Chapter 1

KEENA

Looking up at the huge building before me I take a deep breath. I watch as students file into the school and from the outside it would appear that this is a college like any other. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every student in this school is a lycan or a werewolf. That is every student but me. I was born without a lycan or a wolf but that didn’t stop my father, the Lycan King, from enrolling me in the same schools as my twin brother. Deep down I believe that he always thought I would be a late bloomer and I would eventually shift. But that day never came. Now I am an outcast even though I am a princess. I should be the most popular girl in school, but I am not. My brother has made sure of that. He and the rest of my tormentors do a great job of keeping me on the outskirts of popularity.

All of the students rush into the building as if it is any other day. But it isn’t just any other day for me. No, today is going to be different. “Today is going to be a good day,” I whisper to myself as I stand outside of Lycan City College. Nothing can bring me down today. Not my stupid brother, Faris, or his stupid friends that like to bully me at every corner. Not these stupid exams that I am sure I will never pass. Nothing. Not only am I the Princess of this city, today is my eighteenth birthday, and I just know that things have to start looking up.

Taking a deep breath I walk into the school with my head held high. Taking careful deliberate steps so I don’t fall, like I always do. I manage to make it into the school without falling flat on my face. Point for Keena, I think silently to myself as I make my way to my locker.

“Look who it is,” I hear one of my brother’s cronies yell from behind me. “The wolfless klutz.”

Today is the day you defend yourself, Keena, I silently remind myself. Today is the day you won’t back down. I grab my books from my locker and slam the door shut. Spinning on my heels I turn to put these assholes in their place when the scent of sandalwood hits my senses, and I am stopped in my tracks. There appears to be a new member of the tormentors led by my brother and he is nothing less than godlike standing before me.

The new member of my brother’s crew sniffs the air slightly so no one notices, and I can see something click in his mind. My bright green eyes meet his hazel ones and I swear I see him mouth the word ‘mate,’ but without a wolf of my own I cannot be sure.

Continuing to stare at me, the new guy doesn’t break his gaze until Chad, one of my tormentors nudges him with his elbow. “Sure, she looks fuckable,” Chad says with a sneer on his face, “but who would want a bitch without a wolf.”

The new guy’s face falls at Chad’s words. Looking back to me he says, “why would they even let filth like that in this school?”

I don’t know why but his words cut like a dagger through my heart and tears begin to prickle at the corners of my eyes. Before anyone can answer the new guy’s question the clock on the wall chimes and everyone scatters off to class. Everyone but myself and the new guy. We stand staring at one another for several seconds until he reaches out and runs his finger across my bare arm. Electrifying tingles spread throughout my body confirming what my heart already knows, he is my mate.

“Hi, I am…” I begin but he holds his hands to my lips, and I immediately stop talking.

“You are nothing, and you are no one. I will never have a human as a mate. I Jarek Hudson reject you as my mate and my future Luna,” he says to me with no emotion. “Now accept it,” he demands.

His words cut me like hot fire through my soul. The pain is unbearable and brings me to my knees. “I won’t,” I say as my tears stream down my cheeks.

“Why? I don’t want you,” he asks cruelly.

“You are my other half. You are my fated mate,” I plead with him. “If I reject you I might not get another.”

“You are nothing but a filthy human,” Jarek hisses at me. “You don’t deserve a fated mate.”

I hold my head high and pull my shoulders back. “I will not reject you.”

“You will,” Jarek spits back at me before turning on his heels and heading to his first period class.

Instead of going to class I lean back against the lockers and try to pull myself together. When I was born without a wolf I always knew that it would be a possibility that I would be rejected by my own kind because of it. I just never thought that I would be rejected by my mate. The mate bond is something that is sacred among werewolves and lycans. Your mate is supposed to be your other half. The person that was put on this earth to complete you. It is rare for someone to deny the mate bond, but it isn’t unheard of. So, here I sit, the daughter of the Lycan King, rejected and tossed aside like a piece of trash.

The main doors to the school burst open as I sit on the hall floor sobbing. My best friend Kayla comes rushing into the school late as usual. She runs past me before skidding to a stop, almost toppling over as she tries to run back to me. “Keena,” she says with a concerned look on her face. “What… what are you doing on the floor? Crying?”

“My mate…” I sob, unable to speak clearly. “My mate d-doesn’t w-want me.”

“Wait… what?” Kayla says with confusion written all over her face. “You found your mate and he had the balls to reject the Princess of Lycan City.”

I sniff as I nod my head. “Because I don’t have a wolf. He didn’t even want to know my name.”

“Come on,” Kayla says as she pulls me to my feet. “Get up. You aren’t spending your birthday on the floor crying over some asshole. He is going to feel stupid when he realizes that he rejected the Princess.”

I let Kayla pull me to my feet and let her drag me into the bathroom. Once inside she cleaned up the make-up that is smudged and running down my face. Thrusting her make-up bag in my hands I began to dig through it looking for her eyeliner and mascara. Leaning in close to the mirror I reapplied my makeup and decided that I would make Jarek sorry for rejecting me.