#Chapter 1: Slipping Through My Fingers

Evelyn

"Lily is late," I complain to my soon-to-be husband, Lucas. For some reason, he seems a little distracted. "She's my maid of honor, and the wedding is in ten minutes. She won't have enough time to get ready—"

I stop mid-sentence as Lily appears. Her makeup is a thousand times more flawless than mine, and her dress—well, it’s nothing like the bridesmaid dress I prepared for her. She looks like the bride, and I feel like a mere background character at my own wedding.

As much as she has always needed to be in the spotlight, I never thought my best friend woud embarrass me like this. "Lily," I snap, but she walks right past me, completely ignoring my presence as if I were invisible.

"The test results are confirmed," she tells Lucas, pulling out a report.

"What test results?" I ask.

Lily looks at me like I’m an idiot. "I'm pregnant. With Lucas’ pup."

"He never told you we slept together a month ago?" Lily glances between the two of us with amusement. "It was amazing.”

My supposed best friend links arms with my fiancé, gazing at him greedily even as her cutting words are directed at me. “He said you were a stupid fool, still clinging to your 'no sex before marriage' nonsense."

I stare at Lucas in disbelief, but he averts his eyes. I freeze as he refuses to meet my gaze.

For a heartbeat, I can’t even process Lily’s words. I look back and forth between them, wondering if this is some sort of sick joke.

When neither of them breaks into laughter, their heartless expressions unmoving as they wait impatiently for me to accept this new reality, the full force of their revelation threatens to crack my chest open.

My fated mate and my best friend. The two people I trusted most have turned against me.

Lily, an Omega, has always been under my protection. From that first day on the playground, we’ve been best friends. As we grew older and became aware of the werewolf hierarchy, I learned that she was fated to get the short end of the stick due to being an Omega.

As the daughter of a Beta, my influence has always been second to that of Alphas. But I’ve done my best to help and protect Lily at every opportunity. We’ve always had each other’s backs.

Then there was me and Lucas, always considered the blessed pair: the Alpha’s son and the Beta’s daughter. Before either of us even turned eighteen, everyone assumed we would end up as fated mates.

After I introduced them, Lucas did start looking out for her, but I always assumed it was out of loyalty to me. That he was using his influence as an Alpha’s son to protect the Omega who meant so much to me.

I never imagined there could be more.

I would have known about their betrayal if Lucas and I were bonded. But, as Lily so cruelly pointed out, I wanted to wait until the mate ceremony, to let everything happen the way it was meant to. And since Lucas and I haven’t slept together, he has yet to mark me.

"So,” Lily turns to smirk in my direction, “the real star of this wedding? It’s not you. It’s me."

I grab Lily in a fit of anger. "You’re supposed to be my best friend. How could you—"

Lucas shoves me to the ground, growling, "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Don't threaten my pup."

I push Lucas off me, but he doesn’t relent, shaking a warning finger in my face. “You will not touch her,” Lucas commands. “You will not hurt Lily.”

I stare at Lucas, at my mate, in disbelief. He’s supposed to care for me, love me, protect me. Not that we exactly got around to promising as much to each other in front of all our friends and family.

Instead, he’s positioning himself in front of Lily to protect her. And yet they are the ones who betrayed me.

Lucas’ expression softens in response to mine. “You have to understand, Evie.” My knees nearly buckle at the sound of the nickname only he calls me.

“For the sake of my pup,” he goes on, “I have to cancel our mate ceremony. I have to choose Lily. I can’t let her be sacrificed, not when she’s pregnant with my pup.”

Time seems to slow as his next words somehow turn my world upside down even more than he already has. “You’ll take her place as the sacrifice, Evelyn.”

My mind reels at the mention of the Lycan King Sacrifice. I’ll never see my family again. I could even lose my life.

Because in this country, every unmated girl becomes just that: a sacrifice to the lycan king.

Rumor has it that the lycan king lost control of his wolf because he couldn’t find his true Luna, turning him into a tyrant feared by everyone. In an attempt to calm the lycan king and find his mythical true Luna, unmated women are sent to him every year. Many die, and only a few make it out of the royal palace alive, leading to the colloquially used name for the women sent to his palace: a Lycan King Sacrifice.

And with Lily effectively stealing my mate right out from under me just before the sacrifices are rounded up to be sent to the royal palace, she is sealing my fate.

I study Lucas and his protective stance in front of Lily. I’ve heard of this before: werewolves turning their backs on their mates for the sake of an heir. I just never thought it would happen to me.

“I could die,” I say, stating the fact as I wait for his answer. Obviously, I didn’t want my best friend to be sacrificed either, but the idea that her way out of such a terrible fate is to betray me, the only person who has always had her back, breaks my heart.

“I have to protect my pup,” is Lucas’ only answer. He folds his hands calmly in front of him like I’ve seen him do a thousand times. “As of this moment, I officially reject you as my mate,” he states coldly, as if completely detached from the life we’ve been building together up until this moment.

Intense pain seeps into me, as if the blood flowing through my veins is on fire. I shake in fury and agony, trying to fight the torturous rejection of our mate bond. I realize in a panic that there’s nothing I can do.

If I don’t accept Lucas’ rejection, it will kill me. I wonder for a moment if it’s any better to die at the hands of the lycan king.

But at least that way, I’ll get to say goodbye to my parents.

I curl up on the ground in anguish. Even accepting the rejection hurts. I can feel my wolf receding, falling into a deep slumber to escape the agony searing my bones.

I wish I could follow her as she escapes this new, cruel reality. But I’m stuck here.

I hear the rhythmic footfalls of guards, and I realize that Lucas and Lily invited them. They had no intent of negotiating what would happen here. Their minds were already made up.

“I’ll give you a few final days with your family,” Lucas says lowly. “I know how close you are to them.”

I hear Lucas as he instructs the guards. “Watch her closely over the next few days. She’s allowed to spend time with her family to say goodbye, but make sure she doesn’t escape.”

The guards roughly pin me down and drag me aside. I try to resist, but it only causes me more pain than I’m already experiencing. Lucas doesn’t spare me another glance, his eyes locked on Lily as if she’s the love of his life.

Lily gives me a smug smile, and I realize then that she’s been waiting for this day all along.