Chapter 1: ‘My precious, you are so beautiful.’

“Be careful Asa,” Catherine Arius, our Luna of the Pack Blessed Moon kindly admonished me to stop me from banging right into her. Griping onto myself at the right moment, I looked up at her with a sheepish grin and bounced on my toes as I apologized, “I am sorry Luna I was just in a hurry to see my sister. Do you know where she is?”

Shaking her head at my excited stance she placed her hands on my shoulder to calm me down and with a small secretive smile on her face she asked, “Did you find your mate?”

Blushing as I realized that she must have understood the reason of my excited gait I pouted at her while trying to calm myself as I babbled, “Not yet but I am hoping to find him soon.”

At my words she gave me a motherly smile and then with a small kiss on my head she said, “Happy eighteenth Birthday, Asa. Your sister was called in early this morning for some Beta work. I am sure you’ll find her somewhere inside.”

The Pack house was huge and finding her here was going to take me some time but nevertheless feeling the excitement bubbling inside me I thanked the Luna and ran inside towards the Beta office where my sister would be with her mate.

Mate.

Just the thought of him, whoever he was, made me want to burst out into a fit of excited giggles to relieve my stomach from the butterflies fluttering inside.

Opening the room of my sister’s office I didn’t see her but instead a broad shouldered back greeted me and stepping inside, realizing who he was I asked, “Hey, have you seen-”

At my words he turned around and as soon as our eyes met, I cut my words off in the middle. We stood there frozen for a moment, my wolf inside me howled happily in my head and if I was in my shifted form, you could have seen my tail wagging behind me.

Clay Arius was my mate.

His blue eyes flitted all over my face, a turbulence in those calm seas. The once parted mouth that was open to respond to me was now closed as his soft pink lips was set in a straight line. There was a flush over his tanned skin and when he folded his arms in front of him, I could visibly see his muscles flex through the thin material of his t-shirt.

I had never before seen Clay Arius as a desirable man even though he had always been hot but now that I knew he was my mate the fog cleared in my mind. It was definitely true when people said that a thousand angels must have blessed him for him to be so good in all aspects of his life.

Both his looks and behavior.

“I can’t fucking believe this!” he cursed making me stumble on my thoughts of singing praises of him only to find that he was now pinning me with a glare.

Am I seeing this right?

“Mat-” I was about to ask him something when grabbing onto my arms roughly he knocked me to the wall adjacent to my sister’s table as he snarled, “Don’t fucking call me that!”

He had done nothing to lessen the force of his sudden gesture and with an audible banging sound the pain seared through the back of my head making me wince. The parts where his hand had been touching my skin was blissfully tingling and yet my mind was unable to make sense as two very different sensations caused by the same man took over my body.

Pain and pleasure regulated through me making me groan lowly, and as if to stop me from making that noise Clay’s grip tightened on my arms in a vice like grip.

“What do you mean?” I asked slightly hesitant when I realized that his blue eyes that I had found to be endearing and sparkly like jewels before had been ablaze with a hateful fire. It was hard to believe that the man who had been the mascot of calmness and levelheadedness in this pack was actually capable of these expressions.

“Get this clear through your head for once and for all, I don’t want you as my mate,” he bitted out harshly, moving away, letting go of me harshly while combing a hand through his silky brown tresses. He didn’t’ even bother making eye contact with me when he said this and by the small curl of his nose, I could make out that the very sight of me was disgusting him.

But why? Wasn’t he, my mate? Shouldn’t he love me and cherish me?

I wanted to cry, my wolf inside me was slowly breaking apart at her mate’s hurtful words. She tried connecting with the wolf of our mate but nothing she did worked in her favor.

Clay didn’t want us at all.

A tremor rose in my throat and my eyes moistened as I felt my heart plummet but taking in a silent deep breath, I steeled my voice and asked, “May I know what is the reason for you to reject the bond that Moon goddess has blessed us with?”

I could see him flinch a little at the coldness in my voice as I tried my best to hide the withering parts of me behind a strong façade. I would never let him get the satisfaction of knowing that he had been able to break me.

His gaze lingered on my closed off expression this time around for a second longer and then scoffing at me in a derogatory manner he jerked his chin at me as he laughed, “Have you seen yourself? You frankly don’t deserve to stay by my side. How did you even dream of being my mate with those looks and no set of skills at all? Do you think you would be worthy of being a Luna when I would become the Alpha of this pack?”

My heart stopped for a second at the austerity of his words and I whipped my head away to avoid looking at him in fear that my eyes would reveal the true extent of my pain that was heavily coursing through me.

It wasn’t a wise move because I directly met eyes with my own reflection in a polished vase kept on the table. It wasn’t a clear image but I could make out my raven black boring hair flowing down my back in a tangled mess because I hadn’t bothered to comb it this morning in a hurry.

My green eyes which I had come to love, a color that I shared with my deceased dad also seemed to be shining dully. I looked nothing extraordinary with that moss like color and for a second, I couldn’t help but believe every word that Clay said.

‘My precious, you are so beautiful.’

My dad’s words echoed in my mind and shaking myself out of my slump and with a burning rage I looked at Clay as I gritted, “So you are defying the will of the Moon Goddess just because I don’t come up to your sick beauty standards?”

He looked taken aback a little, again and for some reason even slightly disoriented but a known calmness took over his features as he cockily nodded and said, “You are right and also, I don’t receive any political power through you. You are an orphan with no influential background that could potentially help me. Not to forget that your skills aren’t even the best in this pack then how could you even dream about standing with me?”

It pricked when he emotionlessly mentioned about my parents in a languid manner. Did he realize how harsh those words were for a person who lost their parents at the mere age of seven?

This person right in front of me was not who the pack knew him to be.

He wasn’t an angel that everyone made him out as but a twisted devil who had only one thing in his mind and that was to gain power. I am sure his good boy act was just to put up a show in front of the people to win their trust and to get to the seat of the Alpha a step closer.

I had just been ready to curse at him when a small creaking voice garnered our attention towards the door and looking at it, I could make out a petite blond figure nervously glancing between the two of us.

“I am sorry to disturb you,” Sofia Ignis, a friend of mine said as she shifted tensely on her feet, ready to leave. She must have sensed the tension in the room and seeing her face I felt guilty for a second.

She had forever had a crush on Clay who was now unfortunately mated to me.

“No, you came at a perfect time Sofia. Please come here,” Clay called out to her with a smile and though I could see her visibly perk up at his attention she hesitantly moved towards him. There was an anxiousness on her face and I wondered if she had heard our conversation before to be reacting this way.

When Sofia had been in Clay’s vicinity enough for him to reach out to her, he grabbed onto her at once. My eyes that had been sharp in gathering our mate’s actions immediately noticed the gentleness with which he handled Sofia unlike us and a dull pain started clogging my airways.

Taking a deep breath again to stop myself from bursting out into angry and hurtful tears I saw Clay hug Sofia from behind as he smirked over her shoulders and with a glint in his eyes he said, “She is perfect to be my mate.”

Sofia unable to make sense of the situation gasped and was about to move away when Clay dug his hands on her waist and wrapping one around her abdomen in a tight cage kept her close to her causing my wolf to go insane.

Every touch and breath that they shared was painful to look at and finally placing a soft kiss on Sofia’s nape Clay fixed his eyes on me and said, “I, Clay Arius, the future Alpha of my pack Blessed Moon, reject you Asa Trine to be my mate.”