Chapter 2

Alpha Dax had let her leave at New Year’s, she had no illusions about this.

A thought from him would have had her wrapped in chains and dragged back to the dungeons that had been her home for a month after the war, until her father had managed to get Dax to let her out.

But the pack’s Alpha had not bothered. Even in her pain, reeling from the effects of the rejection, she had still felt his smug satisfaction as she ‘escaped’, and Marian was confident that he would let her leave again.

He didn’t want her around. If not for her father, he would have killed her that day as well.

The service Marian had returned to attend was held on the anniversary of the battle’s end – three days after Christmas.

This year was the fourth one and Marian had returned because she could not leave her father to carry the weight of that day, that memory, alone.

She had arrived earlier today, on Christmas Eve; and had found the beautiful silk gown she was currently wearing waiting for her on her bed, a gift from her father to his prodigal daughter.

As Marian searched for her father in the large hall, Dinka nipped at her again,

“Use the link,” Dinka pressed, getting agitated.

“No, Dinka! If I use it, others will feel it. Be patient, D. We’ll find Dad,” she snapped at and placated her wolf, at the same time.

When Marian had approached the pack grounds earlier that day, as soon as she arrived within the pack borders, her father had called to her in the mind link they shared.

She had pushed at him and barred him from connecting with her when she felt him reach out.

Now, she searched for him, like a lost child. She silently sought her father in the crowd.

“Hey, looking for someone?” A deep, arrogant voice, so very familiar to Marian, asked on her left, and she rolled her eyes.

She had not sensed the person who had spoken and Dinka also had not felt him, as she was engrossed in sniffing out their father.

Marian turned to slowly and her green eyes fell on the dark brown, almost black, eyes of the man who had stepped up to her – Dorien, the heir to the Lightmoon pack, adopted son of the current Alpha, the boy who had rejected Marian barely eleven moons ago.

This is the second time I’m meeting him today.

What’s his problem?

He rejected me, didn’t he?

What’s with all this attention? She mused irritably.

“What’s it to you?” She asked lazily, eyeing him warily as she stood facing him.

“Maybe I could help?” He replied smoothly.

Marian stared at him, a neutral expression on her face.

“The day I need your help, Dorien, is the day hell freezes over,” she stated cooly.

Dorien smiled wryly at her, his soft lips curving up at one corner.

Before he could say anything more, she spun around and moved through the crowd, deeper into the hall, and away from the boy she had loved for over nine years of her current nineteen-year life.

Dorien hung back, gazing at her receding back. He tried to say something in the mind space, but he hit a wall so solid that his eyes widened with surprise.

How did she get so good at that? He mused, but remained silent as he watched her cut a sexy path through the crowd. Eyes and heads turning as she passed by.

Marian continued searching for her father and then, as if by some destined hand, she turned, a path cleared, and her eyes fell on him.

Her father, Corien Storm, former Alpha of the Lightmoon pack.

The music was blaring, and the loud laughter was jarring, but for Marian, the room might as well have been silent.

There, on a low stage set toward the end of the hall, a raised platform just two feet off the ground, and twenty feet wide, were seated Alpha Dax, his two mates, and her father, former Alpha, Corien.

A dark-haired, green-eyed, man in his early forties with chiseled features and a neat moustache beard. A handsome man by no mean measure.

Her eyes fell on him and a rush of warmth filled her chest and her stomach.

Why have I been avoiding him? She mused, angry at herself and yet happy as she lay her eyes on him, as she stared at her only living relative, a man she had fought, bled and nearly died beside, four years ago.

She caught her father’s eye and his green eyes lit up. He smiled lightly at her just as Dax leaned in to whisper something in his ear.

Marian turned away from the sight.

Dad...she mused to herself, and right at that moment, a gong went off.

It was five minutes to midnight; the main event was starting – the mistletoe ball drop.

Everyone on the floor pulled out black eye covers and tied their eyes, the tradition was simple, when the music stops, you stand wherever you are, and the mistletoes drop from the ceiling. Whoever was under one was to kiss whoever was closest to them.

You couldn’t run and you couldn’t refuse the kiss.

Of course, couples would be together, so part of the game was to spin around vigorously between all bodies while a gas that muted the wolf's sense of smell was released into the room.

The Alphas and strongest soldiers were not part of this game, just in case something dangerous came up.

Their pack, ever vigilant, would not allow such laxity in their security, not even at Christmas.

Marian was blindfolded by some young omegas and made to join in the fun. She had not fought them off as she knew who had sent them.

Dad…she mused again, letting herself be pulled into the stream of spinning bodies.

Lone wolf she may be, she had something to prove.

From the time her father was deposed, she had attended this ceremony every year. The last one she attended was last year’s celebration, after which she had been rejected during the New Year Moon party.

Today, she was out to prove that the rejection that had made her run away from the pack, was behind her.

She was attending the Christmas party, just like she always had.

She was not diminished, she was alive. Her father was alive, and he had prepared a beautiful outfit for her, a bright, shimmering gown, that showed his thoughts toward her.

That she was his daughter, that she should shine.