Contractually Yours, Alpha by Giftemmy

Chapter Three

The Mating Ball.

(Riley’s POV)

Ryker sat with his mate, and I was to sit besides him, close enough to hear him whisper the same words he had told me to her, close enough to see him kiss her, close enough to hear her soft moans as his hands disappeared beneath her dress, but that wasn’t the worst part of this all; the worst part was having to see my mother, refilling his cup like the servant he wanted everyone to know she was.

All I felt was anger, burning fury.

I turned away from them, focusing on keeping my breath steady.

“You work slugglishly, old woman,” Ryker said to my mother, she had pretended not to hear that as she refilled his glass for what seemed as the hundredth time.

My mother glanced at me, her eyes a warning, begging me to stay still and not do anything crazy, and it took everything in me to seat still.

“You forgot to refill mine,” Zara said to my mother, and of course, my mother did refill hers, muttering a silent appology which wasn’t even due. Zara held the glass in her slender hand and then her eyes turned to me, a small smirk playing on her lips and I watched as she let it go—purposely, the content spilled down my mother’s plain blue dress.

“Ooops,” Zara says. A hand on her mouth, I had watched her, it was no mistake.

“You did that on purpose.” I sneered at her. Zara had an innocent look on her face, which was of course false.

“Sorry, who are you?” she asked, an eyebrow inclined.

true mate. I wanted to say it but

is your Luna, and don’t you

rose to my feet in an attempt to help my mother clean up the broken pieces of glass.

prepared to, but then my mother gave me another glance, pleading with me to listen to him, pleading with me not to get in trouble, and I hated it. I hated the fact that she thought this

must have slipped off your hands,” my mother apologized, and Zara gave a

I knew Ryker wanted me here, he wanted to torment

with their mates; others waited. It was a beautiful experience to watch a werewolf find their mate, and I welcomed that as a distraction. Soon the dance

you accompany me for this dance, my love?” Ryker asked Zara, and she gave

taking his extended hands, and he led her to dance. He paused, turning to

doubt there would be a partner available for

was gone; she was somewhere in the crowd

.

door, which seemed too far away. I was once again jostled to

dance stopped, even if the music

that’s when

men had just

in the ball; people could go in and come without anyone noticing, but there was something about these two, something that made them…

was unlike anything I had ever seen, or the aura they carried with them—it seemed to settle over them like an extra

this man before, not face-to-face

Thane of

I have noticed that?.

over almost every single person here, even Ryker, who had an amazing six feet four, couldn’t be compared to

staying very far away from them, as they walked