THE ALPHA'S FATED BEAST

As I waited for Damien to conclude his meeting with the pack council, the smell of jasmine and rain floated through the open Silver Moon Café's window. Four years. I thought we were meant to be together for four years, that our relationship was pure and holy.

At this late hour, the café was almost deserted; only a few scattered customers sipped their coffee as the storm outside drew streaks across the windows. Seeking apartments in the downtown area, I had been looking through my phone-a surprise I had intended to present to Damien. Sharing a home seemed like the logical next step.

I heard his voice wandering from the small dining room just beyond the weak partition wall at that time.

lead Maya on like this indefinitely, Damien. Speaking in hushed tones, his beta, Cole.

My heart stammered, guiding me forward.

"I know," Damien's familiar baritone replied, and the defeat in his voice made my blood run cold. But it's not simple.

Complicated how? For four years she has been committed to you. The young woman worships the ground you travel on. "

Damien's lips let out a harsh chuckle. "That's precisely the issue. She is quite strong. So willing to delight. It's suffocating. Sensing my pain, my wolf, Luna, whined within me.

Then why haven't you declined her? Cole urged.

The silence extended so much that I pondered if they had gone to another room. Damien then spoke once more, his voice just a whispered whisper.

"Because she resembles Seraphina precisely.

The earth slanted. Seraphina. Five years ago, his first love perished in a random attack. Once, I saw her image tucked inside his desk drawer-the same dark hair, the same amber eyes, the same heart-shaped face.

Cole gasped, "Jesus, Damien. "Are you stating-"

"That I've been using Maya as a substitute for a dead woman? Yes, I am essentially saying that. His chair scraped the floor. "Every time I gaze at her, I see Seraphina. Each time she laughs, it's like having a ghost haunting me. Every time she smiles...

"That's fucked up, man. For you as well.

"You think I don't know that? Damien's voice broke. "I never meant for it to get this far. It was intended to be fleeting, only until I could go on. She is, nevertheless, so devoted and so loving; I am too much of a coward to damage her.

"So she will just be your emotional crutch?

I am not sure what more to do. She has organized her whole life around me. Should I refuse her right away?

I had heard enough. I silently gathered my stuff, floating like a ghost through the café, my hands trembling. As I walked past, the barista raised her head, and her eyes flickered with concern, yet I could only give a firm smile.

The rain outside had gotten stronger, mirroring the hurricane brewing in my breast. Four years of love, of devotion, of thinking the Moon Goddess herself had selected me. Four years of being nothing more than a pretty lie.

My phone buzzed with a text from Damien: *The meeting's going late. Tonight, don't wait for me.

I stared at the text, tears mingling with rain on my cheeks. How many other nights had he lied to me? How many times had he turned his head and seen another woman?

Her suffering reflected mine as Luna moved restlessly within me. To a guy who regarded us as nothing more than a consolation prize, we would have sacrificed all.

My thumb fluttered over my father's contact. One of the most potent werewolf families in the Pacific Northwest, Alpha Marcus Blackwood of the Silverstone Pack. At eighteen, I had run away from home to avoid an arranged marriage; but now...

Now I knew why my father had been so insistent about duty and strategic alliances. Love was a luxury, a fairy narrative that left you fractured and hollow.

I called.

Maya? My father's voice was rough with sleep. "It's past midnight. What is wrong? I need to go home.

A halt. Then, gentler, "The arrangement with the Shadowmere Pack. . . it's still open if you want it. Alpha Kane hasn't chosen a spouse yet.

Kane Shadowmere. The man I had been promised to since birth, the cold and calculating Alpha who had promised to wait for me despite my disobedience. At an inter-pack meeting when I was seventeen, I had met him only once. With eyes like liquid silver, he had been lovely in a horrific manner-all razor-sharp angles and predatory elegance.

"I'll be home by tomorrow night," I managed.

"Maya, what happened?

I closed my eyes; rain was soaking through my coat. "I learned the distinction between obsession and love. I will go over it when I arrive.

I stood in the rain for a considerable amount of time, allowing it to wipe away four years of innocent aspirations. Damien was waiting in the living room, soaked from his own trip through the storm, when I finally made my way back to the house I shared with him.

Relieved, he said, "There you are," getting off the sofa. "I became concerned when you didn't reply to my messages.

I looked at him-really looked at him-and saw him clearly for the first time. How his gaze seemed to go through me rather than at me; the remorse hiding behind his emerald eyes. How could I have gone so long missing it?

Simple remarks I made were, "I'm going home.

He wrinkled his face. Home? You intend to go visit your parents, right?

"No. By home I mean permanently. Seattle is where I'm heading.

His face lost color. What? Maya, what are you referring to? Your life is here. Me, your employment, your friends-

"My life was an illusion," I interrupted, stunned by how consistently my voice sounded. you. . . you're not mine to lose.

He approached me, reaching, but I stepped back. His hand drifted toward his side.

"I don't get it. What caused this?

I might have shared it with him. May have flung his harsh words back in his face and watched him scramble for apologies and excuses. I just said, rather, "I recall who I was before I met you.

He shouted, "Maya, wait," as I headed toward our bedroom to pack. This has to be discussed.

I, however, had finished speaking. Done becoming a shadow of a deceased woman. Done settling for leftovers of love from a guy who regarded me as little more than a lovely blunder.

Tomorrow, I'll return to Silverstone Pack. Tomorrow, I would confront the arranged marriage I had run from four years previously. Tomorrow, I would finally stop being Maya, the substitute, and become Maya, the Alpha's daughter-the woman I was always meant to be.

My back Damien's phone buzzed with an incoming call. I heard him answer through the thin walls.

His voice was breathless with shock. "But. . . but you're dead. I glanced at your body. I wept for you.

My blood froze. Barely daring to breathe, I pressed my ear against the wall.

"What do you mean you faked your death? Five years have passed. Where have you been?

My planet fell apart. Seraphina was living. The woman for whom I had replaced was alive and phoning the man I had loved with every fiber of my being.

On the bedroom floor, I fell onto my knees; Luna cried in suffering inside of me. Four years of falsehood; this. . . this was the most cruel truth of all.