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ARIA

W hen my mother died two months ago, a piece of my father died too. That’s the sad thing about mates. One can’t live without the other. Not really. Not meaningfully.

If my mother was still alive, maybe Dad would’ve been strong enough to fight. Instead, he bent the knee and offered his loyalty–and our entire pack’s loyalty–to a monster. To the infamously cruel alpha of the Intonat Nocte Pack.

The negotiations took place two nights ago, shortly after the Intonat Nocte Pack stormed our territory under the cover of darkness. My small, peacekeeping pack never stood a chance, and Dad surrendered to save our friends and family.

It made me sick.

I glared up at the sprawling mansion and wrinkled my nose. It looked more like a castle than a home. Goddess, why the hell did this bastard feel the need to conquer anyone when he owned something like this ?

“Aria,” Dad warned, his voice a low, hoarse grumble. “Don’t look so disgusted.”

I hadn’t realized I’d stopped walking in the middle of the cobblestone drive to gawk at the Intonat Nocte compound. It was unlike anything I’d seen before.

Born into the Auroras Pack, I was accustomed to life without extravagance.

We were a small pack of thirty-two members.

My mother homeschooled me throughout my youth, and my father taught me to shift and fight.

I was training to become a nurse under our pack’s old doctor.

A simple existence, yes, but I had everything I needed.

Now, twenty years later, one greedy, power-hungry alpha had ruined it all.

“Sorry,” I muttered, averting my eyes before anyone could witness my revulsion. “I just don’t understand why I had to come.”

The rest of our pack—our old pack—had been allowed to stay at home. Our new Alpha, Alpha Roman, didn’t seem to care where we lived, so long as we paid homage to him with quarterly taxes and answered his summons when needed.

Dad shot me a weary look. Dark circles sagged beneath his blue eyes, duller than I’d seen them since Mom’s death. He looked like he’d aged a lifetime in the span of two days.

“I told you. When Alpha Roman heard I had a daughter, he wanted to meet you,” he explained for the third time that morning, rubbing at his patchy beard.

He was hiding something. He’d never been a very good liar, and I’d learned to read the signs when I was a girl.

He could barely hold my gaze, fidgeting like a nervous boy rather than a fifty year old alpha-male. Tension lined his shoulders, and I could sense the anxiety rolling off of him in waves through the bond between alpha and subject—father and daughter. Something was very wrong .

My chest tightened, further restricting the air that I struggled to pull into my lungs. I didn’t push him any further as we walked toward the front door and knocked to announce our arrival.

Of course, the Intonat Nocte Pack already knew we were there. They’d likely been tracking our movements throughout our entire journey to the center of their territory. Although we hadn’t seen anyone, man or wolf, since we arrived, I felt their eyes following us.

Heavy footsteps sounded behind the iron arch door, and I subtly stepped behind my father’s shoulders. Once, his broad frame might’ve been able to completely obscure me from view. Now, his posture exposed his growing frailty.

The door opened with a creak, and I peeked around Dad’s shoulder to find a huge warrior staring down at us. He had short blonde hair, buzzed to the scalp, and a slightly crooked jaw.

The man’s eyes, dark as a midnight sky, flickered between me and my father, seemingly unimpressed. “You’re Mason Knox?”

My fingers curled into fists at my sides. Alpha Mason Knox, I wanted to correct him, but my father wasn’t an alpha anymore. He’d relinquished that title the moment he bowed his head to another.

Dad nodded. “And this is my daughter, Aria.”

The brute in the doorway appraised me, his eyes lingering for a moment longer than necessary, before stepping aside. “Come in. Alpha Roman is expecting you.”

I felt his lecherous gaze trail after me as we entered the pack house, barely concealing a shudder. The interior of the mansion was as foreboding as the exterior. With gray walls and dark decorations, I felt like I’d stepped back in time.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. As I’d learned in my History of the North American Packs classes, the Intonat Nocte Pack was one of the four founding packs in the northern continent.

Their history spanned centuries, extending back to the first werewolf settlers that reached the Canadian shores from Scandinavia.

“Through here,” the man barked, leading us deeper into the castle.

With wide eyes, I took in every little detail.

Massive, six-foot-tall portraits of old alphas and lunas glared blankly ahead, and I swore their eyes moved as I hurried behind my father.

Wearing a pair of jeans and a pretty white blouse, I felt horribly out of place amongst the architecture and decorations.

As the warrior led us through the halls, the knots in my gut tightened. Something sparked to life in my blood, an instinctual urge to travel further into the compound. Unlike anything I’d ever felt before…

It’s just your nerves, I told myself, inhaling a deep breath to calm the frantic racing of my heart.

Finally, we reached a pair of double doors nestled deep in the center of the castle.

I wiped my palms on my thighs, hyper-aware that my fingers trembled.

I needed to get a hold of myself. The people on the other side of these doors would be able to smell my fear, and werewolves saw fear as weakness.

And most packs sought to exterminate any weakness from their ranks.

The doors groaned as they opened, and a delicious wave of tobacco leaf and mint filled my lungs, infiltrated my veins, and settled straight in my core. Warmth gathered there, seeping to that sensitive spot between my thighs.

Oh hell.

The force of the scent—and its incredible impact on my body—nearly brought me to my knees. My cheeks flamed, and I lingered in the doorway, even as every fiber in me begged to race into the room and find the source of the arousing smell.

“Aria,” my father called, firm, glancing over his shoulder with furrowed brows. He used his signature alpha voice. The one that couldn’t be disobeyed by subordinates.

I ducked my head, keeping my eyes trained on my shoes, and heeded his silent command.

The incredible scent only increased in potency when I reached the center of the room, but I kept my head bowed. Because, in addition to the overbearingly delicious combination of tobacco and mint, an undeniable pulse of power filled the space.

The type of power only possessed by an alpha.

Every lupine instinct in my blood warned me to submit, but I remained on my feet. Alpha Roman hadn’t yet done anything to prove that he deserved me on my knees.

“Ah, Mason,” a deep voice hummed from the opposite end of the room. “I’m pleased you came.”

“As you requested, Alpha Roman, I brought my daughter,” Dad replied, every word stiff and formal.

“Yes, I see,” Alpha Roman drawled, and I felt the heat of his slow perusal. “And I am very pleased…”

Unease skittered down my spine, in direct conflict with the warmth that had previously churned at my center. I dared to peek up, barely lifting my brow enough to see my new alpha through thick dark lashes.

My heart battered against my ribcage as my eyes met those of the Intonat Nocte leader. At least half a dozen men and women stood on his flanks, guards and advisors, no doubt, but I paid no attention to them.

Alpha Roman sat on a medieval-looking throne at the center of a dais, and his broad frame filled every inch of that giant chair of honor.

A tailored suit covered his body, contrasting the gothic architecture of the throne and room.

Dark hair, short and groomed to perfection, adorned his head like a crown, and he wore a wicked, hungry smile .

My blood turned to ice. Alpha Roman’s presence overshadowed everything else, and any thought of that tantalizing scent of tobacco and mint disappeared as my survival instincts took control.

“I’m glad,” Dad croaked, although his voice shook and betrayed his horror.

The lupine grin on Alpha Roman’s lips only grew as he slowly stood from his throne. With slow, arrogant movements, he stepped off of the dais, black eyes never leaving me.

I was old enough to know when a male wanted me.

I’d seen desire in enough gazes to know that they found me beautiful.

I possessed my mother’s honey blonde waves and soft features, paired with my father’s dark blue eyes.

In the summer before my sixteenth birthday, I sprouted from a gangly, awkward girl into a woman.

Now, four years later, I’d earned the attention of one of the continent’s most powerful alphas. I should’ve been honored. Instead, his heated gaze made me feel… dirty.

It felt wrong. Repulsive. As if my body yearned for the admiration of another.

“She’s a bit skinny,” Alpha Roman mused, his lips pinching into a thin line as he studied me like a piece of livestock.“But, as long as she has alpha’s blood, I suppose she’ll do the job…”

Alarms blared in my mind, and I ripped my attention from Alpha Roman to stare at my father. “Dad, what is he talking about?”

Guilt glossed the surface of his eyes as he shook his head apologetically. His lips cracked open, but no words escaped.

“ Dad?” I repeated, louder.

A low chuckle rumbled from the chest of my new alpha, who’d stalked closer until he stood directly in front of me. When he spoke, the scent of iron wafted over me. “Did your father fail to tell you the terms of his surrender, little girl? ”

I recoiled. “What are you talking about?”

Alpha Roman cocked his head, predatory. “I’ve found myself in need of an heir.”

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, fated mate…

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 his tapered 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 and nothing like 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.