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ALPHA HARLEY
Damn it. Damn all this to hell! Why her? Why out of all the people it had to be her? There is no way that woman is my mate. It was just simply not possible. But then again… Thinking back to that night, that one night that for the first time in my life I felt… emotion… She was the one there. It was only her. Up to now, I still find myself sometimes wondering what it is exactly that tugged at my heart or my feelings when I stood there, staring at her intently. And even when I used to see her around, I always sensed something odd around her which is why I hated being near her. Any time we were in the same room, all I wanted to do was to be away from her. It turns out it was because I couldn’t face the truth that maybe, just maybe, she was more than just a nobody to me. She was more than that godforsaken nickname everybody in the Pack knew her as and I know damn well that I can’t be with anyone else but her. I know damn well that I will do everything in my power, everything and anything, just to have her in my arms, in my hold, and ready to be marked. Because she is no longer just No One to me… As a matter of fact, she is the one woman I can’t fucking live without. She is mine… At least once those two other fuckers get out of my way so I can finally claim her. If they think that they can win my Alessandra and take her away from me, they must be damn near mental because I’ll fight to death before that could happen. Trust me, she’s going home with me and only me. ALPHA GAVIN I never believed in mates. The day my father abandoned my mother and I to fend for ourselves, I lost all admiration and respect I had for the so-called “miracle” of being our kind. Everybody praised it, said it’s the best thing that someone like us could ever have. A once in a lifetime kind of feeling that you could never break apart from. Well I say bull-fucking-shit. I watched as my mother cried herself to sleep every single day and night and almost went lifeless from drinking herself to numbness. Do you know how much it would take for a body like ours to take in the effects of alcohol? A fucking lot. From that day forward, I swore to myself that mates were nothing but a form of torture disguised as something beautiful. I swore to myself that I would never, under any circumstances, let myself be blinded by it or anyone that claimed to be my mate. But then she came, her scent being the first thing that caught me off guard, and then when she looked at me, fucking hell, it was like all my walls came crashing down and all I wanted to do was to hold her and never let her go. Fuck! It wasn’t supposed to be like this! I’m trying my best to not let her sway me, but every time she’s away, I can’t stop thinking about her. I need her close to me. I need to feel her touch and take in her scent. I… I need… her. And those two other assholes who think they can have her? Who can have my mate?! Hell will freeze over before I let that happen. ALPHA LUCA All my life I’ve known nothing but structure. Everything had to be organized, nothing left out to chance. Every single detail, from the moment I wake up, until the very second my eyes close to sleep, it was calculated. It was the life I have lived for as long as I can remember, as someone who was born and raised into one of the most influential noble families in Italy. So when I can let loose, can feed the hunger of chaos that often grows as each day passes, there’s no way that I let that opportunity pass. They call me many names — a player, a fuckboy, a no good man but definitely good in bed. Frankly, I really couldn’t care less. The women, and some men, keep coming either way. I use it to escape the rules that I’ve been binded to. I use it to feel just a little bit of freedom even if it only lasts for one night… or whatever time of the day it is. I guess I was so caught up in drowning myself with other people that I forgot that somewhere out there, the Moon Goddess had given me just one person I was truly meant to be with. I quickly realized that too much time has been wasted without her already so I’m making sure that every single second I spend with her, she knows that she’s all that matters to me. I no longer care about the other women or anybody else. Not that I cared much even before, but this is different. None of them are my mate, Alessandra is. Now if only I could figure out how to get her attention. It’s hard enough that I’ve gotten so used to others just fawning over me with barely any effort, but now I have two other guys to compete against for her to even look at me? None of us know why she has three mates, but what I do know is that I’m going to need to step my fucking game up if I plan to be her one and only mate by the end of all this. None of us will know until we try, so I guess… Let the fun begin.ALPHA HARLEY My fingers drum the steering wheel so hard the leather is starting to peel. Gavin is pacing behind the hood of the SUV like a predator seconds from snapping steel in half, phone crushed in his hand. And Luca? He’s staring at the single, blinking red point on the tablet in his lap, Alessi’s last known location. It burned itself into the hollow pit already forming in my chest. The abandoned service road. The place where her signal vanished. Where she vanished. My wolf claws at my skin, frantic, sick. I swallow the metallic taste rising in my throat. “Run it again.” Luca’s breathing hitches. It was shallow, uneven. He doesn’t look at me when he taps the keys, a thin sheen of sweat covers his brow. The illness is hitting him again. Harder than before. “Harley,” he murmurs, “I’ve run it six times. It’s the same.” His voice cracks into a rasp. “She was taken and it stopped there.” My vision closes to a pinprick. My hands are shaking again, I believe another sym
The world comes back in pieces. First there was sound, then there was pain. A low mechanical hum fills my skull, steady and cruel, like a heartbeat that isn’t mine. My mouth is dry. My tongue tastes like metal. When I breathe, I smell antiseptic, bleach, and blood. My blood. Something pricks the crook of my arm. I try to move, but leather straps bite into my wrists. Panic blooms in me immediately. Where the hell am I? My chest rises too quickly, and the heart monitor beside me explodes in frantic beeps. The sound shreds the silence. The lab. The white walls. The light that was too bright to be real. And then, as if a ghost cutting through fog, someone whispers. “You’re real.” The voice is hoarse, trembling, small enough to shatter if I breathe too loudly. My body stills. My vision swims, focusing on a glass divider across the room. Behind it… No. That’s… She’s… Me?! The girl staring back has my face but clearly not my life. Her skin is pale and bruised, her lips crack
The bathroom at the gala was all marble and gold mirrors. Too clean, too perfect, too much like everything else in this town that didn’t belong to me, that I didn’t belong to. I gripped the sink and tried to breathe, but the words of doubt just flooded my head. Not good enough. Not worth it. Nothing. No one. I’ve always been no one. Frantic, I pulled my locket out from beneath my dress, a small silver heart that had survived my childhood. One of the few things from my parents that I’d managed to keep. My hands were shaking. I opened it and looked at the tiny photo of us smiling at the camera, but then it fell. The locket slipped from my fingers and clattered against the marble floor. Somehow, the back panel popped open. There, inside, was a small piece of paper, yellowed with age, with a number scribbled in my mother’s handwriting. My heart stopped. I stared at it for a moment, wondering what it meant and what I should do when I finally had the courage to pull out
ALPHA HARLEY The drive back from the Pack house should’ve taken three hours. I made it in two. My wolf was clawing beneath my skin, restless and angry. Something was wrong. Vaughn’s words looped through my head like a curse: She’s not just another Luna. Every mile between me and Alessi felt like a mistake I couldn’t undo fast enough. But halfway through, something else started. A cough. Then another. I pulled over, gripping the steering wheel as my lungs seized like they were being torn apart from the inside. I bent forward, gasping, tasting copper. When I wiped my mouth, there it was. A streak of blood across my palm, dark and real. “Shit.” I stared at it until the pounding in my skull drowned everything out. Not now. Not this. I forced the engine back to life and drove harder, ignoring the blur of lights, the honking cars, my wolf’s frantic growl pounding in sync with my heartbeat. By the time I reached the gala, Gavin and Luca were already outside,
ALPHA GAVIN I always thought these galas were the pinnacle of everything I hated. Forced smiles, stiff suits, hollow conversations about donations and legacies. But tonight? Tonight was different. Alessi stood beside me like a goddess in moonlight, her presence so commanding that every overdone chandelier and polished marble floor paled in comparison. The moment we stepped into the venue, her hand tucked in mine, I felt like I’d brought a spark of something real into a world built on pretense. She looked up at me, her eyes wide, lips parted slightly in awe. “This is… beautiful.” I couldn’t help the soft grin that tugged at my mouth. “Not as beautiful as you.” Her cheeks went red in the most stunning way, and suddenly my heart was doing things it hadn’t in years. Leaping, fluttering, hoping. I never brought girls here. Never. And I knew my stepfather would notice that. Alessi and I drifted toward the back garden when the ballroom got too loud. The lights strung across
ALPHA HARLEY Being back in the Pack house felt like wearing a shirt that didn’t fit anymore. Too tight across the chest, too itchy around the neck, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t breathe right. Everything was exactly the same. There was the scent of pine and stone, the walls lined with relics of my father’s rule, the hum of loyalty and fear that clung to the Pack like second skin. And yet I’d never felt more like a stranger. Vlad met me the second I stepped out of my truck. “You took your sweet time.” I smirked. “What, you missed me?” “Missed normalcy. My lunatic sister has been on a rampage. She’s holding unofficial ‘Luna luncheons’ now.” “You’re joking.” “I wish I was.” He ran a hand through his hair. “And the elders? They’re eating it up. She’s playing the part well. Tame, poised, sweet. Makes you look like the distant Alpha who needs a strong Luna to bring balance.” I clenched my jaw. “She’s trying to trap me.” “She thinks she already has.” —







