“Serenia! Serenia Hansen! Where is that child? She was supposed to be back an hour ago with breakfast! Slacking off, no doubt, bah!”The head chef, Maria, hangs her burly body out the side door of the manor and shouts into the crisp morning fog, but no voice is heard in response. Scrunching up her nose in disgust she wobbles her way back inside, just as a small crop of white-blonde hair comes bounding up the hill, several catches of hares in her hand.“Maria, wait! I’m here don’t lock it!” the girl cries out, nearly tripping over her feet and scurrying up the slick dew-covered grass.“About time girl. What were you doing, sleeping in the woods again? You know the Missus likes her stew first thing in the morning, and it will be you getting the spoon on the back if you’re late one more time.”Serenia turns her back to Maria to hide her sneer.“My mother likes rabbit stew as well, you know.”The wooden spoon stirring in Miss Maria’s hand stills, and she turns to Serenia.“Last I checked,
2 Years Later… The Wolfmane TribeThe bright morning sun breaks through the slightly pulled-back curtains, but that isn’t what abruptly wakes up Kai from his deep slumber after a night of partying and celebrating Niklas after his coming-of-age ceremony. It was definitely a night to remember, but the morning seems to be one to forget.Dragging himself out of bed, Kai pulls on a pair of sweatpants and opens his bedroom door to see what all the noise is first thing in the morning and sees the house staff rushing around the halls with brooms and mops and various other cleaning supplies.“What is going on?” he manages to ask one worker as he runs past.“Oh, your Highness, my apologies. Have you not heard? We’re expecting important guests to the main house, so we’re preparing everything for their arrival.”He rushes off again with a bow before Kai has the chance to question him more.Special guests? Father said nothing about this. After putting on more appropriate attire, he leaves his roo
“Where did you sneak off before dawn? Gunnar was looking for you during headcount, you know how he gets during procedures,” Kai chuckles, watching Niklas duck through the shrubs.Brushing off the few leaves that gathered on his clothes he shoots Kai a disgruntled look and walks past him without answering.Kai follows after him nonetheless with a grin on his face.“Anyway, we’re all ready to head off, I’m just missing my second-in-command.”“Stop calling me that, you haven’t even had your Alpha ceremony yet. Technically, I’m the only one here with any sort of title or rank, so that makes you my second-in-command,” Niklas says with a smirk.“You know I don’t care for any of that anyway, as long as we get this over and done with as quickly as possible, that’s all I care for.”“You and me both, brother. Come on, the group should be ready to depart now.”Kai and Niklas rejoin the small group that has been sent as the delegation party from the Wolfmane Tribe to represent them. Led by Kai an
“Unbelievable. How long do they expect us to stand here like this? Why are we even here?” Skai complains as she has since the ceremony started, bouncing from one foot to the other on the spot. Serenia chuckles beside her but remains silent, knowing if there is anyone to be reprimanded for anything it’s her.“Don’t you think it’s important for you to be here to support your sister? She is becoming the future Luna of our great tribe. Isn’t that exciting?” Lady Helda, Skai’s mother whispers next to her with a content but blank smile. She is what Serenia calls a sheep in wolf’s clothing, following the herd rather than ever leading it, she just does what she is told and doesn’t ask questions she doesn’t care to know the answer to.Simple-mindedness isn’t always the best form of survival, but it seems to be working for Lady Helda, who has always given Serenia the feeling that she wasn’t completely on board with her marriage as she leads everyone to believe.“Exactly, today is all about Save
Serenia finds herself on top of the roof with Skai as she has many times before, but tonight it feels different. It doesn’t feel like her sister is merely entertaining her presence out of boredom and trouble sleeping, she genuinely wants to spend time with her to finally get the truth off her chest.“I actually found my mate a few years ago, around the age I turned 14, but he managed to discover me first,” Skai starts off by saying.Serenia always wondered but didn’t think it had been that long ago, Sareen turning 20 this year.“What happened, why aren’t you together?” she asks.“As you know, I hadn’t managed to manifest my wolf spirit until the next year, so I didn’t feel the mate bond between us. I rejected it without actually rejecting it since my side of the bond hadn’t formed yet.”She pauses and glances at Serenia, whose entire body has frozen.“Wait, what are you saying?” she whispers.“I’m saying what everyone has been keeping a secret from you for whatever reason, that your w
After a long silence, it is Savea who breaks it. “You’ve spewed more believable words than this, Serenia, but claiming to be the next High Alpha’s mate is a little immature. Don’t you think, father?” she asks, hooking to their father’s arm like she didn’t just get smacked to the ground minutes ago. Omega Brant glares down at his daughter. “What nonsense are you shouting about? Tell me the truth, or I’ll damn you to your room for the rest of your life!” “It is the truth, he claimed it himself at the ceremony last night!” Serenia cries, never feeling so desperate to have everyone believe something she can’t even believe herself. “A rejected mate is never given a second chance,” he says calmly to her. At his words, a pain stabs her deep in the chest, reminding her of the days she was writhing in agony in her bed from the rejection of the mate bond, her father never once visiting to check on her wellbeing. “Why don’t we have the future High Alpha and his entourage, join us for dinner
Serenia leaves Kai in the forest after once again turning down his offer to live with him – her one chance at a better life. With the brief interactions she has had with Kai in the short time they’ve met, she can already tell he would be ten times a better mate than Rune or any other male in this tribe ever would be. He is disgusted by the idea of multiple wives and fake mates and has treated Serenia with more respect and care than any other has ever given her. But that isn’t enough to make her turn her back on her mother. If she can’t go, Serenia doesn’t either. The goal is to get a better life for both through Serenia. Despite her resolved feelings, she can’t help but also feel torn and guilty for rejecting Kai. She had felt nothing but guilt from the moment they met for not being able to feel any sort of mate bond between them as he claims, but she also couldn’t feel the one between her and Rune. The only proof she has that she was in fact bonded to Rune was the blinding pain sh
“What the hell is wrong with him now?” Gunnar whispers to Niklas, slumped over against the wall of their guest quarters, and points to Kai in a similar position on the opposite wall.“What do you mean? He looks fine,” Niklas says and waves him off.“Fine my ass, the guy looks like he might break down any second, that’s not right.”Niklas sighs and looks toward Kai, frowning when he too sees how miserable he looks huddled against the wall.“What was the last thing he did before coming here?” he asks but Gunnar shrugs.“He left before the ceremony even finished, I’m not sure where he went after that, but I’m pretty sure he left the building at the very least.”Niklas rolls his eyes. “Great investigating skills. You were supposed to be keeping tabs on him, I told you he had been acting weird ever since we got here.”“Why am I on babysitting duty? I already have enough of that with Harbin back home.”Niklas shoves him away and gets up to walk over to Kai, crouching down to wave a hand in