Chapter One

Selene’s POV

Painful fire rips through my core.

It’s my wedding night. My first time experiencing Marital Bliss. A poignant moment in a virgin’s life. My husband should have prepared me, or at least tried to comfort me, before ramming his cock into me.

My cry should have been an indication that he was hurting me. To allow me time to adjust to him.

But no.

He pulled out and jammed his cock into me again, the agony overwhelming my senses while my wolf whined in the back of my mind.

” Why is he hurting us?” She grits through our shared pain. ” We are fated mates!”

” He’s always hated us, Diana,” was my only response as his cock retreats and pistons into me a third time. He grunts in victory for finally reaching his goal of being fully sheathed in my tight pussy.

And without a thought about how he’s still hurting me, he starts to move his hips in earnest. I close my eyes and clench my teeth to prevent any sound from escaping my lips as he pumps into my body.

I may as well be a fuck doll.

There’s a deep ache in my chest as I fight to control my emotions—confusion and hurt by my husband’s cold brutality towards me. I saw the hate in his eyes when we exchanged wedding vows in front of the pack earlier; how he forcefully pushed the ring onto my finger, bruising my knuckle.

I hoped he would be gentle when he saw me in my white night gown when he came to our room for the conjugal part of the ceremony. Instead, he ripped the satin cloth off my body and pushed me roughly onto the massive bed.

He quickly stripped out of his tux with a grim look on his handsome face, not bothering to glance at my exposed body. He looked as if it were a dirty job to consummate our marriage. He was so fast taking off his clothes that I didn’t get a glimpse of his powerful form.

“Spread your legs,” he demanded, and I complied, hating myself for secretly wanting him but quietly praying for gentleness. Something he believed I didn’t deserve.

“Open your eyes!” Hunter commands while using his Alpha influence. My eyes snap open, forcing me to stare into his hate-filled gaze as his handsome face contorts into a grimace. As if he’s fucking a piece of garbage.

The thought causes a deep ache in my heart. I wish I could look away, but the Alpha command prevents this. The pain between my legs increases as tears form at the edges of my eyes. The bed bouncing causes them to fall down the sides of my face.

Hunter’s eyes caught my tears, and for a moment, I thought I saw a glimmer of guilt in those green depths. Then his lips lifted into a malicious grin, and he started pounding into me.

I wanted to pass out from the pain, but somehow I endured. It felt as if time slowed and the endless scorching heat between my legs would never cease.

I stared as Hunter’s breath became ragged and his teeth extended, readying to mark me as his. The mating bite will lock our fated bond into place between us.

Without warning, Hunter bit me hard at the junction between my neck and shoulder, and I finally screamed.

Not from pleasure.

From the excruciating heat that radiated through my body. A forced bond.

” He doesn’t want us,” Diana whimpered as I was losing consciousness. The last thing I saw after Hunter pulled out of me was him ejaculating into the sheets with a groan.

I wasn’t even good enough for him to cum inside me…

“Selene, " someone whispered through the darkness. The familiar voice was dragging me to consciousness.

“Mhm,” I groaned as I stirred. The ache between my legs snapped me back into reality as I opened my eyes.

Cassandra’s worried face filled my view, instantly causing an emotional breakdown.

My body shook as tears ran down my face. Cassandra immediately sat on the bed and drew me into a tight hug, and I began sobbing my heart out.

“Why does he hate me so much?” I cried between each sob. “What did I do to deserve this?”

Hunter was always cold toward me growing up. He was warm and friendly with everyone but me, treating me like a disease.

Sandy sighed. “He wants a Luna with a wolf.”

Sandy doesn’t know about Diana. Nobody but the prior Alpha and Luna of the Crescent Moon pack knows about Diana. Alpha Richard, Hunter’s father, used his Alpha command to silence me about having a wolf.

And now Alpha Richard and Luna Leena are with the Moon Goddess.

And so is my secret. No one will ever know about Diana now.

The frustration to scream, “I HAVE A WOLF!” to the room burns painfully in my throat. But instead, I sigh in dejection.

“Hunter only noticed my existence to torment me after Colin,” I muttered.

Colin

The name brings a fresh wave of sadness.

Sandy only pats my back in understanding as I cry to calm down. Once my tears stop, I pull back and give her a weak smile.

“I’m sorry I snotted your shirt,” I mumble, my face now itchy and my eyes swollen from dried tears.

“Eh,” she shrugs like it’s no big deal. “I need to change anyway for the Luna ceremony.”

The Luna ceremony.

Today I’ll be made the official Luna of the Crescent Moon pack. The thought brings me a little solace. Luna Leena was preparing me for the role before her untimely death.

“Well,” I sigh. “At least that’s one role I won’t fuck up.”

I turn to gauge Sandy’s reaction to my comment, but I see her frowning at the bed. I follow her gaze until it lands on the bloody area that was the evidence of my pain from the night before.

Then she glances at the mate mark on my neck. “The fuck?!” She angrily whispered as I felt the bed shift to indicate her rising. “I’m going to kill him!”

“Please don’t!” I cry, grabbing her hand to prevent her from leaving. “He hates me enough. Your interference will enrage him further!”

Sandy looked at my hand, clutching hers in fear, and then looked up at me with her startling blue eyes. Sandy was beautiful. There was no denying it. She had long blond locks of golden spun hair, wide, blue eyes, and perfect skin with a hint of sun.

Unlike me.

Brown hair, brown eyes, and pale skin that burns easily in the sun. Nobody called me pretty except Luna Leena—my envy for Sandy as the pack’s beauty knew no bounds. Every unmated wolf, male and female, wanted Sandy. Next to her, I may have been Quasimodo.

But I was never jealous of my best friend.

Growing up, she was there when things were tough.

“Have you seen Whiskers?” I asked, attempting to cool her ire at Hunter.

“I saw her scratching at your old bedroom door last night,” Sandy replied. My cat, Whiskers, was a gift from Alpha Richard and Luna Leena when they decided to adopt me as a child. A lifetime ago.

“Poor Whiskers,” I huff as I start to move to get ready for the day. “Will you find her and comfort her for me, please?” I beg. “I’m going to take a bath and prepare for the Luna ceremony,” I tell Sandy as I walk to the bathroom.

“Fine. I’ll also tell the maids you’re up,” she responds, gathering the bloody sheet and rising from the bed to head to the door. “I’ll come back when it’s time.”

“Thank you, Sandy. For everything.”

She only nods her head in response as she leaves.

I soaked in the tub, letting the jets and warm water ease the ache between my thighs. My flesh was so tender there that I avoided scrubbing the area with a washcloth.

I step out of the tub, the throbbing in my core was dulling, but the pain in my chest remained. I didn’t tell Sandy that the mate bond between Hunter and me was forced. But I didn’t think I needed to since I cried my heart out to her.

A forced mate bond meant that Hunter and I would not be able to feel each other’s emotions and needs. The only thing we would feel would be pain if we were intimate with other wolves. I pray he will spare me the agony.

Or worse

Reject me.

But I quickly dismiss the thought. Who would want to reject a fated mate?

A fated mating was beyond rare—a union blessed by the Moon Goddess herself.

I stared in the mirror, seeing how sallow my skin looked. The exhaustion from the previous night was reflected in dark circles under my eyes. I was a hollow shell of my former self after I discovered I was Hunter Bradley’s fated mate…

I’m staring at the two coffins being lowered into the ground. Tears were flowing freely as I silently said goodbye to Alpha Richard Bradley and Luna Leena Bradley.

Their deaths were sudden.

Poison.

The pack surrounded the hole, everyone mourning the loss of two beautiful souls. Their people deeply loved Alpha Richard and Luna Leena.

The sunny, cheerful sky was a betrayal of the immense loss we all felt.

I wish it would rain.

The pack shaman was preaching the funeral rites when the sound of car doors closing echoed from the road. A soft murmur started from the back of the crowd until the whispers reached me.

“Alpha Hunter is here.”

I raise my eyes to see the pack parting as the new Alpha approaches the grave of his father and mother.

Hunter avoided my gaze as he continued forward. But I couldn’t stop looking as my breath caught. I couldn’t fathom how a handsome boy who left five years ago would come back as a god for a man.

Black hair and green eyes, with full lips, and a chiseled face that would make Michelangelo weep for the amount of perfection in that face. His tall, wired frame filled out nicely, his suit leaving no room for my imagination.

A faint breeze picked up. And then I caught his scent.

Vanilla

Something stirred in my chest as my wolf, Diana, perked up.

”MATE!” She announced.

At the same time, Hunter finally glanced at me, and as his eyes caught mine, they started to glow.

The shaman stopped preaching when he saw Hunter’s glowing eyes, then turned to me. His wizened eyes bulged, and his mouth dropped open and then quickly shut.

“The Moon Goddess has gifted our young Alpha with a fated mate!” He yelled to the pack. There were loud gasps, and then howls erupted.

” NO!”I thought as my wolf began urging me to approach him. ” No, no, no!”

Why him?! He hates me!

Ever since I moved into the mansion with his parents, he has made it his mission to bully and torture me. From gum in my hair to pushing me down the stairs. And then darker things.

If anything, I was hoping to mate with Alpha Damen from the Full Moon pack. To help form a bridge with the ruling pack and to bring more wealth and stability to Crescent Moon. And he treated me with kindness when he visited.

I must have signaled my thoughts on the matter because Hunter’s eyes stopped glowing, and he gave me a look of pure disgust before spinning on his heel and marching back through to the crowd to his awaiting car.

” Where’s my mate going?!” Diana growled, her confusion hurting my chest as she paced inside me.

” Calm Diana,” I plead. ” We’ll see him soon enough…”

“Luna!” A voice cried outside the bathroom, drawing me out of my reverie. “Are you done bathing?”

“Yes, Sophie.”

“It’s time to get ready!”

“Coming!”

-

By the time I was being led down to the Luna Ceremony, the sun was beginning to set. Long shadows draped against the floor of the windows as my entourage passed, with the sun’s dying rays turning everything into molten gold.

Sandy was leading the procession as the new Beta of the pack. Her parents stepped down after the deaths of the Alpha and Luna. She was wearing a gown spun with golden threads that perfectly accentuated her figure and hair. She was beyond stunning.

I was in a gown of silver that represented the moon. The neckline was low to expose the mate mark. My hair was done up with a silver tiara of moons and stars placed on top. For once, I felt pretty. My skin glowed like porcelain, and my face was lightly made up to help flatter my features.

But deep down, I knew it wouldn’t change how Hunter felt about me.

I could strut into the room naked and he would sneer that my nipples were too small.”

Not that I had anything to compare my nipples to. Just that I wasn’t good enough because he thought me wolf-less.

Fated to a man who forced a mate bond between us. The Moon Goddess does have a sense of humor!

We reached the doors that opened to the Moon Hall, where the Alpha and Luna held court. Inside the whole pack was gathered, waiting for my coronation as Luna.

Hunter already had his coronation as Alpha yesterday before our marriage. Tradition states that an Alpha must wed, bed, and mark before officially recognizing his Luna. We have done everything else, and this was the last piece.

I walked through the room as people bowed their heads as I passed. I was used to large crowds and being on display when the former Alpha and Luna entertained essential guests. As a Luna in training, I was allowed to be part of the pack government and politics.

Sandy approached the dias where the thrones sat, bowing to the Alpha before walking up the steps. I caught him giving her a small smile and a wink before his face turned grim again as Sandy stood to his right as his Beta.

I ignored the looks because EVERYONE loved Sandy.

I followed suit and stood beside him on his other side. The shaman approached with a silver cord, as Hunter and I clasped each other’s arms. My arm tingled pleasantly from Hunter’s touch, and I gazed up into his piercing green eyes.

I was surprised that there was no hate or malice in them—just coldness. And my heart broke again because now I know I would be stuck in a loveless marriage with a fated mate who hated me since I appeared in primary school.

The shaman wrapped the cord around our arms while speaking blessings on our union and then signaling for Hunter to start our vows.

I stared at Hunter as he faced me, but avoided my eyes.

Moon Goddess, he is gorgeous!

I wish that he would smile and wink at me like he did with Sandy. Or even just smiled when I am around him. Instead, I got hostility for not having a wolf.

“I, Hunter Bradley, Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject Selene Bradley as my fated mate and Luna.”