The Alpha's Courtship (Werewolf Romance) (Ilie and Soleil Book 1) by Marian Tee Page A

ablaze with lights. Everyone who was anyone had either thrown a ball or was attending one, and these were expected to last until dawn, much to the chagrin of the aristocrats’ sleepy and overworked coachmen.
    Laughter and music played by the orchestra streamed out of the balconies, entertaining the peasants below. As they had no means to have parties themselves, they had taken to hanging outside the grandest mansions, doing their best to catch a glimpse of the well-dressed couples waltzing inside.
    Past the main neighborhoods of Asphodel, the sound of gaiety faded, and the streets became emptier and narrower. At the edge of the city was an abandoned keep, its crumbling roofs crowned by low, stormy clouds and its grounds seemingly shrouded in a mysterious fog.
    Locals thought it haunted, and so it was…as of ten minutes ago.
    In the keep’s basement, a squad of less than twenty of the city’s human defenders had just finished barricading the main doors of the dungeons, thus trapping the imps that they had seen crawling out of a hellhole.
    But the danger wasn’t over, and no one knew this better than Soleil Orpheline, the squad leader.
    Not wanting her soldiers to witness her disquiet, she turned her back on her soldiers and faced the doors of the dungeon once more.
    Let’s consider the facts, she told herself.
    Tonight was supposed to be a simple cleanup operation, meant to teach rookies about getting rid of pranks left by otherworlders. They ranged from a witch’s spell for diarrhea to a wizard’s one-day curse of selfie madness, in which a human being would find himself addicted to taking as much selfies as a celebrity. They were frequently irritating, moderately harmful at times, but that was it.
    The mission wasn’t supposed to put her recruits’ lives in danger.
    And yet here they were, about to go against the forces of Hell, literally.
    Granted, imps were the lowest forms of demons, with sub-zero IQ. But they were still demons and thus inhumanly strong and, worse, soulless.
    Another loud, powerful thud hit the basement’s walls, the sound underscoring the peril they were in. It had no effect on Soleil, but the squeak of terror from one of her rookies made her mentally flinch.
    Dear God, I hate asking You for anything, but I think I’m going to need a miracle right now.
    The imps were head-butting the doors, literally throwing their lives against it. At the rate they were going, she would have less than three minutes before confrontation, and that was putting it lightly.
    Panic clawed at Soleil’s throat, but her concerns were all for her team. The youngest of her squad was just fifteen years old – the same age she and the others had been when they first had their field assignment. Then, they had only gone against possessed humans, and they had still come back bloodied and bruised.
    But kids pitted against imps?
    It would be a massacre, and their blood would be on Soleil’s hands.
    Another thud resounded through the basement, running through the walls of the keep, and a rookie cried out, “I don’t think the doors are going to hold that much longer.”
    She turned to her squad immediately, saying, “It’s okay.” Soleil managed to keep her voice calm even as whips of her terror flayed her body. She was ready to die, had been so for quite some time. But what she would never be ready for, never take lying down, was letting her team die without a fight.
    She reached into her pocket, digging out her Bluetooth earpieces, and only sheer experience enabled Soleil to keep her hands from shaking as she plugged her ears. The shock of her young soldiers was palpable, and one of them blurted out, “Is s-she doing what I think she’s doing?”
    When Soleil didn’t seem to notice them, the rookies turned in unison to the slim, brown-eyed redhead standing next to their commander.
    Seeing all eyes on her, Aurora deadpanned, “Nope. She’s just cleaning her ears.”
    The rookies didn’t laugh at all.
    Right. As