CHAPTER 1: PAST CURFEW 

LOUISA.

“I can't believe I let you talk me into this,” I whisper as I duck under another branch, racing through the unclaimed space between my pack, the Blood Moon pack, and the open road.

“Oh, come on,” Tammy, my best friend and chief trouble maker, urges me on. “You know you want to. You have been hearing about this rager for months now, what better time are you going to have to go?”

Huh.

She does have a point.

“Aren't your brothers going to be mad when they find out where you are gone?” I ask.

“Don't worry about me, at least my brothers are sane and capable of sane reactions. Your father on the other hand…”

“Right.”

My pack is… unusual to say the least.

Very… bigoted in thinking and in practice.

As a female of the pack, I am supposed to be in my house, under lock and key by eight not sneaking around to go to a rager at half past ten.

If anyone finds out that I did so, only the goddess knows what would happen.

And yet, I don't care.

They are days I can handle their crap but not today.

Not after the weird way Gaines, our Alpha’s son, had been staring at me during the general meeting.

What a creep.

I wouldn't have known what life outside looked like, how other packs operated if it wasn't for Tammy, who is from the Tryst pack, one of the biggest packs in the country and a constant source of envy to Gaines and his father.

In her pack, women are respected, allowed to train, and seen as equals, not as tools to help take care of the home and push out babies.

It is an unusual friendship between us two, one that I have guarded jealously and with great care.

“Ugh, enough about my weird pack,” I say as we finally make it out into the open road. “Tell me about this rager and why you were so insistent I had to attend this one.”

“Oh, okay yes!” she exclaims with excitement as she gives a little bounce in her walk. “This one is unique because of who is attending.”

“Who is attending?”

“Travis!* she squeals with delight. “Can you imagine it? The prince himself is coming out to deign his subjects with his perfect, sexy self.”

“Eew, Tammy. Get a grip. And why is he coming to a party? I thought they weren't his scene?”

“They aren't! But our Beta and some of his friends have managed to persuade him to come today.”

“Why?”

“Because it is his birthday. One more year before he can meet his mate.”

“You are talking like it is a wild bash, one night stand kind of thing, aren't you?”

“Yes!”

“And you want to be the lucky girl?”

“One can only dream. But no, I am just going there for all the other hot wolves that would come out of the wood work because of him.”

“You don't think you can get him?”

“No. And frankly, I don't think anyone can.”

                                      †

“Woww,” I exclaim as we walk into the club.

I was thinking of some abandoned building style kind of party, not this.

This is… classy.

The club’s atmosphere is filled with a sense of expensive, and I mean expensive luxury.  

Everything is so glossy and sleek and smells like money.

Now this is a club.

Not that dungeon like setting Gaines has his own party.

“Not what you had in mind right?” Tammy asks with a delighted smirk.

“Not even in the slightest. This is amazing. What kind of wolves frequent this place?”

“The big shots. I am kind of surprised that Gaines hasn't been here,” she says as we maneuver ourselves to the bar.

“Pfft. Don't be ridiculous,” I tell her. “Gaines won't come to a place like this. He believes himself to be above everyone.”

“Even if it's to connect and make alliances?”

“That would mean admitting that he needs those connections and alliances, making him look to be weak and one thing the men of our pack hate to be seen as is weak.”

“That doesn't make sense. How do they intend to survive by keeping to themselves? What would happen if they needed help? Who would come to their aid?”

“That is the point. They believe they are strong enough, powerful enough to protect themselves. I don't know whether it is their ego or the fact that their brain has been addled by all the inbreeding.”

“You don't mean that,” she says as she pushes a drink to me. “I am sure even your pack believes in the sanctity of mates.”

“Of course they do, as long as the mates are within the pack, if not you are mated to the male who fights and wins your hand, no choice in the matter.”

“That's so… archaic,” she mutters with distaste.

 “I know.”

“Do you intend on staying there, forever?”

“I don't know. I guess I am waiting to see if my mate is in the pack, if not… Well, I will cross that bridge once I get there.”

“Okay. Let's put all the depressing talk away for now and enjoy the buffet that has been laid out for us,” she says with a lascivious smirk.

“You know, you can be quite disgusting sometimes,” I remark.

“Oh, I know. I just don't care. Come on, let's go dance!” she says as she pulls me with her.

I only have a few seconds to drop the drink before I am dragged onto the dance floor.

“I don't want to dance,” I shout, my voice carrying over the bass. 

“Oh, come on, have a little fun!”

I shake my head at her before turning away.

“Nah… I am going to-oof!”

I come to a halt as I hit my head in a fucking wall.

Why is a wall in the middle of a dance floor?!

I look up to see what it is and I can literally feel my breath leave my body as I look up to the most beautiful pair of eyes ever.

Travis Raid… the future Alpha of the Tryst pack.

How does someone get to be that damned gorgeous?!