The Alpha's Regret: Winning Back My Human Mate novel · Chapter 1 of 20
Chapter 1: The Glass Cage
The ad said "maternity model, paid by the hour, comfortable environment."
I was seven months pregnant, with forty thousand pesos in my account and an overdue rent payment.
My friend Fernanda drove me to the hotel door with a very tense smile.
"You'll do great," she told me. "It's just photos."
"Aren't you coming with me?"
"I have to work." She avoided my gaze. "I'll see you later."
She dropped me off at the entrance of Hotel Cristal, in Coyhaique, under a fine rain that smelled of pine.
Two men in suits led me down a long hallway to a metal door.
They made me trade my coat for a cream-colored, sleeveless dress that hugged my belly.
They did my hair.
They did my makeup.
No one told me how long the session would last.
"It's for the magazine," a woman kept repeating through tight lips.
They took me to a stage in the dark.
When the lights came on, I realized I was inside a cage.
It was a glass box, two meters by two, with a door that had no handle, a chair, and a red rug.
Below was a room full of people.
A hundred people, maybe more, standing among the tables, holding glasses and wearing expensive suits.
They were all staring at my belly.
No one was smiling.
I pounded the glass with the palm of my hand.
I felt it vibrate, but it didn't give.
"Open up!" I shouted. "This isn't a photo shoot!"
A murmur rippled through the room.
A woman laughed behind her glass.
Then I saw him.
In the front row, five meters from me, standing still as a post, was Ezekiel Leiva.
The Alpha of the Ventisquero pack.
My ex-mate.
He wore a black suit, his long hair tied at the nape of his neck, and the scar above his eyebrow was whiter than ever.
I hadn't seen him in four months.
Not since the night he rejected me in front of the entire Council with four words: "I don't need you, human."
His amber eyes swept over me from head to toe.
They stopped on my belly.
I dug my nails into my palms.
Ezekiel took a step forward, without looking away, and pulled a folded piece of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket.
He opened it with two fingers.
He held it up so I could see it through the glass.
It was a report with a red stamp and a phrase underlined.
"Paternity ruled out."
My eyes filled with fury.
"Whose bastard is that?" he asked.
His voice didn't rise, but it reached the back of the stage.
Some heads turned.
I felt the blood rush to my face.
"How can you say that?"
I screamed with all the strength I had left.
"It's your son, Ezekiel! It's your daughter!"
Red flashed in his eyes.
It was the sign of the wolf, that moment when the beast pushes from the inside.
I watched his jaw clench and the veins stand out on his neck.
"She's lying," he said, looking at the man beside him.
The man was Gaspar Ibanez, his Beta.
Tall, in a dark suit, with a kind smile I'd seen a thousand times at pack meetings.
"We know, Alpha," Gaspar murmured, and looked at me with feigned pity. "Poor girl."
"I'm not lying!" I shouted.
I pounded the glass with both hands.
"That test is fake! I was never with anyone else!"
No one was listening.
The conversations had resumed in the room, as if I were part of the show.
Then the room lights went out.
A single white light fell on a man who climbed onto the podium, holding a wooden gavel.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said. "Welcome to the annual Casa Cristal auction."
I couldn't breathe.
"Auction," I whispered.
Fernanda had told me "photos."
"Tonight we present seven exceptional lots," the auctioneer continued.
"Healthy, young human women, carrying the offspring of high-lineage wolves."
"Bidding starts at ten million pesos."
I looked at Ezekiel.
He was looking at the auctioneer too, his face blank.
But he had the paper clenched in his fist, and his knuckles were white.
"No," I said, and this time I didn't shout.
I said it softly, like a promise.
I backed up to the center of the cage.
I looked at the glass, the door without a handle, the stage.
And in a corner of the room, among the waiters with trays, I saw a white uniform I recognized.
A black ponytail.
A round, pale face, with eyes fixed on the floor.
Fernanda.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend