جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 4

LevraeI had too much to drink.Not enough to embarrass myself in front of everyone, just enough to make the world feel softer around the edges. Enough to laugh a little too loud at things that weren't even funny. Enough to forget, just for a moment, that I was eighteen years old and already being passed around like a business arrangement. Today was meant to be the day I'll get to meet my mate. The mate I've been waiting and passively preparing for all my life. My birthday party had been beautiful. Father had pulled out everything — the lights, the music, the whole pack dressed up and gathered in the great hall. But my mind wasn't at peace, underneath it was the conversation I had overheard three days ago which sends tension into my body at the thoughts of it. Father's voice was low and firm. The words "arranged marriage" and "alliance" and "Lucas Thatcher."I had smiled through every second of that party just to cover up the tension and unsettling thoughts going through my mind.Now

LevraeThree years.That was how long I had been living in this house, sleeping in this bed, sitting across from this man at dinner and pretending that this was a life. That was how long I had been telling myself it would get better. That Lucas would soften. That I would stop dreaming about someone else. That the mate bond sitting quietly in the center of my chest would eventually go cold and leave me alone.It never did.And Lucas never softened.I was sitting at the vanity when he came back to the room that evening. I could smell the alcohol on him from across the space. I kept my eyes on the mirror and kept brushing my hair and told myself not to say anything that would give him an opening."Still awake," he said, not as a question. I set the brush down. "Yes."He dropped into the chair near the window and looked at me with that expression I had learned to dread — the one that meant he was about to say something he had been sharpening all day. His deep brown eyes moved over me slo