Chapter 2

KINGSTON

My wolf has been restless over the last few days, asking for his mate, and tonight, he made a show of having me walk around in search of a mate that doesn’t exist.

I’m past mating age, I was sure I was going to have to choose a mate, and I have though unmarked but she’s my choice.

My girlfriend Audrey, had been a ray of sunshine when I needed it most, and the pack adores her very much. Audrey accompanied me out for a smoke, but when we returned inside, my wolf grew even more restless, ecstatic. This is the first of many times it’s happened, and I was going to dismiss it until someone ran straight into me.

It wasn’t her fault, I was looking at something Audrey was showing me, but when I look down to apologise, my wolf loses his mind.

“Mate,” he chants repeatedly, each time more clear, possessive, claiming. His voice is so loud that it drowns out the music and chatter in the room. “Our mate, Kingston.”

“Are you sure? She’s scentless.” I tell him.

I can’t smell her but when her gaze lifts, everything changes. The bond hits me like a tidal wave, my chest burns. With anger, shock, and so many emotions I can’t give name to.

Aeliana Hartley.

She’s not supposed to be here. Not in my territory. Not in my life. Not anywhere close. Her eyes grow wide with a familiar hue of violet that only she has.

I can’t believe my eyes. Aeliana disappeared from our lives almost five years ago, and no one has heard from her since and here she is, dressed in gold like the angel that I used to perceive her as.

“Mate,” my wolf grumbles. “Claim her.” He snaps.

My fists ball, nails digging into my palms as I fight hard to restrain myself. This has to be a joke, maybe my mate is somewhere in this room and not at my feet. Audrey tightens her grip on my arm, but I pull away, stepping closer to Aeliana.

She rises, and just like she does when things get hard? She tries to make a run for it, refusing to address what only we two just felt. I grab her arm, and a zap of electricity tremors through my hand. I don’t think she felt it, she’s still staring at me in disbelief. “You felt it, didn’t you?” I ask, not the zap but the bond. That pull was strong, it almost brought me to my knees, and it weakened her for a moment.

Aeliana doesn’t speak, she simply watches me, eyes distant, and her chest heaving. She’s high. I’ve heard about this habit of hers, but it’s my first time witnessing it. I’m disgusted, appalled at the moon goddess’s choice for me. “You don’t belong here, you can’t be my mate.”

“Let go,” she swallows, her hand trembling.

“I’ll make this very easy for both of us, Hartley.” I bite out, refusing to say her name. I haven’t said her name out loud in years but I will have to.

Her eyes soften, something flickers in them, but it passes so fast I don’t get to decipher it. “Kingston, please..” she says, I’m unsure of what she’s begging, for but there is no way we could be together. Not in this lifetime.

I straighten, I need to end this now. I can’t have her for a mate, or for a Luna, my pack deserves better, and her selfishness won’t ruin it. “I Alpha Kingston Vale of Mooncrest, reject you Aeliana Hartley, as my mate and Luna. I reject all bonds and sever all ties.” I force the words out, pain clawing at my chest. People gasp, whisper, murmur. “Accept my rejection,” I demand, squeezing her wrist tighter.

She doesn’t speak, her lips part but nothing comes out. When a tear rolls down her cheek I snap again, “Accept my rejection.” I growl.

“I Aeliana Hartley of Mooncrest,” she begins, her voice raw and breaths heaving like she’s running. I squeeze tighter and she chokes out a cry, “I accept your rejec—”

“No!” someone interrupts. I let go of Aeliana’s wrist, ready to tear apart whoever dares interrupt. My jaw clenches when I see who it is. My father, Alpha Dante. “What is going on here?” He demands.

Someone beats me to it before I can speak. “Aeliana is Kingston’s mate.” The familiar voice says. My younger brother, Damien.

“Not for long,” I counter. “I will sever this bond, it’s a mistake. Someone like her could never be my mate, or my pack’s Luna.”

“You will do no such thing, King.” Dad snaps, “Aeliana is fated, you can’t reject her.”

Fated?

Does he hear himself? She’s not fated she’s troubled, she’s not fit to be my mate. “I already rejected her and I will do it again. All she has to do is accept it.”

Aeliana’s lip quivers. “I accept your—”

“No, Aeliana.” My Dad interrupts yet again, stepping between us. “You can’t reject a bond forged by not only the moon goodness herself, but the fates.”

“Father,” I warn.

“Aeliana is to be your Luna. If you reject her, you disrupt the order of things, you renounce your right to the pack, Kingston.” He firmly asserts, watching me with a kind of disappointment he reserves for my other siblings.

Aeliana lets out a loud gasp, as if starving for air before she runs out. Nobody follows her, everyone is familiar with her dramatics.

“Without her, you will not be Alpha, the final handover won’t happen. You can only get my blessing if she’s by your side.” He warns, “Gamma Hartley, a word.”

I watch as he walks away and right behind him is Aeliana’s father. People are whispering about what just happened, the public threat my dad bestowed upon me, and how Aeliana ruined Seraphine’s wedding celebration.

A hand smooths over my bicep, I look down to find Audrey staring at me. “King,” she chokes out, tears streaming down her cheeks. “What’s happening?”

“Go home, Audrey.” I gritt through my teeth, annoyed by the last twenty minutes. “I’ll meet you there.”

My dad’s voice reaches me through the pack link, “Conference room fourteen.”

That’s all he says.

Knowing my dad, he’ll be gone if I’m a second late so I walk fast, pacing my feet in alignment with the thumping sound in my chest. The door to conference room fourteen is slightly ajar, and inside are my mother, father, and Damien.

“Dad, I can’t marry Aeliana.”

“Why not?” he asks, swirling his liquor.

“Are you serious?” I scoff. “Don’t you know—”

“If this is about her past incident, she made a mistake, she was young.” he interrupts. But that’s no excuse, she knew better than to act as she did. “What she did is no different from what you’d been doing, except there was no audience. The tape was unfortunate.”

“It’s not about the tape,” I groan. Sure, I was disappointed when I learned Aeliana filmed herself getting fucked by some random man, but that’s her personal business. It’s the way she treated people that unerved me, the way she cut me out of her life like I was nothing, but she was everything to me. “Dad, you don’t know the kind of person that she has turned into, Aeliana is...”

“King, calm down.” Mom shakes her head, “You’re getting so pale.”

“Mom,” I say with a heavy sigh. Of course, I’m pale, I just saw a ghost from my past and I’m bonded to it.

Mom frowns, “You used to love Aeliana, what changed?”