Chapter 1

Selena's POV

I couldn't help but drop the container of my fertility pills when I saw the text. 

It wasn't terrible news, or something that shocked me to the core, but rather, it was a strange message that I couldn't have imagined coming at such a time.

I tried not to not focus on the spilled pills littering the kitchen floor, and read the message again and again until I could fully understand what it was trying to tell me.

‘6PM. Our secret spot.

Wear that sexy black lingerie. I'll be waiting. 

R.’

I took in a shaky breath, not wanting to let excitement get the better of me. There was only one person that had enough audacity to send me such a suggestive message, although I wondered why he didn't simply use his own number. 

Maybe he wanted things to be more . . . mysterious?

“Hey, Selena—” Raven walked into the kitchen while dragging a brush through her thick ginger hair. She halted in her tracks when she saw the pills on the floor. “What's wrong?”

The concern in her expression made me feel warm inside. I practically saw Raven as my sister, even though she was my sister in law. Many people wondered if we had somehow grown up together or been friends for years, because the level of our closeness was unmatched. 

Amongst all the people in Rowan's family, she had been the one to welcome me with open arms. In a pack where I was seen as the unworthy wolf bride not fit to even be called a Luna, she held my hand and shielded me from the piercing insults and hurtful comments. 

I couldn't ever repay her.

She moved towards me and gestured to the mess I had made. “Did something happen? Aren't these your fertility pills?”

I placed my phone on the kitchen counter and took out a broom and dustpan from the supply cupboard so that I could start sweeping up the pills. 

“It's nothing,” I said, “I just got an unexpected message.”

“From who? And what kind of message would make you react in such a way?” Raven said, taking the broom out of my hands and sweeping up the mess in seconds.

“It's . . .” Heat rushed up my neck and cheeks. I didn't know why I suddenly felt embarrassed that my mate and husband had sent me a very suggestive test. “It's Rowan.”

“And that's shocking because?” 

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “You know how it's been for a while now. He has been busy with pack stuff, and we haven't really spent that much time together in the past few months.”

Raven packed up the rest of the pills into the dustpan and disposed of them into the dustbin. “Well, isn't that a good thing? You need this, so why are you overthinking it?”

“I don't know. It's just all so weird. He's usually very direct. The text message was pretty mysterious.”

She raised a brow. “But you know that it's him, right?” When I didn't respond, she took my phone from the kitchen counter and unlocked it like it was hers. “Okay. Ouu, ‘wear that sexy black dress’,” she wriggled her brows at me, “spicy.” 

She passed the phone to me. “I think that’s his other phone number.”

“Why does he have two numbers?” I asked, checking out the message one last time. “Why don’t I know about this number?”

Raven shrugged. “Who knows? Probably one of those weird things that men do in their free time in case they want to make prank calls or something.”

“Rowan isn't the pranking type,” I said, chuckling at the thought of him pranking someone in his spare time. 

“But he isn't too serious to send you a very hot text,” Raven said mockingly. “So what are you waiting for? You have less than two hours to get ready.” She picked up a lone fertility pill from the kitchen counter and gave it to me. “Here, have you taken today's dose?”

I stared at the pill for one long moment. I had been taking them for a while after I had gotten married to Rowan. After five months of our marriage had gone by, and I still hadn't been able to conceive, Rowan's mother hadn't passed up the opportunity to mock me every chance she got.

“It wouldn't take a pure-breed she-wolf two weeks to conceive, but here you are five months later, making my son look like he's incapable of having an heir.” she had said during one of the last family dinners we'd had. “I had known that him pairing himself up with you would bring us nothing but shame and misfortune . . .”

She wasn't the only one that had such views. The Pack Elders also had similar notions about Rowan, a pure-blooded Alpha, getting married to a latent wolf. They didn't even care that I was his True Mate.

To them, even the Moon Goddess made mistakes sometimes.

If not for Rowan relentlessly pulling me to his side against all odds, even I would have never thought of being his wife as a possibility. The harsh words had done terrible things to my self-esteem, and I had wanted to just disappear more than once, but he had been an unmoving rock. 

How could I have stopped myself from falling irrevocably in love with him and choosing to stay by his side?

With a small smile, I crushed the pill between my thumb and forefinger. “I don't need them,” I said to Raven. “I just want to focus on being with my husband tonight. You understand, don't you?”

“Of course. Go and have fun.” She flashed her pearly whites and wrapped me in a tight hug. “Just know I want you to be happy, okay?”

My eyes prickled with tears, but I held them in and smiled instead. “Thank you so much, Raven. You're too kind to me.” I pulled away. “Sometimes I wonder why you care so much.”

“Don't be silly. You're my sister. My brother loves you, and so do I,” she patted my cheek. “Now go get ready!” She pushed me out of the kitchen playfully.

For the first time in while, I would finally get to spend some much needed time with Rowan. Even thinking about seeing him sent bursts of excitement from my head to my toes.

——

For a long time, even after realising that Rowan was my mate, I still couldn't seem to let him get close to me. Probably because I felt unworthy of him. After all, despite being the daughter of an Alpha, I still felt like a reject because I had not found my wolf yet. 

But all that changed when I crossed paths with Rowan. That was when everything changed.

Our ‘secret spot’ was the garden where I finally was able to come to terms with my feelings for him after months of living in denial. 

On a normal day, it was beautiful, with the sparkling lake at its edge and the little stone cove where we would sit and observe nature. 

Today, it looked even more beautiful. Little candles had been placed in the lake, gently bobbing atop these floats as they sat atop the body of water.

A trail of red petals drew out the path to our little cove. Awe and excitement sat at the tip of my tongue, even though I couldn't see Rowan yet. 

I clutched the front of my leather coat, gently unraveling the belt holding it together as I approached the cove. “Rowan . . .”

Arms wrapped around my waist and helped me take off my coat, completely exposing the black lingerie I wore underneath. The first time I'd worn it, Rowan had nearly frothed at the mouth. Apparently it was ‘too sexy that it could kill’.

Cold air kissed my now mostly exposed skin, but I didn't mind. A smile pulled at my lips as I reached back with a longing sigh to touch Rowan, but I didn't touch his neck like I wanted to, his weak spot. Instead my hands landed on a face too hairy to belong to him.

That was when my brain caught up to the odd scent filling my nose.

I quickly turned around with my heart pounding in my chest, and a small scream inside my throat. 

“Who are you?” I asked the strange man before me, further realizing with horror that he wore no clothes. He was stark naked with his erection brushing against my thighs. I looked down at my undressed state and wrapped my arms around my body. 

No. No. No. What kind of a stupid joke was this?