CHAPTER 1

 

IRENE'S POV

My chest heaved with rapid breaths, my eyes fluttered close. My lips fell open and a moan squeezed past my throat. My fingers were working overtime as I pushed them in and out of my wetness with my legs spread apart in bed.

I bit the corners of my lips as I threaded my fingers through my hair, gripping them a bit hard like I suspected he would. I imagined his hands on me instead. His long fingers sliding in and out, coated with my juices. He would stroke my insides while holding my legs apart.

"Karson," I moaned when his image was all I could see. I reached out my hand to touch him. To touch his rock hard body and trail my fingers down his chest to the V-line where his towel had hung loose.

His scent was buried in my memory. All it took was one sniff and here I was, moaning to this man and bucking my hips.

He looked so much better. His face was more defined and he grew so handsome in a short while. His shoulders were broad and wide. He had a perfect figure and toned body.

I increased my pace and I gasped when I found it. I slapped a hand over my mouth. The rising heat in the lower part of my stomach increased. 

Tears rolled down my face. I craved his touch, his fire. My body ached for his attention, the warmth in his eyes, I desired nothing more-

My toes curled and I jerked my hips as my body convulsed. I bit into my palm as my orgasm rolled out of me. It took a while to recover. I was breathing hard and trying to gather myself again.

This was the state he left me in. every single time we bumped into each other. Just a whiff of his scent and I was squirming for his touch.

I almost felt terrible for including him in my little session but he was all I could think about. I've been masturbating frequently now. My mating ceremony to the man of my fantasies was today.

One part of me was pleased and happy with the fact that I would have my long time dream come true; being mated to Karson. He was the soon to be Alpha of The Nightcrawlers Pride. I didn't care about his title, that wasn't the reason I loved him. With or without his title, I was bound to be drawn to him.

While one part was pleased, the other part was devastated. As much as I wanted to be his mate, I wasn't. Even worse, Karson seemed to think that I had bewitched Luna- his mother- into arranging our marriage.

"She's wolfless, mother," he had said during dinner tonight. His contempt was loud, his mock even louder. I withdrew my hands from the table and hid them under with my head lowered at the usual confrontation.

"I know," Luna Teresa's reply was calm like she was unaffected by her son's cruel words. I wished his words wouldn't affect me at all. Yet every time he opened his mouth, I was close to tears.

Maybe if I loved him any less, I would have tougher skin and wouldn't be running to my room crying like a three year old.

He was right. I was wolfless. It wasn't impossible for a werewolf not to have a wolf, it was just rare to find and even rarer for that wolfless wolf to be Luna, ruling over a powerful pack as The Nightcrawlers Pride.

According to the book of records in the Pack, I would be the first wolfless Luna. While breaking a record didn't seem too bad, this wasn't exactly the kind of record I would be boastful of.

"Yet you would subject your only son and heir to the Pride Family Pack to this fate?" Karson had asked his mother in an accusing tone that made me stop feeling sorry for myself but sorry for her.

A wolfless mate meant one of two things; There was a high chance of birthing a wolfless pup and there was a lower chance of birthing a pup- in this case, the next Alpha.

I squeezed my dress in a fist. The pressure that was upon my shoulders was more than anyone could ever imagine.

"I have strong faith in our genes," Aunt Teresa- as I'd come to know her, smirked. "After all, your father's family were all Alpha's, down to his mother. So you're from a thick and strong Alpha bloodline. I have faith in you-"

"My goodness!" Karson huffed in disbelief. "Can you hear yourself, mother? You're betting everything away for her?"

I wanted the soft dining chair that had suddenly grown cold under my butt to swallow me.

"What’s so special about her anyways!"

I've heard that before. It shouldn't be anything new. I've cried my eyes out to those words yet every time he asked, it was a whole different feeling than I had bargained for.

I was plain. I had no scent, no wolf, no family. There was literally nothing to my name. All I had was everything Aunt Teresa had given to me since I was five. My parents died in a war and Luna had been so kind as to take me in. She couldn't recall my last name so she gave me Pride instead.

I was already sharing a last name with the man I came to love. Karson and I lived under the same roof. Growing up around him had been okay. He never showed me this hate, he never even spoke to me except when we were at the table. But ever since he returned from his training where he stayed away to be Alpha for three years, things had gone down the drain.

"This is your doing, isn't it?"

I stiffened at his words and finally lifted my gaze. The anger and hate in his eyes was enough to let a tear slide down my eye. He was convinced I had bewitched Luna. After all, why would she decide to kill her own bloodline that had been passed down for years?

I quickly wiped my eyes. I didn't want Luna to notice plus Karson would scold me and be cross at me if his mother confronted him about making me cry.

I fear he was already running from my reach before I could even stretch out my hands.

"I'm sorry, I have no hand in this," I said either way, knowing fully well that he wouldn't believe me.

"Don't apologize for things that are beyond your control, Irene," Aunt Teresa wiped her mouth with her napkin and rose to her feet. "You two will be just fine. The mating ceremony is in a few days. Get to know yourselves a lot better," with her little advice, she walked away, allowing fear to step in.

Karson would eat me alive now that we were alone. I wanted to run after Aunty but I knew it would be childish-

"Don’t get any ideas in your head," Karson stated and I turned my attention to him. His words pierced me like a hot thin needle. "You're only my mother's choice. Once I find my mate, I'll have her as my Luna and you'll step down."

I gulped and started to nod slowly at his words.

"I don't need you to agree, Irene," he scoffed, reminding me that I didn't have a choice and that he called all the shots. "That's just the way it's supposed to be. Think of this as a way of repaying my mother's kindness all those years." Karson got up and walked out of the table.

I tried my hardest to understand him. I guess, in a way, his hate was justified. He returned from his Alpha training only to discover he was arranged to be married. He was stripped of the chance to find his mate and he was stuck with someone as useless as myself.

His words, his attitude had screamed one thing. 'Know your place, Irene,' and I read the message loud and clear.

****************

Our mating ceremony was a long and torturous one for me. The Pack congratulated us endlessly and the smile I plastered on my face should leave a mark by morning. Karson stood stiffly by my side.

We were now the new Alpha and Luna of The Nightcrawlers Pride and we were expected to carry out our duties immediately. While no one would say it, I knew that the 'baby making process' was expected as well.

We headed to our new room to commence and mark the final activity for the mating ceremony. A day that I had looked forward to all my life.

I was nervous and it didn't seem like a good one. I didn't know what to expect but I was already wet, my nipples had rolled into tight buds and they tried to gain attention and drill a hole through my outfit.

I stepped into the room before him. "I'll be right back," he said and I nodded, closing the door behind me. Immediately, I dashed to the bathroom and took a shower. I couldn't afford this moment to be ruined.

I wrapped the towel around my chest and got out of the shower. My heart hammered in my chest. Karson was staring at me with his undivided attention.

His gaze dropped lower and I tightened my hand around my towel. The air was thick and in an instant, he was taking long strides towards me. 

I met him half way and while my hands reached out to touch his face and pull him into a kiss, his hand grabbed my towel and he yanked it off.

I gasped in shock but his hands grabbed my breasts. I was immediately enveloped in the feel of him. I wrapped my hands around his back as he licked and softly nibbled on my hard nipples. 

His rough hands trailed down my body and kicked my legs apart. He slid two fingers into my core and I gasped at the sudden intrusion.

"How are you so wet?" He mumbled to himself.

I couldn't breathe. His fingers were bigger than mine so they stretched me more than I had ever done to myself.

I felt so full and I hadn't even had the real thing yet. He pumped into me hard and fast, soon my legs shook and my eyes were fluttering close.

"Karson," I wanted it now. I wanted it right now. I wanted his shaft filling me up and I wanted his bite mark over my neck.

"Fucking hell, Irene!" He cursed and roughly pulled out his fingers. He grabbed my wrist and made me climb the bed, he pressed a hand to my waist and I knew what he wanted.

I stayed ass up, face down. I was exposed to him in that position with my legs spread apart. I gripped the sheets beside my head and waited impatiently.

The sound of his zipper fuelled my rising hunger and soon I felt something cold and hard poke at my entrance.

Suddenly alarmed, I started to rise, "Karson, wait I've never-"

He thrust his full length into me and my jaw dropped open.

"Fuck! How are you so...tight!" Karson forced those words through his teeth.

The sharp pain I felt was overwhelmed by the pleasure that came soon after. I felt him all the way to the back of my throat.

My insides were stretched to their limit and when he pulled out and slammed back in, hard and fast, a tear rolled down my cheek.

It was more than I had imagined. It was blissful. I could almost see it. The way he pulled back with my juices coating his shaft, inviting him to slam back in and when he did, I could only chew my lip and let out moans of pleasure.

Our first night was pure fucking and nothing else. I gripped the sheets as he grabbed my waist to meet and take his every thrust.

I was gasping for breath and his thrusts were faster, shorter and harder.

I wondered how it was even possible to move his hips like that.

I could barely catch my breath.

If I died today, I would die a happy, wolfless wolf who finally married the man of her dreams.

I needed his bite mark.

"Karson," I managed to get the words out in between gasps and moans.

My orgasm was sudden and instant. My body shook and convulsed as he kept up his thrusts. I squeezed my eyes shut as the electricity rolled through my vibrating core, clenching down hard on him and sucking him in.

He grew harder under in an instant and I soon felt something warm in my belly and his shaft pulsed like a heart pumping.

My body was spent and I was too weak to open my eyes. He pulled out and I let out a weak moan. I waited for his touch to find me but the only thing I heard were his footsteps and soon, the sound of the door opening and then closing- announcing his departure.

Karson had left without leaving his mate bite behind.