Chapter 1

"There is something you need to see, my lady," said my maid to me as she opened the door and looked in my chambers.

Her countenance was that of someone who had seen something that beggars description and needed some other pair of eyes as a witness. So I dropped the dress in my hand and followed her out.

"Speak no word as we go," Debra said.

We walked down the steps that led outside the manor and swept past the gardens, and when she took me beyond the gates, I had to pull her back and throw caution to the wind. "Where are we going, Debra?"

"I am sorry for being too secretive, my lady," she apologized, looking around warily. "But I felt this is important to you."

"Why can't you just tell me what it is?"

She shook her head and led the way again. It was towards evening, and the manor had gotten less noisy. I watched Debra closely, and it dawned on me that she was leading me to the hills, where Killian's private study was.

"Killian?" I said.

Debra just looked at me with those sad eyes and said nothing. That was when I increased my pace.

********

The back of the building was where she took me, and through a door that she tried so hard not to make it creak. The windows in the little lobby endured the last rays of sunlight that dropped on weaponry. We walked through there until I began to hear muffled voices and wondered what exactly Debra needed me to witness. The voices came from Killian's study. It was a large training room that bred the best of werewolf warriors. Always has been.

Debra stopped beside the slightly open door. "Go through, my lady," whispered Debra.

"Why? What for? Who is talking in there?" I said.

"That is what I brought you here to see. We don't have much time, my lady."

"If this has anything to do with..."

"Your relationship with Lord Killian, then yes, you should know."

I stepped through the door and wedged myself behind a pole. The voices came out clear.

"Why are your drawers still on?"

I looked towards the sound of the voice and saw the form of a man standing over the bent form of another figure against a table. There were other figures in the study room, all lined up in a file behind the man. I knew that shape at any time. It was Killian.

The grunts and moans started, and I realized that my mate, Killian Romero, wasn't training those ladies, he was making love to them.

One by one.

********

"What was that, Killian?" I demanded, interrupting his orgy.

Killian turned to look at me and palmed his hair behind his face. "Get out, all of you!" he ordered. The ladies skittered out like turkeys.

Killian walked over to one end of the room and poured himself a drink. My heart was beating hard, like a madman's drum. I wanted an explanation. He walked back with a drink in one hand.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Does that even matter? I am your mate."

"You have no business here at this time of the day."

"You are avoiding the question, Killian," I said, somehow scolding.

"I was fucking," said Killian curtly.

"You have a mate," I said again.

"Huh… I'm not so sure about that."

"What are you talking about, Killian?"

"Haven't you seen the signs, Valeria? Because you haven't, I have."

"What signs?"

"You have a deformity, Valeria," said Killian, as he pointed one finger at me. "You are defective. Where is your ability to turn?"

"What?"

"Should I assume that your question is just a pretense? You do know what I am talking about, Valeria."

I breathed in because if it had come out the other way, I might not have been able to hold back the tears. "Is it my fault that I have been unable to turn? To be like you?"

"Is it my fault?" rebutted Killian. "And, you are nothing like me, Valeria. Nothing."

"So because you see me as defective, is this why you are cheating on me?"

"Cheating, you say?" said Killian, with a laugh. "How is this cheating? Those ladies you made me send out are werewolves, and you are older. They turn. So I decided that since you cannot meet my expectations, maybe I should find someone else who makes me feel like an Alpha. Because, to be frank with you, Valeria, you do make me feel less of myself," added Killian as he drank from his cup.

It was one thing for him to tell me this, but another to tell it to my face after I had caught him in the act. Killian denied nothing.

"So it is the sex?"

"No, Valeria. In as much as I see the sex as average, that isn't why I am doing this," said Killian. "I am just looking for the right one."

Killian Romero was the Lord of the manor, and as such, was an Alpha, but it wasn't going to be made official for another week. If he was doing such to me, then he was looking for someone else before his coronation ceremony. This realization hit me like a bag of nails.

"Why didn't you just tell me, Killian? Why have to make it so secretive?"

"Would you have let me? Hmm? Anyway, I am the Alpha. I do not need to let you know if I need multiple bedmates. If you don't live up, you get properly buried in secrecy."

"Are you rejecting me, then, Killian?"

Killian drank from his cup again. I wondered why he hadn't bothered to wear his pants.

I continued. "No, were you going to reject me on your coronation, banishing me to public shame?"

"I wish I could say otherwise, Valeria," said Killian, as he shook his head.

I shook my head as well but in disbelief. As I turned to leave, Killian said, "You brought this upon yourself, Valeria."

And I believed I probably did. Being Killian Romero's mate. I had let him use me how he wanted and he was ready to dump me. I had never met a man so obsessed with a woman that he loved parting my thighs at least six times a day. And how mad did he do it? How long did he last on top of me and behind my arse?

But was it my fault that I was born so? Unable to turn into a full-fledged wolf like my father and my brother? I didn't see Debra on the way as I ran out of the study. It wasn't until I was some goodish step away that I noticed someone behind me.

"Stop following me!"

I ran back to the manor, as something at the back of my mind told me it was a bad idea. But I didn't have any place else to go.

I was wrong.