He lied... He lied to me when I left for college, and all his promises to be a better mate were nothing but lies.

There he was, dancing with her, looking at her with love while our packs and the leaders of the community watched with pride and awe at the beautifully matched couple.

The pack’s thunderous claps and howls of approval when he proclaimed her as his mate echoed through the halls of the mansion and out through the windows. Her, not me.

Finally, he’s going to mate with the one he loves but not the one he was promised to.

His gaze met mine as a lone teardrop escaped the corner of my eye. His own widened as he just realized his divinely ordained mate was present for this travesty and I had been watching all along.

I couldn’t endure another second of this hell as I forced myself to smile at him before I stood up and ran out of the hall in agony. My wolf’s defenses were down. She was curled up and whimpering, but there was nothing I could do to keep away the pain. Not this time.

“Clementine!”

I heard him call my name as sure as my heels clicked on the marble floor, but I couldn’t stop.

“Clementine,” he yelled, but I only quickened my steps.

“Clementine, stop!”

Too late. A forceful, substantial mass crashed into me and my body flew up in the air. It threw me backward and I hit the cement wall hard. The back of my head smacked the corner of a mount that held a giant brass wolf, and blood ran down from my scalp into my eyes.

Within minutes, I heard the sirens of incoming emergency medical services and watched through my red-hazed vision as a stream of people came out of the mansion, shifting into their wolfen form. He was far ahead of them,  calling my name as he ran toward me.

I am dying and I welcome it. The pain of seeing my mate with another female suffuses my body and I'm unable to move or say anything. A wolf separated from her mate is only half a wolf; a wolf betrayed by her mate is a dead wolf. I had done everything for him, given him all I had and this is how he repays me. I shouldn't have trusted him with my heart.

Not that I was given a choice about loving him. The Goddess assigns every wolf with a mate, someone they are fated to be with for the rest of their lives. The moment I saw Gian, I knew I could never love anyone else. He took advantage of that. He took advantage of me. He was a liar and a cheater.

I'm so cold all over. I know my body must be going into shock. I hurt my head really bad.

Darkness threatened to take us and my wolf begged for salvation. As I let go and ceded to unconsciousness, my last sight was my handsome Alpha and his lying mouth telling me he was sorry.

I was standing beside the mall’s escalator, staring at my phone when I heard a loud thud like a heavy mass landed behind me with a whoosh. My phone fell out of my hand and clattered on the ground. “I’m sorr—"

He apologized, and I pulled him up to his feet. The kid was a tall, gangly boy who looked like a skeleton with big glasses that overwhelmed his face, and he was shaking badly. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbled. “Those guys are dicks.” He pointed to the pack of laughing jackals from the second-floor railing, peering at him and hollering.

Did they drop him from the second floor? Assholes. I looked up and glared at them, shaking my fists. They only laughed harder. I turned my attention back to the kid and helped him straighten his clothes and brush the dirt off his back. “Hey, are you okay?”

He adjusted his glasses, mumbled yes, then ran away.

I bent over to pick up my phone from the ground and shoved it into the left pocket of my skinny jeans before stepping on the escalator. When I looked up, my eyes met with piercing green ones which belonged to a gorgeous young man with jet black hair and a perfectly sculpted face.

My heart stopped, and for a moment, I couldn’t get enough air to take into my body, and I got a little light-headed. When he shifted his attention to the pretty girl next to him with a charming smile on his face and put his arm around her shoulders, a wave of disappointment swept over me.

I didn’t realize I was gawking at him until one of his friends approached him and whispered to him while gesturing toward me, and someone tackled me from behind, nearly causing me to stumble. With a snarl, I whirled around to confront the bitch who dared to assault me, but it was just my friend Lucy, who was grinning at me.

“You’re lucky I have lightning-fast reflexes, or I would have taken your damn fool head off,” I hissed, lowering my fist. “Didn’t your momma ever tell you not to play around on the escalator?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Whoa, Sister Mary, what’s with the attitude?” She straightened her posture and hurriedly fixed her clothes. “OMG, bitch, fix your voguing face.”

I almost got whiplash from her rapid change in moods. “What the—"

“The future alpha is coming down the escalator right now, bimbo,” she whispered through gritted teeth, clamping down on my hand as though she meant to crush the bones.

The thing is, I’ve never encountered our Alpha or Luna, never mind their children, in person. This would be my very first opportunity to meet one of them. My entire life cycle thus far only included going to school and heading back home. My parents weren’t the type to force me to join any pack activities or associate with other wolves if I didn’t want to.

“Show him respect once he’s within greeting distance.” Lucy was all about pack protocol, while I wasn’t. She put on her brightest smile while I bit my bottom lip. I pretended to look away while tapping my fingers on the rail, wishing this damned escalator would go up faster.

“Giancarlo,” my best friend said in her most congenial voice even as she buried her nails into my arm.

I chanced a look in their direction only to see one of his friends smirking at me. Those piercing green eyes met mine again and stared back this time. He appeared to be contemplating if he wanted to say something; instead, he just stared.

Any other girl would have basked in that moment and swooned over his brooding good looks and fanned themselves because he was so hot. All I could think about was touching his face and tracing his jawline with my fingertips.

But of course, I ruined the moment for both of us. I held his gaze a little too long like a creep, then turned away from him with a glare. I wanted to make it seem like his presence didn’t faze me at all, even though my body was on its way to breaking down and melting to the ground.

He and his group passed us, and I heard his friends hooting and howling. Some of them whistled out loud, which caught everyone’s attention. All the mall rats from the second floor, it seemed, rushed to the railing to see what was happening on the escalator. I wanted to die.

I took one last peek before he stepped off the escalator, only to be met with his wink and those damn dimples as he smirked at me. I quickly turned away before he could see me blushing like a red-ripe tomato. Ugh, I’m such a ditz.

“You blue-ribbon idiot!” Lucy smacked me on the back of the head and pinched my heated cheeks.

“What the hell?” I batted her hands away when she tried to pinch me.

“Why did you have to act like a total spaz? Now he’ll think we’re losers.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, right, because we registered so hard on his radar before.” I grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the store. I had to find a dress for our big family dinner as I was finally turning eighteen the very next day.

I couldn’t wait for my wolf, Midnight, to come into her own as a mature wolf and finally receive all her abilities. I had shifted at sixteen, which was almost unheard of, but I was still unable to sense our mate or fully communicate with my wolf. Everything else was right on schedule.

Lucy was still babbling. “You should see him and his friends when they’re shirtless. Ugh, they did this carwash fundraiser for the football team last spring and I… let’s just say my car was thoroughly washed that weekend.”

I grimaced and smacked my friend’s shoulder. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not just talking about your car?”

“Lucy, are you being a pervert again?” demanded a high-pitched voice behind us.

“Finally! Oh, Lexie, you’re here. Please knock some sense into this silly ho.”

Lexie and Lucy were my best friends, the only two people I’m close to. Lucy was the daughter of our Delta, Mr. Cabrillo, and Lexie is from another pack. Her brother, the Alpha of the Crimson Pack, sends her to Madison Boulevard High, where we all met. Now we’re all in our senior year.

Madison is an all-girls school and the only one run by the damn Council. We’re known as the Forest Ridge Pack, fourth in power ranking as far as other werewolves were concerned. Lexie was staying with us in the meantime but visited her brother during summer and other school breaks.

Lucy was still going on and on about Giancarlo. “I swear, our future Alpha is a hunk. I don’t care who his mate is. I will make it my life’s mission to bang him.” She lay the back of her hand against her forehead like a melodramatic actress. “If there were only boys in our school and he was the head-boy!  Damn. Too bad he’s not our age. Oh, who cares? What’s three years?”

Lexie frowned, then shook her head before clamping her hand over Lucy’s mouth and forcibly dragging her to a fashion and accessories store. I followed them, laughing.

“Well, dear, your hunk isn’t here, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t spring the dough to buy you cute underwear, so shut your trap,” she said as she began to sort through the racks of colorful matching bras and knickers.

Lexie was the queen of comebacks.

Lucy shoved her away. “Oh, gosh, I had no idea that underwear has replaced flowers as the ultimate offering for true love. Has Jem been sending you some?”

“Every damn week, sweetie, and right from Victoria’s Secret. Haven’t you been checking your DMs?” she shot back sarcastically.

“You two still keepin’ it on the down-low?” I asked Lexie, and she smiled. She was two months older than us, and Lucy was the youngest out of the three of us.

“Yeah, don’t want Dante to find out about us.”

“Cheeky!”

Grinning, she pushed me aside as she continued to look through the racks of underwear. Afterward, we combed through every clothing store in the mall in search of the perfect dress for my birthday.

Thinking about the future made me want to throw up in nervousness and wished I could stay seventeen forever, so I tried to shake off my gloomy thoughts as I allowed my two best friends to cheer me up.

It’s funny. I know I should be thinking about my mate as he would be finally revealed to me as soon as I turned eighteen, but I didn’t want to dwell on it. I couldn’t. These were the happiest days of my life. Finding a mate was a different chapter entirely and I wasn’t sure I was ready for it.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart!”

I opened my eyes to find my parents standing at the foot of my bed with my birthday cake.

“Oh, you guys!” I cried, stretching out my arms. “I love you.”

My mom set down the cake on my vanity table and hugged me. “I love you, too, baby.” My dad embraced us both. “I love you guys.”

I am my parents’ only child, and they raised me with love and affection.

My mom kissed my forehead. “Nana Gloria sends her love, sweetie.”

I smiled at the mention of my sweet but feisty grandmother.

Mom picked up my cake again, lit up the candles, and brought it back to my bed. “Here you go, Clementine! Make a wish.”

I closed my eyes and asked the moon goddess for the same thing I’ve asked for every year: a sibling. A brother would be perfect. As a little girl, I’d always wanted a sibling to play with and talk to. Sometimes I would hint to my folks that I would love a brother or sister, but they were too busy with their work as the top enforcers of our pack, so they didn’t really have time for each other, much less time to play with me.

Mom said, “Come down when you’re ready, snug-bug, because you still need to go to school.”

I groaned and collapsed back on my bed while they each gave me a kiss on the forehead and left the room.

I forced myself to crawl out from under the blankets and into the bathroom, where I took a quick shower and changed into my uniform, which was a navy-blue skirt an inch below the knees with a white long-sleeved blouse. I grabbed my jacket and fetched my phone from its charger.

I glanced idly at my phone screen and my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when a photo of two wolves intimately connected flashed on my text screen with the caption, “Happy birthday and make sure to make sweet love to your mate when you find him.” My cheeks heated up in embarrassment and I looked around to see if there was anyone around me.

“That Lucy is one horny friend,” said my wolf Midnight inside my head.

I froze. It was the first time she had ever spoken to me while I was conscious and I could hear her like she was standing next to me. This means she had developed a sense of self apart from me and mastered her senses enough that she could share them with me.

“Oh, I can’t wait to sniff him,” Midnight said gleefully, filling me with her gladness and excitement. “I bet he’d smell woodsy and musky and like the ocean… mmm… Mate.”

Her over-exuberance made me blush. “Hello, wolf. Shut up, wolf.” I didn’t need another Lucy, never mind one that talks inside my head.

“How rude,” she said with a sniff.

After a father-daughter talk over breakfast, my dad dropped me off at school. Unfortunately, I was almost late, so I didn’t have time to meet with Lucy and Lexie before classes. At lunch, I had to go to the office of the headmistress for my scheduled interview with one of Daluna’s Pack, a prestigious college founded by Luna Elle.

Lucy didn’t need to attend as her parents had strictly forbidden her to move to the territory of other packs, even for university, while Lexie intended to go to her own pack’s college so she could stay close to Jem.

“Happy Birthday!”

My two best friends scream in excitement, crushing me into a hug after school.

I tighten my hold on Lucy, whispering, “You big pervert!”

Then, laughing out loud, she pulls away, giving me an innocent look.

I turn to Lexie to receive her hug.

“I really wanted to wish you a happy birthday with your parents, but this one made me wait,” she says while rolling her eyes at Lucy. “But the best part is, we’re all going to a party tonight after dinner!”

“Hate to be a killjoy, but I can’t, kids. Not tonight.”

They both narrow their eyes ang glare at me.

I shrug helplessly. “Hey, man, I’ve got a French and history test tomorrow.”

Lucy groans. “Oh, you dork, you can skip it.”

“And then what? Do eenie-meenie-minie-moe on the multiple choices section?” I put my hands on my hips.

My two idiot friends laugh at me.

Lucy rolls her eyes. “Nerd alert. Okay, fine, Captain Square.”

I stick my tongue out at her. “I am not!”

She flips her hair, purposely hitting my face. “Whatever, loser, it’s your loss.”

Seven hours later, I’m lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling because my parents just called to cancel our big dinner since the Alpha needed them both urgently for a meeting. Mentally, I replay the scene from Frozen of Anna bugging Elsa to come out of her bedroom and build a snowman with her. Midnight groans inside my head.

I peek at my wristwatch. It’s eleven pm and I have done zero studying. Good luck getting that solid F tomorrow, Midnight snickered.

I grab fistfuls of my hair and pull. “Damn it, I should have gone to that damn party.”

My phone rings, making me jump, and I see Lexie’s name. I pick it up and answer it like I’m dying of boredom. But the voice on the other line was not Lexie. It was deep and hoarse, ordering me to get to an address and pick up my stupid friends.

“This can’t be good,” I tell Midnight. I jolt out of my bed and rush outside to get into the car. I know my dad is going to ground me for driving with no license, but my friends need me. All that matters to me right now is getting to them on time and ensuring their safety.

“Forgive me, mom and dad.” I kiss their tiny pictures in the locket hanging from my neck before driving off.

When I get to the address, I see no signs of Lexie or Lucy in front of the residence. I drive up to the corner and find them sitting on the curb next to an alley giggling together while a couple of guys I don’t know watched over them.

Not too far from them is a chick from school leaning possessively into a guy whom I hope is her boyfriend because they are way too cozy to be just friends.

I park the car across the street and jump out. “Shit. It’s cold as hell out here.” I shiver even underneath my fashionable ski jacket. Because of my werewolf genetics, my body tends to run a little hot, so when the temperature drops even a little bit, I really feel it. In wolf form, I’m a lot more tolerant of cold weather.

My fear of Lexie and Lucy getting raped and murdered in some dark alley made me forget to put on a more sensible parka and a scarf.

I hasten to get to them and drag them to my car when a potent, enticing fragrance hits me, almost knocking me off my feet. The scent is making my head swim even as Midnight yips in excitement. As I approached my friends and the smell only got stronger, I experience this floating sensation in my head like I’ve been sucking on nitrous oxide.

I’m now standing right in front of Lexie and Lucy and trying to find the source of that intoxicating smell by sniffing surreptitiously around my immediate surroundings. Sure, I’m hanging out with werewolves, but sniffing in certain circumstances could be considered rude when you’re in human form.

“Yummy.” I can hear Midnight salivating in my head.

“Holy shit, what is going on?” I scream at her in return.