001

Chapter 1

**Elara**

I chewed the end of my pencil, staring at the form in front of me.

“We don’t have all day, Elara,” Mom reminded me for the millionth time.

“Yeah, I’m trying.”

I had been stalling for weeks, but now she stood over me, demanding I fill out the compatibility questionnaire immediately.

One question in particular irritated me. It asked whether I preferred my future mate to be “verbally expressive or the strong silent type,” as if I were customizing a piece of furniture instead of a husband.

Ever since I turned eighteen, my parents had begun searching for a suitable alpha to strengthen our pack’s alliances.

And truthfully, I wasn’t entirely against the idea.

I finally wrote “Breathing would be a good start” in the margin. My mother did not find it funny.

“Elara!” She used the tone that only had two settings: gentle and *I will love you into compliance*.

“I filled it out,” I said, pulling the form back and scribbling over my note with something more diplomatic. “Open communication is valued.”

All mature and reasonable—the exact opposite of how I felt.

“The Thorne Alpha arrives in four days,” she said, sitting across from me with her tea, which she held the way other people held weapons. “Four days, Elara. This is not the time for humor.”

“It’s always time for humor. Humor is a coping mechanism. My therapist said so.”

“You don’t have a therapist.”

“I’ve been meaning to get one.”

She rolled her eyes and walked away with the form.

I knew how much rested on me. As the only daughter of the Ravencrest Pack’s alpha pair, I had been raised to put the pack’s needs above my own.

So I had reluctantly agreed to meet whatever alpha was coming to evaluate me.

There was only one problem—a boy named Elias whom I had been in love with since I was seven. It didn’t help that he was my best friend and completely oblivious to my feelings.

“Hey, what are you up to?” Elias asked as he walked into my room without knocking. He never bothered to.

My heart fluttered at the sight of him. Boyish charm, lean athletic frame, quick wit, and a smile that made me agree to almost anything like an eager puppy.

“Elias! I could have been changing!” I gave him a look. He only shrugged.

“Then I would’ve looked away.”

He laughed and dropped onto the couch beside me.

Those words stung.

Because Elias had never looked at me with anything but sisterly affection. I was still the girl he’d found crying over a melted ice cream, the girl who helped him talk to the school’s prettiest girls.

I had always been the bridge between Elias and whoever he wanted to date.

“Why would you?” I asked before I could stop myself.

I knew I wasn’t the most stunning girl alive, but I looked decent enough. Strawberry-blond hair like my mother’s, dark brown eyes like my father’s. I tried my best to hide the freckles behind my glasses.

“What do you mean why?” He was already hunting for the remote.

Irritation flashed through me.

“Because I’m a girl.” It sounded pathetic even to me.

“You okay?” he asked, finally noticing.

“Perfectly fine,” I said, testing whether the idea of losing me affected him at all. It didn’t.

“Extremely chill. Totally not spiraling about the fact that a stranger is arriving tomorrow to decide if I’m a suitable political acquisition.”

“You’re a little spiraling.”

“I’m elegantly spiraling. There’s a difference.”

He smiled—the careful smile I’d memorized without meaning to. Elias rationed his expressions the way some people rationed money. He didn’t spend them on just anyone.

“Just talk about books and bore him to death.”

“Did you just call me a bore?” I asked, mildly stung.

He wasn’t listening. His phone buzzed. The biggest smile lit his face.

“Look—Lena said yes!”

I forced a smile, swallowing the hurt.

How could he call me his best friend and still not see me after all these years?

Lena was his latest interest. Tall, dark-haired, all curves and a smile that made boys stupid. She was terrible at math, so Elias had been giving her private lessons—lessons he’d learned from me first.

“It worked! God, you’re the best, Ela!”

He pulled me into a quick hug. He was the only one who called me that.

“My glasses!”

I frowned but let him hold me anyway, because I loved the warmth of it. I loved that even while remaining completely blind to the fact that I was a girl too, I could still make him smile.

“Shit—I should get ready. Love you, bye.”

He pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and was gone before I could answer.

“Yeah… love you too,” I whispered to the empty room, desperately hoping one day he’d mean it the way I did. Hoping he’d realize I wasn’t still the little girl afraid of ghost stories.

I spent the rest of the day worrying about his date with Lena, jealous of every second of his attention she received. Usually he called within an hour to say she wasn’t his type. Tonight the phone stayed silent.

Maybe they’d already found a quiet room…

“The meeting. Focus on the meeting,” I told myself.

That was half the reason I’d agreed to it—to see if Elias would react when I actually met someone else. To see if the idea of me belonging to another man would finally make him notice.

I had a plan.

I fell asleep that night still clinging to hope, ignoring the absence of any messages. Ignoring the quiet certainty that his date with Lena was going very well.

I told myself I could do this.  

That Elias would come to his senses b

efore another man claimed me.  

That my feelings weren’t one-sided.

I was, as previously noted, catastrophically wrong.