Betrayed Mate

CHAPTER ONE My skin crawled. I stood in front of the mirror that hung on the back of my closet door in my bedroom, taking in a reflection that didn’t quite look like me—there was no flour on my shirt, and my hair wasn’t pulled into a bun. Mating with Reid Blackwood felt right, but at the same time, nothing did. The conflicting emotions bounced around inside me whenever I was near or thinking about him. “Sis, you look beautiful,” Briar murmured, tucking another red camellia into my hair. I looked as if I had a crown of flowers on my head. I bit my bottom lip. My mouth had been painted red to match the color of the flowers, which helped my pale-green eyes stand out and complimented my copper-red hair as if this particular shade had been made for me. “Why are we putting a crown on my head? Father’s made it clear he doesn’t want to be king, and I have no intention of becoming queen myself.” Mom sighed and flipped her long blonde hair over one shoulder of her emerald-green dress. “Ember, many brides wear tiaras and crowns on their wedding day. There doesn’t have to be additional meaning behind it. Even if you don’t intend to eventually ascend the throne, this is an opportunity for the wolf packs nearby to join in a celebration of our family merging with the Blackwoods. We all need hope for the future after all the chaos we’ve suffered these past two months.” I rolled my eyes and looked into Mom’s brown ones through the mirror. “Yes, because wolf shifters usually have wedding-like mating ceremonies.” I let sarcasm drip from every word. The truth was that I didn’t feel comfortable with any wolves outside of my pack in Shadowbrook, North Carolina. Apparently, that was one reason that Reid’s and my fated-mate bond had taken so long to kick in—I’d stopped going to the regional wolf-shifter meetings with my father, so Reid and I hadn’t seen each other in eight years. Not since I was seventeen years old. We probably would have already been mated for years by now if I had just attended the meetings, but I’d figured there was no point in putting myself through the discomfort; everyone had ruled me out as my pack’s future alpha because I didn’t have a d**k. Fate had a wicked sense of humor—the b***h. “Honey, I know you hate being the center of attention, but this ceremony is a step toward unity again, even if it’s only for a minute. It offers hope that our species can recover.” She smiled sadly, the faint crow’s-feet around her eyes becoming more pronounced. “Besides, you already agreed to it.” I had, but that was partly because I’d been caught off guard by the connection that sprang up between Reid and me when he and his dad, Perry—the Blackwood alpha—and a few other wolf shifters from their pack had come to check in on us about three weeks ago. Two months ago, the entire royal family pack, the top-level alphas from each pack in the region, and almost the entire wolf pack whose job it had been to protect them had been slaughtered not even twenty-five miles away, and everyone was still on edge. Communications between packs had become harder since our regional alpha was no longer alive to coordinate news with every pack underneath him instantaneously through his pack links, and no new regional leader or royals had been chosen. We could link only with our own packs. No one knew who’d attacked or why. It was like ghosts had killed them—well, all except for four from the protector wolf pack. They’d been called away just before the attack. Conveniently? Maybe. Now, everyone suspected each other and was afraid they’d be next. Briar brushed off her pale-blue dress and pushed her lighter copper hair out of her eyes. “That may be the hope, but we both know the Blackwoods have always had lofty goals. We all heard that Reid had been trying to date the princess.” She winced and cleared her throat. “Fate bless her soul.” I snorted, sounding ever so much not like the princess everyone wanted me to be. Briar was so sweet compared to my bluntness. “I don’t think you can offend the dead. Besides, you weren’t talking poorly of her.” She narrowed her jade-green eyes at me and lifted her chin. “I wasn’t worried about offending her—I just hate that they all died so horribly. Can you imagine the trauma they experienced in their last breaths?” I inhaled sharply. Briar was only twenty-one, but she sometimes seemed more mature than me despite my four years on her. “Fair point.” A knock came at the door, and I spun around, the edges of my cream dress flaring around my knees. The door opened, and Dad stuck his head in the room. His dark-copper curls were wilder than usual, and shadowy circles sat heavy under his eyes. “Holy smokes.” He chuckled, taking in the three of us. “I leave the house with three women in pajamas and drool at the corners of their mouths, and I return to find them all prim and proper. Had I known that this was what it would take—” Mom waggled a finger at him and growled, “If you don’t want to sleep in the wolf’s den, you better stop right there.” She pressed her lips together, but the corners of her mouth tilted upward. Dad entered the room and sat on my full-size bed, his shoulders hunched. My maroon comforter hung halfway off the mattress where I’d thrown it this morning, and I winced. Mom sat next to him and took his hand. “I thought you were going to get back in time to take a nap before the ceremony?” I glanced out the window by the bed at the descending sun. It was almost time to leave for the cliff overlooking the dense forests that spanned the distance between our territories. Territories that might one day be merged under Reid’s leadership if no one in our pack took over as alpha. “With the mating ceremony upon us, both we and the Blackwoods are thoroughly scouting our territories to ensure nothing is remotely alarming.” Dad squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek before continuing, “But I’ll be fine. I’ll drink some coffee and take a shower, and I’ll be right as rain for the ceremony and the festivities after. At least two other packs have already shown up and are heading to the cliffs now.” My stomach clenched, and I wasn’t sure if it was butterflies or something that indicated I needed to make a pit stop before we left. “Well, you should move now.” Mom smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress. “We need to head out too.” He laughed. “It’s not like they’ll start the ceremony without her.” My breath caught. I didn’t like the sound of that…which was stupid. Of course they couldn’t start without me. I was the female mate—er—bride… Hell, I didn’t even know what to call myself. Not even the royals had mating ceremonies. Usually, the two fated or chosen mates performed the ritual and fully completed their bond by themselves. Instead, Reid and I were going to create a partial bond in front of all the local packs and then retreat to the house we’d be living in to complete it. “Even so, we don’t want to be late.” Briar arched a brow. “What would that say about how we perceive this mate bond?” Dad frowned. “You three win. But before I get ready, can I speak to Ember alone? There’s something I need to—” A howl came from outside the house. Craig. My heart jolted, and I tugged on my pack link to him. Are we under attack? No, Em. There’s nothing for you to worry about. I just need to alert your dad to something. My shoulders relaxed, and I took a deep breath. Even though there hadn’t been another attack on wolf shifters since that night, something sinister seemed to be floating around all the shifters. Something we couldn’t shake. It probably sounded crazy, but we couldn’t rest until we determined who’d murdered our king and queen and everyone around them.