Cora- Chapter 1
I pull the loaves of bread from the oven, placing them in the window to cool.
“Wonderful, Cora,” my mother smiles. “They’re fit for a king.”
“A prince,” my little sister, Helen, giggles. The movement shakes her long pigtails.
Mother smiles. “Go get dressed. I pressed your nicest dress.”
“Why?” I ask. “He’s here to get rid of our pack.”
Mother gently takes my hands. “It does not matter what pack we are assigned to. He’s the Prince of All Werewolves. We are still his subjects at any pack and must show him respect.”
I sigh in frustration. I don’t want to leave this pack. I don’t want to leave my home. Mother has been trying to convince me that it’s good since I’ve not met my mate here. She’s sure he’s at another pack, and the prince will send us there. I’m not so convinced.
My father has paraded me before every wolf who has visited our pack since I came of age six months ago, but with the state of our pack, it has not been many. As the daughter of the pack’s Beta, it’s a privilege not many have. I also realize I will not have it at a new pack where he is not of high rank. My father may be a beta, but we’re so poor they’ll make us omegas at any other pack.
I go upstairs to the small room I share with Helen and put on the dress. Maybe the Prince will like the bread so much he will send us to a good pack. Maybe he’ll think I’m beautiful and have my new Alpha introduce me to visitors even if we aren’t ranked members. I know how important it is to make a good impression, but I’m still mad. I don’t want to leave my home.
Our small, rundown house isn’t much, but it’s ours. It’s where my mother gave birth to all four of us. It’s where we’ve celebrated birthdays and holidays. It’s not just a house. It’s a home.
My mother knocks and enters the room, smiling as she sees the tan dress. She must have spent a small fortune that we don’t have to get it for me. I don’t know what the fabric is, but it’s soft. I love how it complements my curves and still has a high neck. I feel like a real adult in it. I don’t deserve this, though. She shouldn’t have wasted the money while our future is so unsure.
She smiles as she moves behind me and picks up my brush. Taking my hair down, she brushes it and gently places it in waves of my sandy hair over my shoulder. My mother loves my hair, though I think it looks like dirty sink water.
“You’re a beautiful girl, Cora,” she tells me. “He’s a powerful, unmated prince. Smile at him, but not too widely. Demure. There isn’t much hope of convincing him not to dissolve the pack, but we can still try.”
Try? I’m taking bread to the Alpha’s house for their dinner. I doubt I’ll even see the prince. He isn’t going to want to even talk to me.
My mother hands me her nicest pair of shoes and helps me step into them before going downstairs and packing the bread into a basket.
“Smile,” she reminds me, placing the basket into my hands. “Be polite. Don’t forget to bow.”
I sigh. “I know, Mother.”
“Wait!” Helen calls as I open the front door. “I want to come, too.”
Mother shakes her head. “Not today.”
“She can walk with me,” I tell her. “She can wait outside the Alpha’s house for me. It will be fine.”
Mother looks unsure but finally nods in agreement. “Do not let yourself be seen by the prince,” she tells her sternly. “I did not have enough to get a nice dress for both of you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Helen smiles at her.
We walk hand in hand toward the Alpha’s house. Mother told me to get there soon, so I avoid the streets and walk behind them. I don’t have time to stop and talk today, and if I’m being honest, I don’t want to. I feel like I’m playing dress-up in a dress that is this nice. No one here can afford nice things.
“Do you think you’ll get to see the prince?” Helen asks. “I bet he’s handsome.”
I shrug. “I don’t really care. Nothing I say is going to change his mind.”
She’s younger than me. At twelve, she thinks the royal family is wonderful. I’ve never met them, but they can’t be great if they’re getting rid of our pack. They won’t even let us choose where to go live. The Prince will decide that for every member of our pack. I know she doesn’t understand, but being excited at the possibility of meeting him seems strange.
I have two older brothers, all three of us are of age. There’s no guarantee the Prince will even keep our family together. He could force me to another pack alone. My father is the Beta here, but there’s no gene with that like the Alpha. The prince could force me to become an omega or even a slave. He could separate all three of us since we’re old enough.
I glance down at the basket in my hand. This is why my mother wants me to deliver it. Though I’m unmated, I’m capable. They want to be sure the Prince knows that I have some kind of value in this world.
“Why did Mom get a new dress for you?” she asks. “Does she think he’ll pick you as a mate?”
I shake my head. “Royals can’t reject the mate bond. I’m sure she just wanted me to look nice.” It’s a lie because I honestly don’t know. We can’t afford something this nice.
We’re behind the home of the candlemaker when I begin to smell fresh bread. It’s not like the bread I made, though. It’s amazing. A few more steps, and I smell the slightest hint of juniper, but there are no juniper trees nearby. I look around in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” Helen asks.
I shake my head. “Nothing,” I smile. “I just smelled something.”
“I don’t smell anything,” she tells me.
“Because you don’t have your wolf yet, pup.” I smile and pat her head.
My heart beats hard in my chest, and my wolf feels excited, but I don’t understand. The smell is so strong that, in all reality, Helen should be able to smell it, too.
I look between the candlemaker’s house and the butcher’s and see the biggest man I have ever seen. He’s tall with broad shoulders, towering over my Alpha standing beside him. He’s facing away from me but looks around before turning his body completely toward me.
Our eyes meet, and I feel nervous under his dark gaze. His eyes are impossibly dark, even from this distance. His gaze travels down my body and back up to my eyes.
“Cora,” my Alpha says. “Why are you behind the houses?”
I can’t answer, so transfixed by the man before me. He must be one of the prince’s guards. I’m sure they only take the largest wolves for those jobs.
He walks toward me between the two houses. My heart beats faster with each step he takes. His eyes never leave mine as he stands before me. He reaches down, his fingers wrapping around my arm. “Mate.”
Mate? Is that what I’ve felt? I’ve been so lost as I stared at him that I haven’t listened to my wolf. My mate? He can’t be. I can’t be mated to someone in the royal guard.
His fingers tighten around my arm, and he yanks, dragging me to the street. I drop the basket onto the ground as I try to keep up with his long steps. He’s my mate?
He holds my arm so tightly that it hurts as we stand in the middle of the street. He reaches up and slides his fingers under the edge of my collar, easily ripping my dress.
“No,” I gasp. My mother paid a fortune for this dress, and he’s ruined it.
The man doesn’t seem bothered by my protest as his fangs extend, and he tilts his head before burying them into my neck. Sharp teeth pierce my skin, causing me to cry out in pain. Still, he doesn’t stop. It burns, like fire sinking into my skin. This isn’t how marking is supposed to be.
I feel the bond between us snap into place. He’s my mate, and now he’s marked me without ever even asking me. I feel strange and tingly, my head spinning as the pain in my neck eases.
The hand that tore my dress now rests gently on my hip. He slides it to the small of my back and pulls me against him. It’s almost comforting, but it’s short-lived.
He licks across the fresh mark on my neck and releases me, letting me fall to the ground on my knees. I look up at him, blinking through the shock. I want to ask him his name, but I can’t, as a flood of mind links comes surging through.
It’s unlike anything I’ve felt before, and there is so much noise that I can’t make out anything being said. I grab my head in pain and sob. I don’t know how to make it stop.
“Just lock them out,” a deep, gravelly voice says. I don’t know what that means, though.
I feel my mother’s arms wrap around me tightly. “Close your mind link, Cora. Close it to everyone.”
