Chapter 1

When I woke up and found myself naked in bed with my best friend Andreas, I stiffened in shock.

I’d been secretly in love with him all my life, but never in my wildest dreams did I dare to imagine…this.

Because Andreas was my sister, Bria’s fated mate.

Not mine.

Andreas, me and Bria grew up together in this pack led by Andreas’s Alpha father. We’d been inseparable.

After Bria and Andreas found out they were fated mates at the age of eighteen, I decided to step away.

Despite how badly I wanted him for myself, I would never come between fated mates. They were meant for each other.

Unfortunately, the Lycans, our hated enemies, murdered Bria before they could succeed as the young Alpha and Luna from Andreas's parents.

Losing Bria had broken part of Andreas. That her murder by Lycans was linked to unknown traitors in our pack – spies for the Lycans – left him despondent like I’d never imagined our idealistic Alpha heir could be.

But I understood. The loss and fear had broken part of me, too.

Slowly, over the past year, it had seemed like Andreas was recovering. I helped him handle his Alpha duties however I could, a silent supporter at his side.

I knew that was all I could ever be to him because he would never forget Bria. Neither would I.

I supposed if I ever found my own fated mate, I would let go of Andreas. Even though no one had ever appeared so far.

Now I turned to Andreas lying next to me again. He was still asleep, still naked, his dark hair falling over his eyes.

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh.

What had I done last night?

The last thing I remembered was—

Last night, I got a call from Ylva, Andreas’s Beta, after I finished training. She was a tough old warrior, wiry and fierce in both human and wolf shape. She’d trained me and most of the pack’s young werewolves.

“It’s Andreas,” she said bluntly. “Drunk. At Lia’s engagement party. He needs you.”

I began running. “What happened?”

“No clue. But you’re the only other person he trusts to see him when he cries.”

That made me run faster. My heart broke for him.

I wished he didn’t need to appear at things like these, Alpha’s heir or not. Didn’t people realise it reminded him of the wedding he’d never have?

The engagement party had spilled out of Lia’s house and into the twilit woods. I picked up Andreas’s scent easily; it was the smell I knew best. Weaving between the partiers, I followed his trail into the forest.

I found him beside our old climbing tree, staring up at the apple blossoms. Tears poured down his face.

Andreas turned when he heard me approaching. The raw anguish in his face made me wonder how anyone imagined he’d moved on.

“Mica,” he rasped, and I ran to him.

I folded him in my arms and felt him sob against my heartbeat.

Mica, a nickname Bria made when our parents adopted her, because she was too little to say Michaela. Now only Andreas called me that.

I held him as he cried and his warm, spicy scent filled my nose. I breathed him in.

Even if I couldn’t be his lover, I wished I could comfort him like Bria did.

Bria would have know what to say to comfort him, but I was at a loss. Maybe there was something in her blood that I didn’t get, as her adoptive sister. Training, fighting, pushing my body to its limits – that, I could do. However, I’ve never been any good at talking, not like she was.

Andreas buried his face in my neck. Suddenly, I realised I couldn’t smell Bria on him anymore. Her bright, sweet scent had faded.

But I knew she still held his heart.

“I miss her so much, Mica. I’d give anything to have her back.”

“I know,” I whispered. “Me, too.”

He drew away, wiping his eyes. “I wanted to come out here and drink to her. To remember. But it was all too much.”

I put my arm around his shoulders, like any best friend. “Then let’s drink to her. Together.”

He passed me the bottle. I drank, passed it back, and watched his lips close around the spot mine had touched.

We kept drinking as I led him back to his room.

I only meant to take him home safely, let him sleep it off. But he kept passing the bottle back to me, and looking at me with his big brown eyes.

I could never resist him.

“Couldn’t have done any of this without you, Mica,” he murmured as we stumbled into his bedroom. “Being Alpha. Missing her. Would’ve lost myself, without you.”

We still had our arms slung around each other’s shoulders. He leaned into my warmth as I sat us on the bed.

“I’m… I’m always here for you, Andreas.”

“Always,” he whispered, gazing up at me. Our faces were so close. His warm scent was overwhelming. “You’re – you’ve been. Been everything to me.”

I whispered, “You’re everything to me, too.”

I don’t know which of us moved first, in our dim, drunken haze. But suddenly his mouth was on mine, like I’d always dreamed. Better than I’d ever dreamed.

His lips sent shocks of lightning through me. The warm press of our bodies was more intoxicating than alcohol. His hands tangled in my hair; my hands clutched his hips.

Desperately, we tore away each other’s clothes. We devoured each other with kisses, hungry as any wolves.

I burned with want. I smelled the same fire in him, too.

I felt his teeth on my neck, and the soaring flames carried us through the night.

With the bits and pieces of memories flooding back to me, my hand brushed the side of my neck.

I felt the temporary mark he’d given me. A piece of Andreas on my skin, where a mate’s mark belonged.

My heart thrummed with nervousness – and hope. More hope than I’d ever let myself feel.

Maybe my pounding heart woke him. Andreas’s eyes flew open. For a moment, as we looked at each other, I thought my lifelong dream would come true.

Then he drew away. His sweet face was blank with shock.

“Mica. I’m so sorry,” Andreas breathed. “I’d never – I shouldn’t have–”

I drew the sheets up to cover myself, hoping he didn’t see how my hands shook.

“I still… I still love Bria. I don’t think I could… I can’t love anyone else, right now. I’m so sorry.”

The disappointment was like an avalanche, tearing my last hopes away from me.

I forced my lips into the ghost of a smile, trying to tell him it was fine, but my voice failed me.

I turned away and began pulling on my abandoned clothes.

“Mica,” Andreas said, grabbing my hand. His eyes fell to the mark on my neck. “I’ll take responsibility, if you need me to. But – you’ve always said you wanted to find your fated mate. I don’t want to take that away. I won’t insist. But…”

I clutched his hand, feeling both joy and bitterness well up inside me. I wished I’d never said I wanted my fated mate, back when I thought Andreas and Bria would be together forever.

His wide dark eyes met mine. “Mica, if you’re willing…”

Of course I was willing. More than willing. My heart had always been his.

I opened my mouth to tell him.

That was when Ylva burst into the room.

Ylva barely spared the scene a blink: me barely dressed, Andreas naked under a blanket, a temporary mark at my throat. Her face was like stone.

“Andreas,” she said. “The traitor to the pack has been found.”

I couldn’t keep in my gasp. The traitor – the person responsible for Bria’s murder by Lycans.

Andreas growled aloud. I hadn’t seen that anger in his face since the day we lost my sister.

“Tell me everything, Ylva,” he ordered.

But Ylva didn’t obey. Instead, she turned her cold gaze to me.

My heart tightened. I didn’t understand. How could this have anything to do with me?