••• Maximillian’s POV •••
“Come, let’s drink more. Don't be too serious,” one Alpha said and asked the escorts to pour more drinks for us.
I was in a VIP room at a bar, talking business with some prominent and young Alphas, who were also playboys.
“Hey, why do you let Alpha Maximillian sit alone there?” another Alpha asked the escorts.
I narrowed my eyes at the arsehole, yet he was too drunk to notice my warning.
Not only he but all the other Alphas were also already drunk and flirting with some escorts.
An escort dared to approach me because of that damn arsehole’s words.
“Alpha Maximillian…” she purred as she sat next to me.
“Please leave me alone,” I said politely as her pungent perfume hit my nostrils, and I found it very repulsive.
It took every ounce of my being not to growl and shove her away as I wanted to give those Alphas who had ordered the escorts some face.
However, instead of leaving me alone, this escort became bolder and tried to lean against me relentlessly.
“Alpha Maximillian, I heard everyone said you are not a womanizer,” she kept purring and getting much too close to my liking, and still continued talking, “but I’m confident that I can pleasure you.”
And my patient snapped.
A low growl sounded from deep within my chest as I unleashed my Alpha aura to keep her away from me.
The escort fell to the fall in shock; her body trembled, and her face turned pale and terrified when she felt my terrifying aura.
“I-I’m sorry, Alpha Maximillian. Please don't kill me…” she begged me in a trembling voice as she finally realized she had crossed my patience line.
I glared at her for one last time before ignoring her and sipping my drink quietly.
The young Alphas all laughed as they looked at this scene.
“You are indeed the coldest and most ruthless Alpha in the land, Alpha Maximillian, only interested in one thing,” one of the young Alphas said, and the rest cherished like a group of small kids, “Running for the ‘Alpha King’ title!”
Then they laughed out loud again because they all had correctly guessed my only interest.
Ignoring their drunkenness, I thought about their words, and they were right.
The current King and Queen, King Hayden and Queen Charlotte, had been in power and ruling the werewolf community for a little more than twenty years.
The werewolf community and I admitted that they had done a great job during their reign so far, and everyone respected them.
The Alpha King and Queen had expressed many times that they wanted to abdicate their power and then run for election for the next Alpha King or Queen, but most of the werewolf community members still wanted them to continue to lead us.
It was only until recently that the Royal couple finally made a firm decision to hold an election, and many Alphas were interested in it, including me.
Finally, my chance to get the title was here.
As usual, I sat and drank alone, with none of the escorts dared to approach me again until the business social was over.
Once the gathering ended, all the Alphas left with the escorts, and I loosened my tie, leaned back against my seat, and let out a sigh.
Only a figure remained with me inside the room - Jaxon, my Beta and also my most loyal friend.
He poured me another glass of whiskey and proceeded to say, “Hey, Max. Your father has been complaining again.”
I didn't need to know what my father had been complaining to him about, as it was always about the same thing.
“He wants you to figure out how to find your mate before your twenty-sixth birthday,” he still continued to say like he wasn't tired of saying that damn sentence, for Goddess knew how many times already.
No matter how many times I’d heard it, it still upset me when the topic was always brought up again.
When I was born, an elder in my family who was good at divination told my parents I was born with a curse.
And the only way to break the curse was to find my mate, get married, and mark her before my twenty-sixth birthday or the curse would work, and I’d die by then.
I scoffed when I first heard of the prophecy, and still, until now.
I never believed in such stuff, but my family was very nervous about it and had been pushing me to find my mate and get married, especially now that I was twenty-five and soon-to-be twenty-six.
Find my mate?
Get married?
I was never interested in those things.
I had always been dominant and thought that having a mate was a burden.
I was reluctant to invest my love in a mate when I could use the energy and time to strengthen myself and my pack instead.
“Do you believe in that shit, Jaxon?” I asked my Beta, who had been by my side long enough to know about the curse and how worried my family was.
He seemed hesitant to answer.
I knew he didn't want to upset me, but being my most loyal friend, he needed to tell me the truth of what he thought.
“I’m just worried if the curse is real,” he finally answered my question.
“What if you can't find your mate and get married before your birthday this year, and then you’ll…” he let his words trail off as he was reluctant to say the word.
As my best friend, of course, he wouldn't want me to die, especially not because of some ridiculous curse.
I put down my glass, not wanting to discuss this matter anymore, but apparently, Jaxon had not finished pouring his thoughts.
“Your twenty-sixth birthday is coming…” he said.
“Yeah, so? I have to scour the world to find my mate?” I asked him in irritation.
“Not really,” he indirectly rejected my idea of traveling around the world to find that one she-wolf fated to me by the Moon Goddess.
“What do you have in mind?” I asked him with suspicion.
“We can find a she-wolf and let her have a contract marriage with you for a year,” he said.
I looked at him in disbelief.
“How much have you drunk?” I asked him.
He should have drunk more than enough to spew out such nonsense.
Jaxon rolled his eyes at me and explained, “Think about it. It should be the perfect solution to everything - your curse, your parents worrying and nagging you.”
“You are crazy! Once I get a she-wolf to marry me, I have to mark her,” I nearly yelled at him due to my frustration.
“Max, you guys can reject each other even after marking each other,” he said helplessly, like I didn't know that fact.
“Crazy…” I muttered and stood up, wanting to leave the room.
I pushed open the door to walk out when suddenly a person stumbled into my arms, and I didn't know why; I, who had always been averse to touching a she-wolf, this time supported her.
“I heard everything,” she mumbled.
She heard everything?
My aura turned cold, and I was about to reprimand her for eavesdropping on my secret conversation with my Beta when suddenly the she-wolf looked up, and I could see her face clearly.
It was a young female. She looked like she was drunk, with the scent of alcohol coming from her body and her cheeks flushed, but those eyes gazing at me were bright and clear.
For some reason, I felt my heart skipped a beat when I saw her beautiful face.
I took a deep breath to calm down as I didn't have the heart to scold this beautiful she-wolf.
Before I could speak, she opened her mouth and said, “I want to make a deal with you.”
I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her with a mix of amusement and anger. She was the first she-wolf who dared to try to make a deal with me after shamelessly eavesdropping on my conversation.
“A deal?” I asked her.
She nodded a few times, like a cute baby girl, and then began telling me what kind of deal she wanted to have.
“I can make you run for Alpha King, but I have a condition.”
My amusement toward her grew, and Jaxox, who had been silently watching, suddenly chuckled.
“You can make Alpha Maximillian run for Alpha King? Do you have what it takes to do it?”
“Of course I have,” she said confidently and stubbornly. “I’m the Alpha Princess. You can search for my information now if you don't believe me.”
I felt Jaxon taking his phone and begin searching for the Alpha Princess, and not a minute later, his voice sounded through our mindlink, “She is indeed the Alpha Princess. Princess Arabella Fallon.”
Once confirmed, I turned my attention toward the beautiful Alpha Princess again.
“Okay, Princess,” I said, still with amusement as I watched her blinking her eyes, trying to sober up.
“What do you want in exchange for making me the Alpha King?” I asked her.
“I want you to marry me!” she said smugly as she crossed her arms under her breasts, temporarily shifting my attention to what looked like two perfect tits before I had to shake my head to let go of whatever perverted thoughts were forming in my mind.
“You want me to marry you?” I asked slowly.
She nodded fervently as if to show me she was sure of her decision and wouldn't take no for an answer.
“You need a mate to break a curse, and I need a mate to get out of marrying an asshole. So let’s have a contract marriage between us!”