A Tale Before Two Alphas Series

“You.” The tall, dark male called, striding toward me; his eyes met mine with a smoldering, glowing gaze that ran a chill through my spine. His body was covered in black-scaled armor that had silver ornate decoration on it, making him look lethal and strange.

The butterfly’s wings distracted me briefly—powder-blue and black on the outside of its otherwise white wings—as the creature fluttered on my nose.

When I glanced up, I realized he was coming closer to me, each move as graceful and lethal as a cat’s.

I should run. If Tatiana finds out, or he tries to do anything…

I knew deep in my bones that I was not in the safest of situations. However, this was no ordinary man either. This person was a creature of the Never Never. A faerie.

I should be terrified.

Instead, it was like I had met up with an old friend, something in me feeling less and less like I needed to flee. The closer he came, the more I settled on this feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. Part of me wanted to invite him to come sit with me.

Something about him looked terribly lonely, a deep sadness surrounding him that I wanted to reach out and soothe. It was a small look in his eyes that I wondered if I held as well.

“Me,” I stated carefully, pressing my hands on the stone beneath me to keep them from shaking as I stared up at his towering figure, his ears telling me exactly what he was. Though his skin, let alone his strange clothing that made him look almost naked, was also a dead giveaway the closer he loomed. How something could cover a being while showing so much was beyond me.

This was certainly no man. This was a faerie through and through.

He was taller than me, much taller than me. The top of my head was likely mid-chest, not even to his shoulder had I been standing.

It was terrifyingly attractive.

“Come.” His voice was commanding, his hand outstretched toward me as the vibrations of his voice seemed to make the butterfly shudder and hastily fly off, leaving a small tickle on my nose I wiped away.

He was offering his hand despite the way his words sounded, commanding me to go with him. Everything about the situation seemed curious to me.

I blinked up at him for several moments.

What he expected exactly I couldn’t fathom, but I knew it wasn’t what I replied.

“I have to watch the flowers bloom first.” The words tumbled out of my mouth in a rush, my one desire—the reason I was here. The event that had to happen to mark me leaving. For me to finally be free.

Somehow, it was critical.

He looked down at me, his lips twisting into a small frown as if he hadn’t expected my answer.

Unhappy.

“Then! Then I’ll come with you,” I stuttered, not wanting him to change his mind, desperate for him to keep looking at me like he had a moment ago.

As if I were the last drink of water in the desert.

He was just so beautiful.

“Then the deal is made,” he replied with a small smile that made my head spin.

Deal?

I had made a deal?

He stepped in front of me and then continued onward to sit next to me, his hands on his knees and fingers laced as he looked around us at the foliage. The sun was barely a sliver of light in the sky as the moon began to quickly rise to replace its rays in this grassy knoll surrounded by beautiful trees as we sat in a strange, almost comfortable silence for a while.

His smell distracted me and seemed to permeate the air. Like belladonna, the fragrance was sweet and deadly with a sharp coolness that was like winter on the skin. He was entirely unlike anything I had ever known.

There was no sound, not a cricket or a snap of twigs. Just him and I with the small shifts in the breeze.

“You’re…a faerie?” I asked, sitting up straight, my eyes never leaving him, part of me believed he would disappear if I blinked.

I was pretty sure I knew the answer, but I had to ask, confirming what I saw with my own two eyes.

The creature gave me a side-eyed look, assessing my words as if surprised I was even speaking. After a few moments, it seemed he had made up his mind. “Not exactly, though I suppose in part,” he replied thoughtfully, making my brows furrow.

If he were part of my imagination, he certainly wouldn’t have said that.

How could someone be part faerie? Maybe he considered himself to be a different species like the books noted some did. My thoughts were flying, his strange creature becoming far too interesting.

“What did I agree to? You can’t lie, right?” My voice was cautious—I was doing my best not to be offensive. Nothing good ever came from offending a faerie from anything I had read, but that also didn’t mean everything I read would be entirely accurate either.

From what I gathered, most humans didn’t return when they were taken by a faerie. I didn’t exactly plan to be taken, but I had most certainly agreed to something. Part of me was beginning to think tricking mortals into deals to steal them was a silly tale.

If I truly wished to leave, perhaps being taken would have certainly been easier. The thought was sour, but hard not to think as I stared at him.

His lips twisted into a small smirk. “I can lie, though the same cannot be said for everyone else tied to the other side. I have no need to lie though, so I typically don’t.”

“The absence of truth is the same as lying if you won’t tell me what I agreed to,” I pointed out, trying not to sound cross.

“I agreed not knowing how long until your flowers bloom; we could be here months. What mattered was the deal and that it was made before the sunset,” he responded innocently, his tone light yet very to the point.

“Unspoken things are more important than spoken,” I replied stiffly, still pressing that he was technically lying and showing my distaste.

When he didn’t respond, I relented with my line of questions, turning my eyes back to the reason I was here with a small sigh.

I had made a deal with a faerie, and he didn’t seem to really want to talk to me. While the night of my escape was certainly more interesting than I thought it might be, meeting a magical creature for the very first time was already becoming less than I was hoping it to be.

Why am I not terrified? The thought skittered across my mind once more. I didn’t give it much thought though, because there was something else instinctively telling me that everything was perfectly fine. If I was with him, I was safe.

“They should be opening any moment,” I finally answered, my voice seeming too loud without the normal sounds of nature. Feeling like if I gave him just a little bit more, perhaps he would respond in kind.

All I received was silence as he and I bathed in the moonlight, with the sound of the trees, water, and breeze running through the grass. Everything was peaceful.

“You are to come and be my bride,” he finally replied, breaking the quiet just as I saw the flowers begin to slowly unfurl. My breath caught, and my head whipped around to look at him—the flowers trailing and twinkling behind him following the small stream. Glowing a faint eerie blue, but my attention was on him.

Unable to remove my eyes from his face as I tried to understand his words.

Bride?

Somehow, even with the sunset glowing its brilliance, the darkness heavy in the distance, and the twinkling little flowers, his words were enough magic to take my breath away. I thought my time had come and gone to ever marry.

“Bride?” The word was stuck in my throat without enough air to even say it properly.

The stories of faeries stealing away humans, and taking females as brides—were all true?

“The flowers have bloomed. It’s time for you to come home with me,” he stated, standing— the darkness seeming to seep into the area as he held his hand out to me.

I opened my mouth— I didn’t even know his name and should have instinctually pulled away. Instead, some other internal force seemed to pull my arm forward, placing my hand gently in his.

His fingers were warm despite being deceptively chilly looking, and it made my entire arm tingle. Some part of me thought about saying no, stop, this was wrong. That I was being incredibly stupid. My mother would be sure I was kidnapped, and in a way, I was.

I had struck a deal with a faerie.

“You’ll need to close your eyes,” he murmured, pulling my hand to his mouth and trailing his lips over my knuckles.

I opened my mouth to respond, but everything around me and within me began to tremble. As if some magical force began to surround us as his lips left my skin. Without another thought, I did as he commanded and closed my eyes.