The invented Alpha and Heiress Luna

The two alphas were still snarling at each other, they were best friends but it seems like they will break the friendship if they continue like this, Alpha Johnson invited Alpha Aeden to his engagement party and Aeden learned the girl his friend was to be married to was the girl he chose as his mate, although his mate Nina had a son with him, he didn't want her, he loves another.

"Damn it, Aeden! Before my parents arranged our marriage, I already loved her, she is my mate."

"You're jealous of me, just say so, you knew I chose her first."

"I never knew it was her! And besides, your mate is beautiful and has a child for you."

"I never want to have a child with her, she plans everything."

"Nina is a beautiful and smart girl......"

"As I said, you can have her, I know who I want, and she's Audrey."

"I can't leave her to you"

"That settles it"

"What do you mean"

"The End of Friendship"

"It hasn't come to that yet, Aeden, think of all we've been through..."

Buzz......

Johnson pulls out his phone and checks the caller ID, Karen...

"Karen's calling, I think Audrey woke up."

the phone keeps vibrating.

"Please bring Nina home, she is your Luna, you need her, the pack needs her. Alpha is incomplete without Luna, let's stop this madness." Johnson said as he took his calls, "Yes Karen..... How is she?"

"Fine, I'm coming now"

Regaining consciousness had its downside, a pounding headache spreading to her stomach. Nausea made Audrey gasp. Acids burned her throat. She spits out the liquid fire next to the bed she was sitting on, her back against the hardwood. Her vision only swayed in part due to the tremor. In front of her, two wolf figures wrestled and clawed. Their fur-speckled faces had impossibly wide mouths with dangerously long and pointed canines. Her chest area had expanded, with the woman's golden-brown fur hidden by shreds of her torn brown flannel shirt. Heavy breasts bounced as she grabbed the silver-gray man, but held their shape.

"Johnson?" Audrey murmured, her hand touching her face where another pain was aiming, a finger moving in front of her eye, showing blood.

The male thing growled, glaring at her, then cried out in pain as a long, claw-like fingernail sunk into his chest near his heart. Within a second he had the woman turned and face down, his claw dangerously at her throat while his other hand pressed her face into the stone floor. "Enough enough?" it sounded like he said in his growl.

The female wolf on the floor transformed into the most perfectly formed woman Audrey had ever seen if perfection meant the busty hourglass figure of a men's magazine model, which it did in Audrey's case. Lust penetrated her pain and fear. And even the scowl on the dirty blond woman's face didn't erase his beauty, slim and sharply etched with a long nose resembling Johnson's, that added character and dazzling hazel eyes from which a tear pooled.

Reverting to his familiar form, Johnson carefully removed his naked body from the woman, tense muscles preparing for her renewed assault on his mate. She stayed on the floor and glared at Audrey, close to tears. Johnson didn't seem threatening, glancing from her to Audrey and cautiously approaching his lover.

"Are you all right?" he asked her.

Audrey rubbed her face. "I'm bleeding."

Johnson squats down next to her and pulls her hand away as gently as possible. He breathed a sigh of relief. "It's just an asshole. I'm glad I pulled her away before she disfigured your sweet face." He kissed the wound. The woman growled. "Shut up, Nina," he growled back.

Both Audrey and Johnson watched as Nina stood and her body was on full display as she removed the remains of her tattered shirt. Her khaki pants lay beside her feet in a puddle of the fabric where she had fallen as her broad hips narrowed during her transformation. She stood with her fists on her hips and glared at Audrey.

Audrey swallowed. The spooky woman was breathtaking.

Nina spoke in a low and sexy voice, "You promised Johnson." My mate is your best friend and he never wants me, you promise to choose me as your mate,"

"I've found my mate, Nina," he explained, wrapping his large arm around Audrey, who stiffened.

"That skinny thing?" Nina spat. "I threw away the cunt like it was a sack of leaves, a little sack at that. And look, she's shaking like a leaf. It's my time, Johnson. You promised."

"Of course she's scared," Johnson sighed, "I didn't tell her about our relationships. Instead, she faces the worst."

Nina laughed. "Good. She will reject you and you will come back and run to me." She knelt, raised her hand, and touched Audrey's cheek. Audrey trembled at the touch, but as Nina pressed her perfect body against Johnson, anger flashed in her eyes. The flash made Nina smile.

Johnson held Audrey tighter and growled his response. "You are not my mate, Nina. I finally found her and you..."

The kiss on his cheek and then the mouth breathing into his ear as she spoke and her hand sensually moving in circles lower and lower from his chest over his stomach until she was holding his hardening penis and cradling him, was watched by Audrey with intense jealousy. Nina witnessed the power of Audrey's emotions while taunting Johnson with her breath, "You promised to give me that moon pup, Johnson." to mark me and make me yours forever."

"Oh Nina," Johnson sighed, kissing her cheek. "You know I love you. You're my best friend, my confidant, my advisor, but you're not my mate. I don't feel as much for you as I do for Audrey. We're not meant to be mates."

Suddenly, Audrey jumped to her feet, causing dizziness that she fought to avoid overwhelming, and managed to grab her clothes through her foggy consciousness. Her brain was too physically and emotionally confused to scream at full volume, she yelled in uncertainty, "I don't know what the hell is going on, but I'm going to leave you crazies with your craziness and try to find my friends!" Her wobbly legs somehow carried her across the main room and upstairs and out. All the while she was preparing to be grabbed, but surprisingly, too fast paws didn't stop her.

Fresh cold air intensified the throbbing until she breathed deeper and faster and it grew weaker. Following tracks visible in the light of a nearly full moon and a cloudless sky, she found the tall, low building and the wide ramp that led to the corrugated iron garage door, and next to it a stairway that led to a surprisingly unlocked door for humans.

Holding her forehead firmly with her hand, trying to keep the throbbing from exploding, she screamed, "Michael! Aeden! Karen!" inside the building. The air of the large room full of crates on pallets increased her nausea. It smelled like meat. The cold inside matched the cold outside.

"Audrey!" She barely heard it repeated by two voices.

"Where are they!" she replied, walking past the crates and finding large, silent machines filling the room. "Keep screaming!"

The voices led them to the back of the great room and two descending steps and a corridor. The hallway intersected with another, and the voices led her to the left and further down the hallway, where the concrete walls became glass interlaced with hexagons of gold-colored metal wire.

Joseph, a medium height, moderately handsome male with curly light brown hair falling to his shoulders and a broad face with piercing blue eyes, his body smooth muscled from martial arts and stage combat training, and Karen, an exotic mix of East and West, Oriental and Slavic, with Asian Eyes on a broad and pretty and intelligent face, their subtle contours like a strong boy, not fat but with big bones, stood on collapsible wooden chairs on the other side of the glass, their heads bowed so their voices were carried through holes that the lined the top of the wall.

With a wry smile, Audrey caught her eye and said huskily, "Hi."

"Audrey!" They both spoke at the same time, carefully climbing out of their chairs and pointing further down the hallway.

Unfortunately, the door with the same glass and metal grille turned out to be locked. Audrey bounced off it in frustration, collapsed, and passed out.

When Audrey came to, she sat up with a start and immediately regretted it as the blood spurted out of her head and she felt dizzy again. She recovered and glared at the woman sitting on the edge of the bed by her feet: the stunningly beautiful woman she had seen turned into a monster. Nina smiled.

"You're... impressive," Nina said without malice, but with a seductive undertone. She handed Audrey a glass of orange juice, which Audrey swallowed quickly - a familiar taste.

Audrey found herself back on Johnson's bed, and the sound of birds and a glow outside the open door indicated morning. She smelled bacon and coffee and her stomach growled empty.

"How..." she began.

"Aeden left us some tranquilizers just in case. Johnson brought you back here and we...kept you warm."

"You... slept with him?"

"Slept, yes. Nina's gentleness somehow kept Audrey from flinching as her fingers ran through Nine's hair. "Do you find me... unattractive?"

Audrey swallowed her lust and stiffened.

"Being selfish, Johnson's your mate, why do you want the two Alphas all to yourself?" Nina looks at her and continues.

"Joseph never liked me" although we married when we were eighteen and have a son together he never marked me or made me his luna. His father tries to disown him but he remains adamant." They both want you, and I hate you!" Nina said. Audrey breaks off, terrified of her mood swing and looking for a way to change the subject, "but no more, it's not your fault either, you're beautiful. "

"Where are Michael and Aeden and Karen?" Audrey asked as she didn't want to continue with the discussion

Nina giggled and kissed Audrey on the forehead. "Michael left with Kate. Aeden and Karen are having breakfast." The beauty nodded towards the door. "Here, let me get you dressed," pulling a heavy green wool shirt from her lap and helping Audrey slip her arms in and button it up. The khaki pants proved too baggy and long, but Audrey fastened them with a belt and rolled up the cuffs. At her feet were furry suede slippers, a little oversized but wearable and comfortable. She noticed that Nina wore the same things. "I like comfort," Nina shrugged. "It takes a special event for me to dress up." She smiled and kissed Check on the lips.

"Some women don't need to dress up," Audrey said before she could stop herself.

Nina nodded and kissed her again. "I agree," she murmured.

A giggle escaped Nina's mouth as she saw Audrey's strong look of anger and jealousy return to her face. Audrey grumbled, "You seduce me to be with Johnson."

Nina nodded and shrugged. "But it won't be a chore to share it, will it? Certainly not for me."

"But you almost killed me!"

With teary eyes, Nina sighed, "I'm so sorry, Audrey. Just know that if I had made it, I would not only deny myself the miracle that you are but my whole life. Johnson would have killed me. .. I'm in heat and we tend to get wild."

"Wild...?"

"Come to breakfast, my remarkable little beauty.

Unlike anywhere else she had been with Aeden, the room felt warm. She discovered why as she approached the table. The kitchen, which heated eggs and bacon and coffee, had a wood stove. Aeden emerged from the kitchen with a beaming smile, his hands carrying a thick earthenware plate with eggs, bacon, toast and mashed potatoes, and a large mug of coffee.

"Come eat," he said, placing the plate and coffee in the center of the table across from their friends. "How do you drink your coffee?"

"Hot and bitter," she replied, sitting down where the plate had been placed. She returned her friends' goofy grins with a timid smile.

"Then it's perfect," announced Johnson, sitting to her right and sipping his coffee cup. "Eat. You must have starved." Nina sat to her left.

Her stomach growled in agreement. Instead of asking a million questions dancing around in her dazed brain, she filled her mouth with breakfast. As she ate, she watched the interaction between her friends and her mates,

"Aeden had finally agreed to make you his Luna, Nina when you return to the Full Moon Pack,

I think it's called a celebration."

But..." Aeden stuttered. "How... Audrey is a woman who transformed me, who I loved beyond measure, although Nina is my mate and mother of my son, I never felt the bond between us."

Pain flashed in Nina's eyes

"That's right, Aeden, we agree on something."

"We agreed not to fuck anything... Audrey is the woman I want."

"And what about Nina?"

"She's free to break the bonds, my father won't mind this time."

"You beast!" Nina growled.

"I'm sorry, Nina, but I can't have you as a mate."

"If you think I'm going to give you my mate because of your selfish interest then think again, if you don't like Nina then fuck off."

"It's not as easy as you think Johnson, she's identical to my mother," Aeden says as he stares at Audrey, adjusting from his seat. I had a huge crush on her growing up and she's shy "And beautiful," Aeden murmured.

"But never your mate?" Never. Aeden, as he said, Nina is your wife."

Nina started to cry and hugged her hoped-for mate. The heat of her emotional body and his deep embrace and his smell and her hot breath on his neck and the beauty of her face and its gentle vulnerability as he gently pulled it away from him and stared at it solidified his decision. That means he never wants her.

"But I have to admit it's selfish," he admitted. "I don't move like that, I want to be such a strong Alpha, so fast and so efficient and so precise and so graceful.

"It won't work if you don't give yourself fully to me," she told him, still smiling through her tears.

"Then I can't be selfish. I want you as my sparring mate. I don't touch you as my mate, but you numb my drink and get pregnant with my seed."

"Because I love you"

Aeden smiled.

"I never felt that there was a spark between us."

"Because you restrained your feeling for her," Audrey finally breaks her stillness, "And I don't like it when you talk about me as if I can speak for myself, I love Johnson and I can not choose him over you, go back to your pack with your family, Aeden, we had already had enough of you,"

"Fine, then! Let it be the end of everything! and I don't want to see any of your faces again," with that he left the building, and Nina ran after him.

This was much more difficult than she had imagined. Samantha Wolf stepped back into a corner of the ballroom in her parents' home Stone Moon pack, staring at the swarm of guests gathered beneath the glitter of crystal chandeliers to cele-

brate her recent marriage. If she weren't certain that one of her family would question her absence, she would escape

the crowd, retreat to her room and hide like a coward.

Deception did not suit her. In the past, she had always prided herself on her honesty. In the past, she had never created six

and told a lie of any proportion. Yet, the lie she told weeks ago in London was more than just small privatization. No, her first foray into the fabrication of fact was

about the size of Gibraltar. And she could feel that lie pressing against her heart like a solid chunk of granite.

Samantha stiffened when she noticed her grandmother's step from a crowd of people near one of the refreshment tables.

Dear heaven, she was headed in Samantha's direction. One look at Lady Helena's wolf's face and Samantha knew her grandmother was not pleased with her performance this

Lady Helena paused close to Samantha, close enough to be heard above the combined noise of music and conversation.

"Samantha dear, you look as though you are waiting to be marched to the gallows. We don't want your guests to wonder what is wrong with you, do we?"

"Look at all of these people, Grandmama," Samantha said, her voice nearly drowned by the bright notes of a cotillion flowing from the orchestra perched high in the minstrel's

gallery. "They all believe this monstrous lie."

Helena rested her hand on Samantha's arm. The warmth of her palm radiated like a brand against Samantha's cool skin. "May I suggest the rather obvious fact that we want them to believe this monstrous lie."

"I know. I simply didn't realize it would be so difficult.

I'm afraid deception doesn't suit me."

Helena pursed her lips. "You have little choice but to grow accustomed to it."

"I keep thinking of how disappointed Mother and Father would be if they knew the truth of what I've done."

"Precisely why I suggest we never allow them to discover the truth. I doubt they would have much sympathy

for either one of us."

Samantha watched her parents as they glided through the steps of a cotillion. Small, with dark hair and brown eyes,

Audrey Wolf looked like a young girl dancing with her first love. The way she gazed up at her tall, fair-haired husband mirrored the adoration in Alpha Johnson's wolf's green

eyes as he smiled down at his beautiful wife.

Samantha had never seen a couple more in love than her parents. Growing up with that love as a standard for what she expected from her future marriage was part of the reason Samantha found herself in this awkward situation tonight.

"I didn't realize how difficult it would be to face everyone and maintain this illusion we've created. I feel as though

I'm doing everyone."

Name tightened her grip on her granddaughter's arm,

her fingers pinching the skin beneath Samantha's short sleeve.

"Sammy, look at me."

Samantha tore her gaze from her trusting parents to look into her grandmother's taut features. The silver threads that lib streaked her dark red hair, the lines that crinkled at the comers of her amber eyes could not steal Helena's beauty, even though she was past sixty. Just how far past she had progressed, no one knew. Lady Helena Wolf, the Dowager Countess of Stone moon pack, believed every woman should keep a degree of mystery about her.

"I expect you to play your role well. You aren't green,"

Samantha cringed at the reminder of her age. In two months she would attain the advanced age of twenty-one, far too old to be subjected to another mate search. Indeed,

her parents should have allowed her to remain on the shelf, A female Alpha.

where she belonged. Her sister Anna should have been the one to be the Alpha female once she found her mate. Yet, no one in her family had been inclined to allow Samantha the peace of spinsterhood.

Instead, her adoring but misguided parents had forced her to endure another search in another pack.

Another round of boring parties and balls.

Another chance for the endless Alphas from different packs of fortune hunters to snag a rich Luna heiress.

Another bout of guilt when she found no mate with whom she wished to spend the rest of her life.

Guilt because Alpha Johnson and Luna Audrey's wolf insisted that Samantha have the opportunity to marry before any of her four younger sisters were allowed to have a mate. In this,

her parents were every bit as stubborn as she was.

"You aren't going to do anything foolish, are you my girl?" Helena's golden eyes were filled with an uneasy mixture of dread and determination. "You shall remember

you convinced me this was your only course of action. And of course, you will bear in mind that both of our reputations

are now at stake. Your parents trusted me to launch you safely to choose your mate."

The responsibility of her deception rested across Samantha's shoulders like an iron yoke. If the truth were ever discovered, the scandal would not only ruin Samantha and her grandmother but her entire family. No, she was far too tangled in her web of lies to hope of escaping. She looked into her grandmother's worried eyes and managed a smile.

"I would do nothing to jeopardize my parents' trust in you.

I won't fail you."

"Of course, you won't, my girl." Helena dropped her hand, frowning at the red marks her fingers had left on Samantha's arm, below the emerald silk of her short sleeve.

"You are, after all, my granddaughter. The only one of your sisters who had the excellent sense to inherit my

looks."

Samantha rubbed the tingling flesh of her upper arm.

"Mother has always said my temperament is related to my red hair."

"Yes, well, you've also inherited my unfortunate propensity for being just a bit headstrong." Helena flicked open her fan, the gilt-trimmed edge glittering in the ball light. "Still, all in all, I'm quite satisfied with how you've turned out, even if you are a trifle stubborn, and far too reckless at times. You are quite an original. Indeed, you

remind me remarkably of myself at your age."

Samantha smiled as she thought of how her penchant for rich colours and medieval decoration had set her apart in the

eyes of the ton. "Thank you, Grandmama."

"Samantha!"

Samantha turned as her sister Anna glided toward her, her pale hair glowing in the golden light cascading

from the chandeliers.

"Isn't it a wonderful party?" Anna said to her sister

"I can't wait until I find my mate ."

Helena smiled. "You shall be the eighteen by next season, my dear I believe your mate will be delighted to meet you"

"Do you think so?" Anna clutched her phone to her chest. "They won't think I'm too shy?"

Helena smoothed her fingers over Ann's flawless cheek. "My dear, they will think you a diamond of the first water."

A blush rose to brush a pink stain across Anna's cheeks. "Oh, I do hope so."

"We shall make certain of it." Helena snapped her purse closed. "Now, my sweets. I see Lady Chadwick has

arrived, and I really must speak to her."

Samantha watched her grandmother go her way through the crowd surrounding the dance floor, making her way to where Lady Chadwick stood near the base of the three

curving stairs leading from the entrance of the room into the swirling mass of people below. People stood aside to

allow Lady Helen, passage as she sailed like a queen across the crowded room in her gown of pale blue sarsenet. Her

grandmother always had such wonderful confidence. Confidence was one thing Samantha lacked at the moment.

They had only done what was necessary, Samantha assured herself. They had...

Mate! Mate!!..... Her wolf Mia is Screaming she averts her gaze at the entrance as

An Alpha, dressed in military full regimentals walked through the entrance of the ballroom. He stood for a moment on the top stair, framed by the white arched entrance, looking across the room like a hunter seeking prey. Samantha

watched as he descended the stairs, a tingling sensation rippling through her. It was like watching a hawk descend

into a covey of doves. Even from a distance, she could sense an aura of danger about this man. She could imagine him, like an Alpha knight of legend,

leading his troops into battle. Looking at this commanding figure, she had little doubt he had only recently left the battlefields of the Peninsula.

The ball light slipped golden fingers into his black hair. Samantha was stunned.

He was a reserved and Noble aura, His appearance was outstanding, and she couldn't help but glance at his sharp features he was the most handsome man she had ever seen her heart jump wildly in her chest as she noticed his curly thick eyelash, his dashing eyebrows with harp high nose, and thick lips, she wasn't close enough to see his eyes colour.

A gold dress side of his thigh, buff-colour trousers moulding the muscular curves of his long legs before plunging into shiny black Hessians, One look, and Samantha forgot to breathe.

"Samantha, there is something I've been meaning to ask you," Anna said.

"What?" Samantha asked, her gaze never wavering from the tall, dark-haired man who was making his way across the room. He moved with the easy elegance that came when strength blended with agility. Power was evident in his every stride. This was a man men would follow into hell.

And women would wait breathlessly for his return,

"I've been worried."

"Worried?" Samantha noticed heads turn as the Alpha made his way through the crowd. Women cast admiring glances his way. Men gazed with a touch of envy at this

tall, commanding figure.

Who was he? Samantha was quite certain she had never met him. Oh no, she would never have forgotten this man. Even

if she had merely glimpsed him before.

"About your marriage." Anna kept her voice so low that Samantha had to incline her head to hear her sister.

Although Samantha was not excessively tall for a woman, her sister was several inches shorter than she was, small and delicate, a perfect flower of the town. "Samantha, you didn't abandon your dream, did you?"

Samantha tore her gaze from the Alpha officer, glancing down at her sister, "What do you mean?"

"You didn't marry simply to allow me to meet my mate, did you?" Anna twisted her cloth. "Oh, Samantha, I couldn't stand it if you married someone you didn't love or your for any reason."

The concern in her sister's huge blue eyes tugged on Samantha's heart. They had always been close, sharing their hopes and dreams. This was the first time she had

ever kept a secret from her sister. She resisted the urge to

confess everything, knowing she had no choice but to keep her secret. Anna would never approve of her deep love. deep mustn't fret about me.'

"But, Samantha, it all happened so quickly. I still can't believe you were married by special license. An elopement!

Samantha, you do love your Alpha Blake, don't you?"

"Of course I do." Samantha glanced down at the embroidered ivory purse edging one short sleeve of her sister's pink

muslin gown. As she progressed in her career as a liar, she was discovering it was most difficult to look into someone's

eyes when she twisted the truth. "You and I made a pact, remember. Neither of us would ever marry unless were seen as our mate and

deeply in love as Mama and Papa are."

"I know. But, Samantha, I also know how hard you fought to have Mama and Papa send me to allow me to have my mate,

even though I wanted you to meet yours first. I couldn't live with myself

if I thought you had married someone simply because of me."

"Then it is time you stopped torturing yourself. I'm quite content with my handsome Alpha."

"Then it is true?" Anna's eyes pleaded for the

formation of her hopes. "He swept you

your feet?"

Samantha took Anna's clenched hands in hers. All the lies made sense when she looked into her sister's sweet

face. The chance to see Anna happy was worth the

price of her integrity, she assured herself. "One look at Alpha Dave Blake and I knew he was the only man for me."

"I know how careful you've been ever since..." Anna caught her lower lip between her teeth. "Ever since that unfortunate incident that happened during your first

relationship with the Alpha that claims to be your mate."

Samantha stiffened at the memory of her near escape from a disastrous marriage. "It was an excellent lesson. One I have not forgotten. One you should never forget."

Anna nodded. "But you married Alpha Blake so quickly. How can you be certain he is not the same type of horrible creature that awful Alpha Avesbury was?"

"I am no longer the same wet goose I was that first year in the full moon festival ." Samantha squeezed Anna's hands before leasing her. "You can be certain Alpha Dave Blake is not a fortune hunter,"

Anna sighed, the strain leaving her pretty face.

"And do you tremble when he touches you?"

"Like a leaf in a strong breeze, I'd feel a spark like electric ran through my body " Samantha glanced past Anna's shoulder to where the Alpha was greeting her

parents near one of the two refreshment tables in the room.

In some strange way, this man had stepped straight out of her fantasy. This is how she imagined Alpha Dave Blake would look as if he truly existed. He didn't, of course.

That was the problem. Samantha had invented him. Alpha Blake was no more than a figment of her imagination.

"You always said that for each of us there is one person destiny has meant us to meet," Anna said.

"Only one." Samantha drew in a breath that trembled in her lungs as she stared at the Alpha. There was something

about him, an aura of command, a solid strength that she could feel across the room.

"And now I know it's possible. I can find that one special destiny has meant to be my mate."

"Of course, you can. We must never settle for anything less than to marry for your mate's affection, Anna. And we must be very careful not to be tricked by clever frauds."

Anna touched her arm, and when Samantha glanced down at her sister she saw admiration shimmering in her

eyes. "I only hope I can be as strong as you are, Sammy."

I know how much Mother and Father want to see each of us settled with our rightfully mate,"

"When you think of the life you will spend with your mate, you will know you can't live with an imitation of love." Sammy would never abandon her dream of finding her only mate. Not if she had to wait until she was eighty before she met that very special man. For her now, he lived only in her imagination.

Six weeks ago, out of a sense of duty and sheer despair auction Samantha had given this fantasy a name she had borrowed from a popular playwright and one of her favourite

authors. Dave Blake became an Alpha who had been in London for a few days before heading back to the Peninsula, just long enough to elope with Samantha, At least

That was the fairy tale she and her grandmother had coined.

It had all seemed so simple at the time. The perfect solution to her dilemma. She could stop the fruitless search for a mate among the fortune hunters Alpha who are looking for wealth and power, and Anna could meet her mate. Of course, she didn't plan to stay married to her fictitious mate forever. She fully intended to become a widow after a few months. As a widow, she could take her time to find the one werewolf she was meant to marry. He was out there. She was certain of it.

Samantha stared across the room to where the handsome Alpha was talking with her parents. She could tell even from a distance that this was the type of man she had always dreamed of meeting. Honest. Brave. Loyal. The type of man a woman could trust with her dreams. Who was he?

"You always were the impetuous one, Sammy." Impetuous. And a hopeful romantic, Samantha thought. She

would never give up hope. She had a peculiar notion that her special mate might be close. She watched the

Alpha pressed his lips to her mother's hand. Yes, he might be very close indeed.

"An elopement, imagine. How utterly romantic."

"Yes." Odd, her mother and father were greeting this

man as though he were a long-lost son. Father couldn't

seem to stop shaking his hand. Mother was staring up at

this dark-haired officer with something close to awe in her

light brown eyes.