Page 1 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate (Secret Legacy #3)

S elina

Being locked up in a decapitating room somewhere high up in the mountains of my Alaskan pack’s territory was bad enough, but not so much that I couldn’t endure because, after all, I had spent a fair number of my nights suffering one punishment or another or being locked up like a prisoner, and not the Alpha’s daughter that I was.

What made today’s episode special was that a much worse fate awaited me if I didn’t find a way to leave here soon.

I needed to get out of here. Fast.

Sighing for the umpteenth time today, I hobbled into a corner of the cold room, running my hands down my legs before bringing my knees to my chest for some warmth.

I’d been thinking of a way to escape since I woke up after my dear sister, Marissa, first dragged me here, unconscious, two nights ago, and I still hadn’t come up with any solid ideas.

I’d thought about dismantling the bars from the window and throwing my slender frame out, but that would only lead to a broken neck, which was not an option. My life was far from perfect, but I didn’t want to die yet.

From the dull streaks of moonlight that seeped into the room through the small window, I knew that it was only an hour at most before my absence would finally be noticed, and not in a good way for me.

“Think, Selina,” I muttered to myself with deep, ragged breaths, standing up and pacing the room to the metal door, which had a set of vertical metal bars.

It was still locked.

Stretching to peer through the narrow window again, I saw that our Nightwing Pack’s signature whale oil lamps had lit up the usually dark streets, and the sound of a distant commotion, most likely my father’s favorite music, was cutting through the once-serene night air.

Throughout the week, preparations had been ongoing for the arrival of my father’s most influential visitor of the century, Alexis, Alpha of the Shadow Moon Pack. The day of his arrival and the celebratory ball welcoming him was here at long last.

While Nightwing Pack occupied the mountains and the dry, rugged valleys of the Northeastern packlands, Alexis’s Shadow Moon Pack spanned the rest of the East. It was marked by abundant fertile lands and forests and more natural resources than they could exploit in a hundred years.

The tale of how Igaluk, the gracious Moon Goddess, had used the fierce Alpha Alexis to turn the battle between Moonlight Pack and the Blood Moons, helping them overthrow their previous Alpha’s tyrannical and corrupt rule, had been sung here for the last few years.

According to the stories, just when the Blood Moons were about to be taken down for the second time in history by their oppressive ruler, Reginald, glowing wolves led by Alexis appeared on the mountaintops, rocketing through the air with unmatched speed and stealth, helping the Blood Moons reclaim their lands.

Alexis was just twenty-five, younger than half my father’s age, and only five years older than me, but he had successfully built an alliance with two out of the other five packs in Alaska, so it was no surprise that my father took an interest in him.

Our pack, Nightwing, was hoping for a coalition with the formidable Shadow Moon Pack, and as such, our father, Alpha Lucian, was going to present my sister and me to Alpha Alexis as potential wives.

Alexis would choose one of us to marry based on some discerning physical quality that I didn’t know or care about.

The entire concept of putting us up as lambs for sacrifice sent hives running in all directions of my body, including my gut, churning it and making me want to puke.

Still, I couldn’t dare embarrass my father by being absent when we were called upon because that would be the utter end of me, hence my need to escape this room I was trapped in.

I heard movement in the hallway outside my prison room, and hope soared in my chest that I was finally getting out.

“Help me, Igaluk,” I muttered quietly, and with gleaming eyes, I broke into a little run toward the door, looking to see if someone made it this way by any chance.

They could let me out.

“I can’t believe you’re that happy to see me,” Marissa’s chirpy voice came from the shadows even before her heavily made-up face came into view, and the optimism that had bloomed in my heart sank to my gut.

Marissa appeared, dressed head to toe in a bright yellow dress, the color that the Shadow Moons associated with the Moon Goddess, Igaluk, and even I could tell from her stiff hips that she had done or wore something to enhance her shape.

Her hair was made into an elaborate updo, meant to impress none other than Alexis, but it was something else that caught my eye.

A piece of metalwork glowed from behind Marissa’s rich dark hair, and on realizing what it was, my wolf growled in fury.

That was my hairpin in Marissa’s hair!

It was passed down to me from my mother and bore our pack’s symbol of a brown wolf nuzzling Igaluk, the goddess we worshiped.

I could recognize the handiwork of our pack’s domain from miles away.

It had conveniently gone missing from my hair when I woke up here, but I could not imagine that Marissa would keep something she knew meant so much to me.

Her smile was almost appealing to look at, only that I knew this was Marissa’s way of showing her reserved hostility towards me.

Smiling when inflicting harm. Just as she has for years.

“Nuka—Sister—,” I managed to say in our language past my hurt as I took a few steps away from her, protecting myself, but Marissa’s charming smile disappeared. Daggers set in her dark eyes, and she fired them at me.

“This would be the last time I’d warn you about calling me that, mutt! Trust me, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you because I doubt anyone would even care if you were gone.”

I shut my eyes, ignoring the sting of her words.

She was right, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

Half-sister or sister by blood, it didn’t matter to me, but apparently, it did to Marissa because ever since our father brought me to their home when my mother died of kikasuq, a persistent and untreatable cancer, Marissa made sure I never forgot my place—Selina, the bastard daughter of Alpha Lucian, and a testament to his infidelity outside his marriage to Marissa’s mother with a common pack member.

That I had no control over the actions of two grown adults from twenty years ago didn’t matter to anyone.

What mattered was why I would dare be born of a woman who slept with a man outside marriage.

I’d been an outcast, isolated, and uncared for, which was why Marissa was also right about no one flinching if I died.

Every time she taunted me, played pranks on me, pulled my hair for it being long and “annoyingly shiny,” or went as far as shoving me against a wall, none of our peers stood up for me. Certainly not Father. I was utterly alone, never having my own friends or belonging to any cliques.

Painfully shaking the depressing sadness of my situation from my mind, I tried to soothe her with my words.

“I’m sorry, Marissa, but you have to let me out.

I didn’t burn your clothes, and even if I mistakenly did, isn’t two days without food and water enough punishment?

” Marissa had given me a few of her clothes to press with the local heating iron forged from the pack’s metalsmiths, claiming that the coal used in its heating system could stain her fingers.

Pushing my work aside, I had done as she asked, only for her to show up later, saying I burned the clothes.

Marissa spoke, not hiding her hate for me. “You have some mouth on you for someone who’s behind a locked door.”

As quickly as I could, I chipped in another apology.

“No, Marissa, that’s not it. I’m sorry, okay?

Please let me out. Father won’t be happy if I miss appearing at the ball.

I promise I’ll stay out of your way, and you can have Alexis.

I’d even say some nice things about you,” I pleaded, but it all fell on deaf ears.

Marissa believed herself to be the only one deserving of the power that came with being Luna and the perfect match for Alexis, causing her to naturally see me as an opponent as if being her stepsister wasn’t already a feat enough.

I didn’t care about being Alexis’s bride.

I didn’t want the damn spot. I had a career to pursue and aspirations for the next five to seven years, and those meant more to me than being tied to a man I didn’t know or like, but Marissa didn’t believe this.

“Come on, Marissa,” I added, hoping to talk my way out. “This way, we can both get what we want. I just want out of here, not Alexis, so let me go.”

Marissa shook her head once.

“There’s no need for you to show your face there if you really don’t want him, not that Alexis would ever choose you in the first place.

I only came here to make sure you were still in your cage like a good little dog, and Alexis is almost here, so this is toodles, bitch. ” She was gloating again now.

Marissa wasn’t going to let me out of here, so I needed to get myself out.

Using her distraction from hearing herself speak and hoping that I didn’t ruin what I was sure took hours of planning to put together, I sped to the door, jutted an arm between two bars, and held onto Marissa.

Her shriek told me that she was just as surprised at the outburst at me, but I had a mission, and only a few seconds before her initial shock wore off.

“Please, Marissa, you can’t leave me…”

Before the words could fully leave my lips, Marissa’s long nails gripped the back of my head from between two of the vertical bars separating us, digging into my scalp. My face collided with the rusting surface in a split second.