Chapter 0001

FEYRE

“Why didn’t you acknowledge that we’re mates last night?” I go straight to the point. 

A low laugh rumbles deep in his chest. “And that is why you came all the way here?” 

“Answer my question!” I say through gritted teeth.

“Want me to name you my luna? Wake up from your delusional dream.” there’s a snarl on his lips as he says the crude words. “You’re just like other girls, desperately throwing themselves at me and begging me to make them the luna. But I am not your mate and I will not acknowledge you.”

I glare at him, my irritation at his stupid words reaching new heights. I try hard, I try very hard to not feel insulted by the words he is uttering but I can’t help myself. My palms land on the table with a loud smacking sound, he doesn’t flinch, though his eyes harden more. Good.

“Not everyone is desperate for your attention, alpha.” I say the title with a mocking tilt, knowing it would set him off. It did. “Reject me if you don’t want me, I don’t care.”

The voice in my head is screaming at me to take it back, but I refuse. If he chooses to be an asshole then I can be equally rude.

He is quiet for a long beat of silence, and I almost think he isn’t going to say it. I turn on my heels, ready to get out of here and go back to my pack but his voice stops me when I'm by the door.

“I, Alpha Zade of the Darkmoon pack, reject you as my mate.”

****

“What do you think about that Feyre?” I look up from the drafts that were in front of me and nod at Asher, our alpha and my best friend.

“It is a very good idea. Our warriors fighting differently will throw anyone off the hook.” The rest of the people nod in agreement and they all pitch in their ideas. Everyone was satisfied by the time the meeting came to an end.

Everyone left the meeting, except Asher and I.

We usually stay back after meetings to discuss what we talked about, this is to ensure we are on the same page. 

As the beta of the midnight pack, I work closely with Asher, who is the alpha.

Asher is twenty five and I am twenty two, our age has never caused a bridge between us since we grew up together.

His mother, the late luna took me in when I was four years old. My father was the beta of the pack before he and my mum were killed by a rogue. She has treated me like her daughter and she was the only parent I knew all my life.

That didn’t stop me from wanting to learn about my parents or the rogue that killed them, but it didn’t matter how hard we tried. There was never any information on it, and since we didn’t have police or investigators like humans did, the case got closed.

Asher became the alpha soon after he turned eighteen, the age every wolf is expected to meet their destined mates. Many people thought we would end up together but we weren’t surprised to find out we weren’t each other’s mates.

I was fifteen then and couldn’t recognize my mate but he would have been able to tell. We didn’t feel anything about it, I know we were both glad we didn’t turn out to be mates. I look at Asher as my brother and nothing else.

Our pack was attacked a week after Asher’s birthday and his parents and a few of our oldest pack warriors got killed, which is why Asher stepped up as alpha so soon. Though it is normal for werewolves to step down and let their children take over when they come of age, he wasn’t quite ready since he was in a training school for alphas. You could call that our university or college.

Naturally, he was ahead of me in high school, a more advanced type of high school than that of humans. We get taught all normal subjects like in any usual high schools but unlike those where you need to go to college to major in something, we start from high school. So college is mostly optional.

I had to wait until I graduated High school and completed beta training before taking on the official role at sixteen, too young in some cases and given that I was female, there was a bit of ruckus with neighbouring packs.

They believed our alpha was too young and me, the beta, a she-wolf at sixteen wasn’t suitable to have an important role like that. Asher and I proved everyone wrong.

We worked well together and within a year of me becoming beta and him, two years as alpha, we restored our pack to its full potential.

We didn’t have a lot of warriors which for the longest time left us as prey for bigger packs that easily started wars with smaller packs so they could take over.

Werewolves are animalistic by nature and territorial. We didn’t want to lose our land just because people thought us incapable, so we fought harder, built our warriors from scratch and had a great security squad for the pack.

I am a mean fighter, they said it was a blessing from my father’s bloodline, while my mother is a healer, like most of the females in the pack. I easily know how to pick up defences and Asher, being the alpha, has both great genes. We used what he learnt from school and what I learnt and we taught our remaining warriors and the new graduates.

The old warriors added their old school knowledge as they liked to call it. Our pack grew because of members from other broken packs that joined.

Asher never tried taking over any pack although he had the means to, he saw what was done to his family, he didn’t want anyone to go through that type of pain.

Even now, years later, we still go by our word and our warriors are one of the best around here.

“What are you thinking about?” His voice pulls me from my train of thoughts and I turn to face him, dragging myself back to the spacious meeting room.

It has the most minimal but effective decorations, with an oval table that accommodates the twenty people on the pack council. It also makes communication easier since we are all pretty much facing each other.

“A few details about the exchange. I’ll look at suitable packs and then see which of the kids will fit which best.” He nods in agreement, a prideful glint in his eyes.

“I trust you,” he pats my shoulder like an older brother would. I rolled my eyes.

He likes treating me like a kid.

“You have the draft of names, right?” I wave the piece of paper in his face. “Maybe I can help.” 

With that, we went through all the names of the twenty kids that graduated high school a few weeks ago. All their majors are written beside their names and their full qualities are listed in their information sheet we got from the school.

We brought up the names of the pupils that wanted to join the training, those who aren't very good with field work go into their respective fields. As expected, most want to go into training.

Fighting is second nature to us and we swear loyalty to our packs from the day we were either born to it, or bound by the alpha. Like the immigrants from broken packs, or mates of our pack members who will be unlinked to their pack and then linked to ours. We all have the same goal, to help the pack grow and protect it at all costs.

All werewolves have fated mates that are written for us by the moon. You first have the ability to meet your mate by eighteen, and you shift at fifteen or sixteen.

These are two biggest events of our lives and every young wolf looked forward to that.

I remember the excitement I had felt during my first shift. The first is extremely painful, because your human body changes into its wolf form and you have to learn to accommodate your wolf.

I shifted at fifteen and met my wolf, Naya. She is very much like me, proving that they are just an extension of us.

I wasn’t very disappointed when I didn’t find my mate at eighteen, my main focus was the pack and it would have just been a disruption. Now though, I don’t really know where I stand.

I am still busy with the pack because Asher and I still believe there is a lot more we can do for the pack. But I guess, if it happens, then it happens.

I just hope he will be understanding and loving and sweet, like I was told my father was. And like Asher’s father, he was strict but you always saw how caring and adoring he was to his mate.

If I do get to meet my mate, the only thing I ask of him is to be warm and kind.