Mate Bond - Finished

Prologue

Author's Note: If this prologue is confusing I beg you to push through on to the first chapter. This prologue explains a VERY brief description in what happens in this book's prequel, “Not My Mate” - I think you can possibly get by reading the book itself off of this background alone and I promise it gets much less confusing in the actual book. I recommend reading the first book to have a better idea but I did my best to take A LOT and describe it in one chapter).

Our pack, Scorched Earth, had come about in a non-traditional way. I was the Beta's daughter. Our pack had rankings like any other, despite our unusual beginnings. Kayne was the Alpha, or first in command. Seth, my father, was the Beta, the second in command. Dylan was our Delta, the third in command. Our pack had a group of warriors and a group of omegas collected from the five other packs.

Originally, there were five wolf packs. Earth Moon, Air Moon, Water Moon, Fire Moon and Spirit Moon. Spirit Moon was a mysterious pack who worked closely with mages. My parents, Seth and Makayla, were originally from Earth Moon.

Wolves are assigned a mate at birth. Our natural mate is who we were intended to be with by the Goddess herself. The three women of fate wrote our life stories and not many things could disrupt it, but if you did the things that could, it was punishable by death.

It started with Spirit Moon, the pack who should have known better. Their Alpha, Tiffany, was never given an assigned mate. If she had, he was human, and she never met him. Spirit Moon was neutral and had never allied or rivaled anyone, but became desperate for their Alpha to have a mate and an heir. Tiffany offered Alpha Marcus, the Alpha of Earth Moon, where my parents were from, alliance in exchange for a male. He picked Dylan, the fourth in rank, to go. Dylan was my mom, Makayla's, natural mate. He went to marry Tiffany and be the Alpha of Spirit Moon, leaving my mom alone without a mate.

At the same time, Kayne, who was then the Alpha of Fire Moon, thought that was a good idea. He offered Alpha Marcus alliance in exchange for a mate. Kayne's natural mate had died during childbirth. Alpha Marcus picked Bria, his own daughter, to marry Kayne. This left my father, Seth, without his natural mate as well. Bria was his intended mate, and now she was gone.

Being left without their mates, Makayla and Seth bonded and married. I was their first daughter. Soon after all of these wolves were without their intended mates, being torn apart by force and marrying other people, other packs caught wind of what had gone on. They reported this suspicious activity to the High Council – the government of all creatures of Earth. The High Priestess who ran the council took everyone involved and interrogated them.

Tearing natural mates apart by force disrupted fate. A person could reject their mate if they truly wanted to, which was a rare occurrence, but had to be counseled by an Elder and swear by an Oath that they were not being forced to do so. When you rejected your mate, you could only date someone who had been rejected or who's mate had died. Two people could reject their mates to be together, if it was consensual and counseled, but no person could trade mates or force people away from their mates for the sake of alliance or anything else. They almost faced death in the High Council, but the end, their innocence saved them. Everyone except Tiffany was unaware that their little arrangement would ever be a problem.

They were spared by the High Priestess but had to promise that natural mates would still be together, so they promised. However, other packs were not so satisfied with what had happened. After the death of their Alpha due to her knowledge of wrongdoing and choosing to do so anyway, Spirit Moon was unhappy. Air Moon and Water Moon didn't agree with how mates had been switched and everyone had more than one partner, and all three packs declared rivalry with Earth Moon and Fire Moon.

Eventually this caused a war between all five packs. It never came to violence, but each of the three rival packs split into those who agreed and who did not. Those who agreed with the high ranking members and went against the two packs stayed, but those who disagreed were kicked out and absorbed into Earth Moon and Fire Moon. Eventually, both packs realized that they could not continue this way, they were huge and had a lot of unrest. They decided to split off. Fire Moon was taken over by the Beta. Earth Moon remained mostly the same but the overflow of members came to join the new pack, Scorched Earth. Ben, Bria's brother, remained Eath Moon's Alpha. Fire Moon and Earth Moon were now allies to Scorched Earth and the size of each pack far exceeded the three others who were our rivals.

Original pack members of Earth Moon and Fire Moon who also didn't agree with what had happened and did not want to stay under the Alphas split into their own small pack, Hell Moon.

The high ranking wolves in Scorched Earth all had two partners and because of that, many of them had a lot of children. Everyone had to be with their natural mate but also wanted to be with their chosen partners.

The oldest was Luka. Luka was the son of Kayne and Bria. He was the heir to the Alpha position.

Dylan had the second oldest son, Ryker. Tiffany was Ryker's biological mother, but he was raised as a brother to me because my mother was Dylan's natural mate and Ryker's mom was dead.

I was the next in line. My mother was Makayla, and my father was Seth.

Seth was Bria's natural mate. They went on to have my brother, Mika, just days after I was born. Bria and Makayla were pregnant at the same time.

Then my mom, Makayla, had my little sister Haley with Dylan, her natural mate.

Right after, she had my sister, Layna. My full sister, Makayla and Seth were her parents as well.

Then Kayne and Bria had their second child together, Melanie. Melanie was one of my best friends despite being years younger.

Dylan had a child with his other partner, Zoey. His name was Christian.

Kayne also had a child with his other partner, Kya. His name was Rio.

Lastly, Garrett, my other full sibling.

To break it down:

Seth and Bria were natural mates. Makayla and Dylan were as well.

Bria and Kayne are married. Bria has no other partner as her and Seth do not see each other like that despite being mates. Kayne has another partner, Kya.

Seth and Makayla were married. Seth had no other partners, but Makayla and Dylan were still very actively in love.

Dylan married Zoey and maintained his mate relationship with Makayla.

Kayne & Bria had Luka and Melanie.

Bria & Seth had Mika.

Seth and Makayla had me (Serenity), Layla and Garrett.

Makayla and Dylan had Haley, Ryker was Dylan's biological son with Tiffany who died.

Kayne and Kya had Rio.

Dylan and Zoey had Christian.

It was often hard to keep who was who apart, but it was easier as time went on for others to catch on. We all knew who the siblings were and no one batted an eye.