SERA'S POV
The champagne glass shattered against the marble floor, and my mother's eyes promised violence.
"Clean it up," Elara Blackwood hissed, not even looking at me. "And try not to embarrass us further."
I dropped to my knees, ignoring the whispers rippling through the crowd. Twenty years old today, and I was still the family shame—the cursed daughter born without a wolf. In a world where your wolf defined everything, I was nobody.
"Pathetic," my cousin Derek muttered as he stepped over me. "Can't even serve drinks properly."
I bit my tongue hard enough to taste blood. Fighting back only made things worse. I'd learned that lesson when I was six and they'd locked me in the basement for "talking back." Three days in the dark taught me to be invisible.
But tonight was harder than usual. The Blackwood pack house overflowed with visiting Alphas and their powerful families. My birthday party—except it wasn't really mine. Mother only threw it to show off to the other packs, to prove the Blackwoods still mattered even though we'd been declining for years.
And to prove they could control even their defective daughter.
I picked up glass shards with shaking fingers, feeling dozens of eyes judging me. Wolfless. Weak. Worthless. The words followed me everywhere like ghosts.
"She's twenty and still hasn't shifted," someone whispered. "The curse is real."
My chest tightened. The Blackwood curse—punishment from the Moon Goddess herself, or so the stories claimed. My great-great-grandmother had betrayed her mate, and every generation since had produced one wolfless child. Lucky me.
I dumped the broken glass in the trash and grabbed another tray of champagne. My feet ached in the cheap heels Mother had given me. "Make yourself useful since you can't make us proud," she'd said.
I wove through the crowd, invisible as always. Pack members laughed and drank, celebrating their strength, their wolves, their perfect lives. Nobody looked at me. I was furniture.
Then the air changed.
Power rolled through the room like thunder—thick, suffocating, dangerous. Conversations died. Wolves instinctively bowed their heads. I looked up and forgot how to breathe.
Kael Stormridge stood in the doorway.
The Alpha of Silvercrest Pack—the most powerful pack in the entire region. I'd seen pictures, heard stories, but nothing prepared me for the reality of him. Tall and broad-shouldered, moving like violence wrapped in an expensive suit. Dark hair, sharp jawline, and eyes like molten gold that swept the room with cold assessment.
He was terrifying. Beautiful. Completely out of my league.
"Alpha Stormridge!" My mother's voice went sickeningly sweet as she rushed toward him. "What an honor! We didn't expect—"
She never finished her sentence.
Because that's when it happened.
Lightning struck my chest.
I gasped, the tray slipping from my hands. Champagne glasses crashed everywhere, but I couldn't hear them over the roaring in my ears. Fire blazed through my veins—hot and fierce and perfect. Something inside me that had been sleeping my whole life suddenly woke up screaming.
The mate bond.
My head snapped toward Kael, and his golden eyes locked onto mine across the crowded room. The world disappeared. There was only him, only this burning golden thread connecting us, pulling me toward him like gravity.
He felt it too. I saw his whole body go rigid, saw shock flash across his face before he controlled it.
I couldn't move. Couldn't think. The bond sang in my blood, and for one perfect, shining moment, I thought—
The curse is broken. The Moon Goddess gave me a mate. I'm not defective. I'm not worthless.
Joy exploded in my chest. Tears burned my eyes. He was my mate. The most powerful Alpha in the region was my mate. This was fate's way of saying I mattered, I was worth something, I deserved—
Kael's face went cold.
The change happened so fast I almost missed it. Warmth drained from his golden eyes, replaced by ice. His jaw clenched. His expression shifted into something hard and distant and... angry?
No. No, that couldn't be right.
He started walking toward me, and the crowd parted like water. Every wolf in the room felt the mate bond snapping into place. They stared at us—at him, powerful and perfect, and at me, the wolfless failure in a cheap dress.
My mother's face had gone white. Derek looked like someone had punched him. The other pack members whispered frantically.
Kael stopped three feet away. Up close, he was even more overwhelming. Power radiated from him in waves that made my knees weak. The bond screamed at me to touch him, to close the distance, to—
"We need to talk," he said. His voice was deep and cold, nothing like the warmth I'd imagined. "Privately."
Not "you're my mate." Not "I've been waiting for you." Just cold, clinical words that felt like a slap.
"I—" My voice came out tiny and broken. "Yes, Alpha."
Humiliation burned through me. He didn't sound happy. He didn't sound anything. Just... inconvenienced.
His eyes swept over me once, assessing. I saw exactly what he was thinking. Wolfless. Weak. Not worthy of being an Alpha's mate.
The joy in my chest started cracking.
"My office," Kael said, already turning away. "Now."
He walked toward the house's private wing without checking if I followed. Like I was a problem to be dealt with, not his destined mate.
I stood frozen, the bond pulling at my chest, tears threatening to spill. This was wrong. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Mates were supposed to be joyful, supposed to—
"Go," my mother hissed in my ear, suddenly beside me. Her fingers dug into my arm hard enough to bruise. "And do NOT ruin this opportunity, Sera. The Stormridge Alpha just claimed you in front of everyone. If you mess this up, I will make you sorry you were born."
"But he doesn't seem—"
"I don't care what he seems." Her smile was vicious. "This is the only valuable thing you've ever done for this family. Now move."
She shoved me forward. I stumbled, catching myself before I fell. The crowd watched with hungry, curious eyes. I could hear their thoughts: What does the powerful Alpha want with the wolfless girl? Why would the Moon Goddess curse him with such a weak mate?
I forced my feet to move, following Kael's path through the house. The mate bond pulled me forward even as dread pooled in my stomach.
This should have been the best moment of my life.
So why did it feel like I was walking toward my execution?
I reached the office door. It stood slightly open. Through the gap, I could hear Kael's voice, low and angry, talking to someone.
"—don't care what the bond says. She's wolfless. This is a disaster."
My hand froze on the doorknob.
"Get me Richard Grant on the phone," Kael continued. "The pack lawyer. If the bond is witnessed publicly, I need to know my options for—"
He stopped talking abruptly. I realized he'd sensed me standing there.
"Come in, Sera," he called, his voice flat. "Let's discuss your future."
I pushed open the door with trembling hands.
Kael stood behind a massive desk, phone still in his hand. His golden eyes locked onto mine, and the mate bond flared between us—desperate, demanding, beautiful.
He looked at me like I was a problem he needed to solve.
"Sit," he said, gesturing to a chair like I was a business appointment. "We have a contract to negotiate."
Contract?
My mate wanted to make a contract with me?
The door clicked shut behind me, and I realized with sinking horror that my mother had been right about one thing:
This was going to change my life forever.
I just didn't know yet how badly it would break me.