Chapter 1

ARIA.

My heart was pounding in my chest as I ran, trying to escape the reality that was threatening to crush me alive.

I didn’t even bother undressing, instead tossing the reins over to my wolf. My body leapt off of the cliff’s ledge, Thea shifting mid-air.

The air whipped through her silver fur as she sailed over the water, the wind howling in her ears. For a brief moment, we felt lighter than air, like nothing else existed.

Then Thea’s paws connected with the ground. Off she went, like a bullet. If only we could escape everything. Instead, we were on a collision course, and I wasn’t certain what surviving it would even look like.

I let her focus on the run while my thoughts consumed me.

I felt helpless. If it was just about me then there would not even be an issue because I had no qualms about going rogue if need be. How ironic was it that I would rather embrace that over what my father was trying to do?

Being a rogue was damn near a death sentence. It was survival of the fittest. Young females didn’t last long out there on their own. Many ended up dead. Others ended up wishing for death. Perhaps I could survive it if I was a fighter. Thea was a fast wolf, but neither of us were fighters.

My father had been adamant that I wasn’t to attend additional training past the mandatory bit that all pack members were given. It was just one more way for him to control me. He didn’t want me capable of fighting back because then he’d lose his leverage. 

Father. That was a laughable title – an inadequate description.

Warden. Boss. Ruler. Insert any additional synonym here…

I had no idea why he hated me so much. Not a single damn clue what was so wrong about me that I was barely considered to be his own flesh and blood. It had been years since I gave up hoping that he would one day see me as his daughter again. His love for me evaporated when Mom left, leaving three children behind.

Jory was twenty-six, I was nineteen, and Piper was six years old. She hadn’t even been a year old when Mom left. It fell onto me to raise her because our father couldn’t be bothered.

There wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t do to protect Piper. It was the precise reason that she made the perfect trump card for him to wield. Oh, it was a weapon that he had perfected, one that could leave me yielding no matter how asinine something was. Case in point, what he informed me would happen.

I, Aria Morgan, was going to be mated to someone whether I liked it or not.

Who was the lucky guy? Dane Holden, Alpha of the Shadow Vale pack. I had no idea why he approached my father with the proposal. He even provided my father with an actual contract and all.

Why would an Alpha of a prominent pack seek my father out, insisting that I become his mate? It made no sense.

I got a nice backhand to the face when I asked my father what he was getting out of the deal. I wasn’t a fool. There was an incentive for him.. All he would tell me was that I had until midnight to sign the contract, lest the consequences be severe.

My father was not the type to make idle threats, so I knew that he had something serious planned just in case I refused to do as he told me to. I was exhausted from jumping to his tune and doing as he said.

A bruised rib was my consolation prize for telling him that I would rather become a rogue than to enter into anything with Alpha Dane.

Cold. Cruel. Vindictive. That was what he was known for. He took what he wanted, when he wanted it, and how he wanted it.

‘All of the best qualities that any good mate looks for,’ Thea said, lip curling in disgust.

I couldn’t agree with her more on that. It was the exact opposite of what I dreamed of having in a mate.

I had always longed for the day that I found my mate. What little girl didn’t imagine it? I was a romantic person at heart, one who believed that a mate would be a gift from the Goddess. The other half of my soul.

I had always longed for my fated mate and never considered taking a chosen mate.

That would remain an unattainable fantasy because I had until midnight to sign a contract that would tie me to a stranger.

Solidifying a chosen mate-bond would permanently sever any chance of one finding their fated mate. Everyone had one, but a variety of factors might keep them apparat. Distance, age, death, etc. IF Alpha Dane took me as his mate and marked me then it would be game over.

My father knew that I would rather become a rogue than sign my life away, so he once again weaponized Piper. He threatened to give her to rogues and let nature take its course. Well, it wasn’t a threat but a promise.

He didn’t give a shit about us. Instead, only caring about what we can do to benefit him.

The fucked-up part was the fact that Jason Morgan was revered within the community.

It benefited our father that he was a believable chameleon, able to alter his persona to fit whatever he needed to. It also helped him that the pack despised me. They chose a life of atonement for me because of what Mom supposedly did. The believed that she was the mastermind behind a rogue attack that got pack members killed. With her going MIA five years ago, their ire fell onto me. They didn’t hold my father accountable at all, and he was more than happy to let the pack hate me.

To me, Jason Morgan was nothing short of a demon sent to make my life a living hell.

It was shortly after ten when Thea made it back home. She padded over to the tree where we kept extra clothes for shifting. I pulled on a pair of shorts and t-shirt before heading inside.

“At least you can do one thing right.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from responding to the man who was sitting in the kitchen, partially hidden in the shadows.

There my father sat with a glass of whiskey tipped against his lips. He swallowed the contents before setting the glass down on the counter.

The silence between us stretched on. It had never felt so deafening before.

“May I read the contract before I sign it?” I asked him, keeping my tone as neutral as possible.

His expression morphed, pleased with victory. I kept a tight rein on the anger that it caused.

He pointed to a small stack of papers sitting on the counter.

The document was fairly straightforward from what I could see. Obviously, I wasn’t an expert in legal jargon, but I got the gist of what it said.  

It was a contract between Alpha Dane and me. It didn’t mention a time frame, which suggested a permanent arrangement.

There were dos and don’ts that I was expected to obey. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about this contract. I was to present myself as a Luna. No venturing around the pack alone.

My eyes skimmed through the ridiculous approved or disapproved list until I got to one that made me sick to my stomach.

‘Aria Morgan will give birth to Dane Holden’s heir. She agrees to undergo testing to ensure that her body is capable of carrying and birthing said heir.’

Not only was I being forced into signing my life away but would also have to provide an heir…

 “What will you choose? Your life or the little bitch’s?”

It took a considerable amount of restraint to refrain from snarling at him.

How could a father call his own six-year-old daughter a little bitch? Not to mention selling off his other daughter.

This life was a fucking mess.

He knew that there was really no choice here. That was how he had planned for it to go down – make me choose my own well-being or choose hers. Either choice resulted in losing something significant. However, there was only ever one choice.

Piper above all else.

It felt like I was holding cement as I signed the documents. I could be signing on for anything. Who knew what Alpha Dane had in mind for what he expected of his mate. That, in and of itself, was a terrifying thought.

I placed the pen down once the last page was signed.

The weight of everything pressed down upon me. The unknown – it was a heavy burden.