Found my mate?

“Why did you wait for the suppressant to finish before coming?” Rebecca sighed.

“I didn’t have the money. Last night was a large gala, and I got a bonus…” Aria shrugged. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her usually rosy face was pale. Her wolf was dying to be unleashed, and it was taking everything in her not to let it out.

Rebecca, an older woman who had mastered the potions of the forests around her, stood preparing what seemed to be a purple liquid. She was a groundskeeper at Cook County Forest Preserves and knew the forest like the back of her hand. She had been the one to find Aria all those years ago when she was half burned and left to die by her family.

Her weathered yet kind face held a hint of pity. Life hadn’t been kind to Aria. She had been born with a defective leg and one eye that didn’t work, the only omega in a family of alphas.

Her mother had given up her own life to save her newborn daughter. Aria had been treated horribly ever since, and it was only the great fire that saved her.

“Here you go, darling.” Rebecca handed her a vial, which Aria took eagerly and poured into her pendant. “I wouldn’t charge you, but I know you would rather die than take anything free of cost.”

“You do so much for me already. I don’t want to take more from you, Rebecca.” Aria smiled. “But something happened yesterday. The potion was almost gone, and my wolf awakened… I don’t know, Rebecca. It was like she wanted to stay back at the gala.”

“As if she were being pulled?” Rebecca asked with a frown.

“Yes. Exactly. She’s been restless since then.”

“Your alpha was there.” Rebecca sat down, her expression darkening. “Your wolf felt him close. She wants him. Now that he has awakened her, she won’t be suppressed easily.”

“What?” Aria sat up straighter. “What do you mean, my alpha? You mean my mate? But Father told me I had no mate, that omegas were for anyone to claim.”

“That’s not true. Yes, there are omegas without mates who are eventually claimed, but you do have a mate. And if your wolf is awake, so is his. And he is an alpha.”

“How do you know that? Rebecca, this is crazy!” Aria stood and began pacing, her hands nervously fiddling with her T-shirt.

“Because only two wolves at the gala don’t have mates. The Blackrocks.”

Aria frowned. The Blackrocks.

She remembered the day like it was yesterday. Her sister had been set to marry a man named Lucian Blackrock, and Aria was to be given alongside her as if she were an escort. But just as the ceremony began, a wildfire broke out. Her sister was swept away by their father, who barely escaped himself. Everyone else in her clan died that night.

No one came for Aria, and by the time someone did, she was half burned and on the edge of death. Rebecca nursed her back to health, and they had kept her a secret from her family, who assumed she had died.

No one knew why the fire had started, but for Aria, it had been liberation. Being burned had been worth it.

“I can’t go back there.” She shook her head. “I don’t know who it is, and I don’t want to know. If I’m a mate to someone, what do you think they’ll say when they find out I have a bad leg and I’m half-blind?”

“Aria, you’re beautiful, and those things don’t change that. If your mate is out there, he can’t live without you any more than you can live without him.”

“Okay, you’re being a little dramatic. We aren’t Romeo and Juliet.”

“Aria, a mate bond is painful. Your wolves yearn for each other, and they won’t stop now that they’re awakened.” Rebecca stepped closer and gently held Aria’s shoulders. “Aria, be careful, okay? Don’t go so far from your wolf that she has to go against you.”

Leaving Rebecca’s home, Aria couldn’t think of anything except the restless whimper inside her. Her wolf. Who was her mate? Damian or Lucian?

She had seen them a few times from afar. They were tall, intimidating men, with Damian looking more like a beast than a man. Lucian seemed cunning, tall and thin, with a look that made you feel like he knew every secret you had. But what did Damian truly look like? She hadn’t paid enough attention. When she came to the human world and left the forests behind, theirs had been the only company run by werewolves. Worried about being discovered by humans, many wolves working in human areas worked under the Blackrocks.

She took a cleaner’s job, knowing no one would care enough to look closely at her. With no formal education, it was all she could do. But she was happy. As small as her life was, it was hers, and she was free.

Aria reached home with a strange heaviness in her stomach, feeling like she might throw up at any moment. The suppressant was working against her wolf, but she feared the wolf might win if she went anywhere near her mate. She called in sick.

For any other wolf, this would be a joyous occasion. She had found her mate. But Aria knew better. She had never been considered beautiful. Her father had called her the black mark of the family for a reason.

If Damian or Lucian really were her mates, they would never want her. She had to work as hard as she could to stay away from them.