Chapter One

Laura's pov

Deep, lingering, delicious soreness. The heat pooling low in my belly was like ecstasy upon groggily opening my eyes.

Upon sighting the familiar ceiling above me, ardonerned with chandelier lights, sunlight streaming through the large windows of the room, my lips curled into a smile before I even knew it.

I stretched, the blanket slipping down my bare skin, letting the cool morning air skim over the marks he’d left with so much passion around my body; my neck, breasts, stomach, my back, down to my fingers which brushed the faint indentations of his teeth marks.

Last night was my eighteenth, truly, the only birthday I ever celebrated. Because it was the night I found him- my mate. My Alpha. My everything. And he had claimed me.

My face grew hot as I fell back against the bed, grabbing the blankets and pulling it over my head to conceal a shriek. The water running in the bathroom drowned my excitement. The memory was like a living flame in my mind. His woody scent still lingered in my head like an intoxicating effect of alcohol. His touch, the way his body had pressed mine into the wall before he carried me like I weighed nothing to the bed.

Last night it was like I was the only thing that mattered to him in that moment. The raw hunger in his eyes when he'd pulled me close, deep inside me and moving slowly yet frantically enough to drive me crazy made my nipples harden. So what if he'd been drunk? The bond between us was real. Goddess, even the way he'd whispered dirty things against my skin- it had been perfect to the very finally moments when I slept in his arms, ruined, yet satisfied, happy.

Alpha Lucian of the Blood Moon pack was a man I'd loved from the shadows as long as I could remember. The same man I had served as an Omega for years in hopes he would notice me, even if it was a glance, I was always looking forward to it. Scrubbing floors, fetching meals, making his bed, the same one I’d tolerate watching him in with several woman. Because I knew- deep down- that someday the Moon Goddess would make him mine.

All my life has been spent being reminded by people that I was nothing. Abandoned by parents I could barely remember, raised by the Alpha's late father, on the pack’s scraps, treated as if my existence was a favor no one wanted to give. But none of that mattered anymore.

I clutched the blanket to my chest, my cheeks aching from smiling too much.

And as if on cue, the sound of running water stopped. My heart fluttered like a bird in a cage as my gaze fell on the entrance in expectancy and excitement.

Lucian stepped out of the bathroom, towering several feet tall, steam curling around his burly frame. My heart pulse raced, my throat bobbing as I shamelessly accessed every inch of him, shyly taking note of the marks around his arm from my claws.

His dark hair was wet, dripping onto the hard planes of his shoulders. A drop of water slid down his chest, and I followed it, watching it glisten over muscles sculpted by the moon goddess herself. The towel around his hips hung dangerously low, but the bulge straining against it caused heat to bloom around my cheeks.

Silence reigned as the mate bond surged between us like a tidal wave, almost pulling me towards him, if I hadn't clung tightly onto the sheets to control myself. I wanted him again- wanted his hands on me, his mouth on places I never thought I'd want it to be until after last night. I exhaled heavily, biting down on my bottom lip as I throbbed underneath the sheets at just the memory.

But then my eyes travelled back up his face and the hairs at the back of my neck instantly rose as tremor flooded my insides at the darkness surrounding him.

The heat in his golden eyes was gone. Replaced by the familiar cold numbness I was used to seeing.

But ..

“Are you daft? Or you don't just know how things work around here?” His voice cut through the haze in my head.

I blinked, confused. “What? Wait, you- you can't possibly mean I- “

“Why are you still here?”

My stomach twisted at the coldness, the resentment growing as he looked at me, like the sight of me disgusted him.

“Last night, you- you claimed me. You said… “

“I was drunk. What I said was obviously a way to sweettalk you into my bed. And just like the others, I had you here, didn't I?” His voice was flat as he turned away from me, casually rummaging through a drawer barely sparing my body a glance.

At this point it's as though a bucket of cold water had been splashed mercilessly over my head. My hand clutched the blankets around my breasts as I followed his steps with wide eyes.

It wasn't possible. There was no way only I felt this bond while he just stood there acting like I was another one of his- his bed warmers.

Fuming, I dragged myself out the bed, clumsily holding the sheets around my body. “Lucian, I'm your mate. You claimed me- you said I was the only one you've ever given yourself to so freely. See,” burning I let the sheets drop, showing him where he'd marked me, along with the other intimate ones he left on every part of my body. “You marked me. It was primal. You knew. So don't just stand there and act like…”

It happened in seconds. I was stupid to underestimate an Alpha.

My back was against the wall, high up with my legs dangling midair with his hand dangerously tight and curled around my neck.

The menance in his eyes was so scary, I didn't care I had blood running down my lips or that my heart was shattering. My hands weakly clawed at his, trying not to loose my life.

“Don't flatter yourself,” his smirk was mocking and scornful despite the raging crimson red in his eyes. “A lowly pathetic Omega as yourself. Do you really think you're deserving of me. I deserve a Luna, not a servant who warms my bed.”

“You- you don't mean that.” My lips trembled, tears rolling down my cheeks as I whisper through the unbearable pain gnawing at my chest.

His smirk widened as he increased his grip, cutting me off, it seemed as though my suffering amused him. “I mean every word. I, Alpha Lucian of the Blood Moon Pack, reject you, Laura, as my mate.”

And then he left me, stepping back as I landed roughly on the ground, hearing my own bones break, and I screamed, but not from the pain of of falling, but my own heart breaking.

I felt the bond shatter, and like an agonizing tear, my heart ruined in my chest, like it had been ripped from me. I got up on my knees, my cries loud and defiant but they buckled under the pain, my whole body trembling even as the tears kept falling.

“Out. Now. While you still have your pathetic life.”

I gasped for breath, snort and tears rolling down my body as I numbly reached for the blankets, but in devastation, I reached for thin air, watching as he snatched the sheets off the floor.

Raising my gaze, I meet his, cruel and mocking as he stared down at my body, lips lifted.

“You won't be needing this “

The finality in his tone stole the last bit of air from my lungs. My heart felt like it was splintering into shards, and each breath hurt even more as I forced myself to stand.

I couldn't stop the tears blurring my vision as I painfully stumbled towards the door, pathetically cradling my arms around my naked breasts.

I didn't look back but even then, a small part of me hoped he'd follow me, that he'd call me back. That he'd care.

But the door shut hard behind me, and I died a little inside.