Hello people! This is my first submission. This chapter is an opener and there is not any sex, but rest assured that every other chapter in this series will have enough to make up for it. Thank you for your time! Constructive critisism is welcome.
-Glory
Chapter 1: Duty
Desperate times called for desperate measures, so the saying goes. And those measures, currently, were to be brought by Alexi Ryder, future Alpha of his pack.
He sat heavily on the crimson couch in his parent's living room, waiting to be called by them to do his duty. The couch was too low for him. He was over six feet tall, six four when he was last measured, but his father was a mere five seven and the choices in furniture reflected that.
"Alexi?" a sweet voice asked from the doorway. He turned and there she was. Arlimas Carter. His future mate. The sunlight streaming in behind her seemed to linger and caress her long white-blonde hair and her alabaster skin that simply wouldn't tan. Her face had an innocent sort of loveliness; slender pink lips, huge ice-blue eyes, a delicate, bladed nose. The sight of her made him ache with want.
"Arli! Hey, come in... why are you here?" he asked, lighting up. He stood and moved to take her in his arms, but she stepped back.
"I heard..." she hesitated, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment. "You're to be bonded. To a demon."
His easy smile faded as he realized her hurt, and he rushed to explain. "It's only temporary. Look,the demons broke the Covenant, Arli. This is the only way we have left. We can't risk an all-out war. There's only seventeen of us and over sixty of them."
"Sixty?" Arli's eyes widened. "I didn't know their population had grown quite so much."
"Yeah. So... we got the king's daughter. And if I'm bonded to her, in her head, well. She can't run. And maybe I can figure out a way to stop them. I'm sorry, Arli. We'll reverse the bond once it's over and you and I will be just fine." he said reassuringly, attempting once more to take her into his arms. She pressed her cheek against his chest and looked up at him, so beautiful and fragile that he couldn't believe she'd be his someday soon.
Assuming they survived this.
The Covenant had been created between the Ryder pack and the Succubi hoard over two hundred years ago, when Richfield Florida was newly settled. It stated that neither the pack or the hoard would grow beyond fifty members, because the local population couldn't sustain it. Alexi knew that even though they were demons, a rather... detestable bunch, they had upheld it respectably. Until now. A human had died the week prior because the Succubi were overfeeding. Meetings and talk over the last months had proven useless, and with war being a pack suicide, this was all they had left unless they were willing to move and let more people die.
