Chapter 1

Angelica’s POV

                “Angelica, there you are. What are you doing out here alone? The party is inside.” I hear Raven’s voice ask me, as he moves to stand next to me, while I continue to gaze up at the full moon tonight.

                “Do you ever wonder if she keeps an eye on us?” I ask him, while I close my eyes and begin to absorb the power of the moon’s beams, like a siphon feeding off her prey, as I feel its power strengthening me, with each second that passes.

                “Who?” Raven asks, making me open my eyes to look at him, as I shook my head wondering if there was even an ounce of Moon Goddess gene in him, or if he was simply just a wolf.

                “Raven, I sometimes worry about you.” I teasingly say to him, as I nudge into him playfully, making him leave out a chuckle, before he finally says to me, “I don’t have powers like you Angelica, but I do believe that she watches over all of us, especially you.”

                “Why do you think that?” I asked him with a confused look on my face, wondering why he thinks that I am any more special than him, or our siblings.

                “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you are the only one of us that has been able to harvest her powers. Plus, you are the first born, and the only girl among us, and she seems to favor the women in our family.” Raven explains to me, as he leans against the rail looking back at the house, full of people that had gathered here tonight for my coming-of-age celebration.

                His words held truth to them, as his father had never shown an ounce of my mother’s powers, but that didn’t make him any less significant. He was a powerful Alpha, just like my father, and it was clear that our greatest grandmother watched over him, leading him to my father’s pack, where he and my mother had been reunited with each other.

                In a way, it seemed as if her blessings were different for her greatest grandchildren, but it was clear that she was looking after all of us, empowering us among her creations. But even though our blood was mixed with their blood, and I had been gifted a powerful wolf, I didn’t quite feel like I was truly one of them.

                Ravan and my brother, Maverick, were destined to become the next Alphas of our packs, but me, there really was no specific meaning to my life, like them. My parents’ main priority was mating me off, because my mother believed that was the true reason why she had defeated the Dark Prince, and that her blood poisoned him instead of impowering him, but I didn’t hold those same beliefs.

                In my heart, I believed that they defeated the Dark Prince because my mother was strong-willed and that she had finally found her place in this world, that she wasn’t willing to give up so easily, especially to a vamp that deemed himself a Prince. Not that I had anything against the vamps, as I deeply care about Uncle Tristan and my cousin Titan, but to self-proclaim a title was absurd to me. Regardless, I didn’t think that mating me off was the answer to anything, other than to tie me down to a world that I didn’t quite feel like I belonged in, and I wasn’t going to allow myself to be mated off without a fight.

                “You know you are never going to find your mate, if you stay hidden among the shadows of the night.” Maverick now says to me, as he pushes off the railing, grabbing a hold of my hand, before he begins to pull me towards the house.

                I thought about putting up a fight, but I knew that he must have had orders from my parents to retrieve me, and I didn’t want to get him in trouble for failing the mission they had sent him on. Plus, there was the fact that I knew my mate wasn’t within the walls of the house, as I had already cast a spell among those attending, to make sure he wasn’t among them, before I had made my grand entrance earlier this evening.

                As he pulls me into the house, I swear all eyes moved to look at us at once, making me instantly feel uncomfortable. I wanted to turn right back around and head back outside to the comfort of the night, but Raven at that moment must have felt my discomfort, as he puts his arm around my back, and leans into me, before he whispers in my ear, “It’s just for a few more hours. I promise you that you will survive.”

                My head turned to look at him, as my eyes narrowed, and if I didn’t have a hundred sets of eyes on me right now, I would zap him a good one. Unfortunately, I was forbidden to use my powers tonight, especially since we had guests among us that were unaware of what I truly was.  

So instead, I forced a smile on my face, as I said through gritted teeth to him, “You will pay for this later.”  Before I pulled from his hold on me, and walked towards my parents’ guests, that were dancing on the dance floor, doing my best to hold myself together, as my eyes moved to the grandfather clock in the room, praying that the hands would move faster.

                Abruptly I came to a stop, as a tall man stepped in my direct path I was heading in, blocking my way to the most passive way through the crowd of guests, to my freedom on the other side of the dance floor. “Angelica, you look beautiful tonight. May I have this dance?” He asks me, as I stare up at him, wondering who he was, because I don’t recall ever seeing him before tonight.

                The look on my face must have given away my curiosity, because he then says to me, “I am sorry, where are my manners. I am Joffrey, the soon to be Alpha of the Blood Stone pack.”

                “Oh.” Slipped from my lips, as my eyes moved from him to my parents that were standing in the corner of the room with their eyes on me like hawks, as it was clear that they had sent him in my direction.

                Turning my attention back to Joffrey, I gave him a forced smile, before I admit to him, “I’m really not a good dancer, and I fear that I would make a spectacle of the both of us.”

                “Well, that’s even better yet, because I am a horrible dancer myself.” He said, as he took me by the hand and pulled me to an open spot on the dance floor, out of the direct line of my parents’ sight, not giving me another chance to protest.

                Wrapping his arms carefully around me, not to invade my privacy too much, he leans down in my ear and whispers, “Pretend to look like you are having fun for both of our sakes.” Making me realize that he was just as much of a victim right now as I was to my parents’ meddling.

                Knowing now that he was being forced to endure this too, I felt a relief wash over me, as I relaxed, knowing that he was the least bit interested in me as I was in him. “So, which one of my parents put you up to this?” I whispered back to him, wondering if it was my mother again trying to set me up.

                Joffrey let out a chuckle, making it look like I had said something funny to him, so they would obviously think we were having a good time, before he says to me, “Neither. It was actually my parents.”

                I stopped moving to the music, as I looked at him in disbelief, shocked that it wasn’t my own that had set this up. “Really?” I asked him, before he pulled me back into his embrace, and whispered this time into my ear, “Don’t make it obvious, but as we turn, look into the far corner of the room, and you will see them watching us like hawks.”

                Slowly he turned me to the beat of the song, and over his left shoulder I could see them standing in the corner of the room, just where he had said to look. They were an older couple, about ten plus years older than my own parents, and it was now clear to me why they were forcing him to do this, as age was no longer on his father’s side to run a pack.

                Knowing that the two of us were under the same pressure tonight from our parents, I decided to make a proposal to him, knowing that he would accept. “I’ll make you a deal. You stay by my side all night, making it look like we are having the time of our lives together, and I will do the same for you.”

                “Deal.” He said without a second of hesitation, as he extended his arm, making me spin, before he pulled me back into his embrace.

                “I thought you said you were a horrible dancer.” I said just before his arm wrapped around me, twirling me in a circle, before pulling me back into him once again.

A mischievous laughter now freely slips from his lips, before he says to me, “I had to convince you to dance with me somehow.”