FATED TO ALPHA HUNTER BY VENNEH LISAH

𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐀'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕:

I woke up to whispers reaching my ears. Groggily rolling over, I looked toward the King, who was standing by the door, speaking with Beta Dwight, as I tried to listen. The scent of Beta Dwight wafted to me, and I knew it was him the King was speaking with. Stretching out, my back cracked as I yawned. That was the best sleep I had had in days, and I actually woke up feeling rested. Sitting up, I noticed the King had the jewelry box in his hands, and I tilted my head to listen to what they were saying.

"Find me everything you can about Ania," the King told him, and my brows pinched together, wondering why he wanted my information. My stomach dropped, wondering what he was trying to dig up. More reasons to hate me?

"Something isn't right, and she..." the King shook his head. "Something doesn't add up. Get the right information this time, not fabricated. She could be my dead....." he started before he looked over his shoulder at me. Beta Dwight took the box from him.

"I'll see what I can find out," Dwight told him, and the King nodded before shutting the door. He turned to face me before wandering over to a coffee table and taking a tray of food, which he placed on my lap. I stared down at the steak and salad before he grabbed his own tray and came to sit beside me.

"What was that about?" I asked the King as he took his seat.

"I need him to look into something, eat your lunch," he said before cutting into his steak, which was bleeding. My mouth salivated hungrily, and my belly rumbled. Although I was a little shocked to learn that it was already the middle of the day. I cut into my steak and popped a piece into my mouth. The hunger instantly died down, no longer wanting to eat as I forced myself to chew and swallow. The King watched me curiously as I tried not to be rude and spit the meat out onto the plate. Forcing it down was like trying to swallow an apple whole as it lodged in my throat.

"Can I call Rina?" I asked him, and he nodded.

"After you eat," he said, nodding toward my plate. I scrunched my nose up at it. Ever since finding out he was my mate, my taste buds had changed. Stuff I usually liked no longer held any appeal to me. Everything was changing, yet I still hadn't shifted. It really irked me that so much had changed, and yet it didn't appear to be for the better. Was I pregnant?

"I'm not hungry," I told him, placing the plate on the bedside table. He wanted to get up but changed his mind. The King growled, cutting off a piece of his meat before offering the fork to me, holding it to my lips. The same thing happened; my mouth watered instantly, making me wonder why his food smelled different. It was hardly cooked, if you could call it cooked at all, more like seared on either side and practically raw. But I opened my mouth and almost moaned at the taste, my appetite coming back despite tasting the blood filling my mouth as I chewed. Was I just pregnant?

Reaching for my plate, the King placed it on his lap before giving me his. "Eat," he said, tapping my plate with the fork. My brows furrowed as I looked at the plate. Arman didn't look like he liked my steak much, but he said nothing as he ate, except to tell me to eat.

"All of it," the King said when he finished his, leaving only the salad. The steak was huge, and I was struggling to eat the entire thing after getting through half of it. Forcing another mouthful down, yet also savoring the taste, I watched the King pull his phone from his pocket and scroll through it.

"I can't eat anymore," I said while trying to cut through another piece of steak. The King looked up from his screen and then glanced at the half-eaten steak on my plate before sighing.

"You hardly ate anything yesterday. Eat half of it, and you can call her," he said. I glared at him and let out a growl, to which he responded by calling my name.

"Ania!" he snarled.

"I will eat two more pieces. I can't eat much more. You will make me sick," I snapped at him.

"Three," he spat.

"One!" I retorted, and he sighed. "Fine, two more mouthfuls then," he growled, turning his attention back to the phone. I quickly ate the remaining pieces of steak, eager to speak with Rina. The King informed me that I could no longer reach Rina through the mind-link because she was no longer tethered to his pack, but to Alpha Kelly's. It felt like a lifetime ago since I heard her voice.

When I finished eating, I snatched the phone from his grip, and he growled at me but took my plate and set it back on the tray before placing it outside the door. He then came back to sit by me, looking over my shoulder as I scrolled through the 'R' names in the contacts list. Some of the names had similar spellings, which confused me, and everything was in Spanish.

"No, wait," the King interrupted, clicking on her name. "You can video call her?"

"I would love that," I replied as the phone began to ring. The King took the phone from me and pressed the video button, and the screen changed, allowing me to see myself on the screen. "I hope she knows how to turn her camera on. I believe Kelly's phone is also in Spanish. Dwight did show her, so hopefully, she remembers," Arman told me. I nodded as the phone rang out, and Arman took it from me, trying again.

When Rina didn't answer the second time, he took the phone from me again and leaned against the headboard. He opened something on his phone and typed away. I peered over to see what he was doing, watching as he typed quickly.

"I messaged her, mate," Arman said before patting the spot between his legs, gesturing for me to sit there.

"What did you say?" I asked.

"Come, I will show you," he said, and I rolled my eyes but crawled into his lap. He pressed his lips to my shoulder and opened his message app.

"I need to teach you how to read in Spanish. Try and read that," he said, pointing to the screen. My brows furrowed as I recognized Rina's name and the letters but couldn't make sense of how they fit together.

"I can tell it's Rina's name," I replied, my face heating up in embarrassment that I couldn't do something so basic as reading in Spanish. "Why isn't Rina answering her phone?" Arman read out in English, pointing to the words. He then leaned forward, reaching into his bedside drawer and pulled out a tablet, scrolling through it.

"I had some reading apps installed on the tablet for you. They will help you identify different words in Spanish, like a game. I want you to use it when you have free time. It also has a voice-to-text and translation feature," he said, opening an app and clicking on the microphone icon. The words he spoke appeared on the screen and were recited back to him in Spanish by a robotic voice.

"You can also type words into it, and it will read them to you in Spanish. Copy the text on my phone into it," he continued, handing me his phone and placing the tablet on my lap. As I typed, Arman leaned over my shoulder and murmured, "You smell so nice." I shivered, and he chuckled before suggesting we shower together.

When I finished typing, Arman pressed the speech button, and the phone read out what I had written in Spanish. He told me that he would read to me at night to help me improve my Spanish.

His phone vibrated, and I looked at the screen. "He is going to mind-link her to get her phone. He said he isn't with her right now," Arman told me. I typed his response into the tablet and read it aloud, and a few minutes later, a new message arrived.

"What does it say?" I asked him.

"Try contacting her now," he said, pulling me back against him and tinkering with his phone. It rang, and he switched on the camera, and my face appeared on the screen with the King's torso in the background. It rang several times before she picked up.

"Finally, you called!" she exclaimed excitedly, though her face didn't appear on the screen. Arman had to guide her through the process before I finally got to see her. She cried out in excitement, waving at me and raving about how much she missed me.

"Where are you? It looks like you're outside?" I asked her, examining the scenery behind her.

"At the cabin, I was hanging out the laundry and didn't hear my phone. Plus, I ran out of credit. I've been trying to reach you for days; I've been so worried about you since the King caught you on the bridge," she explained.

"I called the castle phone, but it went to some answering machine and used up all my credit before I realized no one was on the other end," she added.

"Hasn't your mate added credit to your phone?" Arman asked her over my shoulder. She squinted at the screen, and her eyes widened. "I'm sorry, my King. I didn't see you in the background. I thought you had left," she said, becoming a little nervous now that she realized he was behind me.

"It's alright, Rina. I'm not angry with you," Arman assured her, and she nibbled on her fingernail, nodding but not saying much, aware that he was behind me. I sighed.

"So, do you like it there?" I inquired, and she shrugged.

"Yeah, it's not bad. But he comes during the day, and it's been two days since I last saw him. He says he's always busy with work and sometimes sleeps at his pack's place," Rina shared with me. Arman growled behind me, and I looked back at him, but he shook his head and pulled me closer, placing a hand on my stomach.

"What about the people in his pack? Have you met them? Made any friends?" I asked.

"I haven't met them yet. He says I need to stay home for now. He thinks I'll go into heat soon because I keep getting terrible stomach cramps. I asked him to take me to a pack doctor, but he hasn't yet. My chest feels tight and hurts too. I actually thought I was having a heart attack last night. It's not just my stomach. But I feel fine during the day when he's here," Rina explained, shifting around. The king growled behind me once more, and I looked at him, wondering why he was becoming so agitated. He said I could talk to her, didn't he?

"I do like it here though, and I'm hoping he'll take me to visit you soon. He promised I could come," Rina said, her voice brightening at the thought of seeing me.

"If he can't take you, Rina, I'll send Dwight to come and pick you up and bring you here," Arman assured her.

"Really? I never got to say goodbye to Dwight; he walked off," she said excitedly before her face fell when she mentioned Dwight's name.

"Yes, if he can't bring you here, I will send Dwight. I will put your phone on my plan so you don't run out of credit too. That way, you can ring Ania whenever you like," Arman told her.

"Oh, oh, I hear a car. I think he is here," Rina babbled excitedly. "I love you, but I have to go," she said.

"Love you too," I told her.

"More than life," she said.

"More than life," I replied before she hung up. With a sigh, I handed the phone back to him, and he glared at it.

"Everything okay?" I asked him, wondering why he was angry.

"Yes, it will be," he said before kissing my shoulder.

"I need to go speak with Dwight," he said abruptly, and I hopped up, wanting to get out of the room myself.

"What are you doing?" the king asked when I also climbed off the bed.

"I want to shower and then go help Percy," I told him.

"No, you're not leaving," he said, pausing before pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just stay away from the water and take Desmond with you, please," he added, coming over to me and pressing his lips to my forehead before gripping my chin and forcing me to look up at him.

"Don't wander off," he said, and I nodded, though I didn't have anywhere to go anyway. We showered together before taking different paths in the castle.