Chapter 1

Adira’s POV

As the moonlight beamed down on us, I couldn’t help but notice the sweat glistening on Zane’s perfectly sculpted flesh, while my body became heated from the sight of the sweat beads slowly making their way down his chest and disappearing into the band of his pants. For years I have been secretly sneaking out at midnight while the moon is at its highest peak to train with Zane, but something recently has changed in the way I feel about him, but I know I have no chance of ever being with him because I was not worthy to be the future Luna of our pack.

Tonight, was the first night since I turned eighteen that we were able to train. Zane’s parents were keeping him busy with the upcoming Mating Ceremony that was to be held this weekend at our packhouse. Zane’s parents had been pressuring him to take a mate this year at the ceremony so he could take the role of Alpha of our pack, but Zane was more of a rebel, free spirit like me, and I had to wonder if he would give into their demands.

Zane charged at me and for a moment I had been lost in his appearance that I almost forgot what I was here for but stepped to the side just in time to avoid his direct hit. I was a second too slow though to see his arm come back around as he pulled me to the ground on top of him, but he quickly rolled me off him and onto my back taking the upper hand on me.

Our faces were now just a fragment apart from each other as we both were breathing heavily from the training. A drip of his warm perspiration dripped onto my flesh, and I felt heat begin to pool within my core, from his proximity. Why was my body doing this to me? Like I had said, I knew I could never have what I was growing to want, but the look in Zane’s eyes as he gazed at me told me a different story and I wondered if he too was feeling a pull between the two of us.

The moment was becoming awkward as I breathed in his scent of leather, mixed with pine, and I found myself getting even more intoxicated by him. I needed to break the awkwardness between us, but I couldn’t break the hold he had on me. Willing myself to say something, anything, I asked, “Are you choosing your Luna this weekend?”

My question worked and Zane blinked his eyes a few times before he rolled off me and we both laid there on our backs looking up at the night sky above us. I tried to regulate my breathing now that he wasn’t directly on me, but my mind kept going back to the moment that we had just shared. A moment I was sure was a figment of my imagination.

“I have been doing a lot of thinking this past week and I have decided what I was going to do with my parents demands of me taking a mate.” Zane said to me, and I rolled over onto my side so that I could see him and what he was about to say. Unfortunately, this was a bad move on my behalf because when I did, Zane followed suit like I did, and we were both once again looking into each other’s eyes. Zane cleared his throat this time before he continued, “Adira, I was thinking of asking for permission to make you, my Luna.”

“Me?” I blurted out in shock as I sat up and Zane followed suit in sitting up with me. “Zane, you can’t possibly want me as your Luna.” I tell him as I take a deep breath trying to calm myself.

“And why not?” Zane asks me seriously.

Standing up, I point to myself and say, “Look at me. I dress like this and I’m not pretty and proper, like a Luna should be. Your parents would never agree to it.”

Zane then stood up and took my hands into his and said, “Adira, you are beautiful and I see you for who you are. You are the strongest she wolf I know. You could take on any of my men. Yes, you may lack in the dressing department.” He said with a smirk on his face, “But we could change all that with different clothes and some makeup.” He then said as he pulled me towards him.

Our bodies were now flushed against each other’s and he held me tightly to him as I tried to squirm away from him but gave up when I realized I wasn’t escaping the hold he had on me. When I relaxed in his arms the heat in my core began to return and my wolf began to purr within me.

“What do you say, Adira? Will you be my Luna?” Zane asks me as he looks deep into my eyes begging me to say yes, but something in me knew that what he asked of me was only a dream that could never come true.

“Zane, I am not Luna material. I prefer training as a warrior and dressing in old sweats. For goddess’s sake my own parents hate me and wish I was more like my sister. Your parents will never agree to this, and you know it. They will probably banish me from the pack especially if they knew that you were training me in secret.” I told him, and it was all true. If his parents knew that I was training like a warrior there was a chance that his father, the Alpha, would banish me. The she wolves of the pack were forbidden to train, and Zane and I both knew the chance we were taking every night we met.

Zane pulled me in even closer to him and he leaned down and whispered into my ear, “Let me deal with my parents.” His lips then brushed softly against my ear and the heat of his breath against my flesh brought goosebumps to my skin surface as a chill moved down my body.

I found myself in a trance by his actions and I didn’t know how to respond to it. Zane had been my only friend all these years of growing up in the pack. I had always been the ugly twin to my beautiful sister who was born two minutes after me. She was blessed with more beauty than any of the others she wolves in the pack and I knew she had her eyes on Zane and becoming the next Luna of the pack. Even my parents thought she would be the one that Zane would choose at the Mating Ceremony. What will they say when Zane chooses me over their beloved beautiful daughter?

“Zane.” I said as I leaned my head into him, taking in his scent one last time before I made my move to escape his hold. Knowing this might be the last time that I ever get to be this close to him.

“Adira.” Zane whispered back in a husky voice as he leaned in closer, and our lips were now so close they were almost touching, and it would only take me moving slightly forward to take them with mine.

Just as I was to make my move to push him away, Zane closed the difference between us, and our lips touched. Fireworks exploded in my head, and he wrapped his arms even tighter around me. His tongue slid across my bottom lip and my mouth instantly opened giving him full access. For some reason it felt so right as he held me and kissed me but, in my head, I kept telling myself that this could never be, but at this moment, I decided to let myself lavish in the moment we were having.

When Zane finally pulled away from me, I slowly opened my eyes to see the smile on his face. “You will be mine.” Zane said before he turned and took off running back towards the packhouse leaving me standing alone in the small opening in the woods.

My fingers moved to my lips as if I could feel his lips still on mine. A part of me at that moment believed that he was telling me the truth, but another part of me knew that his parents would never agree to this, and I just hope that my heart wasn’t getting too attached to him after the moment we just shared.