Alpha's Brother, My Second Chance.

Chapter 1

A week ago, I was standing in the pack hall with three different bouquets in my hands, trying to choose between pale moon roses, lilies, and Adrian's favorite river-blue blossoms. My mother insisted I pick something traditional and white, Veronica begged me to choose a richer shade that complimented my skin, and Adrian just smiled that soft, steady smile of his, and said the blue flowers reminded him of my eyes.

I remember feeling warm, grounded, and strangely peaceful, as if everything in my life had finally clicked into place the way it was always meant to. I was the daughter of the Beta Priest, raised with purpose, shaped for responsibility, and expected to become Luna someday.

Adrian was the future Alpha, admired by everyone who ever met him. Our pairing felt like destiny. I didn't love him in the way stories described great burning passion, but I trusted him, I respected him, and I believed we would grow into something gentle and lasting.

But then the earth opened up the canyon ridge, and destiny vanished with a single violent shift of rock and soil.

Adrian died saving a child. Everyone said the child survived because Adrian pushed him away at the last second, sacrificing himself without hesitation. It took three full days for the search teams to recover his body. Three days during which the entire Mooncrest Terriftory felt suffocated by grief. Wolves moved in silence, patrols walked slowly, fires burned low, and even the air felt sick.

I spent those days helping Luna Martha choose ceremonial clothes for the funeral because she couldn't lift her hand without shaking. I helped Alpha Rowan arrange the guest list because he could not trust his own voice to speak to the elders. I held onto tasks like they were the only thing stopping me from collapsing.

Everyone praised how strong, how composed, and how impossible it was to tell I had lost my mate only days ago. But none of them heard what happened to me at night, when the world grew quiet and the tearing, hollow pain of a severed bond crashed into me over and over again, leaving me curled in bed and struggling to breathe.

No one saw the truth, that the bond echo was still raw and throbbing inside me like a wound that refused to close.

On the morning of the funeral, as the sun pushed through the clouds in gold, I heard someone mention Luca Morgan was finally coming home. The name alone sent a jolt of something complicated through my chest. I hadn't seen Luca in years, not since he stormed out after one of his explosive arguments with his father. I remembered him as the troublemaker, the boy who flirted with everyone, the one who drank too much and fought too often, the one who somehow made rebellion look effortless.

And I remembered the night that sealed my opinion of him.

I had been sixteen when Veronica dragged me to a party in the woods. I lasted about thirty minutes before trying to escape the noise. I opened the door looking for somewhere quiet, and instead, I found Luca on a mattress with Veronica. His shirt was half-off, her hands were tangled in his hair, and the image burned into my mind so quickly I couldn't breathe.

I remember the way he jumped up as soon as he saw me, his voice rough as he tried to tell me it wasn't what it looked like. I didn't listen. I couldn't wait to hear what excuse he had, so I slapped him. I slapped him hard enough that my palm stung for an hour afterward and told him he was a disgusting jerk. His face, shocked, offended, and strangely hurt still returns to me sometimes without permission.

Life moved forward. Luca left the pack. Adrian graduated with honors. And I followed the path everyone expected until the moon goddess paired me with the brother who never disappointed anyone.

And now that brother was gone.

The funeral began at sunset. Soft amber light coated the courtyard, making everything feel dreamlike and distant. Wolves from neighboring territories stood in long, solemn rows. The air smelled faintly of herbs and burning cedar. I kept myself beside Luna Martha, holding her whenever her breath hitched and her grief became too much for her to stand through alone. Alpha Rowan looked carved from stone. Veronica stayed right beside me, quietly ready to help if I faltered, but I didn't. I held myself together with every ounce of strength I had left.

I thought I could make it through the ceremony if I simply focused on breathing, on not making a sound, and on staying steady the way everyone believed I could be.

A slow, heavy, and powerfully familiar footstep that made my heart tighten, echoed along the path behind me, and I turned.

Luca Morgan walked toward the gathering with a posture and presence I did not expect. He was no longer the untamed boy who threw punches behind the training hall or the reckless flirt who couldn't hold his temper. His shoulders were broader, his expression calmer, and his movements controlled like someone who had spent years refining discipline. Even grief could not dull the striking intensity of his blue eyes, though it softened the edges of them in a way that made my chest ache unexpectedly.

I prepared myself to feel awkwardness, discomfort, and maybe a little resentment.

But what I felt instead was something that made the earth tilt beneath my feet.

A surge of heat. A spark in my blood. A pull deep inside my bones.

A mate bond.

The mate bond.

With Luca.

My breath caught so sharply it hurt. Every part of me tensed at once as the bond hummed through my veins, almost violently, as if someone had taken a blade and carved a glowing new thread inside my spirit.

Suddenly, I saw that Luca felt it, too.

His eyes widened just slightly, barely noticeable to anyone watching, but enough for me to see the truth. The line of his jaw tightened. His hand curled at his side. His expression, usually unreadable, flashed with disbelief.

My chest tightened painfully. This couldn't be happening. The moon goddess could not, would not... pair me with Adrian's younger brother a week after I lost the first bond. This was wrong. It was too soon. It made no sense. And even if it did make sense, even if fate had its reasons, I couldn't accept it. I wasn't ready. I didn't want it. I didn't even trust him.

Heat flooded through me, overwhelming and disorienting. The noise of the crowd grew distant. My skin prickled. My pulse beat painfully against my throat, and the connection, that dangerous, consuming pull, wrapped around my heart like a rope.

With every step Luca took, the bond pulled tighter.

Panic shot through me.

I turned away with a sharp breath and forced myself to walk. Not run, not sprint. Just walk. But as I slipped between the rows of wolves and left the warmth of the courtyard behind, my steps quickened. Each breath grew thinner. The world felt too small, loud, and heavy for me to remain standing among so many eyes that saw only grief, not the chaos rippling through me.

I didn't stop until I reached the quiet edge of the courtyard, right before the path dipped into the pine grove. My hand trembled violently, I had to curl them into fists.

This wasn't real. This wasn't happening. Not today. Not at Adrian's funeral.

My wolf trembled inside me, restless and confused, reaching for someone who was the last person I wanted to feel connected to. I pressed my palms hard against my eyes, forcing myself to breathe, trying to smother the bond with sheer will. But it pulsed again, sharp and undeniable. As if fate itself were tugging me forward.

"No," I whispered, barely managing to force sound past the tightening in my throat. "Oh gods. Please, no."

I felt someone behind me. I felt the shift in the air as a strong, steady, and dangerously magnetic presence approached. I didn't have to turn to know it was Luca. I could feel him now in a way I had never felt anyone before, not even Adrian. The bond recognized him. My wolf recognized him.

I couldn't face him or face what this meant. So I fled.

I stepped off the path, walked faster than I could think, and disappeared into the trees behind the courtyard, heart pounding, breath shaking, and the echo of a mate bond chasing me like a shadow I couldn't outrun.

And as I walked deeper into the quiet, I knew with devastating clarity that my life had just broken open all over again.