MY ALPHA MATE IS MY EX-BOYFRIEND'S BROTHER.

POV: HARPER ROLLINS

"You look beautiful, Harper," my mother whispered, adjusting the collar of my dress. "Fifteen years on the run... but today we present ourselves before the royal pack. Today we stop being mere refugees."

"I know."

My mind, however, was elsewhere. It was on him. Michael.

For three long years, I had been secretly dating Michael, the son of my mother's fiancé and the current Alpha of the royal pack.

The plan was perfect: before the royal presentation, we would tell the world that the young Alpha would choose a banished Omega as his Luna.

"Today the Moon Goddess will unite us as mates," I repeated in my anxious mind.

I looked at myself in the mirror one last time and, with my heart in my throat, I walked down the stairs toward the main hall of the Alpha mansion.

The atmosphere was a whirlwind of golden lights, classical music, and the thick scent of hundreds of high-lineage wolves.

Everything was perfect.

But as soon as my feet touched the floor of the hall, an icy pang ran down my spine.

My wolf's instinct began sending me deafening alerts.

"Something is wrong. Something stinks."

I scanned the ballroom in desperation, trying to locate Michael in the crowd, but I couldn't see him anywhere.

"Where are you, Michael?" I whispered, clenching my fists. "The ceremony is about to begin."

Anxiety bit into my stomach.

I decided I wouldn't just stand there.

I hurried back up the stairs, dodging the guests, and headed toward his room in the east wing of the mansion to go over one last time the exact words we would say to our parents.

I walked down the hallway, taking a deep breath until I reached his door, flashed a bright smile, and opened it without knocking, hoping to give him a little surprise.

"Michael, it's almost time...!"

The words froze in my throat.

Michael was on the bed, groaning with his eyes closed, savagely thrusting into Chloe, the Beta's daughter and my supposed best friend.

"Oh, Michael... harder... you're the best," Chloe moaned, arching her back.

"You're a damn delight..." he replied, burying himself in her.

They were so lost in pleasure that neither of them noticed my presence. I didn't cry; on the contrary, I took a step forward and slammed the door behind me with a force that made the walls vibrate.

"Michael?"

Michael tensed up, suddenly pulling out of Chloe's body. She, on the other hand, let out a shriek, pulling the sheets to cover herself, but she couldn't hide the look of superiority she threw my way.

"Harper!" Michael stammered, pulling at his pants as he fell clumsily off the bed. "Harper, please... It's not what it looks like! Let me explain..."

"Explain to me?" My voice cut through the air. "What are you going to explain to me, you piece of trash? That your dick accidentally fell inside my best friend?"

"Harper, shut up!" Chloe shrieked from the bed, fixing her messy hair. "Don't speak to the future heir like that. At least he knows he should be with a real woman, not a damn stray omega who is good for nothing."

A bitter and dangerous laugh escaped my lips.

"Open that bitch mouth of yours again and I'll rip your tongue out!" I snapped at Chloe.

"Enough already, Harper!" Michael intervened, putting on his half-buttoned shirt in a stupid manner. "Please... We were just having some fun before I tied myself to you."

"You heard him, little slut..." Chloe implied with a mocking laugh.

"Little slut?" The insult hit my chest, but instead of breaking me, it gave me the final push.

Before Chloe could even blink, I crossed the space between us and landed a slap that forced her to fall to her knees on the bed, clutching her face.

"Damn you!" Chloe howled. "Michael, kill her!"

I turned to lunge at the beta again, ready to tear her face apart, but Michael quickly stepped between us, tightly grabbing my right arm.

"Let go of me!" I roared at him, trying to break free.

"You're not moving from here until you calm down!" Michael shouted, squeezing his fingers into my skin. "You are going to listen to me, Harper!"

An insane spike of adrenaline flooded my body.

I wasn't conscious of what I did; I simply shoved Michael with my free arm, sending him flying through the air until he crashed back-first against the wall, before collapsing to the floor, gasping for the air he had lost.

When he looked up at me, his pupils were dilated with absolute panic.

"You both disgust me," I spat at them, looking down on them. "Both of you."

I turned my gaze aside, and my eyes caught a glint on the dresser.

There lay an expensive pure silver necklace with the pack's emblem, which I had secretly saved up for months to buy for Michael as a birthday gift.

With a swift movement, I snatched the necklace from the dresser, feeling the cold metal in my palm.

"This was never meant for you," I said, turning my back on him.

"Harper, no! Wait!" Michael shouted from the floor, trying to get up, but his body wouldn't respond to him properly.

I ran out of the room, ignoring Michael's desperate cries echoing down the hallway.

I ran with my heart hammering against my ribs and went down the service stairs until I reached the outer hallways, looking for the mansion's back gardens to escape the contaminated air of that cursed pack.

I was about to cross the threshold leading to the gardens when, due to the blindness of my fury, I crashed head-on into what felt like a wall of pure muscle.

"Ah!" I choked out a cry.

The impact made me lose my balance completely. My high heel twisted violently to one side, and a sharp, searing pain shot through my ankle.

My body tilted backward, straight toward the ground. However, before I hit the floor, huge hands held me firmly by the waist, catching my fall mid-air.

"Careful," a deep voice resonated above my head.

I tried to stand up, but my ankle failed immediately, tearing a groan of pain from me.

The man asked no questions. With astonishing ease, he swept me up, carrying me bridal-style against his broad chest.

I was so furious and blinded by the betrayal that I didn't even bother to look at the stranger's face.

I just clung to his jacket, cursing under my breath.

"Damn idiot... fucking liar..." I whispered, squeezing the silver necklace in my fist. "He ruined everything. Absolutely everything. They can both go to hell."

The man didn't say a single word as he walked away from the bustle of the party, leading us deep into the thick forest until we reached a small, secluded cabin surrounded by wild bushes.

He placed me down with extreme gentleness onto a padded bench on the cabin's outer porch and knelt in front of me, his immense figure blocking the little moonlight there was.

"You're hurt," he said in a voice that made my spine vibrate.

He looked at my already swollen ankle and, without asking permission, pulled a black handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around the joint with a certain roughness.

The second his fingers brushed against my bare skin, a jolt of pure electricity shot through me from my ankle to my chest. It was such a violent shock that I flinched on the bench.

Upon finishing adjusting the handkerchief, the man slowly stood up, keeping a prudent distance.

"Why were you running like that?" he asked, crossing his arms.

His bearing was imposing; I figured he was around thirty years old, and he wore an impeccable suit that denoted an extremely high status.

"I found my idiot boyfriend fucking another girl in his room," I snapped at him, blinking to clear away the last tears I refused to let fall. "With my best friend, in fact."

The man raised his gaze to me, letting out a slight sigh.

It was in that exact millisecond that I decided to look directly into his eyes for the first time.

Our gazes locked directly, and the entire universe stopped.

The spark of the bond ignited all at once, exploding in my chest like a supernova.

An intoxicating scent flooded my nostrils, tearing down all my defenses.

Michael's scent had always been pleasant to me, like mint. But this man's scent... it was a damn drug so savage that it clouded my judgment.

My body betrayed my mind in a second.

Even though I was consumed by the fury and pain of Michael's betrayal just minutes ago, my skin began to burn, and a wild need to be touched by this complete stranger dominated me.

"It's him! It's our mate! MATE!" my wolf roared inside my head, over and over, jumping in circles, driven mad with relief and desire.

The air grew thick. I gasped, opening my lips, unable to contain the strength of the words the bond forced me to utter.

"Mate..." I whispered, my voice trembling. 

At that exact instant, the man's grey eyes changed color, flashing an ultra-savage gold.

His jaws clenched so tightly I feared his teeth would break.

"Shit. Shit!"