Prologue - Emma
I woke up with a slight headache and absolutely no idea where I was.
I was in a comfortable bed, with soft sheets and a mattress that might as well have been a cloud. I shot up, head swiveling as I took in the unfamiliar setting, trying to place the unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar view out the window and unfamiliar furniture. The twisting in my stomach probably had to do with the disorientation of waking up in a room I didn’t recognize, but, in all reality, it also could have just been related to the hangover I was definitely nursing.
With a jolt, I saw the covers pushed back on the other side of the bed. Someone else had been in here with me. Then, with an even sharper jolt, everything came flooding back.
A party in the desert. People flashing me bewildered looks as I wandered through the crowd, muttering to themselves as I pretended not to feel their stares. It had taken all my self-confidence to show up at that party in the first place. I wasn’t going to run, even if instincts screamed at me to do just that.
It had been miserable. I had been alone and friendless the entire time. At some point, I was staying more out of pure stubbornness than out of enjoyment. I chugged the first beer, and then the second.
Whenever I actually got up the courage to join one of the clusters around the fire, the small group closed ranks, ignoring me entirely or laughing at me for even considering joining. I gritted my teeth as I stared at them, then down at my drink. My head was fuzzy now, giving me a comfortable warmth from the booze that combated the chill of the night desert.
“This was stupid,” I told myself. What had I thought this would achieve? That I would actually make friends? Was I trying to prove a point that I didn’t care what they thought? And was I trying to prove it to everyone here, or to myself?
It didn’t matter. I was leaving.
“I wouldn’t have expected you to show up here,” a gruff voice said behind me.
I spun, and my heart jumped into my chest as I stared up at a handsome, chiseled face framed by shaggy dark hair. Piercing blue eyes swept up and down my body as Elias took a sip of beer from his own cup.
“It’s a party,” I said, forcing myself to sound bored, like I didn’t care about him or the others, like heat wasn’t racing through my body as I felt pinned beneath his gaze. “In the middle of the desert. I didn’t think I needed an invitation.”
One edge of his mouth twitched upward as his eyes sparkled. “Fair enough,” he said. “Didn’t think you had that much of a backbone to you, either.”
I tilted my head, one eyebrow raised. “There’s a lot about me that you don’t know,” I said.
I, on the other hand, knew more than a little about Elias. Our future alpha. A shifter known for his strength and ability to lead. Someone who a large part of the pack looked up to.
And a man I was almost certain was supposed to be my fated mate.
It had been a thought in the back of my mind for a year now. It was because of the tug I always felt toward him whenever I saw him, as if part of me just wanted to be by him at all times. I had kept those thoughts to myself. Not only because I would be laughed out of town if I told anyone, but because of how unlikelyit felt. Elias was a strong shifter, destined to lead the pack. I, on the other hand, couldn’t even shift. I could sense my wolf, but had always been too weak to shift into her. If anyone thought I had set my sights on Elias, the elders would have put a stop to it. They wouldn’t want me anywhere near him.
In front of me, Elias chuckled. “Is that so?”
It must have been the booze, but I looked up at him and gave a coy smirk. “You’re more than welcome to stick around and find out as much as you want.”
Something that looked like hunger sparked in his eyes as they flicked up and down my body.
“I think I might take you up on that,” he growled.
We spent the rest of the evening talking by one of the fires and drinking. The conversation blurred together in my mind, the rest of the evening speeding past as I spent it getting closer and closer to Elias, our bodies inching closer to one another.
At some point that night, the party had dissipated.
“I can take you back to town, if you want,” Elias offered. “My parents are out for the weekend.”
I knew without him having to spell it out what he meant. My mouth went dry as my heart thundered. I stared up at him, his handsome blue eyes staring down at me as he waited for an answer.
“I’d like that,” I said, then chugged the rest of my drink before following him to his car.
As if my thoughts had summoned him, the door opened, and Elias walked in. His dark, slightly shaggy hair was in even more disarray than normal, falling carelessly around his face. He was only wearing pants, his chest perfectly muscled and tanned.
Just the sight of him was enough to make my wolf raise her head with excitement. She wanted me to go near him again, to let him take me the way he had last night.
“Hi,” I said. Without realizing I was doing it, I had drawn the sheets up over my chest, trying to hide my body. My heart jackhammered as I stared at him, trying not to let the hope and excitement blooming and swelling inside me show on my face or get out of hand.
He didn’t smile. Not so much as an upward twitch of his lip as he looked down at me.
