The Alpha Thief Stole the Wrong Man - Chapter 1

By the time I cracked the first security door, a fine sweat had broken out at my temples.

The underground vault belonging to the Shens, the richest family around, had one hell of a security system.

My fingers had barely touched the second combination dial when a gun pressed into my lower back.

A low, hard male voice sounded behind me. “Don’t move.”

Every hair on my body stood on end.

I’d timed this precisely for the gap between guard shifts. Where the hell had he come from?

The muzzle dug in a little farther.

His voice held no warmth.

“Turn around.”

I turned slowly, switching expressions as I went.

By the time I looked up, my lashes were trembling, my face a picture of pitiful innocence.

“S-sorry. I took a wrong turn…”

“You accidentally disabled the surveillance ahead of time, accidentally cracked the door code, and then happened to take a wrong turn to the vault on the third basement level?”

My scalp prickled.

Fuck. This one was trouble.

In the dim light of the wall lamps, I quickly sized him up.

Black tactical vest, cargo pants, a tall, imposing build. Every line of muscle held the explosive power of someone who’d survived by the blade.

“Are you one of the Shens’ bodyguards?” I ventured.

He narrowed his eyes without answering.

After studying my face for a moment, he moved his finger off the trigger.

That gave me something to work with.

Before tonight’s job, I’d taken a precaution: a concentrated spray of artificial pheromones on the back of my neck, mimicking an omega in heat.

No alpha could resist it.

If there hadn’t been something wrong with my own gland, the smell probably would have gone straight to my head too, leaving nothing but an alpha’s most primitive instincts.

I tipped my face up, let a thin sheen of tears mist my eyes, and softened my voice to a breath.

“I think… I’m going into heat…”

He didn’t react.

He only looked at me with a slight frown.

Was I not close enough?

I steeled myself and leaned straight into him. My fingertips slid over his taut abs as I breathed into his ear.

“It hurts… Help me…”

At last, his breathing grew heavier for a beat.

The next second, the gun moved away.

He put it away, wrapped an arm around my waist, and half supported, half carried me out.

“Somewhere else.”

He took me to a separate house on the Shen estate.

The place was deserted. I didn’t see a single servant.

It looked like the bodyguards’ quarters.

We’d barely entered the room before hot breath pressed close from behind.

The tips of his teeth touched the skin at my nape, brushing it ever so lightly.

“Do you need a temporary mark?”

I jolted, goose bumps rising all over.

As an alpha, I’d never had anyone touch my gland like that.

Worse, the layer of omega pheromones sprayed on my neck wasn’t going to survive all that sniffing and rubbing.

Much more of this and my own alpha pheromones would leak out.

I made a snap decision.

Before he could notice anything wrong, I turned, hooked my arms around his neck, and kissed him hard.

He paused for a split second, then returned it even more fiercely.

While we were locked in the kiss, I slipped my fingers toward my trouser pocket.

There was a tactical knife hidden inside.

Gone.

I felt around again in disbelief.

Still nothing.

At some point, a hand had appeared beside us. The knife dangled from his fingers as he waved it in front of my eyes.

I froze.

He released me and stepped half a pace back, sounding intrigued.

“An omega carrying something this dangerous?”

“Self-defense,” I said stiffly.

He tossed the knife onto the table.

Then he stroked my face, wiping the moisture from the corner of my mouth.

“Wandering around in heat, with a face like that.”

“You would need protection.”

Before I could work out what he meant, he scooped me up and threw me onto the bed.

My back sank into the soft mattress. Now I was panicking.

Was he kidding?

I was an alpha.

How could I let another alpha pin me underneath him?

I hurriedly planted a hand on his chest.

“Wait, I’m…”

He stopped.

Looking down at me, he raised an eyebrow.

“You’re what?”

I opened my mouth to say I was an alpha.

But coming clean now would be asking to die.

He’d disarmed me with one hand. If we actually fought, I had no chance.

And if he handed me over to the Shens, their patriarch’s methods would make my fate far worse.

I gritted my teeth and forced the words in a different direction.

“It’s… my first time.”

A second of silence.

Then an amused chuckle came from above me.

“What a coincidence. Mine too.”

“If I’m a little rough…”

“Bear with me.”