CLAIMED BY HER TRUE MATE

Unexpected

ERYNA…

Cold.

I feel like I'm in a cold, abandoned place the moment my eyes are closed. I felt my body shiver from the intense cold as cold puffs of air left my lips. I tried to look around, but there was nothing but vast snow all around me.

I wondered why I was in this horrible place and how I got here as I folded my arms over my body to keep myself warm, but it hardly helped. I searched around the cold, wide expanse of the place, hoping to see something or someone there. " Hello?" I muttered out into the distance—nothing.

No sounds, breath, or a single soul

But the seconds I spent standing there, I felt my body freeze up in terror at something approaching... Something deadly, the only thing that filled the white noise, made me try to start my breathing the moment I heard a hard crunch in the snow. I looked down to see who it was, but was only met with claws.

With white, giant claws larger than the size of my head, I looked up to meet the golden eyes of a six-foot-tall white wolf. It felt like it was staring into my soul, trying to tell me something, but as I reached for it, it snarled at me, its white, gnarly teeth reaching out to grab me when I heard my name.

"… Eryna!… Eryna, wake up!

I hear my name called harshly, making me ride up into a sitting position in seconds. My body still felt clammy and cold as I tried to take in air from the clear dream I had—was it a dream of vision? I wondered,

I looked around, calming my heart. I pushed back the hair on my face that was covering my eyes. I turned to see the pack healer looking at me with so much relief in her gaze; she was an old wolf but wise in healing and medicine, and she had been alive for decades more than I could count. "Zelda?" I whispered in a croak, as my throat hurt to even talk,

"Dear child, thank the gods you’re awake now." She sighed In relief, she walked forward, reaching her wrinkly left hand out to hand me a cup of water, which I drank hungrily like my thirst hadn’t been quenched in years.

"How long was I out?" I asked, settling back down on the bed filled with animal skins from decades of hunts. It was comfortable enough, and the scent of herbs calmed me. Funny how I’m more at peace here than at home, where my mother hovers around me and always looks at me with disappointment, ever since the day I couldn’t present a wolf.

"You have been asleep for almost two days, dear, I feared the worst—we all did," she corrected, but I knew there was a lie to that; for all I know, my mom was happy, but I was hurt, and thinking of Kaylen and Rina hurt my heart so much that it still felt like a prickly needle twisting its ways painfully into me. I shook my head to forget the traumatic memories from last time. "Thank you, Zelda. "I'm ok now, I think."

But I could still see the worry and pity on her face—she knew what had happened. I’m sure everyone in the star-moon pack knew by now, especially my mother. "There is something I have to tell you, child," Zelda started, and she looked troubled about it.

But as she was about to talk, I heard a loud thud as the door to Zelda’s cabin slammed open. My mother walked inside; she looked furious, and I could see so much disappointment the moment she laid her eyes on me.

"Luna Ivana!" Zelda says in surprise as my mother walks in, dressed in a dark blue gown that sweeps the ground, while her shoulders are covered in the white exotic pelts of a polar bear. My father was said to have gifted her a mating gift just before he died, and she had me. Usually, she looks at me with hatred and says I was the cause of everything that happened, and on those days I hated myself because she made me hate this pack, and for that reason, everyone else saw me as an outsider too.

"Leave us." She tells Zelda firmly, who looks at me with an apology written over her face before she bows to my mother and leaves. The room instantly felt colder the moment I was left alone with her.

"Mother I-" smack!

A hot slap was slammed to my face, and my left cheek stung from the impact of the abuse. "You useless child!" She called to me as she walked forward, barging towards me and tearing off my clothes and ripping the top up to see the claw marks from Kaylen’s assault that were now bandaged up "You allowed yourself to be marked as an anteros? You allowed this shame" She snarled at me knowing how strict my pack is with marks especially since it meant your beauty had been tainted and did not come from a mating mark "Are you stupid, Eryna?"

"Mom, he cheated on me with Rina, my friend."

"In this pack...." There is only competition, and you failed, you lost, and you have caused me shame.” she says “What should I expect from a defective child who can't even present her wolf?" She barked, and I felt that cold sting of hurt that I had trained myself not to feel, digging through the iron walls I’d kept up for years to crumble.

"I’m sorry, Mother.." I whisper weakly, and I hear a heavy sigh from her as she comes forward to touch my cheeks. This was what I hated most: her fake care for me when she hurt me.

"Dear child... "You don’t need to worry... but right now, I need you dressed."

"Why?" "For what, Mother?" I was confused; it hadn't been up to an hour since I'd been conscious enough, and now she was telling me to get dressed. "Mother, I want to avoid seeing Kaylen... "I'm not going to apologize or kneel!"

"You think I’d let you do that and take the only dignity I have left to show my people?" "No, Eryna, we are going to the onyx pack."

The onyx pack were called beasts, uncultured beasts; that is what my mother says about them, and she hardly went to pack Lunar meetings because of how high she kept her pride and refused a peace treaty from them, but why is she telling me to go there now? "I had no time for this, guards!" She calls to her toe sentinels outside, who barge in immediately. "Take her to her cabin and make sure the maid gets her dressed for our plans."

"Yes, Luna," they said unquestionably, and I could do as little as struggle before I was held and taken to my chambers. It was midnight, so there was no one around. The mid hurriedly cleaned me up and dressed me in a white silk dress before wearing a dark cloak to cover my white hair; yes, my hair wasn’t blonde but white as snow, a trait that my mad mother believed I was born with.

"Why am I going there?" I asked the maid, but she didn’t reply, especially seconds after my mom walked in and sized me up.

"This is ridiculous; why are we going there in the middle of the night?"

"Because that is here, you will be staying from now on," she says nonchalantly, like she hadn’t just told me something life-changing.

" mother… "You can’t do that, please." I begged weakly, as I was already broken inside from what happened.

"I have already agreed to the onyx treaty, and it’s time for a peaceful agreement between the two packs." She tells me, "What better way than for you to help me, daughter?" "Their alpha king has agreed that you marry his son, Erna."

I just stood there like a gaping fish that’s been thrown on land, staring at Mother and hoping this wasn't a nightmare and I hadn’t just been sold off!