My memories of the night before were so vivid. It hadn’t been a dream.
Mate. My wolf had said. We’d caught the delicious scent of her, drifting to me on the forest breeze.
The joy I’d felt at knowing I was about to meet my mate. Nothing could have kept me from her!
I had run miles through that forest to get to where she was.
Then I saw her surrounded by rogue filth, and they were trying to take her from me!
The frenzy that awoke in me when my wolf realized our fated mate was in danger was lethal.
I had chased them away, which was better than they’d deserved. They had offered no real challenge to my wolf’s dominance.
I had found her. Claimed her. Mated her.
The wolf-sense had overwhelmed all others. Every fiber of my being demanded I mark her properly. Make her mine, forever.
I sunk my fangs into her neck when my wolf released enough pheromones to make sure she couldn’t feel the pain.
That mark should have been indelible. I should have been able to follow it for miles.
Now the bond connection dissipated as though it had never existed, and so had her intoxicating scent.
The worst thing was that we’d mated in the darkness, and I didn’t even know what she looked like yet.
My wolf had been pacing impatiently at the back of my mind. Restless and concerned.
I searched the area for a while longer, then went home and recalled my Beta, Tegan, to my office immediately.
I explained the situation and asked him to find my marked fated mate.
Tegan was surprised to find out I’d marked someone last night.
My Beta cleared his throat, “What will you do if you find her? This mating ball with Silvermoon is an unbreakable tradition.”
Knowing he was right only made his words more distasteful to my ears.
“I’ll just pick a woman who wants to be my Luna nominally, but I will only mark, want, and love my true mate. I will make that clear before anyone dares to volunteer.”
I would never honor an arranged marriage while the woman who was my fate mate remained a mystery.
Avery’s POV
A few days later I stood in front of my mirror. I pulled my nightshirt away from where my shoulder met my neck.
My bite mark was already healed.
That was remarkably fast.
I touched the smooth skin in disbelief.
There was now no visible indication of what had happened under the Mating Moon. I knew the mark was still there, but it was sealed inside and invisible to others.
If only I could reach out and find the man who had mated with me! However, since my wolf was dormant, I also could not sense my mate through the bond.
I had no way to find him, or communicate with him. I didn’t even know what he looked like!
Today was the Mating Ball where the Nightwolf Alpha would choose his mate.
I needed to find someone to accept me by the end of today, or my father would kill me to save face.
It felt like an impossible task.
A commotion rose from down below, and I lifted my head from my knees, listening.
“Alpha Gideon is about to arrive!” I heard my step-mother snap.
“Finish the preparations.” Zara’s tone was tense and fearful.
Alpha Gideon was not someone anyone would mess with.
I pressed my hand over my heart, feeling it thud against my palm. I could hear it clearly in the silence of my dusty, still, bedroom.
It was time for me to leave, but when I stood and tried to leave my room, the door lock clicked loudly.
From the other side, I heard Zara laughing.
“No one want you anyway. You might as well just wait for death, dear sister!”
Gideon’s POV
Being Alpha of Nightwolf pack means dealing with a large amount of bureaucratic bullshit.
Tradition was a venerable word that sometimes felt more like a venomous curse. I had long ago learned to face uncomfortable duties head-on.
Still, there were few obligations I despised more than this one to which I was headed.
It was the day of the mate selection.
I had done my best to distract myself from the distasteful task to come. Spread across the leather seat next to me were thick dossiers detailing the most recent reports on attacks throughout my territory. The ledger in my hands detailed my commands for troop movements, and where to place our scouts as the dangerous time of the dark moon approached.
Paperwork, unfortunately, was not enough to occupy my mind these days.
As my driver guided the sleek sedan through the dense woods, I watched swirls of mist rise above the trees. Thick bands of vapor arced up towards the distant sun and shattered into smaller puffs, drifting down the valley into which we were descending.
The motion reminded me of a woman, arching her back in pleasure off of the forest floor beneath me. She too, had shattered and disappeared.
“Still no sign of that girl from that night?” I snapped. It came out more harshly than I intended, and my Beta sitting across from me widened his eyes in surprise.
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