1

“Do you smell anything yet?”

Looking down at my eager little sister, I give a derisive snort of laughter and roll my eyes.

“No. And I doubt that I will mate with anyone at this school anyway. At least I hope not. Everyone here are nothing more than a bunch of self-absorbed losers.”

Cami’s large brown eyes go wide as she hugs her books close to her chest and speaks in a hushed whisper.

“Why would you say such a thing? Your mate has got to be here, Kit, that way you don’t ever leave me.”

“I would never leave you. You’re all I got. You’re stuck with me.”

Wrapping my arm around her thin shoulders, I give her a comforting squeeze.

She nibbles on her lip and scans the lawn.

“Everyone here isn’t all that bad. What if you mated to Jody? He’s so dreamy. Oh…or Colin? He’s handsome and he seems nice.”

I follow Cami’s eyes to a group of seniors leaning against the railing of the school steps.

“Ha. They’re the worst ones here.”

Cami looks scandalized, but I don’t care.

Yeah, they are good looking, like ridiculously good looking, but they are a bunch of arrogant assholes, in my rather unpopular opinion.

Jody is the son of the pack’s Beta. Colin the son of its lead healer.

They are basically like royalty in our small pack.

And they know it.

They constantly pick on others and act like the entitled pricks that they truly are.

Luckily, I mostly avoid them and have kept off their radar.

Lucky…or maybe it’s just because I am so below them in the pack hierarchy that they don’t dare even acknowledge my existence.

Jody knows me though. Or he should.

I have worked in the packhouse where he lives these last five years since my parents died.

It was the only way that I could earn keep for my sister and myself, by cleaning the packhouse.

Cami, at only eleven, is too young to know how humiliating it is to scrub the floors of peers from my school, especially such good-looking popular ones, while they sit at their over-sized desk doing their homework or making out with popular girls on the sofas. Never even lifting their heads to acknowledge me when I go by.

Instead, Cami sits happily in the small staff room attached to the kitchen, curled up in the old rocking chair with a book, eating sweets that the cook sneaks to her.

But that’s the way it has always been.

Everyone loves Cami. Freaking adores her.

She is sweet, innocent, soft spoken…and beautiful.

As in, unfairly beautiful, especially compared to me.

Her big, brown eyes, curly blonde hair, and petite frame paired with a quick smile that reveals perfectly straight teeth has always had this charming effect on everyone that she meets.

So not the case for me.

My hair is darker, straight, bland.

My eyes are a lighter brown versus her gorgeous deep chocolate ones that are so expressive.

Cami’s face is round with these adorable dimples in her cheeks and not a single blemish, and mine, well, mine is longer, narrower and duller, and not exactly blemish free.

And while my sister moves gracefully, I am basically the most awkward being on the planet who is constantly tripping over her own feet.

Where she is an eternal optimist, I am a forever pessimist.

Maybe because I can actually remember life before our parents’ death, where it didn’t completely suck for me, like it has these past five years.

And maybe because no one sneaks me sweets while I get curl up and read…nope.

Although Cami does keep half of her sweets to share with me when I come to get her after I am done with work.

Because she’s just that pure of a person…which honestly, makes me feel like more of a shit person for being so bitter.

Sighing, I tear my eyes away from Jody’s handsome face and try to avoid the sinking feeling of disappointment in my stomach.

I would never admit it, not even to myself, that sometimes at night, I daydreamed about coming to school the morning of my eighteenth birthday to find out that I was mated to the handsome and popular Jody.

That he would tense…look up and meet my eyes…then rush over to sweep me off my feet, murmur ‘mine’ against my lips, then we would kiss passionately…and unable to keep our hands off one another, we would skip school to go celebrate finding our mate.

And then Cami and I could live in the packhouse, and I would never have to clean again in my life.

But obviously, that was all just a stupid dream.

Because here we are, close enough to pick up on each other’s scents…and although he does smell nice…it’s the same way he has always smelled.

So I still have to go clean the guest bathrooms today after school.

Damn.

“Still no wonderful and enticing scent?”

Cami’s voice sounds dreamy, full of hope, as she smiles encouragingly at me.

She’ll probably mate with an Alpha.

A gorgeous, stupidly wealthy Alpha who is head over heels for her.

And I bet I won’t even have one.

“No. I told you, Cami, I probably won’t even have…”

My body tenses as something hits me. A scent that feels so thick…so wonderful, that it makes it hard to breathe.

Could this really be it? Is this really happening…to me?

Cami squeals beside me in excitement, but I don’t look at her, my body isn’t under my control anymore as I turn in the direction that the scent is coming from.

Oh, holy shit.

Standing in the parking lot by a large black SUV on the driver’s side, gripping onto the open door, is a tall, broad-shouldered, dark-haired boy who is staring back at me, looking just as frozen as I am.

“Oh my god! Oh. My. God! Kit! Kit! You mated with Tate!”

Cami keeps emitting high pitched squeals beside me.

There is no way.

No. Freaking. Way.

But my body is being pulled to his and I cannot look away.

This is it. 

From the corner of my eye, I see the pretty blonde stepping out of the passenger side of the same SUV, looking between Tate and myself.

This is the longest that Tate has ever looked at me.

Has he ever looked at me?

I take a tentative step forward, and he frowns, turning his head to the blonde to say something that I can’t make out, then he looks over at me again and starts walking towards me.

Oh my gosh…

Cami is jumping up and down beside me and I absently wave my hand in her direction for her to stop as Tate gets closer, his scent nearly making me fall over as my body becomes weak from desire.

I can feel all eyes on us. Watching our interaction.

Most likely in total disbelief that he mated with me.

I don’t even believe it.

Is this real?

Did I really just mate with the most gorgeous boy in our entire pack?

The Alpha’s son no less!

I would have never even dared to dream…

How could I get so lucky?

Tate is close enough that I reach out my hand, lifting the corners of my mouth in a tentative smile, wanting to touch him, to feel all those mate feels that I’ve heard and read so much about. But just as I do, he looks down at it in disgust.

“I, Tate Peterson, son of Alpha Francis of the High Peaks Pack…”

Wait.

What’s happening?

No…no please…

“…reject you…what is your name?”

All I can do is make some sort of gasping grunt-like sound when my mouth falls open as I gawk at him in horror.

The pain coursing through my body right now is unreal.

It hurts worse than when I found out about my parents.

It’s physically like I have just been hit by a truck, then had it reverse and back up over me again.

Tate’s eyes go distant for a moment, then he nods.

“Reject you, Katherine Aster, as my mate.”

With that, he spins on his heels and marches back to his girlfriend, who throws me a triumphant look as she snakes her arm around his waist.

“Oh…oh Kit…”

I’m not really sure when I collapsed onto the ground…but that’s where I am, my little sisters arms wrapped around me, rocking me back and forth.

I knew it.

I knew it was too good to be true.

It was so stupid of me to think for even a second…

Fate is cruel.

My one chance at happiness…instantly gone.

In front of everyone.

You know what…fuck this place.

Swallowing back the huge knot in my throat, I tug at Cami’s arms from around my neck and clumsily stand up.

Doing my best to push through the agonizing pain.

Lifting my chin, I try to keep my voice steady to sound brave, to keep the tears at bay.

I won’t give the crowd the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Or to have them think that Tate broke me.

“Come on Cami, we are getting the hell out of here.”

And never coming back.