PROLOGUE

Mirabelle

A small crowd of teens had gathered along the hallways of Bimmerville high to witness another drama, standing on my slim five foot five height I was almost shivering under the piercing glare of the school diva.

Alicia Donovan, a strikingly gorgeous red head with an envious hourglass figure fitting tightly into the tight jean miniskirt and a drooping halter top that showed off her pink lacy bra drawing all eyes to her. Rules were non existent for her being the only pampered daughter of Hamilton high's principal and the beta of Blackwood pack.

One would think I'd hold more status than her as the daughter of the current alpha of Blackwood pack, however that wasn't the case, all my life I'd always known I was an adopted child, my adopted mother didn't miss a day to make me feel that way, my adopted father Alpha William Blackwood was fairly nice to me, however there was never an emotional connection between us.

The whole pack knew of my status in the Blackwood family, which was why I had never received any respect whatsoever from any members in the pack, in fact I was the biggest object of ridicule in the people's eyes. And at Bimmerville high, the biggest target for bullies like Alicia Donovan.

"What the hell is she wearing? She looks like a haunted ghost from the nineties." Sally, Alicia's bff snickered voicing her ridiculing words to earn everyone's laughter.

Alicia smirked looking straight at me with doll like devious eyes.

I'd had my curly ashy blonde hair down covering my face as usual, walking down the halls to my first class when I'd bumped into someone.

"Fuck! Are you blind?!" Alicia Donovan's shrill voice had rung into my ears.

I'd stepped back quietly trying to side step her but I was yanked back to stand in front of her. I didn't feel the need to apologize, I wasn't at fault, I'd sensed her coming from a mile away and had sidestepped to avoid her, though my hair was down I could still see where I was going, but Alicia had deliberately walked right into me, it was another opportunity to humiliate the disregarded daughter of the alpha in public.

"What are you waiting for ugly midget? Apologize!" Her obnoxious command had rang forth.

The teenagers gathered around mumbling to themselves, however their laughter and mockery rang loudly in my ears. I had already gotten my wolf at a very early age, so I had heightened sense of sight and hearing.

I remained silent to Alicia's demand that I apologize, I did nothing wrong, so I had nothing to apologize for.

Alicia Donovan had never spared an effort to bully and ridicule me right from the moment we both first stepped into elementary school.

She used to be the girl who would pull my pigtails and pour water from her bottle on my seat then tell everyone I peed myself. The same girl who hid my assignment in middle school and made me get punished for not turning it in, the same girl who locked me up in the lab a few weeks ago when everyone had already left school and I was found hours later by the security. That was Alicia Donovan, my age old bullying nemesis.

And me...I was just another pushover who didn't have enough guts to stand up to her.

"Being stubborn huh?" Alicia queried tauntingly, "Fine, if you won't apologize for shoving against me, I'll just shove you right back."

I hadn't gotten the chance to speak when a force knocked me far back I could swear I was soaring before I landed painfully on my butt against the floors in the hallway.

I could feel my wolf stir within me, enraged at the sort of treatment we were being subjected to at the hands of Alicia Donovan, but I suppressed her, I didn't want to cause trouble by suddenly shifting and getting into a fight.

Heels clanked up to me and I could smell her rosy fragrance as she slowly crouched in front of me.

"Oh look, you've found the perfect spot for you, on the ground where you belong. Don't even try to fit in this school or in this pack, because I'm sure your real family are just some lowly omegas from a rogue pack who were more than eager to sell off their own daughter to the wife of an alpha who never had a child of her own. You and I are on different levels, so never walk on the path I walk, and don't dare to breathe the same air as I do, for everyday that I see you in my world, I'll continue to push you down, right back to where you belong."

Her words were like a prickling knife to my chest when she insulted my biological family, but I was weakened and powerless because I did not know the truth.

My mom had never told me anything about where she got me, but on the days she'd drink herself to drown off her problems and the fact that she'd never had a child for the alpha to be an heir and the future alpha of the Blackwood pack, she never failed to tell me how I'm not related to her by blood but was just bought from a needy family.

Alicia got on her feet sauntering away with her clique of the coolest prettiest girls at Bimmerville high who stalked past me with their heels threatening to dig into me on the floor.

The crowd dispersed and with the ring of the bell, every teen disappeared into their various classes.

I could still feel the harsh coldness of the floor against my butt and I was weakened to even get up.

All my life I'd always felt like I'd been plunged into a ferocious jungle as a prey, under the danger of hungry and powerful predators who could squash me under their feet.

Alicia's bullying and my adopted mother's constant hatred made me develop an inferiority complex that made me curl into myself. I became shy and barely spoke at all, I'd hide my face under my bouncy curls of hair and all I ever wore were plain dresses that according to Alicia and her girls made me look like a haunted ghost from the nineties.

Still pathetically sitting on my butt I tried to get up, but slid back down losing my balance when a fair handsome hand appeared in my line of vision.

"Here, let me help you."

Looking up, my eyes met a pair of warm chocolate brown eyes on a dashing face my heart stopped and skipped in my chest, I could barely hear anything else other than the loud beating of my own heart.

Antonio Edwards. My long time crush and the hottest boy in all of Bimmerville high, he was also the star basketball player and every girl's dream.

His alluring thin lips moved but I couldn't hear the words he said, mesmerized by his handsome features. I was glad my hair did all the work in concealing my face, at least then he wouldn't see the infatuated look in my eyes.

"You're going to get in trouble if a teacher finds you here when classes have already started, let me help you up." His voice was thick and deep yet had a pleasant warm tone to it, sexy and comforting at the same time.

I reached out still in a daze, placing my small hands in his and he effortlessly pulled me up, perhaps the sight of him had me weak in the knees but I found myself almost tripping again until he held my shoulders in place steadying me from making another fall. "Whoa, easy." He chuckled softly, the sound tickling my insides I couldn't help but smile, but I'm sure he couldn't see that.

He looked at me for a few moments as if he could see right through the bushy ashy blonde curls to my face hidden underneath. I wanted him to see beyond my mask, to see the real me, I wanted him to think I was pretty and for him to like me as much as I liked him.

But a flash of doubt in my heart made me quickly step back out of his strong hold lowering my head to look at the floor. What if he thought of me as a lowly wolf just like everyone else does, what if he looked at me and didn't like what he sees?

"Are you alright?" He asked, I could hear a tinge of concern in his warm tone and my heart fluttered once more.

"I'm fine, thank you." My voice was soft and timid, I barely talked to most people so I doubted if anyone knew the sound of my voice at all.

"I gotta get to class." He suddenly said, filling me with a mixture of disappointment and relief at the same time.

Disappointed that he was going to walk away again, just like every other time I got to be in his presence, and relieved that he won't stay longer to see the mess I was.

"See you around Mirabelle."

He said my name!

Shocked, my eyes widened beneath the strands of my hair I stared at him, the sound of his voice saying my name made a thousand butterflies flutter in my stomach.

I couldn't believe that he actually knew my name. I watched that tall back, quite muscular for a teen walk away until he disappeared from my line of sight, a silent wish that I'd always repeated to myself every morning I wake up and every night before I fall asleep.

'In two weeks time when the mating gala arrives, I wish you would be my mate Antonio Edwards.'

That was the only way he would truly accept me regardless of my true identity, that was the only way he would truly love me too. By being my fated mate.

And in two weeks after the high school graduation party when the mating gala would be hosted at the large halls of the alpha's mansion for every teen coming of age to be able to recognize their mates, I wished Antonio Edwards would recognize me as his.