Chapter 2

My hands shot up instinctively. Lies began to spew out of my mouth. “I swear, I'm not here to steal anything. My dog got lost and I-”

 “Quiet!!!” One of the men holding the guns barked. I whimpered, squeezing my eyes shut.

 “What's your name, and who sent you here?” The same voice asked. 

 I stayed quiet, trembling. My eyes were still closed. 

 “Open your eyes and answer the question before I give you a reason to cry,” he said in a tone that sent chills up my spine.

I snapped my eyes open and scanned the room slowly. Dim light crept into the room, just enough for me to see the four gun barrels pointed at me. 

 “I…my name is Elara. And…and nobody sent me here,” I replied honestly.

 “Let’s take her to him,” one of them said, just before I felt the nozzle of a gun at my lower back. 

“Move!” He barked and my feet moved automatically. Both my hands remained in the air as I went in the direction they were pushing me in.

We approached a door at the far end of the building, and an oddly sweet scent traveled to my nose. It made me restless and if it weren't for the guns keeping me in place, I would have ran towards it. 

 The scent grew stronger, replacing my fear with an unfamiliar anticipation.

 As soon as I entered the wider room, my eyes landed on a pair of dark ones staring right into my soul.

 I heard one of the men talk but the words sounded as though they were coming from a distance. My eyes remained trained on the devilishly handsome man standing across the room from me. 

The moment my eyes locked on his, the air in my lungs turned heavy. Something low in my belly twisted, pulling me forward before I even realized I’d moved.

Heat surged under my skin, crawling up my neck and flooding my cheeks. My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out the muffled voices around us.

Every scent but his vanished, only the warm, intoxicating mix of pine and smoke remained, curling into my chest like it belonged there.

My wolf, silent for years, stirred faintly in the farthest corner of my mind, not a growl, not a word, just a restless thrum that told me exactly what I was staring at.

Mate!!

It was unlike everything that had ever been described to me about the mate pull.

 “Leave,” I heard a deep voice command. 

At first, I thought I was the one being referred to until I saw the men with the guns and others that had previously occupied the room before me, all walking out.

 “Mate,” he growled lowly and my heart jumped to my throat.

 He closed the wide gap between us in three short strides and I swallowed hard.

 I felt the power radiating off his presence when he was steps away from me and now that he stood right before me, my knees weakened. 

 This man was born into leadership. Was he of Alpha Blood maybe?

A dangerous glimmer of hope swelled in my chest.

 “What is your name?” 

 “Elara,” I whispered.

 “Louder!”

 “Elara. Elara Rossi.”

 “Alpha Moretti,” he said in response.

 I pursed my lips together to stop my mouth from dropping open. 

An alpha! 

My mate is an alpha!

 “What pack do you belong to?” He asked firmly again.

 “Open Creek Pack.”

 I saw an eyebrow raise slightly and I could tell he wasn't impressed. There was nothing impressive about Open Creek.

 “An omega,” he muttered to himself.

 I shivered under his gaze. He cocked his head at me, keeping his eyes firm on mine and then barked a single order. 

 “Shift!”

 I stood still, unsure of what to do. 

He said nothing else. 

I had a feeling he wasn't going to repeat himself. It wasn't as though I had never shifted or that I didn't know how to. Rather, I hadn't done it in so long that I wasn't sure I remembered how. 

 “I... I can't,” I stuttered quietly. 

“I don't know how to,” I lied.

His thin lips curled into a snarl. If there was any uncertainty left in him, it probably disappeared at that very moment. 

Makayla, my wolf, hadn’t responded in years. Now, I could feel it again, the emptiness between us ached sharper than ever. 

 “Shift!” He repeated. 

 “I apologise, Alpha,” I lowered my head. “I lost connection with my wolf. I could explain how it happened now or perhaps as we get to know each-”

 He cut me off by raising a hand. The building was dead silent.

“I, Alpha Alessandro Moretti of the Moretti Brun Pack reject you, Elara Rossi as my mate,” he said, his voice vibrating off the walls in the room.

 My legs failed me and I fell to the ground.

 My vision became clouded, and I trembled like a leaf on the ground. 

“I cannot have such a scrawny, insignificant, and utterly inconvenient female who embodies weakness and vulnerability as a Luna for my pack,” he said, as though he heard the question in my mind. 

“I'm not weak,” I said in a shaky voice. 

Even to my own ears, I sounded pathetic. “It might take me some time, but I'll learn to be a good Luna.’

 He shook his head, disgust clouding his features. “You are beneath me, a liability I cannot afford. I can never claim you as mine.”

My ears were ringing, I was reeling from the pain and humiliation. I summoned every ounce of strength I had left.

 “I, Elara Rossi, accept your rejection and reject you mine.”