Sierra

"Hold still, Sierra. You are shaking." Ria pulled the strings of my corset tighter.

"I cannot help it." I stared at my pale reflection in the vanity mirror. "Just a few more hours, Ria. At midnight, I turn eighteen. I can leave this pack. I can leave him."

"If Santiago catches you sneaking out during his Alpha ceremony, he will lock you in the estate dungeons." Ria warned. She picked up a hairbrush. "You know how ruthless he is. He is getting crowned tonight. The Vanguard merger is finally happening. He wants everything perfect."

"I do not care what he wants." I swallowed hard. "He treats me like garbage. He makes my life a living hell. As soon as the clock strikes twelve, the law says I am an adult. He cannot hold me here anymore."

The bedroom door swung open. It hit the wall with a loud bang.

Amaia walked in. She was the Beta's daughter and the absolute bane of my existence. She wore a skin tight red dress that left nothing to the imagination. A cruel smirk played on her lips as she looked me up and down.

"Look at the little stray trying to play dress up." Amaia leaned against the doorframe. She crossed her arms. "You actually think you belong at the Vanguard merger gala tonight? You are just the charity case step-sister."

"Get out of my room, Amaia." I glared at her through the mirror.

"This is not your room." Amaia laughed sharply. "This is Santiago’s house. Tonight he becomes Alpha. He takes over the entire enterprise. And the first thing he is going to do is kick you to the curb. Or better yet, send you to the omega quarters where you belong."

"Leave her alone." Ria stepped between us.

"Watch your tone, Ria." Amaia sneered. "Or I will have my father demote your family. As for you, Sierra, do not trip on your cheap heels on the way downstairs. The entire European socialite circle is here. Try not to embarrass us more than you already do."

Amaia turned around and strutted out of the room. She left the door wide open.

"I hate her." I whispered.

"Everyone hates her." Ria sighed. "Come on. Let us get this over with. Just keep your head down until midnight."

I nodded. My duffel bag was already hidden behind the oak bookshelves in the ground floor library. I just needed to survive the coronation, grab my bag, and run into the forest.

The grand ballroom downstairs was suffocating. The air smelled of expensive champagne, heavy perfume, and dominating wolf pheromones. Hundreds of pack members and business partners milled around.

I kept to the shadows near the back hallway. I just wanted to check on my bag. I slipped away from the crowd and hurried down the dark corridor toward the library.

I pushed the heavy door open and stepped into the dark room.

The door slammed shut behind me.

A hand grabbed my wrist and spun me around. My back hit the wooden door.

"Sneaking around, Sierra?"

My breath caught in my throat. It was Santiago.

He smelled of dark mint, rain, and pure danger. He wore a tailored black suit. His collar was unbuttoned. The dark ink of his tattoos crept up his neck, making him look like a feral mobster. His jaw was clenched tight. His dark eyes burned into mine.

"Let me go, Santiago." I tried to pull my arm away. His grip was like iron.

"What are you doing in here?" His voice was a low, dangerous growl. "You are supposed to be out there. My coronation is starting in ten minutes."

"I needed a minute to breathe." I lied. My heart pounded against my ribs. "You are hurting my wrist."

He did not let go. He stepped closer. His chest brushed against mine. The undeniable pull between us flared to life. It always did. I hated it. I hated him. But my traitorous body always reacted to his proximity.

"You are going to ruin my night." Santiago hissed. "The Vanguard merger is the most important deal of my life. And you look like a cheap distraction. Who bought you that dress?"

"I bought it myself." I snapped back. "With the money I saved from working at the pack diner. Not all of us have Daddy's credit card."

"Watch your mouth." He backed me harder against the door. "You walk around my house acting like a saint. You act like you are so much better than everyone else. It drives me out of my fuckng mind."

"Because I do not bow down to you?" I yelled. The frustration of the past four years finally boiled over. "You are a bully, Santiago! You are cruel and arrogant and you treat me like dirt! You make sure everyone in the pack hates me!"

"Because you do not belong here!" He shouted back. His face was inches from mine. "You are a weak little human-blooded stray. You bring nothing to this family. I cannot even look at you without wanting to break something."

"Don't worry, I'm going to leave!" I screamed. Tears pricked my eyes. "I turn eighteen at midnight. The law says I am free. I am leaving this place and I am never coming back.

You will never have to look at my face again!"

Santiago froze. His eyes darkened to pitch black. The Alpha aura radiating off him was heavy enough to crush my lungs.

"You think you can just leave?" His voice dropped to a lethal whisper. "You think you can run away from me?"

"Watch me." I spat.

"Fuck the law." Santiago growled.

He grabbed the back of my neck and crashed his lips onto mine.

I gasped against his mouth. The world exploded. A sharp, electric shock ripped through my veins. It shot straight to my heart and settled deep in my soul.

Mate. The word echoed in my mind loud and clear. My wolf howled inside me.

Santiago tore his lips away. He stared down at me. He was breathing heavily. His chest heaved up and down. The shock in his black eyes matched my own.

"Mate." He whispered. The word sounded like a curse.

"No." I shook my head frantically. "No, this is a mistake. We hate each other. We are step siblings."

"You are mine." His voice was pure possession.

"Santiago, stop." I pushed against his chest. "Let me go."

He ignored me. He picked me up effortlessly. I kicked my legs, but he threw me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing.

"Put me down!" I yelled, hitting his broad back.

He opened the library door and carried me straight up the private back staircase. He did not care if anyone heard us. He carried me all the way to the top floor and kicked his bedroom door open. He tossed me onto the massive king sized bed.

I scrambled backward against the headboard. "You cannot do this! You have to get downstairs for the ceremony!"

"To hell with the ceremony." Santiago locked the bedroom door. He stripped off his suit jacket and threw it on the floor. "I am claiming you right now."

"No!" I panicked. "I am leaving at midnight!"

"You are never leaving." He crawled onto the bed. He caged me between his muscular arms. "You are my mate. You belong to me."

He kissed me again. It was rough and demanding. I tried to fight him, but the mate bond was too strong. My body betrayed me. I kissed him back. I let out a soft moan as his hands explored my body. He was entirely too hot, too dominant, and too intoxicating.

He claimed me right there on his bed while the entire pack waited for him downstairs.

Hours passed. The midnight clock chimed in the distance. I was officially eighteen. I was officially marked.

I lay in the dark room, my head resting on his bare chest. I listened to his steady heartbeat. He was playing with a strand of my hair.

"I am your mate." I whispered into the quiet room. "You cannot treat me like a stray anymore. You have to tell the pack."

Santiago let out a cold, dark chuckle. The sound sent a shiver down my spine.

"I am not telling the pack anything." He said smoothly.

I sat up. I pulled the sheet over my chest. "What do you mean? The bond snapped. You claimed me."

"I claimed you because you are mine tonight." Santiago looked up at me. His eyes were devoid of any warmth. He looked exactly like the ruthless monster I had always known.

"But the Vanguard merger requires a peace treaty with the Northern packs. And they demand a heavy price."

My stomach dropped. "What price?"

"Tomorrow morning, you are being sold to the Cursed Alpha of the North." Santiago smirked.

"I just wanted to taste you before I traded you away."

Sierra

The lingering heat of his touch instantly turned to ice.

"You are lying." I whispered. I clutched the sheets tight against my chest. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

"Get dressed." His voice was completely void of the passion from moments ago. He picked up my torn dress from the floor and threw it at me.

"The entire pack is waiting downstairs. It is time they see exactly what kind of snake we have been harboring under our roof."

He did not give me time to process the whiplash. He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the bedroom. I stumbled down the grand staircase barefoot. The entire elite stood in the ballroom. The music had stopped. Hundreds of eyes turned to watch Santiago drag me to the center of the floor and throw me onto the cold marble tiles.

"Look at her." Santiago spat. He looked down at me with pure, unadulterated disgust. "The sweet little stray. The gold digger who put my father in a coma."

The entire ballroom gasped. The sound echoed off the high ceilings.

I froze. My blood ran cold. "What are you talking about? Your father had a sudden stroke."

"A stroke induced by concentrated wolfsbane." Amaia stepped out from the front row of the crowd. She held a sleek tablet in one hand and a small, empty glass vial in the other. She looked down at me with a victorious smirk. "The exact extract that went missing from the pack infirmary three days ago."

"I did not touch any wolfsbane." I scrambled to my knees.

"Santiago, you have to believe me. I love your father."

"You love his bank accounts." Amaia interrupted smoothly. Her voice was loud and clear for the business partners to hear. "Do not play the victim, Sierra. We checked the security logs. Your keycard accessed the infirmary at two in the morning the night before the Alpha collapsed. And the guards found this empty vial hidden inside your mattress."

"I was getting painkillers for my cramps!" I yelled. Tears blurred my vision. "Someone planted that vial! Amaia, you are lying!"

"Enough." Santiago growled. His Alpha aura flooded the room. It forced my head down. "Do not call my Beta a liar. You expect us to believe someone planted it? You are a parasite, Sierra. Just like your pathetic mother."

"Do not bring my mother into this." My voice shook uncontrollably.

"Why not?" Santiago laughed. It was a dark and cruel sound. "She packed her bags and disappeared two days ago. But she did not just run away because she was scared. My financial team flagged a wire transfer of two million euros to an offshore account in her name. It was a coordinated plan. She took the upfront cash, and you stayed behind to finish the job."

"No." I sobbed. The betrayal pierced straight through my chest. "She left because she could not stand the abuse in this house anymore. She abandoned me. She did not take any money. I do not have a single penny to my name."

"You wanted the entire pack." Santiago stepped closer. His black shoes stopped inches from my hands.

"You wanted him dead so you could claim the inheritance as his legal dependent. You used him."

I looked up at him. My vision was completely blurred with tears. "He was the only person in this house who actually cared about me. He gave me the name Sierra. He said it was because I brought peace to his home, like the mountains from his childhood. He treated me like a real daughter. I would never, ever hurt him."

Santiago's jaw clenched tight. For a fraction of a second, I thought I saw a flicker of doubt in his dark eyes.

But Amaia immediately stepped closer to him. She placed a gentle hand on his chest.

"Do not let her manipulate you, Santiago." Amaia whispered. She made sure her voice carried. "She is a murderer. She is crying because she got caught. She needs to face the consequences before she targets you next."

Santiago's expression hardened back to stone. The ruthless bad boy returned. He looked down at me like I was nothing but garbage.

"I, Santiago Vanguard, officially reject you, Sierra, as my mate."

The words echoed in the dead silent ballroom.

A sharp, violent pain ripped through my chest. It felt like my ribs were being cracked open with bare hands. I screamed in agony, clutching my heart as the brand new mate bond shattered into a million irreparable pieces. I collapsed onto the floor.

Santiago did not even flinch. He just watched me bleed out on the inside.

"And as my first official act as Alpha," Santiago announced over my painful sobs. "I banish you from this territory. You are no longer recognized by this pack. You are property. And your debt will be paid in the North. I have sold you to the Cursed King."

The crowd erupted into shocked whispers. The Cursed King was a savage. He ruled the frozen wastelands with blood and terror. Sending me there was a public death sentence.

I forced myself to stand up. My legs were shaking violently. My chest was hollow and bleeding from the rejected bond. But the sadness was suddenly gone. It was replaced by a burning, violent rage.

I looked Amaia dead in the eyes, and then I turned my hardened gaze to Santiago.

"You are making a terrible mistake." I wiped the blood from my bottom lip where I had bitten it. "You think you broke me tonight. You think you won. But I promise you both. I am going to survive. And when I come back, I will take everything you love and burn it to the ground."

Santiago let out a dark chuckle. He crossed his arms over his broad chest. "Take her away."

Two massive estate guards grabbed my arms. They dragged me away from the center of the room and hauled me toward the grand double doors.

Just as they pulled me out into the freezing night air, the heavy iron gates of the packhouse blew open with a deafening crash.

A massive, terrifying black convoy rolled onto the gravel driveway. The temperature in the courtyard plummeted instantly. Frost crept up the marble steps.

The Northern guards had arrived early.

And stepping out of the lead armored vehicle was a man whose dark, dominating presence made Santiago look like a little boy.

The Cursed King had come to collect his property himself.

Sierra

The car door slammed shut.

The interior of the car smelled of expensive leather and something sharp, like ozone before a storm. I huddled against the door, my skin still crawling from the phantom sensation of Santiago’s touch. The rejection bond was still aching in my chest. It felt like my heart had been shredded and left to bleed in the dark.

"Stop crying."

The voice was deep. It was like velvet wrapped around gravel.

I looked up. The man sitting in the shadows of the backseat was even more terrifying up close. He was massive. His shoulders were so broad they seemed to take up half the cabin. He leaned back with a terrifying grace, his long legs stretched out. He didn't look like the other Alphas I knew. He wasn't polished. He was raw. Dark tattoos peeked out from the collar of his black shirt, climbing up his neck like ivy.

"I am not crying." I wiped my face with the back of my hand. My voice was hoarse. "I am mourning the fact that I didn't kill Santiago when I had the chance."

A small, dangerous smirk touched his lips. He finally looked at me. His eyes weren't just dark. They were haunting. He was devastatingly handsome in a way that made you want to run and stay at the same time.

"Great." He said. "Keep that fire. You are going to need it where we are going."

"Where are we going?" I asked. I moved as far away from him as the seat allowed. "And why did you buy me? I am a 'murderer,' remember? Or did Santiago forget to mention that?"

"I don't care about the gossip of a pack that can't even protect its own." He leaned forward. The movement was sudden. He invaded my space, his scent flooding my senses. "You are Sierra. The girl with no pack. And I am Ansel. Your new reality."

"I am not your property." I snapped.

"Technically, you are." He corrected me coldly. "But let us be clear about one thing. I do not have time for tears or drama. You have a role to play. If you play it well, we won't have problems. You will be fed, clothed, and protected. If you don't, the North is a very cold place for a lone wolf."

"What role?" I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning.

Ansel looked out the window as the car sped away from the Vanguard estate. I watched the lights of my home disappear. I felt a pang of agony, but I pushed it down. I had to survive.

"My position is being threatened." Ansel said. His voice was casual, as if he were discussing the weather. "The Council of Elders thinks I am too unstable. Too 'cursed' to lead without an anchor. My brother, Ricosta, is already whispering in their ears, trying to claim my seat. He thinks he can run the North better than I can."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

Ansel turned back to me. He leaned in so close I could feel the heat radiating off his body. He reached out, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw. His touch was firm, almost aggressive.

"I need a Luna." He whispered. "A perfect, happy, devoted Luna to show the Council that I am settled. I need the world to believe we are a match made in the stars."

I let out a harsh laugh. "You want me to lie? After what just happened? I can barely stand to be touched by a man right now."

"It is a transaction, Sierra." He said. His gaze dropped to my lips. "You play the part of the doting wife in public. You smile at the galas. You stand by my side at the trials. In exchange, I give you a life Santiago could never dream of."

"And in private?" I challenged him.

"In private, you can hate me all you want." He shrugged. "But there is one more condition. The Council won't be satisfied with just a wedding. They want a legacy."

I shook my head. "What does that mean?"

Ansel's eyes darkened. He moved his hand from my jaw to the back of my neck, pulling me slightly closer. The air in the car suddenly felt very thin.

"I need a son, Sierra." He said. His voice was a low growl. "I need an heir to secure my line. Give me a son, and after he is born and the Council is silenced, I will give you your freedom. I will give you enough money to go anywhere in the world and disappear."

I felt like the floor had dropped out from under me. "You want me to... you want a baby?"

"I want a future." He corrected. "And you are the one I chose to give it to me. It is a simple deal. A life for a life."

"You are insane." I whispered. "I don't even know you."

"You don't need to know me to carry my child." He said. He didn't sound like a hero. He sounded like a king who was used to taking whatever he wanted. "Do we have a deal, or should I tell the driver to drop you off in the middle of the woods? I hear the rogues are hungry this time of year."

I looked at him. Truly looked at him. He was ruthless. He was arrogant. He was everything I should hate. But he was also my only way out. He was the only person who could keep me safe from Santiago’s reach.

"Three months." I said. My voice was trembling. "Give me three months to decide."

"You have until we reach the border." Ansel said. He didn't move away. He stayed in my space, his heavy presence pinning me against the seat. "But let me give you a piece of advice, pet. Don't look back. There is nothing left for you in that pack but a grave."

I looked at his tattoos. I looked at the raw power in his shoulders. I thought about Santiago and Amaia laughing in that ballroom. I thought about how he had used me and then thrown me away like trash.

"I'll do it." I whispered. "But I have my own rules. You don't touch me unless it's for the 'role.' And you never, ever mention my mother."

Ansel’s smirk returned. It was a beautiful, lethal thing.

"We'll see about the touching, Sierra." He said.

He didn't pull away. Instead, he leaned in further, his nose brushing against mine. For a second, the hatred I felt for men in general flickered. There was a spark there. A dangerous, forbidden pull that had nothing to do with a mate bond and everything to do with the man himself.

"Welcome to the North." He whispered against my lips.

His phone buzzed. He pulled back, the spell breaking instantly. He looked at the screen and his expression turned to ice.

"What is it?" I asked.

"My brother." Ansel said. He looked at me with a look that made me want to scream. "It seems he has already found out about you. He's waiting at the gates. And he brought a guest."

"Who?"

Ansel didn't answer. He just looked out the window as we crossed the mountain pass.

Get ready, Sierra." He said. "The game just got a lot more complicated."

As the car rounded the final bend, I saw the lights of a massive stone fortress. And standing under the spotlights at the entrance was a figure I recognized all too well.

It was Giberano.

My heart stopped. He wasn't supposed to be here. I had seen him on the news and heard about him. Ansel's father.

My hands shook.

What was I supposed to do?

But as the car pulled to a stop, I saw the look on his face. It wasn't anger. It was a bit genuine smile.

Ansel gripped my hand, his rings cold against my skin.

"Smile, Luna." He commanded. "Our first audience is waiting.”