Kira felt the unease settle over her the moment she stepped into the main pack house.
The air was thick with festivity, but it was the way her pack mates looked at her that made her skin crawl.
Girls smirked behind their hands, and the boys leered openly. She knew that look. They were up to something.
Their pranks had been getting meaner, and their bullying more painful each time they managed to get her alone.
It was her younger half-sister, Chloe's eighteenth birthday, and there was a party going on. Chloe was the 'Golden Daughter' who had shifted for the first time last night.
Their father, Alpha Rolf had been practically weeping with joy, mostly because Kira had failed to shift on her own birthday, a disappointment he never let her forget.
Kira moved away from the party of smirking girls and leering boys, and hurried up the stairs, careful not to crease Chloe's expensive gown draped over her arm.
She just needed to drop off Chloe's birthday dress and find Scott. Scott was the Beta's son, her boyfriend, and the only person who still made this place feel bearable.
It didn't matter to him that she was wolfless. But it mattered to everyone else.
The girls hated that he had chosen her. To them, Scott deserved a proper she-wolf, someone with strong combat skills, not a wolfless runt, like Kira, who was no more than an omega.
Despite having alpha blood, Kira was still weaker than most omegas and she couldn't tell why.
Scott was easily becoming the strongest young man in the pack, and there were speculations that her father would crown him the next Alpha, after giving him Chloe's hand in marriage.
Scott had promised her that it would never happen, and she believed him.
When she reached Chloe's bedroom door, she knocked once and pushed it open, expecting to find her sister preening in front of the mirror with her friends. What she saw instead made her blood turn to ice.
The dress slipped from her fingers and pooled on the floor.
Chloe was perched naked on her vanity table, legs spread wide, moaning loudly. Scott was between her thighs, trousers shoved down to his knees, hips thrusting hard as he fucked her.
Kira's stomach tied in knots and it felt hard to breathe as she processed what she was seeing.
Scott," she choked out, tears burning her eyes.
He turned his head, but his eyes were glazed, his wolf in control.
Chloe quickly reached up, grabbed Scott's jaw, and pulled his face back to hers, wrapping her arm around his neck, hugging him tight as he plunged into her.
There was a victorious glint in Chloe's eyes as she looked at Kira from over Scott's shoulders.
Not only had Chloe stolen her birthright. Now she had stolen the only person who had ever made Kira feel wanted.
Unable to stomach it, Kira spun on her heels and ran out of the room, and down the stairs. The mocking laughter of the pack boys and girls following her.
"Poor little runt!" someone called from the side of the hall. "Had a lot of nerve thinking Scott wanted you!"
"The moon goddess doesn't make mistakes," another voice added, and the laughter surged again.
She didn't stop running until she reached her tiny, cramped room in the remote corner of the pack house; the one her father kept her in, claiming she was too wild and unruly to be trusted near the rest of the family.
She slumped against the door, slid down to the floor, and let the tears fall freely.
Most pack members didn't even know she was Alpha Rolf's daughter. They all believed Chloe was his only child and rightful heir.
But Kira had always adopted a positive mindset, always smiling through her pain, and refusing to show the pack or her father how much she was affected.
But now, she couldn't even find a single positivity. She just wanted to leave that place.
After a long, ugly cry, she wiped her face, stood up, and grabbed her soap bag. She needed a bath. The communal bathrooms with the omegas were her only option.
She wasn't even allowed a decent bath in the main house, all because her father couldn't stand her sight.
The communal bathroom corridor was already busy when she arrived. The noise of it died the instant she appeared, conversations cut off mid-sentence, and heads turned towards her.
Everyone in the pack knew about her defeat by now. Of course they knew. Word travelled fast in this pack.
Then, the whispers started.
"Did you hear Master Scott marked Miss Chloe?" one omega said to another, loudly enough to make sure Kira heard every word. "Can't say I'm surprised."
"What did she expect? A real wolf would never settle for a wolfless girl."
"Poor thing actually thought he loved her."
Kira ignored them. Not wanting to cause trouble, she started counting slowly to ten in her mind to hold back the rising anger.
She entered the first stall and turned on the tap, but nothing came out. She tried the next one, Dry.
All the taps were suddenly dry. She glared at the omegas who quickly avoided her gaze.
"Why aren't the taps running?" she demanded.
No one answered her, they all pretended to be engaged in something else.
Sighing, she grabbed her soap bag marched out of the bathrooms and headed toward the river at the edge of the pack lands. It was still early morning; the path should be empty.
She reached the water's edge, stripped quickly, and waded in. The cold current shocked her skin, but she welcomed it.
After a quick wash, she dressed again and wrung the water from her long brunette hair, her mind still replaying the image of Scott and Chloe together.
A low growl suddenly interrupted her thoughts and her head snapped around, but she saw nothing.
Heart hammering, she quickly gathered her belongings and turned to head back to the pack house, only to freeze.
A giant black wolf with burning red eyes stood barely ten feet away. It bared its fangs, lips curled in a menacing snarl.
Oh, goddess. I'm dead meat, Kira thought, her blood running cold. What a terrible day to be wolfless.
First her boyfriend had marked her younger sister as his mate, now a rogue had decided to make her its breakfast.
Kira took a step back, the wolf lowered its body, muscles coiled, and ready to spring.
If I'm going to die, I'm going to make him work for it.
With that, she spun on her heels and ran. The rogue was right behind her, its heavy paws thudding against the earth and its hot breath almost touching her heels.
She didn't make it far, as her foot caught on a stray root, and she went down hard, face-first into the dirt.
Adrenaline forced her to roll over, her eyes wide as the black mass lunged at her. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for teeth and pain.
But it never came.
Instead, she heard crashing thuds and furious snarling. She peeked one eye open to see a man and the wolf tumbling across the grass in a blur of fur and limbs.
Her eyes flew open. Too shaken to run, she sat frozen, watching. After a few brutal moments, the struggling stopped, both the man and the rogue laid still. The rogue was on top of the man.
Kira's heart sank, as she was sure the man was dead. She scrambled to her feet to run, but the man chose that moment to shoved the limp carcass of the rogue aside with a grunt and slowly rose.
Relief washed over Kira, but she gasped when the strange man rose to his full height.
He was huge—easily the tallest, most powerfully built man she had ever seen. Handsome in a sharp, dangerous way that made her stomach flip.
She couldn't stop staring as he wiped a smear of blood and dirt from his jaw, his ripped shirt hanging off broad shoulders, muscles flexing when he ran a hand through his thick brown hair. Then his eyes locked on hers. Amber-gold, so piercing.
Wait, what am I doing? Kira chided herself. She had just gotten her heart broken, and here she was, drooling over a complete stranger.
She had never seen him before. Who was he? A rogue? An enemy alpha? Or worse… a Lycan? The last thought sent a cold shiver down her spine.
"Thank you," she said, her voice small and trembling. "My name is Ki—"
But the man had already turned his broad back to her without a word and bolted into the woods.
Kira stared after his disappearing back, her nose scrunched in confusion, wondering what had just happened.
***
When she returned to the pack house, Scott was waiting in her room, lounging on her chair like he owned the place. When he saw her he rose to his feet.
Kira's heart gave a painful lurch. She used to feel butterflies seeing Scott's large frame in her small room, but now, it made her heart twist painfully.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I had to mark her Kira, she is my mate," he began to explain. "I couldn't help it. My wolf—"
"I don't want to hear whatever excuse you have," Kira said, trying to keep her voice even. "Just leave my room."
Scott huffed out a breath. "Why are you being unreasonable about it? You know what it means to find our soulmate!"
Kira looked up at him, a knot forming painfully in her throat. "I'm not being unreasonable, you're the unreasonable one to come here to say nonsense to me, after promising never to leave me."
"That was before I found out that Chloe is my mate. Don't make me out to be the bad guy here. If you've shifted, you would have probably found your mate too."
He had never made her feel bad about not shifting before. It broke her heart more that he had joined everyone else to use that against her.
"You cheated on me," Kira bit out. "And now, you want to blame it on my not shifting?"
"Kira—"
"Get out of my sight," she snarled.
Scott's face tightened with anger and something dark swirled inside his eyes at her defiance.
"Out!" Kira said firmly shoving him.
Scott slowly walked out. "I never meant to hurt you, but I won't reject my mate for a wolfless person either."
Kira slammed the door in his face, slid down to the floor and wept so bitterly.
It hurt so much, but at least she hadn't given Scott her virginity. That was a form of consolation.
She cried until she slept off lying on the floor.
***
The following morning, the packhouse felt a lot calmer, and somehow Kira wondered what the sudden silence was all about.
Her father had summoned her to his office, and her heart thumped frantically in her chest, as this rarely happened.
Alpha Rolf doesn't tolerate the sight of her. He had blamed and hated her for the death of her mother while giving birth to her.
He had always favoured Chloe over her, and treated her less like his daughter and more like an omega, and the pack followed in his footsteps.
She knew why he summoned her this morning. It was to tell her to officially stay away from Scott, since he was Chloe's mate, and the future alpha of the pack. By her father's standards, Kira didn't deserve him.
As she hurried down the long hallways of the pack house, snippets of whispered conversation drifted to her from a cluster of omegas gossiping near the laundry room.
"…heard he's coming to take a bride from our pack," one said in a hushed tone.
"I heard he has already asked alpha to hand over Miss Chloe," another said. "He threatened war if alpha doesn't agree. He wants the pack's heir."
The others gasped. "But why?"
Kira hurried away from the gossiping omegas, wondering who "he" was and why he wanted Chloe.
What an irony. She had just found her mate yesterday, and now someone was asking for her to become his bride.
When she reached her father's study corridor, she saw Scott, standing with Chloe. Her head was on his chest, her face wet with tears, her eyes puffy, as he consoled her.
Kira's heart twisted painfully at the sight of the man who had been her boyfriend just a day ago, holding her sister so tenderly.
She hurried away and knocked once on her father's door, pushed it open and entered.
Her father stood behind his wide oak desk, talking in low tones with his head gamma and beta. Her stepmother Lydia sat on an armchair, eyes red-rimmed, looking pale.
Why is everyone looking sad? she thought, confused.
"Keep everyone in line. We cannot risk provoking King Derek Wolfe when he arrives," Alpha Rolf said to the Gamma.
Kira's body stilled at her father's words.
King Derek Wolfe? The formidable Lycan King feared across every pack.
His visits to werewolf territories rarely ended well. He had terrorised the werewolves for years just for fun. Just because he could.
Was he the one demanding Chloe's hand and threatening war? But why?
The war between the Lycans and werewolves has ended two years ago.
Gamma Beaux and Beta Jake bowed and left the room. Only then did Rolf's eyes lift to Kira. They were cold, flat and empty of any warmth.
Kira dipped into a careful bow. "You requested my presence."
Luna Lydia, her arch-nemesis slowly rose too and walked out of the room. Kira was now very confused about what was going on.
She looked from the exiting Luna to her father.
Different questions burned on her tongue as she faced her father again, but she swallowed them all, knowing he would never indulge her.
When the door closed behind her, he stepped out from behind the desk, hands clasped behind his back.
"There has been a development," he said, his tone calm. "King Derek Wolfe has demanded a bride in exchange for continued peace."
He paused, meeting her gaze without a flicker of regret. "You will be his bride."