Chapter 1

Mira's POV

The men standing before me were pack house guards with grim, forbidding eyes and heavy-looking armour. I knew that scary look on their faces; I had seen it before. The look in their eyes made my skin crawl with discomfort.

Today, however, things were slightly different. The joy within me could not be bridled. Untamed it burst through my veins like tongues of flames, setting my nerve ends on fire with excitement.

I bounced on the balls of my feet as I faced them, and I could not stop the grin from spreading on my lips. "Where is Luca.... Alpha Luca?" I asked, quickly correcting myself.

"The alpha is busy. He asked not to be disturbed." One of the guards answered me.

"Yes, Miss Mira." The other guard replied. "Kindly wait, or go back home."

The guards paused for a while before answering, as though picking their words around me. I could sense their reluctance, and a sliver of impatience moved through me. I peered through the metal gates of the pack house, balanced on the ends of my toes, trying to catch a glimpse of my future mate.

Future mate....even the sound of that sent sparks of giddiness through me. I could feel my Wolf, just at the tips of my fingers, aching to come out.

"Oh, to hell with it!" I snapped. Pushing past the guards, I stumbled through the half-open gate and into the compound. A part of me was expecting the guards to chase after me, but they didn't.

Filled with a giddy happiness, I moved through the front door of the pack house, weaving through the familiar corridors to where I knew I would find Luca. On late afternoons like this one, he was either to be found in his bedroom, or in the library, blonde head buried in a large book.

I decided to try his room first—he could be having a siesta. I ran through the corridors, almost tripping against my own feet with my impatience and excitement.

And the sight of his door made me reel back in surprise.

I felt my brow furrow in a frown, as I stopped before Luca's room door. It was slightly ajar, and I could see what looked like a shoe, edged between the door and its frame.

The shoe was so sudden, so out of place, that I blanched at the sight. Luca was nothing if not neat; my mate loved everything to always be in its place.

A part of my mind urged me to pick up the shoe, but another part of me forced me to stop and wonder. Luca never ever left his door ajar; amongst other things, he loved a closed door.

Had he stepped out for a moment? Or had he left the door open out of forgetfulness?

Several questions and possibilities raced through my head. Strange sounds began to filter from the room and into my head as I stood there. 

Was that....groaning? Was Lucas in pain?

Finally, pushing my riotous thoughts aside, I decided to walk in and find out.

I picked up the stray shoe from where it was wedged. My other fingers closed around the warm wooden doorknob, and I pushed inside. The door swung open with barely a creak as I walked in.

"Luca?" I called out. "Are you in here?"

The wider I opened the door, the wider my eyes and mouth went. 

Luca was lying on the bed, wrapped in the embrace of another woman.

********

Their moaning and groaning buzzed in my ears. Their rhythmic movement, the creaking of the bed and the sheets draped over their sweaty bodies made me stand in one spot, frozen with shock.

The single shoe slipped from my hand, slamming against the ground with a loud clatter.

Luca and the woman hastily separated at the noise, and their nervous, jerky movement reminded me of thunder splitting a tree, of wind tearing a leaf apart, of sparks and crashes and devastating, agonizing breaks.

"Wh....what is going on here—" I stuttered. I had one hand still on the doorknob, another hovering between myself and Luca.

"What are you doing here?" My mate asked. There was a look of shock and a slight anger on his face—apparently his actions did not have the same effects on him as it had on me.

I was all alone in this experience.

"What the hell are you doing?" I screamed. "What are you doing with that woman?!"

"What woman?" The female asked. She pushed past Luca, stepping into the light pouring from the open window.

It took me all my strength to pull my gaze from Luca's apathetic face to the woman he had been kissing. And as I stared at her, I was hit with a double blow.

The woman who stood there was my step-sister, every smug line on her face still in place.

"Annabelle!" I screamed. "You....!"

Suddenly, my former excitement seemed to shrink in my chest like a tiny ball of yarn, until it was nothing but a shadow, a flicker of something I once felt, something I could no longer identify with.

All I felt was agony that seemed to tear at my bones.

"You....I just came with the news that my father finally agreed to our mating ceremony, and I meet this?!" I roared. 

Luca moved forward, shoulders hunched, standing beside Annabelle. "I was going to tell you about our romance." He murmured. "I have been meaning to tell you about it, but I never got the time nor the chance...."

His voice sounded mechanical and bland, as though he had practiced his lines before delivering it, and the agony in my bones intensified. 

"You've been meaning to tell me what? That my sister was your secret lover? That you've been cheating on me for Goddess knows how long?" I retorted. 

Tears rolled down my cheeks in wave, and I wiped at them angrily. "Tell me this is some sort of hoax. Tell me this isn't true—"

"Oh, but it is true, sister." Annabelle replied instead. I could see the satisfied look in her eyes, and something inside of me shrivelled up and died.

"I am sorry, Mira, but we cannot be together." He spoke up. "Perhaps you should find your way out now."

I locked eyes with Luca, my gaze meeting his aquamarine blue eyes, but not a sliver of hope was in his gaze. I knew, there and then, that I had lost my mate long before I even realised it.

And without a final word to either of them, I turned and dashed out of the room, taking my shattered heart with me.