The First Submission

The word mate hung in the suffocating darkness like a death sentence.

Kaelen was stumping on the broken glass of the reading lamp as he turned his back on me. He heaved his chest with every jerking draw of breath, his canines completely dropped, his eyes gleamed with a mad horror-gold. He stared at me like I was a germ that had just gotten into his blood.

A fated mate. The final, inimitable architecture of the Moon Goddess. It was supposed to be the most sacred union in our world, a union of two souls that should govern and defend one another. However, when I looked into the eyes of the disgusted and actually hateful Kaelen, I understood that it was not a fairytale created by a goddess for me. She had put me into a cage with a monstrous thing.

There was a full, wretched moment of silence. The only noise in the pitch-black room was the frenzied hammering of my own heart and the distant and subdued bass of the wedding festivities on the lower floor.

Next, a wicked laugh that was dark interrupted the stress.

Jace leaned back on the mantle with a sadistic smirk on his lips. "Well, well, well. The perfect, impeccable Alpha male... and an underdog, a wolfless human being. The Moon Goddess is really a sick maniac of a sense.

Shut your mouth, Jace, snarled Kaelen, and his voice had a deadly, frightening threat. The sheer power of his Alpha aura shot through, forcing me toward the floor, pressing on my skin until it was as though a physical object were attempting to push me to the floor.

Caleb didn't laugh. Rather, his eyes became dark with a predatory look when he approached me without feeling his elder brother's anger and without being moved by it. He pressed his head back and looked at me, like a piece of prime meat at an auction. Mate, he grumbled, I reckon. Does it mean we must share, Kaelen? I was getting on to break this one, you see."

Nothing, she is nothing, she is nothing, Kaelen practically spat the words and took a threatening step in her direction. He did not glance at Caleb; his scathing, cold stare was centered right on me. "She is a mistake. A glitch in the bloodline. I shall not see a weak, pathetic human being weighing down my reign. The bond is nothing whatever.<|human|>The bond is nothing.

I ought to have been grieved,--desolated. No rejection by a fated mate, in all the stories, was to be other than agonizing--a physical, soul-tearing agony that caused the rejected wolf to be begging and screaming in pain. And yet, as I listened to Kaelen and his mean words, I did not feel sad in my breast. The heat of pure rage, which could not be denied.

I didn't want him. I didn't want any of them.

No, I do not want to be your mate, I said to myself, having a shaking voice, but setting my chin high. You believe I would want to be hooked up to a psychotic, arrogant bully who intimidates sick women to have his way? Reject me. Do it right now so I can leave."

Jace whistled lamentingly in the darkness. Oh, she has got a little bite to her.

Kaelen bridged the gap between us with one, obliterating movement. His huge hand reached out, and his fingers caught me on the jaw like a vice. He drew up my face, and I had to look into his fiery eyes. His hand gave me a shock of violence, of electric shock, right up through my veins--the mate bond responding to his skin, crying out at me to yield, to creep into his palm. I struggled with my strength and nearly tore half-moons with my nails into my palms.

I will not accept you, Kaelen said, and his breath passed over my lips. I was dizzy with the aroma of black ice and black cedar that made my thoughts unclear. When the time comes, I will break this tie in the presence of the whole pack. I will humiliate you to an extent that you will beg to be out of this land. But not yet."

My breath hitched. "What?"

To turn me away now, my father will not know, and it will be as though I were caressing him with my thumb, as it will be following the course of my jaw--a caress that will be deadly, but any tightening will be, as it will be before he finishes its course. "He wants your mother here. He wants her bloodline. And should I dare to break you this night, he will punish me. No, little Elara. You will remain just in this pack. And you will earn your mother medicine.

He put my jaw down and wiped his hand on the custom-made suit pants like I had dipped his hand in blood.

You will show just how you are to us tonight, Kaelen said, and his voice went down an octave, down into that inky, hypnotic Alpha note which drove lesser wolves at full speed to the ground. "You aren't a Luna. You aren't my mate. You are a toy. A hostage."

Caleb came to his brother with that scarred face, twisting it to a sadistic expression. We would like to know how well you care about the life of your mother. The initial wish is plain, simple, and little human.

Jace came to the other side and bumped his chest against my back. I was entirely enclosed. There were three giant predators around me, and the smell of each of them was choking me, and the sweet smell of spiced rum, smoldering ash, and black ice made my head spin.

"Kneel," Kaelen ordered softly.

My heart stopped. "No."

Kneel, Jace whispered, breathing his hot breath into my ear, and causing a violent chill to run down my spine. Kneel down and look up at our brother and ask him to spare your mother. Call him Master. Take your own as our property.

Tears were pure, acidic humiliation which pricked my eyes. This was precisely what they desired. They wanted to take away all the vestiges of my dignity until they had left me an empty shell whom they could play with. It was my pride that was screaming that I spit in the face of Kaelen.

Then, the wailing cough of my wet, rattling mother was grotesquely heard in my memory. And without the lycan-healers of Thorne, her lungs were to be turned to glass before morning. She would choke herself to death.

I screwed up my eyes, and one tear rolled down.

I will have it even with them, I swore in myself. I will still live, and I will shatter their world.

Little by little, painfully slowly, my legs gave way. The round carpet rubbed my knees, which bled as I went down to the floor. I was tiny, powerless, and totally engulfed by their tremendous power.

Jace laughed above me, got his fingers stuck in my hair, and pulled my head slightly back, thus making me look up at Kaelen. Caleb moved in, plonking his big foot on my thigh, and took my place.

Kaelen was living over my head, and a darkness god, encircled in shadows. His eyes were not blazing with horror anymore; they were black, stretched, and devoured by a horrible, possessing lust. Although he detested the connection, his Alpha nature was screaming with success, seeing his mate on her knees before him.

Say it, said Kaelen, and his voice was full of irresistible aggravation.

I choked down the bile in my belly. I raised my eyes to his cold, merciless eyes. "Please... Master. Please let my mother live."

There was a heavy and charged silence that settled down in the room. And the passion, the tabooed atmosphere was so dense I could scarcely breathe. The approval was in the tightening of the grip Jace had on my hair. Caleb gave a low, ragged groan.

But when I uttered the words of complete submission, there was a violent cracking in the depths of my breast.

It was no shattering of my heart. It was an ignition.

A aching shock that blinded shot up the back of my ribs, so violently that I uttered a gasp. And somewhere in the empty depths where my wolf ought to have been, a sudden, primeval throb like a war drum.

Kaelen gave a start, and his arrogant face flushed.

I traced his eyes, beyond his legs, to the big, old mirror which leaned against the wall far away. It was a dark room, however, and the moonlight shining through the crack in the curtains struck the glass perfectly.

I saw myself on my knees. I beheld the Three Alphas hovering over me.

But my reflection was not the brown of man.

They shone like unnatural, blinding silver. The distinctive, famous brand of pureblood Luna.

And out of the bottom of my mind came a voice that was not that of a human girl, and snarled at me one, and only, terrible word “Mine”.