Unbound Mate

Chapter 1: Tough Love

(Soleil is pronounced as So-lay. It means Sun in French)

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Soleil

"She is an embarrassment! Is there nowhere else we can send her?"

Soleil listened from where she was hiding across the hall from her father's home office. She wasn't exactly hiding....okay, yes she was, but she needed to know what her father planned to do with her now that her boarding school refused to take her. From the sound of it, he still wanted to get rid of her. Geeze, how long could the male hate her, just for being born as she was!

"I still don't understand how a daughter of mine could have a wolf so weak. She can't mind-link with her own family for goddess sake! She can't hear any louder than a human and is as weak as they are too. Brenda, she tripped over her own damn feet this morning and knocked over the whole breakfast stand, WITH ALL OUR FOOD ON IT!"

Soleil winced. She wished she wasn't so clumsy. It's like she has a bad luck charm attached to her person and these accidents keep happening to her. She walks into all manner of things and often finds random bruises all over her body. She'd usually just shrug her shoulders and keep it pushing, but her father and his condemning looks always made her super conscious of her clumsiness.

"She can't stay here, Brenda. Janet, can take her place as usual for family functions and pack events. There is no way I'll allow that girl to represent this family. Why the hell couldn't she be more like her brother?!"

Soleil was used to hearing how ashamed her father was of her. They weren't close, and she stopped expecting to receive any form of love, or even kindness, from the male. But somehow his words still had the power to sting.

She wasn't all that close with her mother, Brenda, either, but at least she tried to protect her, in her own way from time to time. Like right now.

"Graham, she must stay for her last year of school," her mother pleaded with her father, "she will be turning 18 in a week and her wolf will finally break through."

But her father wasn't trying to hear it. "As the daughter of the pack Alpha, her wolf should've been strong enough to break through years ago. like her brother. The girl is useless."

Her brother Grayson. His wolf broke through at 11. One of the youngest to do so. He was obviously the golden child.

"The plan was to keep her away until a suitable, and unsuspecting, male could be found to foist her off on." He was practically yelling at this point. Not even trying to hide the disdain he had for her. Soleil was sure the packhouse could hear.

"Well, the boarding school usually stops accepting girls after they turn 16. You can't keep bribing them!"

"Then we'll have to find her a male to marry now."

Over her dead body! Did he really think he could force her to marry someone? She was only 17! And she had already decided who her future mate was going to be. Even though the mate in question didn't know it yet. She refused to bond with anyone else.

"My goodness Graham, let the girl prove her worth at least. She has had high academic scores, including in all extracurricular activities, since she's been attending that school."

"Why couldn't she be like her cousin, Janet," her father said, practically ignoring her mother, "a strong she-wolf, that girl. Janet is more like my daughter than Soleil."

Janet WAS a grade A b***h. And she did act like SHE was the alpha's daughter with the way she bossed everyone around and bullied Soleil.

"Probably because Janet was never sent away. Besides, given half a chance, I'm sure Soleil would outshine Janet. In academics and looks."

Soleil had always been told how beautiful she was and how much she took after her mother. She also knew that her mother was just saying this because she had a rivalry with Janet's mother, Soleil's father's sister. Brenda was determined for Soleil to outshine Janet in everything.

"I guess we shall see, won't we?"

Just then, one of the guards rushed past her and into the office.

"Sorry to interrupt Alpha, Luna. But rogues have been spotted at the border again."

Soleil heard her father growl in outrage.

"This has been happening too damn much this past year! What the hell is drawing them here?"

She heard her mother respond, "nothing forces rogues to do anything. They have no alpha and therefore no purpose. They just do what mindless crazed animals do. This is nothing new darling."

"Yes, but there have been more sightings and attacks recently. They're a problem when leaving the pack but it's unusual for them to try to break past pack barriers. I don't like this." He said contemplatively.

Her father might be an ass-hole, but his instincts were sharp. If he has a funny feeling about the rogues, then it's always best to pay attention. He wasn't pack Alpha for nothing.

This worried Soleil. She had a few friends in the outer pack lands, and they were rarely warned about threats. She had to tell them about the rogues.

"Prepare a small unit," her father said, "My gamma and I will meet you at the inner gate and discuss with you what is to be done."

"Yes Alpha." The guard turned and left.

"Either find another school for the girl to attend elsewhere or find a wolf for her to marry. I want her gone by the end of the year." Her father said harshly. "Sooner, if you can manage it."

Soleil didn't stick around to hear anymore. It shouldn't surprise her how much her father didn't like her, but it always hit her like a punch to the gut.

She put him, and his cruel words, out of her mind and thought about what she was doing next. Soleil usually brought supplies with her when visiting her friends in the outer pack lands, but she had no time tonight.

She left the house in a casual walk, not giving away that she was just eavesdropping on her parents, and headed to the woods. No one stopped her. She was usually ignored by everyone. Compliments of her father, whose lead everyone decided to take and pretended she didn't exist.

Once she disappeared from view in the woods, Soleil broke out into a run. Shrugging off the negative emotions from the recent conversation she heard between her parents, she began to feel the joy of running through the woods.

Until the most delicious scent hit her.