2.

NALANI

“Lani”, Esme’s timid voice invaded my thoughts as she peeked her head through the bedroom. “Can I come in?" She asked carefully."

I sat up with a tired sigh and rubbed my eyes. They were dried and puffy from crying all night. “Yes,” I croaked, my voice raspy from all the crying I did at night.

I couldn’t sleep no matter how hard I tried. I had avoided my parents the entire day. I didn’t want to see them unless they wanted to tell me that I didn’t need to get married to Samael anymore.

Esme slipped inside, her dark curls bouncing. She took one look at me curled on the window frame, and her face crumpled.

“Lani,” she crossed the room and dropped beside me, pulling me into her arms. “You look like hell.”

“I feel worse,” I muttered into her shoulders, fighting the urge to cry again. My face felt swollen already.

She rubbed slow circles on my back. “I know this feels like the end of the world, but maybe you should be positive. What if life in the Blackthorn pack doesn’t end up as bad as you imagine?” she whispered. “They are a powerful pack. Richer than us as well. They have everything we don’t have. You might… I don’t know, find something there. Maybe the freedom you’ve always wanted.”

“Don’t.” I pulled back, wiping my face with the back of my hand. “Don’t try to sell me on it, Es. There’s no place for me in his life.”

Esme frowned. “What do you mean?”

I stared at the floorboards. “He already had a fated mate, but she died. They said he went feral after that. He slaughtered all the wolves responsible and never looked back,” I told her. “He isn’t looking for a mate, Esme. What kind of life could possibly wait for me with a man like that?”

Esme opened her mouth to argue, but words failed her. She knew I was right. I leaned back against the wall, wrapping my arms around my knees. “He won’t want me. And I don’t want him. There is no happiness waiting for me. All those years I spent dreaming of a better future have been reduced to fantasies.” I choked on my words.

“Alpha Samael is here.” A voice practically screamed through the pack’s mind link.

My stomach lurched, and it felt like I wanted to throw up. No. It was too soon. I wasn’t ready.

Esme’s eyes went wide. “He’s here. Already.”

I couldn’t move, even as she grabbed my wrist to pull me up. “I can’t,” I gasped.

Esme’s eyes filled with pity, and I looked away. “You can’t hide in here forever.”

“I could try.”

“Get down here, Nalani.” My father ordered through the mind link. “Don’t make me come there to get you myself.”

My hands clenched at my sides, and I wanted nothing more than to curse at him, but he had blocked the mind link, leaving me seething in anger and nerves.

“Come on, Lani,” Esme said softer this time, and I let her pull me to my feet.

We went down the stairs and out the double doors to the main courtyard. The entire pack had already gathered.

My parents were already at the entrance when we got there. Mom wanted to come to me, but Dad gave her a warning look, and she remained by her side, but her eyes were pleading me to forgive them.

I looked away. I couldn’t. At least not yet. I knew I had to do it for the pack, but it didn’t mean I had to be happy about it.

Our pack, the Crescent pack, was a small pack with barely three hundred people. It was why we were an easy target for the rogues and why Dad was desperate to seek help from the Bloodthorn pack.

My heart lodged itself in my throat as we watched the Bloodthorn riders storm through the borders of the pack in enormous direwolves.

Massive midnight-black beasts larger than any wolf I had ever seen. Their eyes glowed amber in the daylight, and their muscles rippled under sleek fur as they padded towards the pack house in perfect unison.

I couldn’t move. Fear rippled every inch of my being as I watched them.

I’d hear stories of how Samael was able to tame the ancient direwolves that still roamed the deepest wilds and rode them like a dark warlord for battles after he lost his mates, but I didn’t believe it. None of us in our pack did because we had never seen them, and it was unheard of for a werewolf to ride a direwolf.

But they weren’t just rumours.

At the centre of the formation rode the biggest of them all. Samael Calgrave.

He swung down from his mount with lethal grace. Even from across the courtyard, his presence was suffocating, and some of my pack members bared their necks in submission.

He was taller than I had imagined, towering over six feet. He was broad-shouldered, dressed in black with tattoos peeking from the neck of his clothes down to his arms. His hair was black and slightly tousled, and his eyes…

They were dark grey, almost black, and they swept through the crowd like a predator that could see through your deepest weakness.

Esme sucked in a breath beside me. “Goddess… he’s magnificent.”

“Esme,” I snapped, glaring at her, but she only gave me a sheepish smile.

“I know it’s not the time, but I couldn’t help it.” Then she turned to Samael, who had started to approach us. “Look at him, Lani. That is an Alpha.”

I wanted to snap at her again, but my tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth as he approached alone while the others remained on their beasts.

He ignored my father and walked straight to me.

“This is her?” He asked my father without facing him, his eyes skimming my face, and he stopped when his gaze locked on mine, surprise flashing in his eyes for a brief second before it disappeared.

It was the same reaction I got whenever anyone saw my eyes. Some were dramatic, while others were mild like his.

I was born with heterochromic eyes, which was very rare in my world. One amber and one icy blue. Growing up, it was one of my insecurities, and I hated them because they were the reason my parents kept me locked up. This and…

“This is Nalani.” Father stepped forward with a wide grin. “She has never been mated or bred. She will make a fine Luna for you, I promise.”

Disgust curled around my abdomen at his words, but before I could react, Samael reached up and gripped my chin, forcing my eyes to remain on him.

For some strange reason, my wolf stirred.

I refused to show him my fear, so I kept my expression blank.

His eyes flashed, and he leaned down without warning, sniffing my neck like there was something that shouldn’t be there.

A low growl rippled through him as he stepped back, like I burnt him. His hand flexed like he wanted to reach out again, but he clenched his fingers instead.

His head snapped towards a man still sitting on his direwolf. They shared a silent discussion, and the man’s eyes snapped to mine, wide with surprise.

“Lani, what is happening?” Esme’s small voice crept inside my head. “Did something go wrong?”

I didn’t know. The look on his face was so terrifying that I took two steps backwards away from him.

“Alpha Samael,” Father stepped forward, glancing between the both of us. “Did something upset you?”

Something dark flashed in his eyes as he stared at me. There was something bitter in his eyes now that he looked at me, and I didn’t know what I had done to cause it.

Anger? Regret? I couldn’t identify it, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

He held my gaze for a while as though contemplating what to do. When he finally spoke, his voice was devoid of any warmth.

“She will do,” he said, finally looking towards Father.

The words landed like a whip, and my stomach clenched. My wolf growled in protest as a cold knot formed in my stomach. His eyes promised nothing like the freedom I had envisioned my life to be with my mate.  

But the despair was just me. My dad breathed out a sigh of relief, his face lighting up, and my pack members rejoiced because they knew this meant protection for them.  

“Pack your things," he ordered without glancing towards me and walked inside the house while my parents scrambled after him.