Chapter
LILA WINTERS
“You’re welcome, Future Luna,”
The maid approached me with a small smile and a slight bow. I returned the gesture with a small nod before she collected my traveling bag from the chauffeur, who had just brought my things inside.
“I’ll take this to your room, ma’am,” she said, turning to leave.
“Excuse me.” I stopped her before she could walk away. She turned back to me.
“Where’s Zayne?”
Zayne Nightshade. The future Alpha of the Stoneblood Pack. The man I believed the Moon Goddess had blessed me with as my mate. Or at least, that was what I wanted to believe. We’d been married for six months now, yet he had neither marked nor mated with me. He always had the same excuse.
His sickness. I had stopped asking questions a long time ago
The maid smiled politely. “Future Alpha Zayne is on his way already.”
She bowed once more before disappearing down one of the long halls.
I looked around the vast mansion. It reminded me of the prison I’d been forced to call home for the past year. A beautiful prison, but a prison all the same. Except this time, I intended to enjoy my freedom to the fullest.
I was done being the fat, unwanted girl everyone reminded was lucky to have been mated to the son of the most powerful Alpha in the city.
Even Zayne seemed to agree with them. If only I were slender like my sister, Evie. Maybe then he would look at me differently.
Twenty minutes later, I went to my room and changed into something more comfortable—a long blue gown that hugged my curves. I studied myself in the mirror. My cheeks were still flushed from the winter cold, and my body looked bigger than it ever had before.
I sighed. No matter how hard I tried, I could never look like Evie. Maybe that was why Zayne never looked at me the way a male should look at his mate.
I pushed the thought away and left the room. The mansion was so vast that anyone could get lost in it within seconds.
I hadn’t gone far when a sharp scent drifted through the hallway. Tobacco. Strong and expensive.
My steps slowed. “Ignore it, Lila,” I whispered to myself. But my feet had already carried me toward the door.
I turned the handle and stepped inside. My eyes immediately landed on something I never expected to see in my entire life.
A tall, powerfully built man stood behind a long desk, his back turned toward the door. One hand was occupied with something I couldn’t make out, while the other held a cigarette.
He seemed completely absorbed in what he was doing. Then his rough, emotionless voice cut through the silence.
“Suck faster, she-wolf.”
A woman’s low, seductive voice answered. “Yes, Daddy.”
My heart seized. No. I shouldn’t be here. I turned around immediately, ready to leave.
“STOP!”
The single word froze me in place. The command carried an unmistakable Alpha authority. My wolf whimpered inside me.
Was he talking to me?
“Turn around.” There was no mistaking it this time.
Slowly, I obeyed. I turned around. My eyes met his. And for some reason, my entire body went still.
His face was unreadable. Cold. Detached. The kind of expression that gave nothing away. But his eyes were different. Those dark, piercing eyes studied me with an intensity that made my breath catch.
Not curiosity or recognition. As if he already knew me. As if he had been waiting for me to walk through that door.
Then my gaze dropped before I could stop myself. His cock stood thick and rigid, heavy and veined, the broad head flushed dark and glistening. Thick ropes of white cum streaked the shaft and pooled at the base, some of it still clinging to the flushed skin. The sight of it—raw, unashamed, still hard after use—sent an unwelcome rush of heat through my body. My fingers tightened around the hem of my gown and my mouth watered before I could stop it.
I swallowed hard, unable to tear my eyes away. “Goddess,” I whispered, the word escaping in pure horror.
Another wave of unwanted heat crawled over my skin despite myself, and I looked away quickly. I immediately regretted it. I had walked into the wrong room at the worst possible time.
And yet, when I dared to look at him again, his attention wasn't on the woman in the room. It was on me… Only me.
His gaze moved slowly over my face, then down my body before returning to my eyes. There was something possessive in it. Something I couldn't understand.
I swallowed hard. Because the man standing before me wasn't Zayne Nightshade. He wasn't even someone I should have been standing this close to.
He was Dante Nightshade. The most feared Alpha in the city. The ruthless Alpha of the Stoneblood Pack. The man whose name alone was enough to make grown werewolves lower their heads.
And the worst part? He was my father-in-law.
I should have been afraid of him. Instead, I couldn't understand why his eyes made me feel as though I already belonged to him.
And the way he was looking at me… It was almost as if he knew something I didn't.
Something about me. Something about us. Something my own wolf hadn't told me yet.
