Chapter 001

Valeria POV

I sat on the floor at the meeting ceremony hall, my shiny gold gown pooling around me. I remembered how they praised me, saying I was lucky to have found the best mate. Yet I sat there, alone, as time dragged by. He was nowhere. Gone. Just like the others. My chest clenched every one of them had run. I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore; they streamed down endlessly as memories crashed over me. I was cursed. No matter how hard I tried to act as though this was something normal, it was obvious. I was cursed.

Suddenly, one of the maids rushed into the ceremony room, breathless, and handed me a piece of paper.

I raised my head, my swollen eyes burning as I looked at her. She bowed in shame. “My lady Beta Bernard left this behind,” she whispered, before fleeing.

I couldn’t speak. My voice was trapped, crushed by the weight of the universe pressing against me. Mateless. That was what they called me. A wolf cursed by the moon goddess herself.

With trembling hands, I unfolded the paper and read. The words blurred instantly through my tears. But the meaning cut sharply it was rejection. He had rejected me.

I laughed. A hollow, broken sound that echoed in the silent hall, laughter tangled with sobs until my body shook. Then a familiar voice pierced the air from behind.

“Why does this happen all the time? Does it mean she's cursed?” my mother muttered.

Slowly, I rose from the floor, wiping of the tears from my face, forcing myself to stand tall though my knees trembled.

“Can you just let me think, Ava?!” my father’s voice thundered. “It’s obvious you don’t want a solution. Stop whining like a child and let me think!” He paced back and forth, rage burning through his frustration, while outside, passing eyes filled with disdain or pity landed on me.

“For how long will you keep thinking?!” my mother snapped. “This isn’t the first time. Nor the second. This is the fourth. Four supposed mates rejecting her at the altar! At least Bernard didn’t show his face to do it. That would have been even more humiliating! He had the decency to use a paper.”

Shame burned through me. I bowed my head, hiding my brokenness, desperate not to appear weak.

Time blurred. My father still had no plan, while my mother’s patience frayed into open contempt. I saw it in her eyes she wanted me gone. Out of their lives. Just as I opened my mouth, her voice cut sharp as a blade.

“Any plans yet?” she asked, irritation dripping like venom.

“Nothing,” my father muttered, rubbing his hair,I could see the frustration deep in his eyes. “We should go back home.” His words made my throat tighten as I sobbed silently.

“What? Hell no!” my mother shrieked, her finger stabbing toward me. “She’s not coming back to that mansion with us. She’s getting mated today and that is final!”

“What plans do you have?!” my father’s voice broke, weary and defeated. “No one will take her. Can’t you see? It’s best we go back home and pretend none of this happened. Maybe this is will of Moon goddess’.”

“No, it’s not.” My mother’s eyes glinted cold. “As a matter of fact, I have a plan.”

I froze, listening. Silent. Afraid. Curious. But her next words shattered what little was left of me.

“ She will have to get mated to Alpha Sebastian.” For a moment, everything around me froze. I couldn’t even comprehend what my mother was saying me,she was willing to give me to that ruthless maniac who was meant to be my sister’s mate.

I shook my head, rejecting the poison spilling from her lips. I would rather be torn apart by rogue wolves than be mated to that monster.

“ No, Mother, I can’t please,” I whispered.

A cruel smirk curved her lips as her eyes pierced me. “How dare you? You don’t have a choice. Look at you mateless, a disgrace, a curse upon us. You will be mated Alpha Sebastian. That is final.”

My eyes turned to my father, desperate for his voice, for his protection. But silence wrapped him like chains. That silence told me everything, he had already abandoned me. I would not walk willingly into slaughter house. Everyone knew him.

Everyone sang of his cruelty, his horror. So many of his chosen mates had entered his mansion, but none ever left alive.

“ Father, please… say something,” I begged, clutching his hands with trembling fingers.

“I’m sorry, Valeria. There’s nothing I can do. This is the only way. If Alpha Sebastian discovers your sister vanished, we will all be dead. Please take her place.”

My breath shattered. No. It was never my choice. He wanted my sister, not me. She vanished for her own reasons so why should I be the one sacrificed? Tears spilled without mercy as I turned back to my mother, my last hope.

“Mother… please, don’t do this,” I begged.

“It’s done, Valeria. You will go as your sister. If you reveal yourself, we are all dead.” Her words were a blade. She shoved me away, then faced the door.

“She’s ready!”

At first I didn’t understand. Then I saw guards flooding in. My body quaked as I spun to flee, but two shadows already blocked my path.

“No.. no, Mother, please!” I screamed. But my pleas fell on deaf ears. Their hands clamped around my arms, dragging me toward the door. I fought, I cried for help, but no one came.

---

At the Pack Mansion, they threw me from the carriage like a criminal. Rough hands seized me, dragging me across stone floors as whispers of maids hissed like snakes in the air. Down endless halls, to the last door of the western wing.

The door groaned open. I was hurled inside, crashing to the ground, a cry ripping from my lips as I scrambled to rise.

“Well, well, look who we have here. My bride.”

The words slithered through the dark, freezing my blood. Then light flickered revealing him.

And my gasp tore the silence, horror lodging in my throat at the face of the most dreadful man alive.

Before I could steal a glance at his face, everything happened so fast like a flash he was standing in front of me, his hand gripping my jaw, pressing harder and harder. I groaned in pain, tears spilling down my cheeks.

“Listen, and listen carefully. To the pack, you’re my Luna, my mate. But to me you’re nothing but a curse, a slave. You will never have my heart.”