Chapter 2

Fate Mates were an extremely rare phenomena. Typically, two werewolves fell in love and then decided to declare themselves mates, either through marriage or another means. But the love bond of a Fate Mate gives the werewolves no choice in the matter. I’d heard it described in stories and fairytales. When you find your fate mate, and you look at the person for the first time, the entire world stops. The one thing that keeps you alive is that person. And separation from that person would mean losing a part of yourself.

Apparently, after a few months of blissful love, something went terribly wrong with Alpha Sergio’s mate. Nobody outside of the Black River Pack knew exactly what happened, but the young woman died.

Every pack felt the impact of her death, but none of us could begin to imagine the despair that Alpha Sergio felt. I’d heard stories that he went away for months, secluding himself from the rest of his pack. A girl in my graduating class claimed that the Alpha tried to kill himself multiple times, but his body had healed too quickly.

Eventually, after months of being in the dark, Alpha Sergio emerged again. And his pack became a menace—a force to be reckoned with.

In an effort to retreat from the dark, gloomy topic of death, I wandered away from the table of elders. But I couldn’t shake the chills that coursed down my back at the thought of the Black River Pack. They’d become legendary across our continent for their brutality, and the idea that I now shared a ballroom with some of them had my heartbeat racing. And not in a good way!

Utterly entranced in my own thoughts, I didn’t realize that my absent-minded feet drifted toward a crowd of Black River warriors. I blinked, taken aback by how far I’d traveled in the crowds, and instantly took a step backwards to retreat.

But my breath was nearly knocked out of my lungs when my back struck a hard wall. No, not a wall. A man. I quickly turned around to apologize to the werewolf from the Broken Valley Pack, but in the process, ran in to another body behind me. Moon Goddess above! I mentally cursed myself, and hurriedly went to apologize to both men.

“I’m so sor-…” I trailed off as soon as I turned around to apologize to the second man. An immediate chill swept across my body, and my blood turned to ice as I realized who I had disrupted.

Alpha Sergio of the Black River Pack. Waves of power coursed off of the male’s massive body as he turned around to face me. My insides flipped in one hundred different directions, and I silently backed away from his towering figure. I didn’t want to be too close to him when he realized that I, a petty first-year werewolf, had disrupted him.

The further I moved from him, the more of his body came into my view. And I couldn’t resist the urge to sweep my gaze from his feet to his face. His legs were long and powerful, standing wide to accentuate the size of him. Next, I raced to study his lean torso and broad chest, covered by a nice shirt and jacket. The fabric did nothing to hide the curves and crevice of every muscle that adorned his chest and abdomen, all the way toward his boulder-sized shoulders. Finally, I reached his face.

His piercing blue eyes locked onto my hazel orbs, and, in an instant, a great power swept almost knocked me to my knees. The world stopped and so did my heart, as adrenaline coursed through my veins. What is happening? I managed to think, because I didn’t think I could form any words at the moment. I could scarcely remember to inhale and exhale!

A few people from nearby stopped to look at us, but they had no idea what happened. I didn’t know either!

Alpha Sergio’s gaze intensified, and he took a staggering step toward me. I could physically feel the distance between us closing, like a piece of elastic that relaxed after being stretched for far too long. I felt drawn to this male, and it terrified me! I wanted to run but couldn’t imagine ripping my eyes from his.

When he finally closed the entire distance between us, he grabbed both of my arms, as if unable to fight the primal need to connect. The moment that our bodies touched, I felt a new type of warmth seep into me like melting honey. It filled me to the brim, and I felt the sense of satisfaction even in my toes.

He inhaled, moving his head closer to my skin and hair as he took in my scent. I was too scared to move or pull away from him, and frankly, I did not want to. After a few seconds, he pulled away and stared at me with still slightly shocked eyes, but now, possession filled his gaze as he ran his gaze down my body in a way that had to mean one thing.

Mine.

I was awakened from my dreamlike state by the sound of people around us murmuring and whispering things. I tore my gaze away from Alpha Sergio, which proved to be much harder than I had suspected, and suddenly, reality hit me.

It seemed to hit Alpha Sergio at the same moment too, because the second our eyes were ripped from each other’s he almost pushed me away from him. He looked down at himself, as if making sure that he was still there, and then back to me, clearly as confused as I felt. But there was something else in his eyes that made me uneasy. His piercing blue eyes were clouded with a hungry anger.

Suddenly, somebody pushed their way to the front of the crowd, which was now surrounding Sergio and me. My father, the beta of the Dandelion Prime Pack, emerged followed by a few other high-ranking officials from other packs.

My father’s bewildered and somewhat horrified face made me want to melt into the ground, “What has happened, Iris?” He kept his burning gaze on me.

I tried to appear strong and opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. Amidst my struggling, I could sense Alpha Sergio inch closer to me again, but he offered no help.

What could I say? That Alpha Sergio and I were fate mates? I shook my head slightly- it could not be. My thoughts kept going back to his deceased previous mate and how there was no way he could have gotten over her that quickly. But he does not have a choice.