Avery's POV

One of the rogues scoffed without even looking at who was behind him. "Back off, lad. Go find your own girl—"

"Wait. He's not…" another stammered.

The rogues all turned their attention to the man behind them.

I saw a figure, all in black, standing there. His height and broad shoulders emanated strength and power.

He looked even stronger than Ryan, who was already a strong Alpha, but I couldn't see his face in the dark.

"I said, leave her alone. Don't make me say it a third time," the man warned the rogues again.

"Shit, let's go-," The rogues stumbled back, muttering curses, and then fled away.

And then there was silence.

Now I was alone with him. From here, I could sense that he was in heat as well. I felt drawn to him like a moth to flame.

For one second, warning bells blared in my mind. Had I traded one pack of predators for an even more dangerous one?

Then he started walking towards me. With every step, the intoxicating smell became heavier, luring me in as we drew closer to each other.

"Mine," The stranger said while his arms slid around my waist, sending bolts of honeyed lightning down my spine.

I swallowed hard. He was irresistible.

My fingers scrabbled at his forearms, but the heat of him as he pulled me against him… Oh my goodness.

My pulse still pounded, but now it pounded in time with his heartbeat.

I found myself clinging to his shoulders instead of pushing him away.

One of his hands stroked from my waist up my side and came to rest on the side of my neck.

Then he tilted my face towards the moon, his mouth claiming mine in a searing thunderclap.

What a kiss! I gasped, and parted my lips to let him take more of me.

Static frizzed across my nerves as his mouth and tongue claimed mine.

No one has ever kissed me like this!

Time stuttered past in gasps of breath and heat.

His lips and hands dragged wildfire across my skin, and lower.

I squirmed as his hands parted my clothing, and then moaned as he sank his fingers between my legs where my core was wet and ready.

Already we had leaped past anything I had ever done with Ryan.

I found I didn't care. There was only this man. Only he mattered now.

The moon above danced in my vision as I lost myself in the haze of pleasure and sensation.

I couldn't get enough of him. Nothing had ever felt better. No one had ever touched me like this…

I was liquid moonlight in his arms as he undressed me in the darkness.

I unbuttoned his clothing, wanting his skin against mine.

His mouth ran across my body like he was worshipping me. The sounds he made as he touched me everywhere was lavish praise.

"Mine." He repeated in a growl, stroking my skin and listening to my pleasured cries as he moved behind me.

His hands were all over me, and I felt him pushing at my entrance. I spread myself further for him, I needed him so badly. The mating heat had set me aflame.

Then he was inside me.

Taking me.

Pleasure crescendoed within me, somewhere a wolf howled.

We rested against each other after our first joining. He was strong and searingly hot as I leaned back on his chest and he slowly continued to move inside of me, our bodies locked together.

He pressed soft kisses to the top of my head, and then we found our passion again, mating again and again.

When we finally separated, it was only so that I could mount him from the top this time.

He kissed along my jaw as his hands grasped my hips and lifted me onto his lap while he entered me. I rocked my hips against him, feeling him deep inside of me.

His nails scratched down my back as he made sounds of approval beneath me.

I rode him fervently.

He leaned up so his mouth claimed mine while his hands caressed every part of me, and he murmured sweet, prayerful praises into my skin.

I felt treasured and beautiful under his admiration.

Then he flipped me onto my back and plunged into me vigorously, claiming my lips with his.

When his head sank to my neck again, there was a sudden stinging of pain, followed by more pleasure.

I felt like I was going to explode with sensation as he thrust into me. We moved together in a final climax and exploded together, crying out in dual, synchronous orgasms.

I didn't know who he was, but in the throes of heat, I didn't care. He was perfect.

I was his. He was mine. We fit together perfectly.

That was all that mattered.

I woke in the dewy grass in pre-dawn darkness.

My stranger lay behind me, cradling me in his strong arms.

I couldn't see his face in the shadows, but I traced the contours of his jaw with my fingers, gently.

Who are you? I wondered. Whoever he is, he's massively strong.

I couldn't believe my first mating had been with a rogue in the forest. It was hard to feel regret when it had felt so good.

"Thank you for protecting me." I whispered against his sleeping cheek, "And thank you for showing me pleasure."

I slowly pulled myself away from him and dressed, wincing at sore muscles and other places that were tender after what we'd done. I blushed a bit at the memory. It had been lovely, but now it would be a secret treasure I kept for myself, forever.

As dawn rose over the forest, I carefully left without waking him up.

I returned home as quickly as possible.

I could hear my family chatting loudly in the living room as I tried to slink silently down the hallway to my room.

"The Alpha's heir is quite the catch, Zara," my father was saying with a pride he never showed for me.

"Think of the prestige this will bring to our daughter!" my step-mom exalted. She had been the one who had called me a liar, accusing me of pretending to have a wolf and encouraging others to bully me.

You would think my father as Gamma, the military coordinator for our pack, would have seen this as an affront to his family.

Instead, he had loathed me for bringing that negative attention home. He blamed me for what he saw as the loss of our family's prestige.

While they all seemed distracted by celebrating Zara's mating with Ryan, I snuck up the stairs to my room.

Thankfully, no one seemed to have noticed that I'd been gone all night.

I was a mess from spending the night making love on the forest floor, and I needed a shower badly.

When I undressed, I gasped at the sight of a bite-mark on my neck.

How could he mark me?

If anyone saw this mark, I would be ruined.

To be marked by a strange rogue from outside our pack without our Alpha's consent was considered treason. I needed to hide it.

With a bang, the door to the bathroom flew open.

"Didn't know you got home already, human." Zara stepped into the room with glee.

I tried desperately to hide the mark on my neck with my hand, but she noticed the movement.

"What are you hiding?" Zara strode across the room and pulled my arm down roughly.

"A mating mark!" She laughed cruelly.

"Dad! Mom!" Zara shouted to the living room downstairs.

"Please Zara, no!" I pleaded.

"The pathetic human got marked by someone, and she dared to hide it from us!"

Avery's POV

"What the hell-" my father cursed as he stomped up the stairs.

My father and stepmother burst into the room. I tried to back away as they advanced on me in the small space.

Zara snatched at my arm and whirled me around so that the bite was more visible in the light.

My father took a look at the bite mark, stunned.

"This mark looks like it was left by a strong wolf," he muttered incredulously. "Who marked you?"

When Zara and her mother heard the word ‘strong', they stared at me with stunned and dirty looks.

I didn't want to answer, could barely believe it myself, but I had learned to speak when spoken to in this house.

"I don't know." I whispered.

"Where is he then?" His voice rose to a bellow.

"Probably still by the pond in the forest, but I'm not sure…."

"I bet he just ran off," Zara sneered, "I told you, a human like you would never be wanted by anyone."

The first kick from my father caught me off guard. My father was quite a strong Gamma, and I immediately fell to the ground on the other side of the room.

"How dare you say you know nothing after being marked!" my father bellowed. "I should've never accepted you into my family. I knew you're just destined to be a lowly whore like your mom!"

The second kick descended swiftly as I yelped and curled like a worm on the ground.

"This is the gratitude I get for raising you!"

I teared up thinking about my mother.

My mother is just a normal servant in my pack. She accidentally slept with my father while he was drunk and conceived me.

My father, as the gamma of the pack, never wanted a servant like her. So he angrily announced that she'd seduced him, and she was demoted to work as an omega slave in our pack.

The old Alpha, out of mercy, asked him to at least keep me and raise me in his family.

I was almost never permitted to see my mother, but I remembered her kindness when I sneaked a few chances to visit.

"Avery should be demoted to a slave too, just like her mom, since she is a slut who got herself marked and abandoned." Zara suggested to her father.

Zara had long hated that I was Ryan's girlfriend, wanting him instead for herself. Now I suppose she had gotten what she'd wished for.

"No daughter of mine will be a slave!" my father hissed. "First wolf-less, now this! I can't let you tread on my honor as the pack's Gamma anymore."

I flinched away from his kicks, but had long ago learned not to run. It would only make him angrier. I could feel my back welting under his blows.

Finally, he slowed down, breathing heavily. He leaned towards me, roughly gripping my jaw in his hand and stared for a long moment at the mark on my neck.

Then a cunning and cruel expression crept over his face.

"At the mating ball, find a man who will accept you, marked slut," my father growled. His fingers bruised my face with the force of his grip, "and if you do not, then it will be my duty to remove you from this world."

He had threatened to kill me before, but this time I could see in his flat stare that he meant it.

A knot of ice formed at the base of my spine. Fear and panic warred with outrage and anger within me.

I could not outrun him. I could not fight him. I had nowhere to go.

And the mating ball……

Our Silvermoon Pack had a tradition of intermarriage with Nightwolf Pack.

The Nightwolf Alpha must pick a wife from Silvermoon in every three generations and vice versa.

This particular mating ceremony was to be held for the young and unmated Nightwolf Alpha, Gideon, to choose a wife.

The rest of werewolves from both packs would participate and mingle to see if they too could find suitable matches.

It should be a fun time, but everyone was nervous about it instead.

Because Alpha Gideon was a cold-blooded murderer.

It was said that he had wiped a dozen packs from the face of the earth, their survivors scattered and packless.

In contrast, Silvermoon's Alpha was old and weakening.

I didn't think anyone in a strong and cold-blooded pack like his would want me. A dormant and marked wolf.

"You will leave this house for a husband, or you will leave it on a slab." my father punctuated his final statement with a backhand across my cheek that sent me reeling into the wall, and then left the room.

Gideon's POV

I woke from the best dream of my life to find my mate was gone.

At first, I didn't worry. I had marked her, she couldn't get too far.

But when I tried to reach out to her through our bond, all I got was a muted dead-end.

How is that possible?

My memories of the night before were so vivid. It hadn't been a dream.

Mate. My wolf had said. We'd caught the delicious scent of her, drifting to me on the forest breeze.

The joy I'd felt at knowing I was about to meet my mate. Nothing could have kept me from her!

I had run miles through that forest to get to where she was.

Then I saw her surrounded by rogue filth, and they were trying to take her from me!

The frenzy that awoke in me when my wolf realized our fated mate was in danger was lethal.

I had chased them away, which was better than they'd deserved. They had offered no real challenge to my wolf's dominance.

I had found her. Claimed her. Mated her.

The wolf-sense had overwhelmed all others. Every fiber of my being demanded I mark her properly. Make her mine, forever.

I sunk my fangs into her neck when my wolf released enough pheromones to make sure she couldn't feel the pain.

That mark should have been indelible. I should have been able to follow it for miles.

Now the bond connection dissipated as though it had never existed, and so had her intoxicating scent.

The worst thing was that we'd mated in the darkness, and I didn't even know what she looked like yet.

My wolf had been pacing impatiently at the back of my mind. Restless and concerned.

I searched the area for a while longer, then went home and recalled my Beta, Tegan, to my office immediately.

I explained the situation and asked him to find my marked fated mate.

Tegan was surprised to find out I'd marked someone last night.

My Beta cleared his throat, "What will you do if you find her? This mating ball with Silvermoon is an unbreakable tradition."

Knowing he was right only made his words more distasteful to my ears.

"I'll just pick a woman who wants to be my Luna nominally, but I will only mark, want, and love my true mate. I will make that clear before anyone dares to volunteer."

I would never honor an arranged marriage while the woman who was my fate mate remained a mystery.

Avery's POV

A few days later I stood in front of my mirror. I pulled my nightshirt away from where my shoulder met my neck.

My bite mark was already healed.

That was remarkably fast.

I touched the smooth skin in disbelief.

There was now no visible indication of what had happened under the Mating Moon. I knew the mark was still there, but it was sealed inside and invisible to others.

If only I could reach out and find the man who had mated with me! However, since my wolf was dormant, I also could not sense my mate through the bond.

I had no way to find him, or communicate with him. I didn't even know what he looked like!

Today was the Mating Ball where the Nightwolf Alpha would choose his mate.

I needed to find someone to accept me by the end of today, or my father would kill me to save face.

It felt like an impossible task.

A commotion rose from down below, and I lifted my head from my knees, listening.

"Alpha Gideon is about to arrive!" I heard my step-mother snap.

"Finish the preparations." Zara's tone was tense and fearful.

Alpha Gideon was not someone anyone would mess with.

I pressed my hand over my heart, feeling it thud against my palm. I could hear it clearly in the silence of my dusty, still, bedroom.

It was time for me to leave, but when I stood and tried to leave my room, the door lock clicked loudly.

From the other side, I heard Zara laughing.

"No one want you anyway. You might as well just wait for death, dear sister!"

Gideon's POV

Being Alpha of Nightwolf pack means dealing with a large amount of bureaucratic bullshit.

Tradition was a venerable word that sometimes felt more like a venomous curse. I had long ago learned to face uncomfortable duties head-on.

Still, there were few obligations I despised more than this one to which I was headed.

It was the day of the mate selection.

I had done my best to distract myself from the distasteful task to come. Spread across the leather seat next to me were thick dossiers detailing the most recent reports on attacks throughout my territory. The ledger in my hands detailed my commands for troop movements, and where to place our scouts as the dangerous time of the dark moon approached.

Paperwork, unfortunately, was not enough to occupy my mind these days.

As my driver guided the sleek sedan through the dense woods, I watched swirls of mist rise above the trees. Thick bands of vapor arced up towards the distant sun and shattered into smaller puffs, drifting down the valley into which we were descending.

The motion reminded me of a woman, arching her back in pleasure off of the forest floor beneath me. She too, had shattered and disappeared.

"Still no sign of that girl from that night?" I snapped. It came out more harshly than I intended, and my Beta sitting across from me widened his eyes in surprise.

"Apologies, Alpha." Tegan replied carefully, "No new marked women have been reported in any pack I searched."

I tapped my fingers on the seat and frowned. Within me, my wolf was pacing in aggravation.

"Keep finding her. At all cost."

Tegan flinched at my response but said nothing as the car rolled to a stop at the Silvermoon ceremony hall. Behind us in the drive, more vehicles from my pack parked behind us.

I stepped out of the car, and straightened my jacket. There was a group of women standing near the door, eying me appreciatively.

Their scents were all shouting a mix of curiosity and fear. I saw a few dive out of my line of sight to avoid attracting my attention. Didn't they know that motion is what attracts predators' attention?

Foolish.

I knew why they were running though. I had heard what the other packs said about me, and the things I had done.

I couldn't care less.

But with my scary reputation, it was more difficult to believe that some of their cheeks were flushing already. I guess there were always lunatics who would take any risk if it meant a chance at power and status.

I spared no more attention to any of them while I strode towards where the old Alpha of Silvermoon was waiting.

"Alpha Gideon." the old Alpha nodded his head in greeting over our clasped forearms. "I am honored to welcome you to this hall."

"Alpha Leon." I nodded brusquely in return, suddenly weary of these formalities. "I understand there was a rogue incursion here a few nights ago. I encountered some of them as well. Have you been able to make any way into locating them? It seems to be originating somewhere near your borders."

The old man's face took on a distant, wary expression.

"Oh, well now, let's see." Alpha Leon cast his rheumy gaze around the room, as though the answers were written on the far wall. "No, we haven't located that. We've had some other incidents that have required our focus."

Something in his tone gave me the distinct impression the rogue issue hadn't featured in his attention at all, much less been the center of his focus.

Irritation bubbled up within me with all the subtlety of a geyser.

"Then I suggest you focus on that," I ground out, "and stop causing trouble that I will have to clean up."

Silence fell over the ceremony hall. To the side, I saw Tegan's lips twitch. He knew how much I was leaving unsaid. Alpha Leon was lucky he'd only gotten a taste of my temper.

Even if I caused him to lose face in his pack, I couldn't bring myself to feel sorry about it.

If his pack had been patrolling properly, my mate would not have been almost attacked. My wolf might be less angry, and I might not need to claim her right there in the forest to calm my wolf.

If my wolf was patient enough to take her back to my packhouse, I wouldn't have let her just run away the next morning.

The awkward moment passed, and formalities resumed, but I had already checked out. I moved through the greetings and hospitality traditions - my mind miles away. The sooner I got out of here, the sooner I could resume my search for her.

In the middle of what felt like an endless parade of Silvermoon's eligible mates, one of the men in the crowd approached.

"I'm Cohen, the Gamma of the pack, Alpha Gideon," He said. "I am responsible for organizing this mating ball. You have been shown all the daughters of our highest ranking families. Which matches are you most interested in so far?"

Everyone went quiet in the room. I could sense expectation, fear and curiosity bubbling from the crowd.

I glanced at all the girls in the room and crossed my arms. No big difference.

"I don't really care. Anyone will do. Before I take volunteers, however, you need to know-" I paused. "I won't mark anyone I choose today. Prepared for that..."

"But the tradition-" Alpha Leon hesitated.

"The tradition doesn't force me to mark anyone. Just marriage," I cut his words before he could finish. "I have a marked mate already."

Now the room was filled with apprehension and wary glances.

I guess no one wanted to be picked under these conditions, by an Alpha known to be ruthless and a mistress to compete with in the future.

I was glad. It was better if no one volunteered anyways.

"So anyone will do," I turned to the Gamma who spoke to me earlier. "Maybe your daughter?"

"Oh-, She-uh-she's mated to Ryan already. So-" The gamma clearly panicked and stuttered.

"Father, how could you forget about Avery?" One of the girls walked to the front and turned around to face me. "Alpha Gideon, I'm Zara, the Gamma daughter of the pack. Forgive my father for neglecting to mention that I also have a sister."

"She admires you a lot, but she isn't here because she hasn't been feeling well lately. Maybe you'd like to meet her?" she continued, but there was something to her smile that made me feel like she was scheming something vicious.

Still, all women except my fated mate were all the same to me.

"Fine. Bring her to me."