1. The Girl Nobody Chose.

Effie's POV

I typed the words three times and deleted them twice.

Private fertility clinic, omega friendly and no mate required.

My finger hovered over the enter key. Then I pressed it. A page of results loaded, full of clean white websites and smiling women cradling newborns. I scrolled past every one that said bonded mates only, until one made me stop.

Discreet. Confidential. Every woman deserves a family.

Every woman. I bit my lips reading it over and over again.

Then suddenly, my bedroom door swung open.

"Effie, put your shoes on, everyone's gathering in the square." My mother stood there in her good blue dress, already pinning her hair in place. "The Alpha Prince arrives tonight. He's here to review the pack's tribute and the border patrols with Alpha Reed. Attendance is mandatory for the whole pack, and Alpha Reed already sent word twice."

I closed the laptop, slower this time.

"A business visit," I said flatly. "So we all have to stand in a field for hours while men talk about taxes."

"It's an honor, Effie. The future king, in Hollowmoon." She gave me a look I knew well, equal parts hope and warning. "Wear the green dress, it's the one that fits you best. You never know, maybe he's your mate after all." She beamed.

"Mom..."

"One hour," she said softly, and left.

I waited until her footsteps faded. Then I flipped the laptop open once again.

I was a thirty-three years old, fat, omega with Hazel eyes and brunette hair in a pack that had never let me forget it. Every wolf my age had a mate and pups and a warm house full of noise. I had a bedroom, a bookmark, and a dream I was too ashamed to say out loud.

I knew my parents only wanted the best for me. Sometimes I'd get jealous and sad watching my parents happy together. I wanted what they had too. It was clear the moongoddess had somehow forgotten about me.

No matter how much I prayed to the moongoddess for my mate, he never came.

Every teen was lucky enough to find their mate at the age of eighteen. I couldn't help but think that time was running out on me having a family.

Nervously biting my lip, I clicked, Book a consultation. My fingers shook as I typed my name. Effie Hartwell. Thursday, 10:00 AM. When the form asked for my reason, I wrote the truth.

I want a family of my own.

I hit submit, shut the laptop, and pressed my hand over my racing heart. Thursday. I had a plan. I didn't need a mate, or the moon goddess's permission.

But what if our mate came after everything? I shook my head, dismissing such a thought. If I had a mate I'm sure I'd have met him by now.

"Effie!" My mom called.

"Coming mom!" I shouted, quickly getting ready.

I made my way downstairs, heading out of the house with my mom and dad.

The square glowed with lanterns hung for the occasion, and long tables sagged under roast meat and bread. The entire Hollowmoon Pack stood crowded together in their finest clothes, waiting to be looked over by a prince who had come to check ledgers, not hearts.

I slipped in at the very back, next to a pillar, and tried to disappear but as usual it never works.

"Look who actually showed up," a girl whispered nearby. I knew that voice. Marla, who had once smeared cake across my school uniform for a laugh. "Someone hide the buffet."

Her friends giggled.

"Maybe the Prince likes them big," another one said. "More to hold onto."

The laughter that followed was quiet and cruel, the kind that's meant to be overheard. I kept my eyes on the lantern in front of me and dug my nails into my palms.

Only until Thursday, I told myself. I'd leave this pack and have my baby somewhere him or her won't have to go through the same bullying as I did.

Suddenly, the great horn sounded from the gates, and the whole square went silent.

Alpha Reed stepped onto the platform, beaming. "Hollowmoon! Tonight we welcome a guest of honor, here on behalf of the crown to review our standing. Heir to the throne. Future king of our kind. Please greet Prince Jasper Thornwick."

The gates swung open, and the crowd parted.

The prince walked out of the dark. Tall, slender, black coat, dark hair swept back from a hard face. Black eyes, sharp as blades, moving over the crowd like he was already bored. Every girl in the square held her breath.

Jasper. The Alpha Prince.

He moved slowly down the line, giving each wolf a short, cold nod. Marla flushed when his gaze brushed her. He didn't stop.

Then the wind shifted, and something hit me. Nothing had touched me all day. Nothing, until he stepped through those gates.

Cedar. Woodsmoke. Rain on warm stone.

My knees almost buckled. My wolf, who had been silent for thirty-three years, howled inside me so violently that I nearly dropped to the ground. This didn't happen to women like me.

Mine, my wolf spoke, and I wanted to tell her she was wrong, but I froze as my skin burned. Every nerve in my body pulled toward him like a thread yanked tight, and all I could think was: no. Please, no. Not in front of everyone.

No. It couldn't be. It couldn't.

Ten feet away, Prince Jasper stopped mid-step. His head snapped up. His nostrils flared. The bored look vanished from his face, and for a second he looked like a wolf who'd just been struck by lightning.

His eyes searched the crowd, wild and desperate, and then they found me.

Standing at the back, next to a pillar, in my green dress.

The world narrowed to a single point. I couldn't breathe. He was staring at me, only me, and I saw his lips form a single word.

Mate.

The shock made its way through the square. Heads began to turn, one by one, following the Prince's gaze. Marla's smile fell off her face. Even Alpha Reed's mouth hung open.

And then, all at once, every wolf in Hollowmoon gasped.

Prince Jasper crossed the square in a few long strides, ignoring Alpha Reed's stammering, ignoring the crowd parting around him like water. He stopped in front of me, close enough that I had to tip my head back to meet his eyes, and for a moment neither of us said a word.

"Mate," he said again, quieter now, like he was testing if it were true.

Before I could answer, before I could even breathe, his hand closed around my wrist.

"Come with me," he said, and it wasn't a request.

He turned and pulled me through the stunned crowd, past Marla's open mouth, past my mother's hand pressed happily to her chest, out of the lantern light and into the dark beyond the square, and I stumbled after him with my heart slamming against my chest, wondering if I was about to get everything I'd stopped letting myself want.