Page 3

He lifted a hand toward my cheek as if he wanted to stroke it, and nausea swelled up my throat.

No.

This couldn’t be happening. There was still so much I needed to do. I wanted to serve my pack as a nurse. Wanted to remain by my father’s side while he grieved for the loss of Mom. Wanted the chance to find my true,fatedmate…

My father, the man who I trusted most in my life, had betrayed me. Gave me to another to be used and discarded as soon as I provided a son—an heir.

Tears spilled over the edges of my eyes, little salty rivers falling down my cheeks. I tried to yank away from Alpha Roman’s looming fingers but couldn’t escape. I clamped my eyes shut and prepared for his touch.

It never came.

Instead, a low, menacing growl rose from the dais, where Alpha Roman’s guards and advisors stood watching. A warning, cold and lethal, and my body immediately reacted to it. Goosebumps peppered every inch of my skin, even as the blood warmed in my veins.

The overbearing sense of dread dissipated in an instant, and I wrenched my eyes open again.

Alpha Roman had frozen, every honed muscle in his body going dangerously still, and palpable anger simmered off of him. Even so, he made no move to touch me again.

Because, on the dais, another male had stepped forward, and the faintest hint of tobacco and mint washed over me.

My eyes traveled up the length of this new man’s body.

Impossibly long, powerful legs covered by form-fitting dress pants. A white, button-down shirt stretched tight over histapered torso, hugging shoulders that somehow seemed even larger than Alpha Roman’s. Disconcertingly large muscles rippled beneath the thin fabric, and the smallest hint of dark hair and tattoos peeked beyond its unbuttoned neckline.

Shoulder-length brown hair fell around his neck, a bit messy and disheveled, like he hadn’t bothered brushing it. A thick, short beard covered his sharp jawline that my fingers itched to trace, and his face…

I froze. Fear wrapped its poisonous talons around my throat, suffocating.

Three ridged scars ruined one half of his face, extending from brow to lip. His eye on the ruined side was a shade too pale and stared blankly ahead, clearly no longer viable. Red, inflamed tissuetwisted the ruined corner of his lips.

But his appearance, however scarred and intimidating, was not what frightened me so much.No.

I was terrified of the glint of pure, unadulterated possession in his stormy gaze. A gaze that stripped me bare and left me defenseless. Claiming and brutal andnothinglike I imagined.

Surely this couldn’t be correct. There must’ve been some mistake…

At the same time, every fiber in my being screamed one word, and I knew this was no mistake.

Mate.

2

MALIK

Red lined my vision as my brother lifted his hand to touch my mate.

Mymate.

Mine.

I’d known it the moment she walked into the formal meeting hall, head bowed and demure. Pliant and obedient. Submissive to another male.

My hands balled into trembling fists as familiar, volatile anger simmered in my veins. I inhaled once, desperate to draw the scent of her, a tantalizing combination of honeysuckle and pear, into my lungs. It consumed me, momentarily taming my burning need to punish every male in the room who looked at her with desire in their eyes.

I resisted the urge to storm off of the dais and rip my brother and alpha away from her. I could, and,Goddess,in that moment, I wanted to. I’d never wanted to harm him before. I’d devoted my entire life to protecting him—servinghim.

Yet this female, a blessing from the Moon Goddess herself,eclipsed any sense of duty that I possessed for my brother. She was a stranger, but she wasmine.

And Roman wanted to claim her for himself.