Prologue
Tears ran down Sienna’s cheeks as she covered her mouth to keep from bawling out loud.
She sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed, wearing nothing but one layer of her shifts. Snagging a pillow, she hugged it in front of her and lowered her head to stifle the soft sobs that wouldn’t be stopped.
The last thing she wanted was for one of her parents to come into her room and find her crying. How would she explain the tears? She couldn’t. She wouldn’t even try. If either of them ever caught her freaking out, she’d have to make something up because the truth was too ridiculous to utter out loud.
Besides, she had the innate sensation she wasn’t meant to tell them what caused her to feel so unsettled. It felt like she carried a secret even she wasn’t meant to know.
Visions.
She’d been having them for weeks now. The first time it had happened, she was certain she’d simply been dreaming. After a few more times, she’d begun to question her sanity.
They came more frequently now. Nearly every day. Often first thing in the morning or in the evening. They always happened when she was alone in her room as if the universeknew when would be a good time to test whether or not she was of sound mind.
Her mating ceremony was in two days. Girls in the valley who were fated to an Alpha Protector were not supposed to meet their mates before the ceremony. But Sienna felt like she knew her mate better than she knew most people she’d ever met.
Granted, she didn’t have close friends. She’d never developed relationships with other girls at school, mostly because she’d known from a young age that she bore the mark of the Alpha Protectors. She’d known she would meet her mate on her twentieth birthday and leave the valley to join him wherever he lived in the mountains.
That was the way of the marked. But Sienna’s existence was not like other marked girls. Her parents had made the decision soon after her birth not to tell a soul that she was born with the identifying symbol on her right wrist. They thought they were doing her a favor, keeping her from spending her life ostracized by other girls.
To an extent, they were right. All her life, Sienna had watched how catty other girls were, how cruel they could be toward the marked. It made no sense. No one asked to be born with the symbol. Most marked girls spent their childhood scared out of their minds, worrying about the life they would be thrust into basically against their will.
Keeping the secret hadn’t really served Sienna well. She’d avoided both the marked and the unmarked. She’d spent the last twenty years keeping to herself, a quiet girl who didn’t mingle with others. At least people didn’t shun her, so maybe that had been helpful.
But then the visions had begun, and she’d eventually taken the bold step of confronting the last girl before her to be mated to an Alpha Protector. That had been a month ago. It had taken a great deal of emotional fortitude for Sienna to follow Amberafter school, but she’d needed to know if any other marked girl had the kinds of visions she had.
The answer had been disappointing. Amber hadn’t had any visions. To the best of her knowledge, neither had her best friend, Rylee, who’d mated a few months before her.
Deflated, Sienna had gone home that afternoon and cried into her pillow before being sucked yet again into another vision.
Squeezing her eyes closed, she replayed this latest installment over in her mind. It wasn’t like any other. After all these weeks of feeling like a voyeur in the lives of the Alpha Protectors and their mates, she had the strong sensation her own mate had arranged this latest vision specifically for her.
Her heart was racing. She was that startled. Instead of simply watching him eat breakfast or tidy up his immaculate house, it felt like he was speaking directly to her this morning.
How did she know? Because he’d literally hung a huge sign in the living room that said,Sienna, I can’t wait to meet you. Two more days, Baby girl.
The more she considered the implications, the more she began to shake. The tears? They were from a combination of fear, anxiety, stress, hope, and relief.
Did he know she was watching him? Did he hang that sign because he suspected she would be a voyeur in his living room this morning, and he wanted to calm her nerves?
The gesture was so sweet that she couldn’t stop the emotional outburst. She was soaking her pillow with her tears.
On the one hand, it was likely that after her ceremony, Amber had told her mate and even Sienna’s mate about the conversation she’d had with Sienna. If she’d informed everyone about Sienna’s visions, that would explain why Sienna’s mate was going to such measures to reassure her.
On the other hand, what if these visions were not real? What if Sienna’s wild imagination was conjuring them up as a copingmethod, or her mind was simply playing tricks on her? That would be too cruel.
There was every chance that at the end of her ceremony, Sienna would lift her gaze to find herself staring into the eyes of a total stranger who looked nothing like the man she believed was destined to be her mate in her visions.
The idea of that happening almost scared her more than tipping her head back to stare into the eyes of exactly the man she believed to be her mate. It would mess with her brain and probably cause her to faint. Though that was a possibility either way.
Sienna, I can’t wait to meet you. Two more days, Baby girl.
She couldn’t shake the vision. She didn’t even want to. She could picture him standing next to the sign. He’d done it in a rainbow of colors, and she was confident he’d done it himself. It was downright corny, and it endeared her to him. A man she’d never met. A man with auburn hair, brown eyes, and freckled skin. A huge man—tall and built, just as she’d expect from an Alpha Protector.
Heavens, she loved his smile. His full pink lips enticed her. She’d never heard his voice—her visions didn’t include sound—but she’d watched him laugh, and she couldn’t wait to hear it in person.
She’d also seen him looking serious, pacing his home, staring into space while his dinner grew cold. She’d seen him first thing in the morning on several occasions, too. Drooled over his incredibly sexy body when he’d climbed out of bed wearing nothing but loose shorts.
