Page 5 of Bound to Enemy (Wolf Billionaire #3)

CHAPTER 5

DAXTON

B lood-red eyes stared at me through the dark forest. The wind blew, the coldness scratching the surface of my skin.

'You can't save them, alpha.' An eerie voice rippled through the dark night. 'They will all die and their blood will be on your hands.'

Fury raged within my body. 'Show yourself, you coward!'

I was surrounded by trees, the large trunks swayed with the heavy wind as it howled through the forest.

'They will all die!' The voice echoed through the darkness.

I tried to reach for my wolf, but there was a blockage. I couldn't reach him. It was like there was this massive divide between the two of us.

What the hell was going on?

I looked into the deep darkness of the night and made contact with the blood-red eyes that stared at me. Slowly, the beast emerged from the forest line. Its teeth were bared right at me, and its claws dug into the wet forest floor, creeping toward my direction.

It was much larger in size than I remembered it being.

The rogue alpha.

I came face to face with it once when I was a young man. Now I stood before him again as a full-fledged alpha riddled with bitterness from all he had taken from me.

They had coined him to be the merchant of death, seeking to destroy the natural balance of the wolf world. He perverted the connection between beast and human and sought to control the power that linked us.

He was not only an enemy to me but an enemy to the goddess.

'They will all fall at your feet, alpha.' The wolf tilted its head to the side and watched me. 'One by one I will kill everyone, and a new age of wolf will be born.'

I tried to reach for my wolf again, but that barrier still remained. It was as if my connection to him had been severed, which left me vulnerable and exposed. There were a few things in this world that rocked my foundation. One of the said things was not having access to my wolf. It was like missing an extension of myself and leaving me vulnerable to the big bad world outside.

The rogue stalked toward me, his blood-red eyes brightening ever so slightly.

'You won't win, rogue!' My voice roared through the small clearing. 'Your kind will fall and you will die.'

The rogue before me crouched down, readying himself for an attack. 'Not before I kill you!'

He launched himself at me, his teeth snapping down on my neck, puncturing my vital artery.

My body lurched forward in the bed, sweat beaded my forehead as I tried to calm the internal storm that raged within me.

My breathing came out quick and shallow; my lungs just seemed unable to take in as much oxygen as possible. I balled my fists into the silk sheets of the bed and closed my eyes.

The nightmares were back.

Ever since I had witnessed the death of my father, I had suffered from night terrors. They were crippling in ways that I had never openly admitted to anyone.

I pulled the blanket off my sweat-clad body and walked to the window. I pulled the window open to allow the cool morning air in.

It was just coming to four in the morning, and the sun was still far from rising. Sleep would be as likely as snow in the summer for me, so there was no point in trying to find rest again.

I looked to the dark sky at the full moon and breathed in and out deeply.

Unlike the myths that the humans had conjured up, our shifting abilities were not governed by the moon. We had access to our wolves all days of the year. However, during the full moon, the tether between the natural and supernatural strengthened. I did not practice our religion meticulously, but I knew that the full moon was a sacred time for us all.

I stared at the dark sky wondering how my parents were enjoying the other side. If the goddess had welcomed them into her eternal forest with open arms. I wondered if my father was proud of me. If he was happy with the way I had dealt with our pack.

He left me at such a young age I still considered myself a boy at the time.

I shook my head trying to shake away the negative thoughts. I could not be dwelling on the lives lost and gone to the wind. I had to keep my feet rooted in the present. My father was not coming back; I could not think like him right now. I had to use my free-thinking mind and adapt to what was in front of me.

I walked to the bathroom so I could splash my face with some cold water. I braced my hands against the marble of the sink and stared at myself in the mirror.

Dark circles decorated my under eyes, my cheeks were flushed as if I had come from a run, and sweat beaded the top of my forehead.

My breathing had calmed some, but my wolf still felt unsettled.

"Fucking shit," I groaned. "I need to get it together."

The last thing I needed to be doing was coming undone behind enemy lines. They could easily exploit me, and after my last interaction with the ever-lovely Alessandra, I knew she was more than ready to catch me at a weak point.

I ran the water into my hands and splashed my face. When I stood to my full height, I stared at myself in the mirror again.

My hazel eyes took on a much bluer shade under the bright lights of the bathroom. My wolf was doing his best trying to push his way forward as a means to calm me, but I had to push him back. The last thing that I needed was to risk him attacking someone on instinct.

I closed my eyes and took a few calming breaths. I tried to center myself and calm the raging storm within my heart and mind.

They had always been two contrasting aspects of myself. Rarely were my mind and heart aligned. But from my understanding, an alpha could not rule from the heart because emotions were wild and fickle things. I had structure, facts, and logic. Emotions would not save my people.

When I opened them again, the green in my eyes returned and my wolf retreated into my mind.

"Dammit," I hissed under my breath.

Many wolves believed that we were in full control of our beasts, but that was simply not the case. The wolves within us, although bonded to us, were still beasts on their own. It was a symbiotic relationship that we had with them.

In the same way you could not tame a lion, you could not tame the wolf. They were free-thinking beings, and that was the relationship that the rogue alpha had perverted.

There were multiple fears about what he wanted the moonstone for, and if my hunch was to be believed, then stopping him was paramount.

For the last year and a half of my life, I had tried to research and find ways to cripple him, and it seemed I always came back to the same answer: here -- Black Stone.

I needed some air.

I walked back into my room to grab a shirt and made my way out of the pack house and toward the backyard that graced a large lake.

I was hit by the cool morning air as soon as I stepped out onto the large porch. I could hear the gentle chirping of the crickets in the distance and the straggling fireflies that were yet to make their way back to their homes.

The sun was set to rise within the next hour or so. It had been some time since I had last watched the sunrise in a peaceful environment.

War did not allow for such privileges. And even though it was considered to be enemy land, I could not deny the calming effect of the nature and surroundings of Black Stone.

It was believed that this area was one of the most sacred lands that the goddess had blessed. The history archives correlated with that claim. It was why Lake Rova was such an important water source.

The moon shone on the surface of the water, making it look like there were diamonds on the surface. The wind blew through the thick pine trees off in the east. The fresh and crisp air filled my lungs, calming the remnants of chaos the nightmare had left behind.

As I neared the water, I noticed someone close to the bank sitting on the ground. As I drew closer, I realized that it was the one I betrothed. She was dressed in a white cloak with her hood down. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a bun which was being held up by a golden hair clip.

What was she doing?

The last thing I needed was to get into it with her so early in the morning, so I decided to turn around and make my way back to the house. But I paused when I heard her voice move through the silent night.

"I'm tired..." Her tone was very different from the one she had used when we first met. There was no malice, heat, or anger in it. She sounded... broken almost.

I should have kept walking back to the house, but the nosy part of me wanted to know why she sounded so depleted.

I crept toward the large oak that was not too far off from where she sat by the river bank. It would act as good cover. I pressed my body against the trunk of the tree and watched her for a moment. She was a stark contrast to the fire-filled Alessandra who held a knife to my throat.

She looked far more humane and approachable.

"Goddess, you gave me this role. I am meant to lead with strength and courage, but... I've seen too much loss. I know too much pain. I don't know if my heart can withstand anymore; I'm so lost," she croaked out. Her head was lifted to the sky and her hands were pressed together like she was saying a prayer. "It's been hard, so... so hard. I can see just how depleted my father is. I know this is my duty, but..."

Her voice trailed off and her chin dipped to her chest. That's when I saw the small trickle fall from her closed eyelid and travel all the way down her cheek.

She was crying.

I looked away. It felt like I was intruding on something sacred and I should walk away.

The full moon was often the time when wolves looked to the goddess for guidance, at the height of our connection to our supernatural selves. These moments of vulnerability between creator and creation were hallowed.

It made sense why she wore the white cloak and had her hair up and out of her face. Whenever anyone wanted to go before the goddess, they had to dress in certain attire.

I didn't know that the wolves of Black Stone upheld such traditions.

Alessandra sniffed before she muttered something under her breath that I couldn't quite make out.

I needed to get out of here before she realized I was here.

I didn't like her, but I respected our customs and traditions. I was not much of a praying man, but I knew that I would not want anyone eavesdropping on my prayers.

I moved my body off the thick bark of the tree and started to edge my way from the tree. I took my first step, hoping that I could move away just as silently as I had approached. But as luck would have it, I was wrong.

In the blink of an eye, a flash of blonde breezed past me. Alessandra stood in front of me, glaring with the fury of a thousand suns in her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped.

I observed her for a moment. That broken girl I had witnessed only a few short seconds ago was gone, and in her place was the same fearsome she-wolf I had come to know.

"I needed air."

"You needed to get some air in the exact location I was doing my prayers?" Her glare deepened, the fire behind them only getting hotter. "What are you doing here, alpha?"

I blew out a long breath. "You need to stop using my title like it's some kind of insult."

She took a menacing step toward me, but she was as intimidating as a chihuahua to me. She had shown me her teeth, but she had yet to prove to me that she could actually bite.

"Have you no shame, Vale?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Your pack says that it prides itself on the sanctity of our practices, but yet here you are eavesdropping on my prayer time."

She was right, but I was not about to admit that to her. "I didn't mean to intrude. I woke up and I needed some air. I wanted to be by the water, and then that's when I stumbled upon you. I didn't hear anything."

I was lying right through my teeth, but I was not about to admit that to her. I was trying to de-escalate the situation, not make it worse. What I had done had been disrespectful, and the simpler thing would have been to apologize, but my pride would not allow it.

She poked my chest and narrowed her gaze on me. "Why do you tell lies, alpha? The least you could do is respect me enough to not lie to my face."

I swatted her hand away, to which she growled lowly.

"You do know what you're doing can be viewed as a challenge to my wolf, right? I'm sure you do, seeing as you have been trained to be an alpha." I spat her title back in her face like she had mine. "Careful what you do from here, princess."

Her nostrils flared in anger.

Under the moonlight, her blue eyes absorbed some of the rays, making them look almost silver.

"Don't call me princess." She sneered, "From the moment you've arrived, you have been nothing but pretentious. You think you're so much better than everyone else around you. Just because you were gifted a gene that no other wolf possesses does not mean that you are deserving of respect. You stick your nose up at everything and everyone you think is below you."

"You don't know me, princess."

"Don't call me that!" She poked my hard chest. Her eyes roared with fury, and the silver in them flashed in and out as she struggled to pull her wolf back. "I'm not a fool, Daxton. You are as much in need of us as we are of you. So you can get off your high horse and come down to planet Earth with the rest of us."

"I don't need you," I scoffed.

I did need them. They understood the moonstone better than anyone. Their archives had the answers to what I needed.

But I would first go rogue before I admitted that I needed anything from the Black Stone pack. Their people and I had been feuding for a reason, and whether she liked to admit it or not, her pack was at fault.

I stared my fiancée down, and she didn't let up either. She held my gaze and even went as far as to take another step my way, thereby eradicating the last remaining ounce of space between us.

Sparks of electricity crackled all around us. My body buzzed with the growing tension in the air, which stirred my wolf to life.

She intrigued him and sparked an interest that I was not expecting at all. He liked her fire, and I did too. But not in a way where I wanted to get close to feel its warmth.

I liked her fire in the way in which I wanted to smother it. I wanted to see just how heated she could get just so I could douse her flames.

Cynical, I know. But she started this little game between us when she held her knife to my throat.

But as we continued to stare at each other, something shifted in the air. The heat was no longer one of danger and blood. It had morphed into a heat of hunger and desire.

I could not deny this woman's beauty. I was a man, after all, but why did it feel like I was looking at her for the very first time now? I noticed how her lips curled ever so slightly when she was disgusted. Or the way her eyes would falter and find their way to my lips and then back up again. It was only for a split second, but it was a second long enough for me to notice.

The rays of moonlight kissed her face at the perfect angle, chiseling out her softer features and making her look far more striking and lethal.

My wolf rumbled from deep within me. I wanted to grab her and pull her to my body so I could feel if she was just as soft as I imagined her to be. The time when she had me pressed against the wall with her dagger to my neck was merely not enough time for me to conclude how she felt against me.

She awakened cravings within me that I had not felt in a very, very long time. She was so close I could easily grab her and pull her toward me. My fingers flinched at my side, the need to feel her intensifying.

But I held myself.

What was going on with me? Why was I suddenly feeling like this? She was the enemy and could not be trusted. I could not desire my enemy.

Yet, my wolf all but purred when her tongue darted out to wet her lips.

I wondered how she tasted. Was she sweet? Or did she have a slightly sour taste to her?

I wanted, no, needed to find out.

"So much fire," I breathed out the words, "in such a little body."

I reached out to touch her cheek, my wolf taking partial control of my movements. But before my hand could get anywhere near her, she grabbed my wrist and sunk her elongated claws into it.

"Shit!" I hissed.

"Don't you ever try to touch me again, Vale, or I will slice your balls clean off your dick." She released her hold on my wrist. The blood oozed out of her puncture wounds as I cradled my hand to my chest.

"See you in the morning, alpha." She turned on her heel and made her way back toward the house.

I stood rooted in my place, watching her walk away from me.

Whatever game we had started between the two of us, I planned to win.

Alessandra Fraser had my full undivided attention now.