Contractually Yours Alpha (Riley)

Chapter Four

ISABELLA'S POV

For the next few days, I watched him. Thane never spoke a word to me, and I wonder if he had forgotten everything because I hadn't.

I didn't exactly lie to the Luna, but I wasn't telling the truth either. I did remember a part of my life. A part where 'He' was my everything. SOME YEARS AGO...

I had found an abandoned house, right in the middle of the woods. It was the perfect place. Here I wouldn't be encroaching on any packlands; no one would ever be able to find me.

I was a runaway wolf. I had left home one day and never returned; my parents might believe that I died; I didn't think they would cry over my death. To them, I was already dead. I had an illness, one we all knew would kill me in the end, and maybe that's why I ran away. I wanted to live life to the fullest with the little time I had left.

anyone,

I've always loved nature, so it was no shocker that I ended up in a house surrounded by trees and nature's wildest animals. I wasn't alone; no, I never really had so I never knew what the feeling was like, but everything changed the moment I perceived the most beautiful scent I had ever inhaled my whole life.

I knew what this was; I had read about it in the books. I was always a sucker for romance books, and maybe because I believed I would never experience that in my very short life. I had already made a decision many years ago. I knew I was going to die, so there was no need to put someone in the misery that follows after one loses

his mate.

That scent would lead me to him-my mate Every instinct in me told me to move towards it. I was going to be happy, and for the first time in my life, I wanted it so badly. It took everything in me to turn in the opposite direction and run.

That should have been the end; he should have gone and never came back, but that wasn't the case. He returned every single day, waiting; he stayed for hours, and all those times, I stayed away.

I never saw his face, but I spent my night imagining what he would look like, and the next day, when he came, I made a very stupid move. I followed the scent, and

finally... I saw him.

My imagination did him no justice. None at all. He was the most handsome man I

Chapter Four

had ever seen; he had brown hair and beautiful amber eyes. I couldn't move; it's like my whole world came to a stop and it was just the both of us. I was well hidden, but somehow he managed to spot me. His gaze on me snapped me out of my trance, and I ran, just as I always did, but this time he followed.

When I thought I had outrun him, I felt a firm grip around my waist; instinctively, I struggled, but he was stronger than me.

11

"I won't hurt you."

"Let me go!" I cried out, and he did.

"Your voice..." he began. "It's beautiful."

"Stay away from me." I said, but before I could try running again, he caught me once

more.

"Don't you feel it?" he questioned.

"Feel what?"

I did feel it; his touch alone was electrifying, igniting feelings in me that I had never thought I could have.

"You are my mate." He says, confident.

"No, I am not" I insisted.

""You don't have to lie."

"I am not lying; I don't know you, and you are hurting me; let go!"

He finally did let go. "What's your name?" he asked, and I looked him in the eye. I could tell from his aura that he carried Alpha blood in him, the more reason I should stay away from him, and yet I heard myself speak up. "Bella." With that, I ran; this time he didn't follow.