The Alpha King’s Human Mate

“If we act like prey, they’ll act like predators.” – Alyxandra Harvey

For the remainder of the two-hour drive to the airport, I was on edge. Benito knew my name ~ he knew who I was. Did that mean that

I’d been caught? Did Griffin know I’d left? Was he on his way to stop me? \*)

‘The car was completely silent but it felt like the driver was going to pull over any minute now and tell me the ruse was up, that

Griffin was on his way to drag me back. Or even worse, that Griffin would be waiting at the airport for me and ready to stop me from

getting on that plane. (“)

Although I felt like a bundle of frazzled nerves, Alessia spent most of the drive napping. Since we had gotten into the car, her anxiety

seemed to disappear ~ she clearly thought our escape attempt was

a success.

Thad two options. I could wake her up and tell her that something was wrong, that Benito shouldn’t have known my name. Of course,

we weren’t really alone. The driver was only a few feet away from us and he’d definitely hear the entire thing. If Griffin wasn’t

already alerted to my disappearance, he probably would be. Any chance we

might still have at an escape would be ruined. |)

The second option was that I could remain silent and hope Griffin wasn’t waiting at the airport, ready to pull the rug out from under

me. And if he was, I’d deal with it then.

I decided to go with option two.

It’s going to be okay. You might still be able to get away. You don’t know for sure that you’ve been caught, I told myself. While it did

little to actually help my anxiety, I still repeated that to myself the entire rest of the ride. *

“alright, passengers. You’ll find your oxygen masks located in the overhead bin. Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will

drop down. Please place the mask over your own mouth and nose before helping others.” The flight attendant’s voice was monotone

and tired as she lazily demonstrated how to use the oxygen mask. It was clear that she gave this same speech several times a day.

“Now, I’ll be coming around to make sure you’ve gotten your seatbelts fastened,” she said, “We’ll be wheels up and on our way to

LAX in less than ten minutes.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Alessia and I had made it to the airport. Not even just the airport — we had already boarded the plane.

When we had arrived at the terminal, we had two tickets waiting for us — one for her and one addressed to Clark Bellevue. GivenConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

that Benito had addressed me by name, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he had put the ticket in my name either.

That still made me uneasy, but there had been no sign of Griffin or any of the castle guards at the airport. I had kept my eyes peeled

the entire time. Alessia had berated me for being too paranoid, but I could tell she was on her guard too.

“Something isn’t right,” Alessia suddenly muttered beside me. We were already in our seats, seatbelts fastened. I watched her eyes

narrow as she scoped out the rest of the passengers. (7

Up to this point, she hadn’t made a single comment about our escape so I was surprised to hear her speak up.

“That ticket,” she said, gesturing to the paper in my hand, “It’s addressed to you. Your full name.”

Benito used my name

Clark. He kne

dn’t even catch that. Something is definitel

n completely sure we’d succeed

h of guards or Griffin to show up out of thin air and drag me back.

leave? Wouldn’t he

fully. “Definitely. Le

ike signing his own dea

ess w

l like she was trying to decide if s

mind link just before he let us go. I thought he was letting someo

fact that you

s glaze over too, but I hadn’t considere

inking Griffin. Why wouldn’t he stop me?

unlikely he would change his mind so quickly, but then again, it’s not like I knew him very well. We had literally only spent one day

to

the mate bond, but maybe he assu

s the case, he

I wanted to believe it but the explanation felt empty. As little as I knew Griffin, he did

to soothe the guilt. I knew I was leaving Griffin high and dry – I could only hope he’d understand my reasoni

replacements

urning to me, “But I don’t think y

ou asked why Griffin would let y

inking him,

odd

ing you a headsta

eadst

t it, Clark,” she said, “How would you rathe

*) “Personally, I’m not

urselves. And Griffin is an Alpha wolf like me. He’s a predator. Huntin