of the pack. Our sovereignty. I could not just have the Crow pack take that away from me. Only to find out I had been played yet again. Now I was in his grasp, at his mercy. My parents were just as bad as the Crow brothers and I had trapped myself in a bond that was now more difficult to sever.Panic gripped me, and I tried to move again, pushing against the heavy weight holding me down. It took a moment for me to realize that I was not restrained, that the weight lurching down at me was just the thick, plush