Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 2 : Rejected

*Lucas*

A pothole almost unseated me as my chauffeur, Ian, navigated us back toward my mansion on a hill from our stop at the post office.

“Ian, a little slower, please?" I said with a wince, pretty sure that last one was going to bruise my ass.

Not that it would be the only bruise on my body. I reached up and touched my cheek once more.

Sasha f*****g Wentley.

She packed a lot more of a punch now than I remembered her having as a kid, but she was still as feisty as ever.

A smile tugged at my lips, but I quickly covered it with a cough as Ian peered at me in the rearview mirror.

Mirrors were going to be the death of me.

When I'd snagged her deep, navy eyes at Nostalgia, I could hardly believe I was seeing her again after all this time. Sure, she'd become curvier in some places, places I couldn't help but notice as I approached her and her friend at the bar. With a tight skirt and a push-up bodice that was completely strapless, showing off miles and miles of fair skin, it was impossible not to notice. I was a red-blooded Lycaon male, after all.

She iced me out immediately, which was disappointing, but I guess at my twenty-seven to her twenty, I'd had more time to get over the past–seven years, to be exact.

I really should have found a new direction, and a different tight-dressed target, when her eyes telegraphed “f**k off" at me in that mirror. But her lavender scent was too tempting, too intoxicating to be ignored.

A whiff or two would be fine, I'd decided. I'd even contented myself with ignoring her, as she'd wanted, and talking with her friend. I could still breathe her in.

Sasha thwarted my carefully laid plan when she stood to go to the ladies' room, however. I'd gotten a few lungfuls of that sweet lavender, but not nearly enough when she slid off her barstool and stomped away.

And then that asshole....

That asshole–he dared touch what was....

I didn't finish that sentence in my mind. I didn't want to suspect something that was truly unbelievable and very, very poorly timed.

But when that bastard laid his grimy hand on her, the puppy was gone and replaced by my wolf. And he was pissed off.

I was surprised the whole bar hadn't heard my growl, crowded or not.

Then he'd started pushing her back into the darkest corner of the hallway, no doubt to do some dark deeds, and I lost it. I lunged, grabbed, and smacked faster than the fat asshole could stop his beer gut from jiggling.

The way my wolf was howling with rage, he was lucky I hadn't shifted right then. An ache had started in my bones, my wolf trying to come out to rip the i***t's throat out. Luckily, I'd had my temperamental wolf long enough to know how and when to get him to back down.

Still, my wolf whined as I let the bastard walk away.

That left Sasha staring at me, and me staring at Sasha.

I hadn't expected hugs and kisses but… she slapped me. What the hell was that for?

in my throat as those large eyes, deep and wide and blue as any ocean, bore

blue eyes had always been one of my favorite features of hers. They were as sharp as a

could have thrown in front of her, daring me to respond in kind. But my wolf was a

reach up and push her hair behind her ear, but well worth it

I wasn't going to be seeing the girl again anyway, so it shouldn't matter. But my inner wolf was still licking

whether, if Sasha were old enough to have a wolf, hers would be all preening and smug right

wondered if Sasha herself was

Ian did not meet my eyes. I could see his lips

next to me. It was so big, it was being held in place by a length of

the very potholes we kept hitting. You couldn't be a Royal Engineer without getting complaints about infrastructure. I was tempted to slit the twine with a claw and start getting the pain over with, but the way the expensive sedan was jostling,

head back on the seat, closing my eyes. This new library project occupied the bulk of my time, thank the Moon Goddess, but there was

the

blinked, looking out

large size was a marvel of modern engineering, and, I thought proudly, a testament to

felt a great weight slide off my

out of the driver's seat and come around to open

a pain in the ass, Ian," I

“I know,

my head, stomping across the cobblestone to the front door.

foyer of stone tile floor and a sweeping, curved staircase.

table eating cornflakes. Thanks to a serum synthesized from the blood of the

me, pushing his bowl

I grunted, finally elongating a claw and slashing

counter, carrying with

and started

Brady was at the table, and the next, he was leaning over my shoulder, taking in the voluminous stack. “You got all this in two

glared at him. “Will

Brady grinned unrepentantly. “Nope."

course not." It was Brady's second favorite hobby, scaring the crap out of me

His first....

some girl waiting for you in your

was his annoying

had to open my mail with

shop owners and citizens about plumbing, electricity, water quality, and the like. City water was

Nibbles is having a hard time climbing the stairs

even come with a photo of the small, aging black terrier, as though that

Brady asked, moving on to the next

of just moving on from boring complaints, but I followed Brady's movements as he snatched a

sobered, looking at

of civilization again, rogue Lycaons who believed any breach of the ancient borders was an attack on them and their way of

ancient borders, keeping them to their side and us to ours, but as the borders of the kingdom expanded, we'd begun bumping heads with the rogues. This had led to some rather…