Chapter 1

It was that time of the year again. The time of the year Marian hated the most – Christmas.

Away from her pack for almost a year after her self-imposed exile, she had returned to fulfill her duties as the only surviving child and sibling of her late mother and brother.

Goddess, how I hate this place, she mused, her lips tightening as she strode toward the pack hall.

Her hips swayed as she walked purposefully toward the hall in her gold dress and strappy gold heels, all five feet eleven inches of her, as a light breeze pulled on her waist-length dark brown hair and silk gown.

Her jaw clenched as she neared her destination, and she fought to keep her hands unclenched as she approached; her green eyes were narrowed and focused ahead as she moved with a steady gait.

Marian had the lean, athletic build of a warrior she-wolf, and she moved like the alpha wolf that she was, with purpose and a commanding presence that demanded others move out of the way.

Her back and head were straight and upright. Her expression unreadable, bordering on boredom.

“Why do I have to come back here? All these people…! This place…! It’s exactly the same,” Marian said haughtily, speaking to her wolf, Dinka, in their mind space.

The bitterness in her voice was sharp and heavy as Marian was both pissed off and saddened.

Her return was not a homecoming or some joyous reunion.

It was a duty.

A burden.

It was a guilt she had to pay penance for, every year, forever.

A scar she could never remove. Though not carried on her body like the others – most of which were badges of honor, healed over time, earned by the warrior she was – this one was inside, deep and raw, even now, four years later.

And as if this were not enough, she had to deal with the added stigma of a rejection. A humiliation that had caused her to flee earlier that year.

A humiliation, which she had to swallow to be here, now, for the duty she owed her family.

There had been an internal pack war in which she and her father, the erstwhile Alpha, had lost and had been taken prisoner by the victor of the bloody battle – her father’s best friend, Dax Garrant, the current pack Alpha, a man Marian had called “Uncle” for most of her life, right up to that deadly fight.

She had returned, ahead of schedule, to attend the memorial service that was held every year, for the past three years, to commemorate this battle.

To remember the loss the Lightmoon pack, as a whole, had suffered.

Almost everyone in Lightmoon had lost someone on that day.

It was not a service for only her family, it was for the pack’s lost loved ones – families and friends alike.

For Marian, it was nothing so grand or noble.

For her, it was the reopening of a wound – every single time.

A bitter reminder that she and her father had survived while her mother and brother had not.

And here she was, in the very place she had just recently escaped, attending a party, with the same people she thought she had escaped from.

Her mind flashed to that time, the moment when, at the beginning of the year, she had been rejected by the current pack Alpha’s adopted son and chosen heir to the pack, Dorien.

A boy she had thought of as her light in a world that had fallen into darkness.

He had rejected her at the New Year Moon party – in full view of the whole pack.

She could still hear the words now as she headed toward the large pack house.

“I, Dorien Aldon, reject you, Marian Storm, as my mate!”

With those words from him, her heart had felt like it was going to explode, and till today, she did not know how she had managed it, but she had fled from the same pack hall she was now striding toward.

Marian straightened her shoulders at the memory, pushing it back where it belonged – down and out of her mind – as she continued her smooth advance.

“You know why,” Dinka replied steadily as she watched the other wolves around, sniffing at some and keeping her distance from others.

“Yeah,” Marian replied lazily, her heart twisting but her face remaining indifferent.

She had left the pack compound immediately after the rejection and would have stayed away permanently, if not for the memorial service she needed to attend for her mother and brother.

She owed them this.

She could stomach being back in the place that had been her home, then her prison, then her heartbreaking shame, for three days.

That’s all she needed.

Three days of keeping out of the way.

Three days of keeping her head down.

Three days, and it would all be over – until next year.

But that was not Marian’s problem; her focus was on right now, and right now, she was looking for only one person.

Marian sniffed the air, and her wolf, Dinka, purred.

Dinka had missed the pack life – the community, the closeness, the energy. Marian had not.

“Let’s go to him!” Dinka urged in the mind space she shared with her human.

“Sure, D. Let’s find him,” Marian replied as she stood in front of the entrance to the hall where the pack’s Christmas Eve ceremony was in full swing, her mind returning to focus on the present.

She inhaled quietly before stepping inside the hall. As she entered and scanned the place, she grinded her teeth as her stomach fell.

Music, laughter, and muted and loud conversations alike filled the brightly lit and exquisitely decorated hall.

A stark contrast to the quiet anguish in Marian’s heart and mind.

This was a party held every year, on Christmas Eve, to usher the pack into Christmas Day; fondly referred to as the mistletoe drop party, by young wolves.

Christmas had always been a main celebration in her pack, and this had not changed after the war.

Marian’s blood boiled, but she buried the heat deep inside of her.

Not only did she not want to be here, she KNEW that she was not wanted here, most especially not by Alpha Dax.

She hated him with the remaining pieces of her broken soul, and Dax could not care less about her, which was why she, a skilled warrior, former pack princess, an alpha wolf, had been allowed to run from the pack.

Someone who, as a prisoner of war, should not be able to take so much as a step without the pack Alpha’s approval.

But she had not only left, no one had come to drag her back.

They despised each other, she and her former “Uncle”.

They shared a deep hatred that could never be mended.

Not only had he, with his own hands, killed her family, he had taken the only family she had left, away from her.

And kept him at his side like a prize on permanent display.

==========

Marian entered the hall and strolled around the grandly decorated room. Lights were everywhere, wonderful Christmas decorations adorned the ceiling and the walls, and there was more than enough food and drink going around.

Almost as soon as she strode in, the whispers started.

Marian steeled herself, blocking out every emotion as her cool green eyes scanned the surroundings for the only person she cared to look for.

Is that her?

Yeah!

Wow!

Don’t look…

She seems…different…

Shh!

The words flitted through the air in the hall, and Marian ignored them all.