The Alpha's Enchanted Mate

Anya’s POV.

He’s going to kill me. It was all I could think of.

My fingers trembled violently, slipping against the window latch as I struggled to open it. “Come on, Anya, get your shit together!”

I gave it a desperate yank, but the metal slipped from my sweaty palm, smacking against the frame with a loud, echoing CLANG!

My heart stopped.

He was going to find me.

Sure enough, a second later, footsteps began pounding down the hallway in my direction, fast and relentless. “Anyaaa!” his voice sang out, taunting me. “Do you really think you can outrun me?”

Panicking, I threw my backpack—the one containing my visa, plane ticket, and my entire future—onto the floor. I shoved the window wide open, swinging one leg over the sill. I was three stories up, looking down at the hard, unforgiving ground below. The fall might kill me, but whatever was coming down that hallway was guaranteed to.

I’d rather take my chances.

I leaned forward, ready to jump.

But before I could launch myself into the air, a hand tangled in my hair. Pain seared through my skull as I was aggressively yanked backward, crashing onto the bedroom floor with a cold blade pressing against my throat.

“Please, Carl,” I begged the man I had believed loved me until just minutes ago. “You don’t need to do this!”

“It’s over, Anastasia,” my fiancé sneered. “The faster we get this done with, the faster I can move on with my life.”

I closed my eyes, sucking in a deep, shaky breath as tears scalded my cheeks.

The worst part about this situation was that I had barely turned eighteen a few days ago.

Carl proposed, and I foolishly labeled it the best night of my life. I was now legally free to claim the inheritance my grandmother had left me and escape from my abusive mother.

I had been so close to freedom, until Carl decided I needed to die.

“We were supposed to run away tonight,” I choked out. “You lied to me.”

Carl’s lips curved into a cruel smirk. Lowering his head, his hot breath fanned across my ear. “I was about to tell you that your beautiful mommy’s four months pregnant with our baby, but you were too busy running like a little bitch.”

The world tilted. Of all people… my mother.

“Awww, Carl, that is so sweet of you.” Long, manicured fingers slid over Carl’s shoulders as my mother stepped into view. She wore a mocking smile, leaning against his side.

“Why?” I whispered, staring at the woman who gave birth to me. “Why are you doing this?”

Her cornflower-blue eyes, an exact replica of mine, locked onto me as her smirk widened. “You useless little leech, don’t you see?” She swooped down, her long fingers snapping around my forearm as she hissed in my face, “I need you dead for our plan to work.”

I yanked my arm out of her grip, my voice cracking as I asked, “W—what plan?”

“Anya, you dear, stupid girl.” She poked me hard against the chest. “I want your life.”

I blinked, thoroughly confused. “What do you mean you want my life? You have your own!”

“My own life was ruined the second you existed!” she snarled, her fake smile vanishing into a look of deep, bitter resentment. “I had you at such a young age. I wasted my best days being forced to raise a failure like you. But you look just like me, Anya. That, and well, we’ve been confused for sisters with me aging so gracefully and—” She switched to giggling again, waving a hand at me dismissively. “Ah, sorry, I was just reminiscing about how blessed I am to look this good for thirty-eight.”

I glared at her. She had always been so self-absorbed. It shouldn’t surprise me at this point… But the hurt it caused was undeniable.

“Anyway, with you dead, I’ll take your legal papers, your grandmother’s money, and that pretty ring of yours, then start over as Anastasia Velmorin to get my second chance.”

“People will know!” I sobbed, struggling against the floor. “You can’t steal my life!”

“Who’s going to question it?” Carl snorted, pressing the blade deeper until it stung. “Everyone already thinks you’re unstable.”

He then glanced at my mother, lifting his free hand to cup her jaw, rubbing his thumb over her lips. “And don’t stress that pretty head of yours over that ring, my lovely Eloise. That thing is a dupe. I have a real rock waiting for you.”

“Oh, my sweet Carl,” she sighed, delighted, nipping at his thumb. “I. Can’t. Wait!”

“Yes, my love. You’ll be doing the world a favor by replacing this lunatic.”

This lunatic.

They called me crazy because of what I could do. Ever since I was a little girl, water responded strangely to my emotions—freezing when I panicked, boiling into steam when I cried. My mother had beaten me mercilessly to purge the ‘weirdness,’ but the power remained, marking me as defective.

“Close your eyes, freak,” Carl mocked, his lips curling into a sick, eager smile as he let go of my mother. “Don’t worry, Eloise will spend your inheritance much better than you ever could.”

Beside him, my mother just watched with harsh, hungry eyes, waiting for the spray of my blood to clear her path.

Carl shoved the blade harder against my throat, and I felt the sharp edge start to cut into my flesh. “Goodbye, Anastasia.”

The terror became consuming.

My chest tightened, suffocating me as the walls of the room dissolved into a dizzying haze.

I thought the stress had finally broken my mind, or perhaps Carl had already cut my throat and I was experiencing the transition into death.

For a split second, there was only blinding light.

A rush of crisp, clean air hit my face. I gasped, the sudden warmth burning my lungs as I struggled to breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, utterly disoriented.

I was standing under a brilliant, open sky in a beautiful, lush garden overflowing with vibrant, otherworldly flowers. Vines of glowing lilac crept up towering, ancient trees, and the grass beneath my shoes was a deep, shimmering emerald, soft as velvet.

I blinked, my mind spinning in confusion.

Directly in front of me stood a towering stone fountain carved in the likeness of a roaring wolf. In the crystal-clear pool at its base, fish with sweeping, translucent fins swam through the water. I thought it was just the golden sunlight hitting them, until I realized the fish themselves were literally glowing from within, casting pulsing blue and gold light across the water’s surface.

Where am I?

My hands shook as I pressed them against my chest, feeling the frantic heat of my skin. Had Carl killed me? Had I actually made it to heaven?

The impossible, breathtaking beauty of the place made me certain that I must have died.

Until…

“Well, well. Now what do we have here?” A horrible, musky stench instantly overpowered the scent of the flowers. Before I could turn around, a beefy, sweaty hand shot out and clamped onto my shoulder, dragging me backward with bruising force.

My eyes widened as I took in the massive man looming over me. His face was smudged with soot, framing a twisted smile that lacked half its teeth. “Looks like we found a lady of worth,” the man grunted, turning his head. “What do you think, Pete?”

Another man walked out from behind a large bush. He was equally as dirty, but built like a walking stick. He barked a rough laugh, inspecting me. “Oooh. We are going to make a lot of money with this pretty face.”

The thin man reached out to grab my chin. Disgusted, I violently wrenched my face from his grip, my mind spinning too fast to form a single word.

“And to think we almost had to go into town and find a girl to kidnap!” the thin man chuckled, unfazed by my resistance. “One just landed right here in our laps!”

Dread washed over me. No, this was definitely not heaven.

I was dreaming. Carl had cut my throat, and I’ was in a coma.

Because this reality was way too vivid and too terrifying to be real.

“Come on, girl. Our boss is going to be delighted by the sight of you!” the beefy man barked. He clamped a hand around my wrist and began dragging me aggressively through the garden, his companion trailing right behind us.

He flashed a wide, sinister smile as he grunted, “Looks like we have a wife for the alpha after all!”