第1章

The moment it went out, Blake called.

I hung up.

He switched to voice messages and sent three in a row, each one more impatient than the last.

[It's just a joke between friends. Do you have to make it a thing?]

[You just mate with Eric first and cancel it in a month. It's a forfeit, that's all.]

[Don't embarrass me over this.]

Reading them, my chest still tightened.

He handed me over like an object and then turned around and complained that I was being difficult.

The three tasks of the mating ceremony went up in the group soon after.

The first, a kiss.

The second, complete the mating mark ceremony and form a bond.

The third, announcing it on every social platform.

The mockery came quickly.

"She cannot even call her wolf. How is she supposed to complete these tasks and form a bond?"

"Every werewolf knows a broken wolf can't form a bond. Looks like Eric isn't finishing that one."

"Going public with something that useless isn't an announcement. It's public suicide."

Every line mocked me as a broken wolf whose wolf had never awakened.

And every line expressed pity for Eric.

And for all the noise, Eric never appeared.

I had heard Blake mention him.

He always talked about Eric like a close friend, but his wariness was obvious.

Blake added in the group, "Liora is weak and timid. Do not frighten her. Just go through the motions."

It sounded considerate. Among werewolves, though, labels like weak and timid were enough to brand me as a disgrace.

Last year, when I came of age, I stood in the middle of the moonstone circle with dozens of pairs of eyes on me.

All of them waiting for the Alpha's daughter to wake a powerful wolf.

I gave it everything I had, but nothing answered in my mind. Instead, tearing pain ripped through my body.

My vision went and I went down.

The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was the jeering crowd, with Blake standing behind them in expressionless profile.

I found out later that someone had filmed it.

That is the video going around the group now.

Just then, my closest friend, Freya, video-called me.

"What kind of useless boyfriend loses his girlfriend to his friend in a game?

"Why doesn't he bet himself away and become the first werewolf in this pack mated to another man?

"Just wait, Liora. I'm going out right now for the strongest werewolf laxative they make, and I'm putting it in his water so he can find out what public humiliation feels like!"

Blake's friends never met a spectacle they did not want to make bigger, so it did not surprise me that word had reached Freya.

But the weight on my chest lifted at my friend's outrage on my behalf.

Watching her still working out ways to get back at them for me, I laughed out loud.

"Don't worry, Freya. You don't have to. I'll settle this myself."

Freya's eyes lit up.

"Does that mean you finally don't have to hide what you are?"

[Of course.]

My wolf answered before I could.

I smiled and went on, "I'm in the bet too. I get a show and I get paid. Why wouldn't I go?"

Freya laughed, as though she could already see their faces.

"Go! You absolutely have to go!

"Let every one of them find out who the strongest wolf actually is!

"We aren't just going to beat them, we're going to make them admit it!"

The call had barely ended when there was a knock at my door.

It was my mother.

There was worry on her face.

"Liora, I heard something about a mating ceremony. Is it with that boyfriend of yours?"

I went quiet.

My mother knew how much I had liked Blake.

We went to the same high school. He was captain of the football team and a future Gamma warrior.

A great many girls liked him, and I was one of them.

Although I carried my Alpha father's blood, I had always been far weaker than an ordinary werewolf. Among wolves who worshiped strength, that made me an outcast.

I thought that quiet crush would end when we graduated, and then Blake came to me and told me he wanted me.

We agreed we would go to the same university and become strong, accomplished wolves together.

And after the shifting trial, none of it was the same.

After I collapsed, many of my friends vanished from my life.

Including Blake.

My mother disapproved of Blake, but for the sake of my health she kept it to herself.

I woke up in a hospital room, in pain.

The doctors said it was a rare case of a wolf purging and rebuilding its vessel.

What it would become in the end, nobody could predict.

I bit my lip bloody against the pain and survived one shaking night after another by holding on to the promise Blake and I had made.

After that I could hear howling from a long way off and pick out the scent of every wolf line.

I did not dare tell anyone.

My wolf had not finished evolving.

If the Council of Elders found out, there was no telling whether they would treat me as an heir or as something aberrant that needed controlling.

My mother had seen me through those nights and she knew what I felt for Blake.

She sighed and touched my hair.

"Whatever you decide, I am behind you."

When the door closed, my nose stung.

I had loved the wrong person.

But I still had family and a friend who had stayed quietly beside me through it all.

Then the group chat chimed again.

Eric had appeared.

He ignored everyone who was egging it on and replied only to me.

"If you don't want to come tomorrow, you don't have to.

"A mating ceremony requires both sides to be willing. I lost the game, and no one gets to decide for you."

Blake was there immediately.

"Eric, it's only a game. Liora isn't that bad a sport."

Eric did not answer him.

I stared at the black-wolf avatar, struck by a sudden sense of familiarity.

My wolf roared, as though confirming the thought.

Then a friend request came up.

The same black wolf's head.