-Kira-
Growing up with Kai and Caterina Volkov as parents made me excited to one day meet my mate. They’re inseparable; my father worships the ground my mother walks on and to this day he would burn down cities if she asked it of him.
Being around their all-encompassing love and affection showed me what the Mate Bond should look and feel like. A standard on which I would base my own Bond. I couldn’t wait to be loved so fiercely; to have my mate look at me the way my father looks at my mother. I wanted the intoxicating feeling of being with my mate and knowing he feels the same.
But when the time came, to say that it disappointed me is an understatement.
I met my mate when I turned 18; spotted him from across the hall at the Convergence Ball and immediately felt the Mate Bond Sighting click. The pull was there, the utter need to submit to him blindly along with everything else.
However, the second he looked away, that feeling went along with his gaze. This confused me at first because I know how powerful the Mate Bond can be. So why was this so different? Why do I feel nothing when I look away, then total infatuation when our eyes meet?
Sometimes I think I’m the one at fault for already being secretly in love with someone else. Even as the Mate bond Sighting clicked and even as I stand here in a wedding dress, he still invades my thoughts. I feel for him what I should feel for my mate and it’s all so wrong.
“Are you going to stand there all day and not say anything, Blue?” His husky voice cuts through my thoughts and I breathe out a sigh. I slowly open my eyes, only to gasp at my own reflection in the mirror; surely that can’t be right?
The sweetheart neckline, off-the-shoulder sleeves and mermaid silhouette dress made from the finest silk and lace fit my body like a glove. I see my face in the mirror, but I do not recognize the grown woman staring back at me.
Two gentle hands are placed on my shoulders and my mother’s face peeks out from behind me. “You look beautiful, my love; I think this is the one,” she says in a voice filled with so much pride that I nearly burst out crying.
But I compose myself, then turn around to face the elephant in the room. Leaning back on the leather sofa, he regards me with a mischievous look in his permanent crimson eyes and shoots me a smirk that has my heart doing flips.
Tall, tanned, and tattooed; this man shouldn’t be the object of my affection. He shouldn’t invade my thoughts on a daily basis. I shouldn’t fantasize about his hands all over my body and in my hair as he claims me with a fierce kiss.
Arkyn Vega has the ability to turn my mind into a full-on, filthy porn movie. How the hell did I manage to fall for my best friend?
“Well, what do you think?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow, hoping that my thoughts don’t show on my face.
He leans forward, bracing his arms on his knees and lifting two fingers to his lips. “Well, it doesn’t look too terrible,” he teases and winks at me, sending a dull throb right to my core.
“Don’t listen to him!” My mother exclaims and walks up to Arkyn, slapping his shoulder playfully, but Arkyn merely takes her hand in his and kisses the back of it before turning his gaze back on me.
“You look exquisite, Blue; your mate will realize how lucky he is when he sees you walking towards him wearing this,” he says, causing my heart to constrict and I find myself holding my breath.
His eyes bore into mine and his smile wavers ever so slightly before his cell phone rings. This seems to snap him out of whatever was running through his mind and he clears his throat. “It’s my father, I have to take it,” he says when he pulls his phone out, then walks out of the bridal fitting room.
I brought him here to see if he would look at me differently in a wedding dress, but he still only saw me as Blue; the nickname he gave me when we first met. He wouldn’t stop calling me that because apparently, my eyes were the bluest he’d ever seen, and it just stuck.
Arkyn will only ever see me as a sister, and it breaks my heart even though it shouldn’t.
When he leaves, it feels like I can breathe again. I walk over to the sofa and sit down. My mother joins me soon after.
“Still?” she asks without the need to elaborate, and I nod.
“It hasn’t left even when I met Adryan; in fact, it feels even more potent now,” I say, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. “Did I mess with our Bond because I am in love with Arkyn?”
My mother takes my hand and sighs. “I don’t think it’s love that you feel for Arkyn, Kira. You two have been in one another’s lives since you were six years old. There’s bound to be an attraction. Try not to think about it too much, okay? The Goddess chose your mate for a reason, she knows you’ll be happier with Adryan. Trust in her choice, my love.”
The same repeated line and I give her the same old reassuring smile. I should trust in the Goddess’ choice, especially since Adryan is of old enemy blood. Everyone saw this as the Goddess wanting our packs to live in peace, so I have a lot sitting on my shoulders.
But I know what I am feeling, and when I look at Arkyn, it is not simply brotherly love. It has bothered me to no end and I can’t speak with my mother about this since she fiercely believes in the Goddess’ choices. She would since she is the reincarnation of the Moon Goddess herself.
I can’t help but wonder if the Goddess made a mistake.
-Arkyn-I step out of the bridal shop, and the smile immediately drops from my face. Walking along further, I turn into an alleyway and breathe out a sigh before punching the wall so hard that the concrete cracks.Why the fuck did Kira have to drag me into this? I only have a few hours left in New York before I have to return home, and she brings me here without telling me about it first?I would have been fine keeping my distance after the wedding, but now she’s rubbing the fact that she has a mate in my face. Surely she must see the way I look at her? Surely she must feel the longing in my scent whenever we’re together? Not only that, but she knows how much I fucking loathe Adryan Helseth.I know I shouldn’t be thinking about her this way. She’s my best friend and already fated to be with someone else. But I can’t help it; I want Kira Volkova. However, if today has proven anything, it’s that my little Blue isn’t as fucking innocent as she pretends to be.My cell phone rings again an
-Kira-My heart is sitting in my throat. I don’t recognize the woman staring at me in the mirror; the grown-up woman who will no longer depend on her Pappa for protection. The adult who will become Luna to another Alpha in a few hours' time.My love for dancing will be a forgotten memory, my stuffed toy collection will be donated and my bedroom will be cleaned out. Kira Volkova, the Alpha Heir, will fall away, and Kira Helseth will take her place.I didn’t want a big wedding. I wanted the Volkov Mating Ceremony, but Adryan refused me. He said that I am to take his customs and forget about my own; it's the only reason I’m standing here being dolled up.The women who have tended to me and turned me into this stunning bride I don’t recognize, all leave the room and I see my mother walking up behind me. Caterina Volkova - the woman all the girls in our pack aspire to be. She was always my rock; the one person I could depend on through everything, and now she’s looking at me with tears ru
-Kira-The silence between us is deafening. We’re simply staring at each other, with neither of us knowing what to say - what just happened should not have happened. Arkyn should not have been the one to steal my first kiss. And yet… everything felt so right when he did.“Kira? Are you in there, Printsessa?” my father’s voice sounds from the door again, and this seems to snap both of us out of whatever spell we were under. Arkyn blinks and walks to the door, opening it and smiling at my father. “Oh, Arkyn! I didn’t know you were here, son. Do you need a moment longer with Kira?” my father asks, oblivious to the fact that we just did the unthinkable.“No, I think we’ve said all that needed to be said for now,” he says, then turns to me and briefly makes eye contact. “I’ll see you inside, Blue. There’s… something we need to discuss, but it can wait.”“See… you,” I trail off when he walks out without waiting for my answer. He closes the door behind him, and I have no time to mull over w
-Kira- I pride myself in not allowing the smile to waver on my lips when he mentions Arkyn’s name. He wants me to be with Arkyn? When did he decide this?“Pappa, Arkyn is my best friend!”He raises his eyebrow and smirks. “Hm, that’s not what I see when you two are together but let me keep quiet before I get into trouble with your mother.”Just then the door opens and my father’s smirk grows when my mother walks in with a look of disapproval on her face. “Kai, we’ve spoken about this-”“I know, little wolf, and I will keep my thoughts to myself from now on,” he says. Something tells me they’ve spoken about this topic many times before and I don’t know how I feel about that. Did my father know how I felt about Arkyn? Could he see the way Arkyn felt about me even though I was oblivious to it up until a few minutes ago?I can’t ask him more about this, because my mother walks over to me then and tuts when she sees my ruined make-up.“Oh, Kai, I told you not to make her cry!” she exclai
-Arkyn-I can still feel Kira’s lips on mine even as I kiss Jade’s. I can still feel her hands on my back, pulling at my clothing even as another man claims her as his. And my heart still fucking beats to the sound of hers.She should have been mine. That smile full of love should be directed at me, not fucking Helseth. She should belong to me. She should be saying those vows to me! Nothing about this feels right at all, nothing at all!Her kiss proved it. If she didn’t feel the same way about me, she would have pushed me away. But she kissed me back with the same vigor; she returned my desperation with her own.And yet her expression does not change when I introduce Jade as my fiancee; her smile doesn’t even waver slightly knowing that this woman is to be my Luna Bride.“It’s lovely to meet you, Jade,” she says in that sing-song voice I adore. “You’re absolutely stunning!”Jade blushes and looks down. “Thank you, but you’re the stunning one! Congratulations, it was a beautiful weddin
-Kira-They decorated the Hall of the Five in black, red, and gold. The Helseth family wanted to be the ones to fund the reception, while my family funded everything else. I must say that they’ve outdone themselves; a beautiful reception for a powerful wedding. This is what every bride dreams of… except I feel like I’m sitting with the wrong groom.I shouldn’t be looking their way, but my eyes keep on falling on them. Arkyn’s refusal to look at me all evening causes my heart to beat too fast for me to catch up with it. He’s the one who kissed me with his fiancee waiting for him, so why is he mad at me? What’s with the anger when he has someone else?This will all be over soon since our paths will go in different directions after today; I’ll be moving to Norway and he’ll be taking over as Alpha with a Luna in tow. Whatever happened in my bridal chamber should not have happened, no matter how right it felt.The added anxiety causes me to feel lightheaded and makes me forget Adryan is ri
-Arkyn-Kira is quiet as we step onto my father’s waiting private jet. She’s holding on to her cousin, Luka, while he whispers soothing words to her. Luka is like a spitting image of Beta Konstantin, just with the green eyes of his mother. I know they’ve always been close, closer than she and I could ever be. But I can’t help but think that it should be me comforting her… even if she wants nothing to do with me right now.She’ll resent me for taking her away, but her father has left her in my care. There is no way I would pass up on a request from Alpha Kai himself, not when it comes to her. I have informed my father of what happened at the Hall of the Five; how the Helseths have yet again waged war on the Volkov pack. Erik used his son’s bond to Kira and it worked, nearly everyone was incapacitated when we left. There’s an uneasy quiet that settles over everyone; no one speaks or looks at each other. Elijah is sitting next to Jade and the two still refuse to acknowledge one another
-Kira-Today I woke up with an empty feeling right in the middle of my chest, it gnawed at my heart and left me breathless. Now as I watch my wedding dress disappear in a breath of flames, that emptiness has spread over my entire body.I feel numb, but I refuse to shed another tear./“We’ll be okay, Kira,”/ Yailyn, my wolf says with her ears flattened against her head. /“We’ll find a way back to our family.”/I sigh. /“I hope so. We’ll just have to be strong through this. We have good allies here.”/Luka has his arms wrapped protectively around me, but he’s not grieving like I am. He’s seething. After years of Luka not having a man to call his father, my uncle finally gave up on his search for his daughter, Kaia. Uncle Konstantin, aunt Lily, and Luka started getting closer, their bond repairing day by day. Until last night when we were both forced to flee our home. My father wanted us to run and not fight because he knew the hunters would overpower us. He knew he could trust the Vega