2

Hearing that growl, my wolf gave me one last cognitive push, whispering something into my mind that left me completely frozen.

"Harper! Careful! He's not just any wolf... He is a powerful Alpha!"

I ran out of air, processing the magnitude of the disaster. Was my mate a pure-lineage alpha?

I waited, my heart pounding in my ears, for him to approach me, to claim me, as any wolf would have done. But contrary to what was going through my head, the man abruptly broke eye contact.

He let go of my waist and took a step back, breaking the electric current that connected us.

"You are confused, little pup," he said, his voice loaded with contempt. "I am nothing to you."

Those words left me completely frozen. But when I tried to sit up to face him, the pain in my ankle betrayed me and I had to prop myself up firmly with my elbows against the padded bench, looking at him with pure incredulity and rage.

The man said nothing more; he only gave me one last rigid look, nodded to himself as if he had just made an irrevocable decision, turned around, and walked away with long strides down the forest path, losing himself among the trees.

My heart felt shattered, crumbled into a thousand pieces.

It was an agony infinitely greater and sharper than having seen Michael fucking that Beta bitch in bed.

However, I couldn't afford to stay there lying around like an idiot. I tucked the necklace into the inside pocket of my dress and forced myself to stand up, enduring the sharp sting in my ankle.

I bit my lips until I tasted blood and limped my way back to the main hall of the Alpha mansion.

I wasn't going to let them see me destroyed. Not me.

"Harper! By the gods, Harper!" My mother intercepted me in the side hallway, her face pale and her hands trembling. "Where on earth were you? Heavens, you look like a mess. Quick, fix your hair. Darius is about to present the family on stage. His eldest son has arrived!"

"I had a little stumble in the gardens, Mom, that's all," I replied in a falsely serene voice, hiding the humiliation I had just swallowed back at the cabin. "I'm fine. Let's go."

"You have to smile, daughter. This is our night of acceptance. Don't ruin this!" she implied with a cold tone.

"I said I'm fine," I cut her off, tensing my jaw. "No one is going to ruin tonight."

As we walked at a hurried pace toward the main stage, Michael appeared from among the crowd of wolves.

He was pale, his shirt poorly buttoned and cold sweat glistening on his forehead. He approached me in a rush, desperately trying to take my arm.

"Harper, please... what happened in the room..." he whispered with desperation. "You have to listen to me. It was a mistake, we need to talk alone. You don't understand what happened."

I brushed his arm away with a violent slap, locking him in a gaze loaded with a contempt so icy that it forced him to take a step back.

"Don't touch me again, you disgusting piece of trash," I snapped at him in a hiss that only he could hear. "Don't you ever say a damn word to me again in your life. You're dead to me."

"Harper, don't be stupid, I am an Alpha and you..."

I didn't stay to listen to his pathetic pleas.

I turned around with total elegance, abruptly giving him my back, and pushed my way through the guards to stand on the right wing of the platform, right next to Darius, my mother's fiancé and the absolute Alpha of the pack.

Darius smiled at me with paternal condescension, completely oblivious to the storm tearing apart my inside.

We climbed the steps of the main platform, and Darius took the microphone with a pride-filled smile that puffed out his chest:

"Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Royal Pack," Darius's voice boomed with authority. "Today we not only celebrate the presentation of my beautiful Luna and my new adoptive daughter, Harper. Today we also celebrate the return of my firstborn. Who, after three years abroad, returns to claim his rightful birthright as the heir Alpha of this pack."

The crowd erupted in deafening applause, cheers, and howling of joy that made the crystal glasses vibrate.

But when I raised my eyes toward the side stairs of the stage, my breath was cut off completely.

Walking with a firm step, exuding an aura of domination so heavy that it made the omegas in the front rows bow their heads, the man from the cabin appeared.

He wore an impeccable black suit that highlighted his imposing bearing, his broad shoulders, and his square predator jaw.

The very same man who had called me a little pup and had rejected my mate bond without giving me a single fucking chance.

"Please welcome my son, the future Alpha Dylan Volkov!" Darius announced into the microphone.

Dylan stood on the stage and locked his dark, stormy eyes directly onto me.

I felt an electric shock run down my spine. In that second, I processed the worst of all truths: my mate was no stranger from the woods. He was the older brother of my cheating ex-boyfriend. My new, forbidden stepbrother.

"He's ours! He's our Alpha!" my wolf howled in my mind, spinning around wildly.

"Shut up, he rejected us," I answered internally, clenching my fists.

Before I could process the blow, Darius made a gesture with his hand, continuing his speech with a smile of political complicity.

"But an Alpha does not rule alone," Darius continued, and the air froze in my lungs. "Let us also give a glorious welcome to the woman who will soon rule by his side as the next Luna of the Royal Pack... Vanessa, my son's fiancée!"

An extraordinarily beautiful woman, with perfect brunette hair and feline eyes, dressed in a red silk gown that oozed luxury and status, walked onto the stage with slow steps.

With a possessive familiarity, she hung onto Dylan's arm, pressing her body against his and giving a radiant smile to the crowd.

An extraordinary pain, as if a silver dagger had been driven straight into my heart, split my chest.

This had to be a damn joke from the Moon Goddess.

My mate... the man whose scent of dark chocolate and storm was secretly driving me crazy, was engaged to another wolf.

That was why he had rejected me at the cabin.

While I was dazed by my reality, I didn't notice when Michael stealthily moved through the crowd until he stood right next to me.

"Do you see that, Harper?" his voice was pure venom. "My older brother already has his perfect Luna. Only I am missing... and you are the only woman I desire. Don't leave me over a simple slip-up in my room. You have no anyone else."

I felt the world crashing down on me for the third time today.

The disgust Michael provoked in me blended with the agony caused by the vision of Dylan with another woman.

I ignored Michael's disgusting words and immediately noticed how Dylan's grey eyes passed over me, staying fixed for a few relentless seconds before turning toward Vanessa, offering her a rigid nod.

That indifference made the wolf inside my head fly into a complete rage.

My wolf was not a submissive creature, much less did she understand commitments, families, or stepbrothers.

"He is ours!" the beast roared in my head, awakening with a volcanic fury. "No other female is going to touch our mate! No one!"

"No, stop! Don't do it, they will banish us!" I replied mentally, trying to cling to the control of my own body.

But my wolf listened to no reply. In a violent motion, she took total control of my body. My legs moved on their own, forcing me to take a step forward, breaking out of the family line.

"Harper! What are you doing?" my mother's alarmed whisper barely brushed my ears.

"Harper, get back here right now!" Michael growled under his breath, trying to stretch his hand out to stop me, but it was already too late.

With my eyes fixed on Dylan, I began to walk toward the center of the platform. I tried to grab onto the leg of a decorative chair, I tried to dig my heels into the wood of the stage to slow down my legs, but my wolf ignored every single command from my brain.

I limped slightly due to the swollen ankle, but the presence emanating from my mate at that moment was so imposing and dominant that the music seemed to fade away.

The guests began to murmur, clearing a path in a deathly silence as I climbed the steps of the dais.

"Daughter, please, stop!" my mother screamed once more.