Chapter one

Alice's POV

Two things happened in my life today.

First, I rejected my mate. It's not like I never knew that the mate bond was precious or what it would cost anyone who ever rejected theirs, but I never cared. My love for Nathan was stronger than that.

Second, my secret boyfriend, Nathan, had just announced to our family that my sister, Eliza, was his mate and that he wanted to marry her. This was after he had encouraged me to reject my own mate.

"Mom, Dad, I have found my mate, and I plan to marry her at the next Eve Festival," Nathan said, gazing at Eliza as if she was the only person in the world who mattered.

Eliza's cheeks flushed as their gazes locked. A small smile spread across her face.

"And we need your blessing," she said, her tone so bright and innocent that my stomach turned.

My mother sat at the far end of the room, her hands clasped together like the royal she was. My father sat opposite her, his eyebrow raised as he turned toward Nathan and Eliza.

"Excuse me?" The words were out before I could stop myself.

Nathan had promised me. When he opened his mouth, I had expected to hear my name. I thought he was finally going to tell my parents that he planned to marry me, not my sister, who always got everything she wanted.

"What's going on?" I asked, looking directly at Nathan.

"What about us?"

Nathan finally glanced at me, but he said nothing.

Nathan was the late Beta's son. Since his father's death, he had been like a son to my father. I had never understood how that made him so important to my family, but I had never questioned it either. His older brother, Rowan, had been blamed for the death and sent away to the northern territory.

Even I had never met him. I'd heard he was handsome, but I bet he couldn't compare to Nathan.

"Sister, what is it?" Eliza asked, as if she had no idea what she had done.

She didn't sound like the scheming bitch I knew she was.

"What is it?" I repeated, standing up so quickly that my chair scraped loudly against the floor. "Eliza, Nathan and I have been dating for three years. You knew that, and you still agreed to be his wife. Is this a joke?"

I laughed, but it cracked halfway through.

"You know it's not my fault," she said. "He was my mate, and you were never forced to reject yours for him."

For a moment, I could only stare at her.

I looked at Nathan, waiting for him to say something, anything. He could explain himself. He could tell them the truth about us. He could at least face me and admit that our three years together had meant something to him. But he didn't.

He turned back to Eliza, and the look on his face said everything he wouldn't say to me.

I blinked several times, trying to hold it together. My fingers tightened around the fabric of my dress.

"Enough!"

My father's Alpha command filled the room and pressed down on me. My knees weakened slightly. I was an Alpha's daughter. I shouldn't have been affected so easily, but ever since I turned eighteen without shifting into a wolf, my life had never been the same.

At twenty-one, I was still wolfless.

"We've tolerated your arrogance for long enough, Alice," he said, glaring at me. "You dare to reject your mate when you are worthless without a wolf?"

His words echoed in my head.

Did I forget to mention that my father hated me?

I pressed my lips together and stared at him. I wanted to defend myself, to tell him that I hadn't done it for fun, that I had believed I was choosing the man I loved.

Two hours ago, I had been standing in the garden with Nathan's hand wrapped around my wrist.

"Do it," he had said. "Reject him tonight."

The mark had appeared on my wrist the day I turned eighteen, a small silver crescent that burned whenever I thought about it. Nathan was the one who told me what it meant. His brother's name was in it. Rowan. My fated mate. I had never even seen his face.

"He killed my father, Alice," Nathan had said. "You can't belong to a man like that. Choose me."

I wanted to ask why it had to be a choice at all. But he was looking at me the way he used to look when he promised to marry me, and I said yes before I could think.

So I said the words to the mark. I reject you, Rowan, as my mate. It burned white-hot, then it went cold. For a second I thought something on the other end of the bond went very still, like someone holding their breath. Then there was nothing.

Nathan kissed my forehead and told me he loved me.

I had walked into my father's house believing I had won.

Before I could speak, my mother cut in.

"Alice, just be quiet. We like you better that way."

Her cold words emptied me out. My eyes burned, but I lowered my head before anyone could see.

My parents had hated me long before I failed to get my wolf. Eliza got the praise and the attention, but I had never been jealous of her. I had tried to be a good big sister, even when she made it difficult. She would cry at the smallest things and pretend I had hurt her, and somehow, I was always the one who got blamed.

I had spent years trying to make my family love me, and now I had thrown away my mate for a man who couldn't even stand up for me.

"Sorry I'm late."

Someone spoke behind us.

I quickly wiped my face and turned toward the door. I froze as I stared at the man standing there.

That chiseled jaw. Those dark brown eyes. That brown hair. The kind of face people stopped to look at twice.

But not me.

Because, shit, this was the man I had rejected two hours ago.