Aurora’s POV

A pair of cool blue eyes pierce through the darkness, so bright that I flinch when they meet my gaze. I stagger back, my feet getting caught in a protruding root. I fall back, and that’s when the wolf emerges.

It’s sleek white fur glows in the dark, but it’s spattered with so much blood that I can only see spots of it. The smell of copper fills the air, getting stronger as it draws closer to me, baring its teeth. Hunger is emanating off it. Starvation.

But how come I can’t bring myself to look away?

“Wake up,” I tell myself. I know this is just a dream, but now it’s getting painfully real and I want to get out of here. “Wake up, Aurora….”

But I don’t stir. Not even a little. The white wolf just stares at me, its gaze way too intelligent. Too predatory.

It’s going to attack, I thought. But no. Instead it starts to shift into an image of a naked man, glorious under the moonlight, all muscle and smooth skin. I trace my gaze up to his face, but before I can make out his features, his voice rings across the forest.

“Take your dress off for me. I need to see you.”

My body jolts with an unexpected wave of desire, and my confusion is so great that it coaxes me right out of the dream.

I sit up with a gasp, my hand flying to my throat as I struggle to breathe. My skin is still hot with longing, my back slick with sweat. The sheets are pooled around my middle like I’ve been thrashing in my sleep, and now my face is hot with embarrassment.

Seriously. I see one naked man in my dream and I’m a mess? I didn’t even get to see… all of him.

“Stop it,” I scold myself, swinging my legs off the bed.

I’m about to head to the shower when my Mom’s voice rings out from downstairs. “Rory, come down! You got a delivery!”

“Coming!” I yell back.

Still out of it, I pick up a robe off the floor and shrug into it as I run down the stairs. Mom is standing by the door in front of a bored-looking delivery man, who just hands me a compact box and points at his pad for me to sign.

Once he’s gone, Mom squeezes my shoulder excitedly. “First present of the day!”

“Present?” I echo, then I realize that it’s my birthday today.

“Happy eighteenth birthday!” Mom greets, kissing me on the cheek. “Now go open your present!”

I’m about to do so, but when I turn the heavy package around, I catch a glimpse of the empty sender address and my blood goes cold.

“Actually, Mom, I don’t feel well.” My words are coming out as stutters. “I need to go.”

I race to my bedroom, the package hanging precariously in my arms as my whole body trembles. I rest my back against the door, tearing the tape off the box and finally breaking it wide open.

Three things fall out.

A red see-through brassiere tangled with matching lacy panties and stockings. A soft pink vibrator in the shape of a rose. Then an envelope, addressing my name in neat handwriting.

I collapse against the door. I don’t know why I’m even surprised when this has been happening for three years now. First time it happened was on my sixteenth birthday. I received the very same thing, except that it contained a small dildo and a baby pink lingerie. There was a note back then too, which told me to look pretty and pleasure myself on my birthday.

Who sends that to a sixteen-year-old?

Most importantly, who sends it over the course of three years?

No address. No name. No anything. Even the delivery service gets baffled.

I don’t want to open the note. I just want to toss everything straight into the trash and burn them when no one can see. But curiosity gets the best of me.

I rip open the envelope, pulling the single note inside it to reveal the same handwriting that’s now getting annoyingly familiar.

“My gorgeous girl, I know you know that you’re all mine. Save yourself for me, and me alone. Don’t mess around with any other man, even your mate. If you do… you might just find him gone.”

Is this a threat?

I toss the note across my room. How disgusting!

I will find this pervert, and when I do, he’s the one who will be gone.

* * *

My birthday passes smoothly after that ordeal. My parents surprise me during breakfast and give me gifts, which makes me forget all about the ‘present’ I had earlier.

However, their biggest surprise comes during lunch, when Dad looks at his phone and says, “Margot’s coming home for your birthday dinner, Rory!”

The only thing I can do is pretend to be happy.

Margot and I have a strained relationship to say the least. It doesn’t help that we look drastically different. She has long blonde hair while I keep my ginger hair short and wavy, never going past my shoulders. We both have blue eyes, but hers are like violets, bright and vivid while mine look like the shadowy parts of the ocean. She has golden skin, while I’m pale as a sheet of paper and littered with freckles.

Dad says I look like my grandma, and Margot always laughs at that comparison.

I expect her to be mean to me now, as she arrives for dinner wearing a long-sleeved red dress that hugs her figure perfectly. She’s upstaging me in my own birthday, in my simple green blouse and white pants. But what else can I expect from her?

Her eyes fall upon me as I sit at the center of the table. I wait for the sharp insult, but she just nods at me. “You look quite nice, Aurora.”

“Green does suit her,” Mom adds as she lays some food on the table. I notice that she’s laying out an extra plate. “I’m just going to get your cake.”

She vanishes, so I turn to Dad. “Who else is coming?”

It’s Margot who answers. “It’s my boyfriend. I told Mom and Dad earlier. I would be introducing him to the family.”

“On my birthday?” I blurt out. “My day?”

“Who says everyone has to freeze and be nothing on your birthday?” she snaps at me, facing Dad who said nothing. “Anyway, I think you’re going to like him, Dad. You actually know him, since he’s the Alpha Heir of Black Dawn Pack.”

My eyes go wide. “Our pack?”

Margot just simpers. Even though I’m annoyed, I can’t help but be impressed. She finally did it. She went off and snagged an Alpha Heir.

The doorbell rings, and she jumps to her feet. I can hear the door opening, and a certain scent comes wafting in along with a deep male voice. I can’t make out the words, but I can make out the scent. It’s pine and musk and mint and citrus, all blended into this intoxicating fume that seems to be consuming me from the inside out. I keep inhaling like an addict, taking it in. I can feel my entire body getting flooded with desire before I catch myself.

The scent is coming from Margot’s boyfriend.

Then Margo shows up with a tall young man, both full of smiles.

But my smile just vanished, and I don’t think it’s coming back.

I lock eyes with him, and my planets align.

Her boyfriend is my mate.