Chapter One

TEN YEARS LATER....

“Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday, happy birthday. Happy birthday to me.” Lucia sighed heavily at her reflection in the mirror.

Today, according to pack law, Lucia officially became an adult. Her 18th birthday party was going strong downstairs, and here she was hiding in her bathroom. How pathetic could she get.

Unable to stand the unhappiness in her eyes any longer, she turned away.

Lucia was a monumental disappointment in every conceivable way. Although none of her family ever said so, she still can feel it. She couldn’t help but know. Her father, Alpha Theodore Salvatore, already had four pups who were daughters. What he desperately needed was a male pup—a male Alpha pup.

But what she got was another female, and an Omega to boot.

Things might not have been so bad if Lucia’s special talent—a gift all Omegas were born with—had been something useful. But no, what Lucia had ended up with was the ability to identify metals, stones, and minerals. A couple hundred years ago, that might have been extremely beneficial, but in this day and age? With the technology humans had? It was worse than useless.

A knock on her door dragged her attention away from her less-than-celebratory thoughts. Lucia left the bathroom and entered her bedroom but stopped a few feet shy of the door and delicately sniffed.

That was her oldest sister, Mandy. Her she could stand, so she opened the door. “Hey.” Quickly she moved out of the way as she swept in.

Mandy wore an off-the-shoulder, slim ruby-red dress with cascading sleeves and a dramatic side slit. Like the rest of their kind, she had the perfect figure, which the dress showcased. Her dark hair hung loose around her shoulders.

“Looking good, sis.”

“Thank you.” Mandy’s presence was so huge that any room she entered, she dominated. Lucia envied her for that. “People are noticing you aren’t at the party. Mother said you need to come down.”

Lucia nodded. But instead of leaving, she sat on the side of the bed, fighting off a shiver. The last place she wanted to be was downstairs. So what if she officially became an adult today? What did it matter? She wasn’t the man her father so desperately needed. No, she was a burden and that was all.

Mandy sat next to her and rested her hand on her knee. “Are you okay?”

“Okay?” Lucia’s strangled laugh had a slightly hysterical edge to it, which was so not what she was going for. “I’m not sure anything is going to be okay ever again.”

Mandy sighed. “Lucia, hon—”

“No, don’t.” Lucia glanced at Mandy’s hand, then up into her chocolate brown eyes. Her mere presence comforted her, something her other sisters were unable to do. “You should be the Alpha, you know,” she blurted.

Mandy’s lips tightened. “And you know our pack law says it has to be a male.”

“Then our laws need to be changed, because that’s ridiculous. You have what it takes to be an Alpha.”

“Everything but a penis.”

She was right, as unfortunate as it was. According to the laws in their pack, since she was born female, she couldn’t be pack leader. Supposedly women didn’t have the viciousness needed to lead. Ha! The males of their pack obviously needed to get their attention off their dicks once in a while.

“I’m sorry. I really am. I think you’d make a great Alpha,” Lucia said.

“I appreciate that. Too bad many don’t agree with you.” Mandy patted Lucia’s hand, then stood. “Come on. We better get downstairs before Mother sends one of our sisters up here.”

“She already did: you.”

“And aren’t you glad it was me?” Mandy smirked.

“Pitifully so.” Lucia had four sisters: Mandy, Michelle, Megan, and Michaela, then her the only omega. Michaela was the only one not mated and was still living at home.

“I don’t know whether to be insulted or amused.”

“Go with amused,” Lucia suggested, then laughed at Mandy’s scowl and followed her downstairs.

Night had long since fallen. As they made their way to where the party was being held, she glanced out a bank of windows.

Fluffy clouds drifted across the brightly shining moon. The air was clean, brisk, and cool. Duty called, but that didn’t stop her from wishing she could just shift and run, just get away from all of this.

Their three-story pack house was huge, almost five thousand square feet, and had what her mother fondly called a parlor on the second floor. It was an enormous room with a grand piano, several sitting areas, and french doors that opened up onto a deck that had stairs going down to the in-ground pool.

The french doors were not open since it was winter, although Lucia was sure they soon would be. Werewolves ran hot, and it was warm in there with so many bodies—and there were a lot of bodies. All the Betas and their mates had attended, along with most pack members and all the Elders.

There had to be at least twenty-five to thirty pack members milling around in that room alone, and she and Mandy had passed at least another ten to fifteen more on the way there. Who knew how many were in other areas of the house or outside?

She glanced around the parlor. The hardwoods gleamed, the marble around the fireplace shone, and her packmates were dressed in their finery. Their pack was the richest in the area, and it showed.

What didn’t show were hints that things were not as they appeared, which Lucia had noticed—like how tense her father had been for the past year, how her mother suddenly had lines around her lips and eyes, and the hushed late-night arguments that revolved around money.

Her mother approached, beautiful as always in a sleek black dress that fit her figure perfectly. She caught herself subconsciously straightening. She had that effect on people. Her dark hair was arranged on top of her head, and her jewelry sparkled. She was poetry in motion.

She loved her mother, quirks and all. For some unfathomable reason, she decided her female pups’ names needed to begin with the letter M. No one understood why, but her father shrugged and said there was no understanding a female mind. Though she always wondered why her name is different. However her father explained to her that because she's an omega, they choose a different name for her.

“I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to send reinforcements.”

Magdalena grinned as she reached out, pulled Lucia closer, and air kissed both cheeks. She stepped back. “You look nice. It’s just… dear, really? That dress, don't you think it's too vulgar."

Lucia shrugged even as her stomach tightened. Her light gray dress like her mother's hugged her body well, however unlike her sister's and mother she has a very ample chest, that the dress couldn't hide well.

“I think it looks good. And the color matches her blonde hair.” Mandy jumped to her defense, as usual.

She didn’t have the coloring the rest of the pack had. Werewolves had either black or brown hair and dark eyes. The exception were Omegas, whose human forms had light brown or dirty-blond hair and a golden hazel eye color.

When an Omega shifted, their eyes were a deep, golden amber, their coat was a silvery white, and their wolf was small. Regular pack members had different shades of brown coats. An Alpha was pure black and much bigger than the rest of the pack. All other werewolves had bright yellow eyes.

“I never said it didn’t, Mandy,” Magdalena gently corrected, then turned to Lucia.

“Now, since you’re the guest of honor, let’s introduce you around.”

Lucia would rather not, but she plastered a fake grin on her very beautiful face and followed her mother.

Two hours later she was even readier to shift and make a run for it. Gods, she was furious. It hadn’t taken long to figure out this so-called birthday party was also a chance to introduce her to all the suitors they’d invited. Her stomach rolled uneasily, and it wasn’t from all the cake she’d eaten either.

Arranged marriages were not unheard of in the werewolf community, but there was a desperation driving her father that Lucia hadn’t seen before. His laugh, while sounding jolly, had a creeping edge of anxiety tonight.

Even though Lucia was furious with her parents for setting her up in such a way, she couldn’t discount the worry her father was trying to hide and the tightness around her mother’s pinched lips as she rebuffed one suitor after another.

Why didn’t they understand she just came of age? The very last thing she wanted was to mate. There was a whole world out there she wanted to explore, and being mated wasn’t conducive to that.

No, her mate would probably want to lock her up in a gilded cage so the sweet, little, helpless Omega would be safe. No wonder how she spent most of her time wanting to gnaw the hell out of something.

Her mother had finally opened the french doors because of the heat in the parlor, and Lucia couldn’t resist. She escaped outside to the deck. She needed a minute to catch her breath.

Her parents always kept a close eye on her, especially since she was an Omega, even though her talent wasn’t anything to jump up and down about. But as an Omega, she did have worth, and apparently her parents were looking to cash in on that. They’d allowed her out on dates in the past, but they’d always been supervised. She’d even dated a few humans, although her mother hadn’t been too pleased about that. Now it was nothing more than a free-for-all, and she was beginning to feel like a prime-cut piece of meat.

Music and soft conversation followed her outside and the cool air washed across her heated skin. If she blushed any harder, she was going to resemble a boiled lobster.

Out of her parents’ sight, she’d been patted, pinched, leered at, and felt up. Lucia was going to punch the lights out of the next person who had the guts to grope her behind.

“How dare you? How dare you show up tonight, of all nights!”

“Alpha?”

Raised voices drifted out onto the deck, and Lucia sighed. Now what?

“By all the gods, is that a—?”

Lucia frowned. A what? Then someone screamed and she jumped. The increased heartbeats of her fellow pack members inside the parlor hammered relentlessly at her. Okay, that was a little disconcerting.

Then the tinny stench of fear drifted out to her. Fear? Forget disconcerting. Now she was flat-out worried. There was very little werewolves feared. Broken pieces of conversations, anger, and waves of distress overwhelmed her. Maybe she should get back in there, although she wasn’t sure what she could do to help—not that she would be allowed to anyway.

“Silence!”

The roar hit her like a sonic boom. Her knees went weak, and she grasped the deck railing to keep herself from falling.

Power, unlike any she’d ever felt, rolled over her. Oh gods. She closed her eyes, trying to rein herself in.

As she adjusted herself, she noticed something else. That roar—so masculine, low, and growly. It sank into her very bones. Her nipples grew hard, her belly started growing hot and her claws came out, digging into the wood of the railing she so desperately held.

She pried her eyes open. Confusion hit her. Her breathing spiked. This wasn’t a weaker wolf reacting to one more powerful. No, it was something else. Something she’d never experienced before. Didn’t matter, though. She wrestled her body under control. She refused to be the weak-willed Omega everybody assumed she was.

Once her breathing leveled out, she noticed the silence. The nighttime sounds she was so familiar with were glaringly absent. There was no prey scuttling across the dead grass and decaying leaves. No predator stalked on stealthy feet. There was nothing.

A chill crept up her spine. It seemed as if everything around her had frozen. She glanced back into the parlor. Both the music and conversations had stopped. Tension creeped out through the open doors.

Lucia had the perfect view of her father. Several of his Betas stood behind him. Even from where he stood, Lucia could see the unease on her father’s face, and she gawked. Her father was renowned for being cool under pressure. But not this time.

Her mother stood off to the side and behind her father, with several female werewolves clustered around her. Mandy stood next to their mother, but she couldn’t see the rest of her sisters.

What the hell was going on?

“Your time is up.”

Lucia shivered again. That voice. What was it about that voice?

“Not until the stroke of midnight, it isn’t,” AlphaS Salvatore growled.

For once her father didn’t sound like the authoritative werewolf Lucia knew he was. Lucia shifted to the side, trying to see through the french doors into the parlor.

Who was her father speaking with? She bit her lip. Slowly she inched farther to the right. Just a little more and she could finally see.

“Which is less than three hours away. You’ve made no effort to contact me, nor have you made any type of payment. I have to tell you, Alpha Salvatore, this disturbs me greatly.”

Lucia blinked. Who dared to speak to her father with such a disrespectful tone? More importantly, why wasn’t her father wiping the floor with them?

Lucia eased a few more inches over. As she moved, she got a better look into the room. Her glance roamed over a male of average height with brown hair. His looks weren’t anything spectacular, and the black-rimmed glasses he wore didn’t help. He wasn’t a paranormal, although he wasn’t quite human either.

Then she saw the other one.

Good gods. Lucia’s stomach dropped. A man stood several feet from her father. The stranger was sexy beyond belief. Long black hair fell to his slender hips. Lucia swallowed. Whoever this man was, he wasn’t as tall as his father, nor was he bulky with muscles. He had what the humans termed a swimmer’s build.

And even though Lucia could only see his profile, there was no denying the stranger had a strong jaw, insanely chiseled cheekbones, and a perfectly formed nose. His light gray pinstriped suit fit him like a glove and suggested it was custom-made… and expensive, very expensive.

Who was this man? He wasn’t human, Lucia knew that. She sniffed, trying to pick up the stranger’s scent. When she finally did, it hit her like a ton of bricks. It was dark, delicious… and completely unfamiliar.

But she liked it, and she wanted more. Tingles raced through her body. Oh gods.. She yearned for him to touch her. And her wolf wanted nothing more than to roll around in that scent. She sniffed again, more deeply this time.

Who the hell is this stranger?! Why she's behaving like she's in heat?

Alpha Salvatore tensed. “I’ll talk with you tomorrow. Tonight we’re celebrating my youngest’s coming-of-age.”

“No, I don’t believe so. Why don’t we adjourn to your office?”

Lucia raised an eyebrow. Whoever this guy was, he had balls. The fact that he was still standing on his feet, in one piece, amazed Lucia. Why was her father allowing such disrespect?

“I—”

“Now!” the stranger snapped.

“Hot damn,” Lucia whispered, expecting to see blood flow at any moment. No one spoke to her father that way.

The stranger whipped his head around and stared straight at Lucia. Shock hit her square between the eyes. Her feet glued to the floor, all Lucia could do was stand there, frozen, with her mouth hanging open. Beautifully colored indigo eyes zeroed in on her. Lucia had never seen such an unusual swirling mixture of blues and purples for an eye color. They were striking and quite intimidating.

For the first time ever, Lucia understood how prey felt. Her heart pounded and her head spun. Her mouth was so dry, she couldn’t swallow. An instinct she didn’t know she possessed shouted at her to turn, run… to escape. But another yelled at her to get closer, to go belly-up for her….

Mate.

Shit, it can’t be. Fudge, no!

What was staring at her was one of the top predator in the paranormal community—a Lycan... Nobody fucked with them ever.. No one. And somehow Lucia knew her father had gotten on the wrong side of one...

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