Chapter 2.

4 Years Later.

OLIVIA

When nightfall came, everyone gathered at the waterfall on the edge of the pack. It was said that this arcane lake hosted powers bestowed upon us by the moon goddess. Every ten years, under the blood moon, women in our pack would gather at the lake as an initiation, welcoming a twelve-hour blood Moon. This was the day many unmated girls yearned for. In the Lockheart manor, a ball would be held where the strongest of our kind gathered.

A few lucky ones would return home after this gathering, filled with joy from having spent an entire night with family and friends, only to find a red silk mask resting on their pillow.

If that were the case, they were the chosen Sparrows. A once-in-a-decade opportunity. Wearing the mask, they would be escorted to the ball, dressed in gowns that made even the richest blush with envy. Once there, they would be pursued by the strongest, wealthiest, and most eligible of our kind. For every leader needed his counterpart. But this event was for the males to prove their worth to the woman who could become their wife.

If he failed to do so, she would return home, and he would need to wait another ten years. That was the beauty of the ball; unmated males couldn’t take just any wife. He needed to be worthy of her companionship, devotion, and loyalty.

Female Alphas, however, didn’t have the same obligation. They had a smorgasbord of suitors waiting to fall to their knees and worship them. It was a sight to behold on the few occasions when I had.

” Earth to Oilvia,” Turning my head, I looked at Charity, who furrowed her brows.  ”Are you ready?”

No.

”Yes.”

Hooking our arms, we wandered through the woods, my stomach knotting the closer we got to the forest line.

Once we stopped at the fork in the road, separating the streets lined with what was left of the houses, Charity skipped in place, digging her fingers into my shoulder when she eagerly blurted out.

”The second you’re in your room, you call me. Got it?”

I nodded.

For the love of the moon goddess and the scrapes on my knees from the nightly prayers these last four years, don’t let there be a mask on my pillow.

It felt like an eternity before I reached my porch. The boards squeaked when I stepped up. The door shrieked from the worn-down hinges. Everything looked the same but the air was different. Heavier.

One foot in front of the other, I kept telling myself.

 My hand hovered in the air, cold metal brushing against my fingers when I gathered the courage to press the handle down, revealing my room. But most importantly, my bed.

The covers were a warm cream white, a thick comforter to protect me from the cold breezes blowing in through the cracks in the windows. This alone made it impossible to miss the red silk mask neatly folded on my pillow.

I jumped when my phone chimed in my pocket. A techno party was in full swing in my gut when I picked up. Loud shrieks boomed through the line; not much else would make her this happy. She’d been chosen, too.

”Did you get one?!”

I swallowed past the lump building in my stomach as I walked over to the bed. The mask slipped like liquid between my fingers, crimson against porcelain in a sinister beauty of color.

” I did,” I whispered.

The line fell silent for a moment. A heartbeat. Before it started up again. Without seeing her, I knew she was jumping around her room before the feathers in her mattress screamed as she sat.

”Why aren’t you screaming?” She asked. Her otherwise contagious glee fell void in my ears. ”Are you worried about what to wear?” That seemed more like her worry than mine.

”Not about the dress,” but about who I’ll meet.

The infamous firstborn son of the Lockhearts hadn’t been seen or heard from after his birth. Rumors were all that traveled between our borders. Ruthless. Heartless. A monster like his father. Worse even.

His promise that night four years ago rang like a trumpet in my ears: ”Mark my words, firecracker, I’ll do everything in my power to make you mine.”

The man whose family was responsible for my father’s death had invited me to the Ruby Ball. None of the Lockhearts had ever attended before… that I knew of.

Was I his reason for participating? If so, what was he hoping to get out of this? There’s a bigger chance that hell will freeze over before I ever set foot in his lair.

”What’s going on with you?” Charity didn’t know about the details of that night. Only that I hooked up with a stranger, that I lost my virginity, but the rest I kept to myself. I was not the only one who had suffered loss at the hands of that family. My entire pack had experience with their menacing ways.

”It’s nothing, my mom’s home, I’ll talk to you later.” We hung up. I hadn’t lied. My mother’s scent filled the hall outside my room instantly, the only scent that brought me calm.

Entering my room, her eyes immediately fell to the silk mask, shriveled in my fist.

”It’s not the worst thing. You could end up meeting someone lovely,” her euphonic voice had lulled me to sleep since I was little. It was always at her side that the world didn’t seem so cruel. Life didn’t seem so hard.

”Or someone whose heart is as cold as our winters,” I said.

My mother cupped my cheek, tilting my head back. Her collarbones were visible through the thin cotton shirt on her body. Around her neck hung a pendant, in which was a picture of my father and me.

”You have the power, Olivia. Not them. It is as much your choice what happens as it is theirs.” She folded my hair behind my ear. ”If your gut says no, you leave.”

It was his home. His game. His rules. Something told me he could bend and twist it in whatever ways he wanted. Or maybe I was spiraling, and this had nothing to do with him. Yes, good one, let’s hang on to that theory.