*An episode from the past life of Dhara and Zayden. There will be more such episodes.*------“What’s the rush, father? Are you so tired of your daughter that now you’re keen to bind me with simply any stranger on the streets?” Selene rebutted, the graceful maiden exhausted and hurt from being slandered by her own family and friends. Just because she hadn’t found her mate yet, didn’t mean she deserved to be treated as a traitor. It wasn’t her fault the moon goddess was taking so much time to match her with her soulmate. Was it?“You don’t understand, Selene!” Her father, the honourable Beta of the Silvermoon pack, growled, irritated and distorted by the outbursts of his only daughter who hadn’t found her mate yet. How shameful was it—did she even know? She had reached the age of 25 and was yet to be mated. How long could he keep her with himself? In the past few months, she had become the gossip of the town and their pack. Everyone looked down at her as if she was stained and curse

Ripping herself away from his arms, she turned around with an annoyed huff, trying to suppress the jolt of electricity his touch had set in motion. She pushed a dark curl out of her face.“You said we are here for answers,” didn’t you? He assured her this was the last time he would trouble her with such a request. “Let’s… let’s not waste time.”“Right,” she heard him mumble with a frown, his gaze hard and harsh on her. “Come on, this way.”Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any more interruptions this time. Once they reached the counter, Zayden helped her sit on one of the swiveling stools before taking a seat next to her.Viraj, the other guy with him, continued to stand a few feet away from them, his stony gaze set on everyone and almost everywhere in the room.“Zayden!” the old woman behind the counter hailed, a wild Cheshire-cat grin curving her lips up. “What brings the Alpha of the Alphas to our crappy dwelling?”Again, that Alpha thing. What the heck was it?“When you know it’

Dhara blinked several times, but the sight in front of her remained the same. Zayden and Jules were staring at her as if she had grown two more heads over her neck. Well, what the hell?“It’s OK. There’s nothing to worry about,” Jules said after a while, waving a hand as if to dismiss the frown slowly deepening upon Dhara’s forehead.Her gaze shipped back to Zayden. He was standing near the door, not sure when he even got there, but even if she was curious, she held it back well and gave Jules a gentle nod instead.Turning back to face the table across from which Jules sat, Dhara peered down at her hands. A few minutes back when Jules asked all of them to hold each other hands and meditate, she had felt her palms growing hot as hell. As if someone had set them on fire. It did not hurt, though. No, not at all. In fact, the warmth was fairly calm, seeping out of all the pores of her body. But now that the warmth was gone and also any physical contact with either of them, strangely, she

With her ear pressed against the door, Dhara was trying to hear the conversation taking place outside of the room she was locked in. Ever since that strange man led her to this place—God knows what it looked like or where it was situated—she had been blindfolded, cuffed, and trapped in a room alone.It smelled weird, too, as if the place hadn’t been used for a very long time and neither the windows had been opened, letting the warm rays of the sun and the fresh air in. Oddly, Dhara felt cold and uneasy, her skin prickling with weird sensations.It was only when the hushed noises of two people conversing reached her ears that she realized someone else was there too. Earlier to this, the room had been awfully lifeless. Dhara was propelled to wonder if she was chucked into some harrowing dungeon of sorts

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?” Dhara screamed, her voice breaking out of the room, making the wolves minding their business outside in the hallway wince hard enough to crack their jaws. Not that Zayden felt any different. Never had anyone ever talked to him like that. With such disrespect. He almost had the urge to teach this girl a lesson. But his wolf had been at his throat since the moment those monsters abducted her. They both had been restless. Scared shitless. How did she manage to make his wolf act like a whimpering dog was par his wits? He couldn’t even begin to explain how torturous those long hours were for him and his wolf when they held her captive and didn’t allow them to have even a glimpse of her until it was dawn and they were satisfied with the trade. He told himself that b