Chapter 5

Aria

“Don’t worry. It was a marriage contract made by our parents, and holds no weight now. I already have a girlfriend. Beth.” Rowan’s green eyes darkened. “I only want Beth.”

With that, Rowan turned and began to walk away. Lucas cleared his throat, and as he went to scratch his head, his elbow forcibly nudged me in the spine. I stumbled forward without meaning to and slammed directly into Rowan’s back.

Rowan froze, broad shoulders tensing into a straight line. He turned his head and curled his lip. “Don’t touch me.”

“I wasn’t—”

“I have no intention of following through with the contract our parents created,” Rowan cut me off. “Whether it’s you or your sister.”

I blinked. “Sister?”

Lucas shot me a glance. “You do know you have a half-sister, right?”

I folded my arms and grit my teeth. “Well, now I do.” She was probably the product of my father and his so-called “fated mate”. The one he abandoned me and my mother for. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to meet her, although I supposed it wasn’t her fault that my father had done what he did.

Rowan and Lucas were both staring at me now in their own ways—Rowan glaring at me with those unreadable green eyes, one corner of Lucas’s mouth lifted into a smirk. I rolled my eyes and turned away.

“Well, I’m not interested in either of you. So that settles that.”

This time, before either of them could stop me, I slipped into my room and slammed the door hard.

Once I was alone, I let out the breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. I leaned my forehead against the wood for a moment before turning and making a little sound of surprise.

My room was a hundred—no, a thousand times more lavish than the closet I’d grown up in. Back home, my mother always made me sleep in the old utility closet upstairs, claiming that my stepsister needed her own room.

Of course, Sophie got the nice room overlooking the backyard with her own en suite bathroom. I got a room that was so small I could touch the walls on either side when I stood in the middle and I only got the cold water she left behind after her long showers.

But now… Now, Sophie’s room seemed like the closet.

This room was enormous—nearly the size of the entire upper floor of our house alone. A large four-poster bed with luxurious velvet canopy drapes sat smack dab in the middle of the space, right on top of a beautiful plush rug that looked to have been woven from the softest fibers known to man.

A stone fireplace sat against the far wall, already warm and crackling with a fire. There was an entire seating area there, along with a bookshelf filled with books alongside it.

Mouth hanging open, I stepped further into the room and inspected the bathroom. I let out a gasp when I spotted the huge clawfoot tub and marble everything.

But it was the wardrobe that really stopped me in my tracks. It was a walk-in closet filled to the brim with racks upon racks of clothing—gowns, intricately embroidered sets that looked like something out of a fairytale, even an entire section dedicated to silk pajamas.

It was everything a girl could ever need, much more than I had ever had.

My hands fisted around the hem of my shirt. To think that my father had been living like this all my life, while I was stuck living in a broom closet with a family who treated me like a maid…

If he’d still been alive, I would have throttled him.

Just then, a throat clearing behind me made me whirl around. I found a familiar face staring at me from the doorway—the same girl who had been bullying that girl in the park. Alice.

“What are you doing here?” I blurted out, taking a step back.

Alice’s eyes widened, but only for a moment before her lips curled into a sneer. Given the way her face seemed to be molded around that sneer, I assumed she did it a lot.

“I was sent to make sure you found the appropriate dress,” she said, shoving past me and into the closet. “Humans like you don’t know how to dress for nice events, so you’ll need all the help you can get.”

I crossed my arms. “I’m not a human,” I retorted, which still felt strange to say.

“You’re half human.” Alice wrinkled her nose as if she’d just said I was half goblin. “Anyway, you’ll probably discover your mate tonight, so you should be prepared.”

Fucking mates.

“But,” Alice went on, pulling out a plain blue dress and inspecting it in the light, “you won’t have to go overboard with your dress. You’ve got a weak wolf, so you’ll probably wind up with an Omega or something. Or another male who already has multiple mates, which would put you at the bottom of their little hierarchy.”

Even though I couldn’t care less about mates right now, I bristled at her tone. “Maybe I’m not dressing for a man,” I retorted, pushing past her and rifling through the dresses myself. My fingers brushed across a soft black one that was silky and cool under my touch. “Maybe I’m dressing for myself.”

Alice scoffed as I pulled out the dress and looked at it. It was a sexy but modest number that was fitted at the waist and hips and flared out around the knees. The sleeves were long and drapey, and it had a sweetheart neckline that I thought might complement my shape.

“Maybe you could take a page out of my book,” I said, taking the dress and walking away, “and stop viewing a man as an achievement.”

I could practically feel Alice vibrating with annoyance behind me, but I didn’t give her a second look. Instead, I slipped into the bathroom and changed.

When I emerged a few minutes later, having freshly showered and combed through my dark hair, she was gone.

The dress fit perfectly, just as I suspected. I found a pair of simple black boots in the closet and a light shawl to keep myself warm, then made my way back downstairs.

Ethan was still waiting for me when I arrived, leaning against the banister. He did a double take when I descended the stairs, but his face showed little emotion.

“You’re ready?” he asked.

I nodded and followed him out the door, suddenly glad I had brought the shawl, because it was even chillier now that the sun had fully gone down. Through the towering tops of the pines overhead, I could make out the stars so clearly that the Milky Way was on full display. A little breath of awe escaped me; despite everything else, this place truly was beautiful.

But there was too much else that soured my view of this place. All this talk of mates, the constant bullying… I wanted to leave as soon as possible.

“When will I learn to control myself?” I asked Ethan. “I need to leave as soon as I can.”

Ethan shot me a sidelong look and replied, “I’ll start training you tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. That was good. At most, maybe I’d have to be in this strange place for a week.

A few minutes later, we stepped into a long stone and wood building at the center of the village. The inside, golden and warm with torchlight, was already bustling with people, but the noise abruptly stopped and all eyes turned to me when I entered at Ethan’s side.

My throat bobbed. Of course they were all staring at me—most with contempt.

“There’s the human,” I heard someone whisper as we made our way through the sea of people.

“Who will get to have her?”

Have me?

My hackles raised at their words. For the first time since my claws had extended earlier, the pressure began to build again. Without hesitating, I whirled toward the people who had spoken and raised my voice.

“No one will have me!” I barked. “I don’t want a mate, and I won’t let any of you touch me!”

I supposed, in my naive mind, I thought that my words might make them shut their mouths. But they just laughed.

“You’ll change your tune once you find out who your mate is,” someone snorted. “And whoever he is, you’ll willingly serve him.”

My jaw clenched, but before I could say another word, I felt a sudden presence overwhelm me. It was so strong and volatile that I would have collapsed had it not been for Ethan quickly grabbing my arm and steadying me.

“Breathe,” he whispered into my ear, his warm breath fanning my neck. “Your wolf is emerging now that you’re surrounded by other wolves. Just relax and let it wash over you.”

I dug my nails into Ethan’s arm and gnashed my teeth. No. I did not want a ‘wolf’—

But then the presence cooled. Something soft and familiar wrapped around my mind like velvet-tipped claws. And for the first time in my life, I realized that I was…

Whole.

“Our mates are here,” a feminine voice, both young and ageless all at once, whispered in my mind. It reverberated through my skull like a bell, and yet it soothed me unlike anything before. “There are four total, but three are here tonight…”

Before I could react, three familiar voices rang out all at once.

“Mate!”