Vyra

Never in my wildest nightmares, did I expect to be mated to someone who saw my existence as an inconvenience.

That much was clear, as the man ignored me entirely as we walked through the sleeping forest. The full moon kept its careful eyes on us from above, its silvery light fighting the shadows stretched beneath tree branches.

Snow crunched loudly underneath my feet. I felt like a clumsy fawn compared to the Alpha, who barely made a sound on the cold night.

He was a creature of the forest, as the light moved with the sinew of his wide shoulders. His breath was smoke, heated against the night air. He was more silent than someone living should be.

I, on the other hand, was out of my element.

My body was not cold, and that was concerning considering my clothing was nearly ripped to shreds and large portions were uncovered. My teeth were chattering for another reason.

I couldn't just ask the half-naked Alpha where we were going, and what he was going to do with me. I would not be worth a response.

I kick my own teeth in for asking such a stupid question. It is not like he would say, "We are just taking a quiet stroll to the forest before I finish what my father started and end your bloodline."

I held my midsection out of habit, attempting to make myself smaller. I found myself wishing I could melt and crystallize into something else, just like the flakes under my feet.

If I had been born into a different family-

The thought is a guilty one, and I cannot take it back. My throat feels sticky with certainty. I try to hold my emotions back, but I can't help but pity myself.

I am twenty-three years old, and I live with a Mistress and two other young adults in a creaky shack. I eat the scraps left over by the pack.

I sew and weave elaborate clothes for others to wear, while I am fitted with burlap and thin cloth. My days are filled with watching others live and I sit idly by, unable to join in.

I have only felt another's touch when the only male outcast got bored, and I felt like shedding the weight of my solitude for a night. I have no family, no money, no true life, and not a single drop of freedom.

I lift my head, spotting a large, dark cabin close ahead, and we are further from the Pack settlement than I thought. Hidden by a large amount of trees and secluded enough that no one would hear us. I could barely make out the details, as my tears began to fall despite my resistance.

The Alpha does not acknowledge me, instead, he quickened his pace. Rushing to get to the front door of the cabin.

As I approach, I see that it is raised slightly from the ground with posts to lift it from the cold ground. The wood is pitch black and strong and the front door is intricately carved with wooden creatures.

The tall man lifts a large hand and places his palm on the head of a wolf, and I watch in quiet fascination as it begins to turn. There is a hollow sound as the door clicks and opens for us.

The Alpha steps into the house, slowly. He turns and waits. Leaning on the door frame and holding his body half into the night air like it was a temperate spring evening. He taps his foot gently, and I still refuse to meet his eyes, trying to take a peek inside the cabin.

If I move like a ghost, he will forget that I exist. Just like before.

"Are you going to stand outside all night?"

The deep timbre of his voice claws its way up my spine, unexpectedly. My breath comes out in swift pants, a misty cloud in front of me.

I do not tell him what I am thinking.

That I would rather take my chances with whatever hunters in the forest have their eyes on me than go inside.

When I look up and meet molten silver beneath slitted eyes and a tense body, I know that a hunter has already claimed me as his prey.

"Good choice." The Alpha comments sharply, as I take my first step into the dark cabin. I feel his presence close to me, as he refuses to move from the door frame as I make my way inside.

My breath catches in my throat as he leans past me to close the door. I catch his overwhelming scent, a mixture of frost and spice. Both cold and warm, light and dark, and everything that I should hate but I do not have the strength left to. It only makes my stomach plummet further as we plunge into darkness, even when he moves away from me.

"Follow me." He commands icily.

I almost protest, telling him I can't see. But it only took seconds for my eyes to adjust, detailing the general shapes that I needed to avoid as we walked to the end of the empty hall. The wolf hidden within must take over my sight now too.

I am close behind him as he slides open another door, and gestures for me to walk in. I stand, feeling self-conscious as he gently glides the door back in place.

My eyes close involuntarily as he walks past me. I hear several cracking sounds, and then the room fills with a vibrant golden light. I am left standing numbly in the middle of the room, the fire burning the one side of my body. I quickly take in that we are in some sort of living space, not a bedroom.

There is the fireplace in the back, several sofas, plush rugs, and fine treasures settled around the room. Weapons made of gold, silver statues of animals, and jewels lined the deep shelves.

The Alpha ruffles through a large chest in the corner, seconds later throwing a large fur at me. I am slow to grab it, the softness of it whipping my face. I wrap it around my shoulders tentatively, knowing it will make no difference if I am defiant at the bitter end.

He finally lifts himself and puts a green wool sweater over his head, covering his bare midsection. I feel my body release some tension as he moves away from the chest and settles across from me.

He leaned back on one of the sofas, so tall that his legs stretched out still nearly met me. He crossed his arms, large muscles still visible.

When his silver eyes clashed with my coal-black irises, I felt my chest shatter. My skin felt as it had when the mating ritual first started. Like a thousand threads were pulling at my flesh, tying me to him. A constant pulse and thrum that made me yearn to run.

To get closer.

The silence is killing me. All he does is watch, gathering more of me than I am willing to give. Probably wondering how and when is the best time to strike. Or maybe he will take his time.

I feel faint the more he looks at me. Like his eyes are burning through me. I am too hot, between the fire, his eyes, and his body which seemed to emit more scorching embers. I cannot stand it.

My intake of breath is loud and sharp, and still, he shows no reaction. My voice shakes as I address him directly for the first time, in turn risking my life to speak, "Alpha Umbra-"

"I go by Seren, always." The Alpha interrupted. His eyes narrowed in genuine confusion, "You do not know this simple ask of your Alpha?"

"No." I am sure he is mocking me. I am an outcast. I know little of the other matters.

The Alpha's smile glinted in the firelight as he let out a quiet scoff towards me, and my heart shuddered at the expression. I am again forced to confront his brutal beauty as he renounces me entirely, "Fate truly is cruel for binding you to me."

All I can do is swallow harshly, as he sends his dangerous smile my way, all canines and glory. If he never hated me before, he hates me now. For taking away his chance to be mated with a woman he would desire, his equal.

"How long have you been planning this?" he asked softly, as brisk as the wind. The grip he has on the edge of the sofa tightens, and I imagine that his restraint won't last.

That is what all of this is. The blanket, the comfort of the flame, and his deep voice softened to a buttery lull. He wants answers first before he kills me. I have none.

"I do not know what you're talking about."

The Alpha loses his feigned gentle act. His face becomes stone as he takes my lack of speaking as disobeying his orders. "You don't? I was there that day. It was one of my first memories, watching you as a newborn crying under the moon. Pitiful and still made of flesh, without even a hint of fur or fangs." My body jolts from his words, and the disgust in his tone.

His eyes graze upon my face, he recounts memories I can't fathom, "Even when my father cut his knife just above your heart, just enough to invoke your instincts. I saw you." The man shook his head, licking his lips before he looked up at me once again, "So how long have you been hiding this?"

My hand finds its way to the scar his father left. I immediately begin to defend myself with the truth, "I swear not to know that I could change, I still don't understand what is happening please—"

"Shift. We call it shifting."

"I wouldn't know, and I don't want to 'shift' ever again."

"It is only painful the first couple of times. But I think you already know that."

"I don't!" I cry out, immediately regretting yelling at the Alpha. In all twenty-three years of my life, I had never raised my voice. I do not know what was making me act so out of order when my obedience mattered most.

The Alpha lifted a brow, his expression igniting. He did not reprimand me; he did not have to. He lifted himself from his resting place, his body swallowing more light as he stood to his full height. I was forced to look up as he stepped closer.

"Why would I believe a word you say, daughter of a traitor. Do you really think that I am a fool? That I should believe it is merely a coincidence you are my mate? After all of these years, you finally shift, on one of our most sacred days, in front of an entire crowd. You are then given the blessing of Lunae, which challenges my position in the pack. You want me to believe that this was none of your doing? Not a plan to get back what was taken from you in your father's name? To earn back your family's prestige, your title, your name, and your clan. Should I go on?"

My panic started to strangle me. It all sounded ridiculous, even though I knew I was not at fault. How could I ever make him understand?

"I never knew them! I have never stepped outside of my station. I am grateful for the life I have been so graciously given by your late father when I could have been killed like the rest of my Clan. This is unnatural, and I am just as disturbed as you are by all of this." My cheeks heated as I raised my voice once again at the Alpha.

I lifted a hand to my face, hoping its iciness would calm me down. I felt like I was losing control of myself now that danger held me within its claw.

"Oh, I doubt that." He said it with a smirk as if I was missing some joke. He took a step closer to me, and even with space between us, I felt captured. "Which part? The shift, or that I am your mate? It must make you sick."

I should feel sick that he was my Fated Mate. I should be repulsed that I could somehow be made for the man whose legacy depended on my family's murder.

"It does not matter, because it won't last long," I say without any fight left in me.

The Alpha does not correct me, instead, he stares through me. Trying to sort through the thoughts I will not say aloud, "So you know that we are meant to fight to the death?"

I knew very little. But I knew that much. It did not matter that we were mates, or that I had been granted protection as an outcast.

If the goddess of the moon blessed another Lycan with the ability to shift without the light of the moon, they became an Alpha heir. If there was a current Alpha already in place and alive, then a battle would take place between the two to prove who was the rightful ruler of the pack.

If the heir and the current Alpha refused to fight, the goddess Lunae herself would choose her victor. In that circumstance, one opponent would be killed as a sacrifice to the moon for refusing to shed blood.

There was no way out of this for me, not alive.