Chapter 1
Dakota
That jerk! That stupid jerk! He just left me. He left me in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods, without a single word of goodbye. And while I should have expected it—hell, maybe even wanted it, my reaction said otherwise. I hadn’t just been having a meltdown. I was in full-blown tantrum mode, pacing like a caged animal, teeth clenched, nails digging into my palms.
That striking, dangerously attractive, but super ancient vampire just vanished without even so much as a farewell glance. I’d chased after him like some lovesick puppy, just for him to vanish into thin air, literally. One second he was standing there, and the next, he whooshed away.
And what the hell did that cryptic parting line even mean? “I’ll come back for you soon.” Who did he think he was? Sure, he was some fancy coven leader with a dark cloak and darker secrets, but this hot-and-cold routine was seriously messing with my head and giving me a migraine. And now? He was gone.
Okay, fine. It’s not like we were in a relationship. But still, we fought side by side. He held my hand every single night I was recovering from his father’s attack, stayed up with me in silence when I couldn’t sleep, and read old vampire texts out loud like bedtime stories just to distract me from the unending awkwardness I felt every time he was around. So yeah, maybe my reaction wasn’t totally unwarranted. I think.
I walked back and forth in my room, trying to calm the raging wolf inside me. What was I even expecting? Some dramatic declaration of love? A moonlit confession that we were mates? Honestly, I didn’t even know if vampires had mates. Then again… yes, they did. His and Amara’s mother was a testament to that. But how did they even know? Did their senses work like ours? Could they smell their mate the way wolves could, like a flame in a darkened room, a scent no one else could mimic? Also, what were the odds that he and I would experience the same fate?
I exhaled harshly through my nose, trying to keep my emotions from spilling out in waves. For regular humans, this kind of thing might be bearable; a minor heartbreak, maybe a long-distance thing that fizzled out over time. But for wolves? This kind of separation burned. It was a lava-hot ache in the chest, like something inside me was slowly cracking with every passing second.
And the worst part? That damn spell he’d been cloaked in before we uncovered his real identity? It had masked his scent entirely. That’s why I hadn’t noticed anything earlier. He’d just been another enigmatic guy in the background, one with annoyingly perfect bone structure, perfect blond hair, and that dark, mysterious aura that made it hard to look away. But then, that day in Storm’s home office, his scent hit me like a tidal wave.
Forty-foot wave? Scratch that, it was a tsunami, and I had been drowning ever since.
I’d kept this secret buried for as long as I could. Not even Storm or Amara knew, and that was saying something because I told those two everything. But now? I felt like I was going to burst. Still, who could I talk to? I think Storm would go all protective big brother. Amara might try to mediate, but even she might freak. My parents? Hard pass. And Eric… Did he even know what I felt? Could he even sense the bond my wolf was trying to convey? If he did, then why would he just leave me? Oh, right, he’s a vampire coven leader who had duties to fulfill.
Thinking about these things made it too much, so I jumped when the door suddenly flung open.
“I can hear your heartbeat and smell your anger all the way downstairs,” Amara said, stepping in like she owned the room and my sanity.
Her sudden entrance made me more nervous, so she arched an eyebrow like she was waiting for an explanation.
I didn’t respond. I just bit down on the nail of my thumb, pacing like a lunatic, hoping she’d go away but knowing she wouldn’t.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, her expression softening.
“Nothing,” I muttered.
She obviously didn’t believe me because the first thing she did was to cross her arms, tilt her head with that concerned sister energy that made me want to both hug and shove her out of the room.
“Dakota Alexandra Black, do I have to compel you to tell me the truth?”
My eyes widened. “You wouldn’t dare.”
And she just smiled. That smug, sweet smile that made me want to curse and cry at the same time.
“Would you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“If I have to, then yeah,” she said with a smirk. “Seriously, though. Talk to me. What’s going on?”
I hesitated. My mouth opened, then closed again. Telling her meant facing it. Saying it out loud meant I was ready to make it real. And I didn’t think I could handle that.
So instead, I just stared at her while she crossed one leg over the other like she was settling in for story time. Her hands folded neatly in her lap, while her eyes never left mine. Damn her and her patience.
Knowing that she wasn’t going to budge, I finally sat down beside her, twisting the hem of my shirt like a child about to confess to stealing cookies.
“I’ve found my mate,” I whispered.
She gasped loudly, ready to congratulate me, but I raised my hand before she could say anything, and thankfully, she clamped her mouth shut.
“And it’s complicated,” I added, already feeling the weight of the confession pushing down on my shoulders.
“How so?” she asked gently, slipping her hand over mine. I squeezed it like a lifeline.
I shifted on the bed, turning to face her directly. “He’s...
“He’s?” Amara cajoled.
“He’s…” I began, inhaling as deeply as my werewolf lungs could.
“Uh-huh… He’s what? Old? Dead? Who is he?” She questioned, and I couldn’t help but laugh at how on point her adjectives were, and also wondered if she already knew.
“What? What’s funny?” She asked.
“He’s…Eric.”
Her mouth popped open, eyes darting from one of mine to the other like she was trying to find the lie.
“Come again?” she asked, clearly amused.
“You heard me,” I said, though the words tasted bitter in my mouth.
She slowly blinked, then she smiled just a bit. She was clearly holding it back for my sake, so God bless her.
“Did you tell him?”
I shook my head.
“Why not?”
“Oh, I have a list of cons.”
I rolled my eyes and flopped back against the pillows. “Because, like I said, it’s complicated.”
I leaned my head against her shoulder, suddenly exhausted. All the fire and fury from earlier faded into cold dread. In their place was the constant feeling that I was so screwed.
Absolutely. Irrevocably. Unbelievably screwed.
