The Alpha Who Chose Wrong Chapter 01
The headboard struck the wall as Alpha Evander Rook drove deeper into me.
“Keep your voice down, little bird,” he groaned against
my neck. “Odette is downstairs.”
Odette was my twin sister.
She was also the woman Evander planned to name Luna in front of the entire Ironwood Pack.
I dug my nails into his shoulders and looked into the golden eyes of my fated mate.
“So that’s your plan?” I whispered. “You take me in secret, then put the Luna crest around my sister’s neck?”
He froze above me.
“You are the mate my wolf chose,” he said.
“And Odette?”
His silence hurt more than his answer.
“She is the Luna my pack needs.”
“Keep quiet,” Alpha Evander Rook breathed against my mouth as his hips drove into mine. “Odette can
never know.”
My twin sister was one floor below us.
She was trying on the silver dress she would wear
when Evander named her Luna.
I was naked in his bed.
I was also his fated mate.
Six hours earlier, I had still believed the mate bond
would force him to choose me.
I should have known better.
That morning, the Ironwood Pack headquarters looked
like a wedding venue.
Workers hung white lights across the glass courtyard. The kitchen prepared enough food for six hundred wolves. Security closed the mountain road outside
Denver and checked every arriving car.
Everyone was celebrating Odette Vale’s twenty–first birthday.
It was my birthday too.
No one mentioned that.
“The Alpha’s table needs twelve settings, not eleven.”
My mother, Lenora Vale, pushed another box into my arms.
“And change your shirt. You smell like the kitchen.”
“I’ve been working in the kitchen since five.”
Her mouth tightened.
“Then work faster. Odette shouldn’t see anything ugly
tonight.”
I looked down at my gray uniform.
“Including me?”
“Don’t start, Nerys.”
She lowered her voice as two pack guards passed.
“Your sister will become Luna. This family finally has
something to be proud of. Do not ruin it because you need attention.”
Odette and I were fraternal twins.
She had our father’s blond hair, long legs, and a golden
wolf that ranked first in every combat test.
I had brown curls, green eyes, and no wolf at all.
Most wolves shifted for the first time between sixteen
and eighteen. I was twenty–one and still heard nothing inside my head.
No second heartbeat.
MY No voice.
No animal waiting beneath my skin.
My mother said I had been born defective.
She also gave me two white pills every morning for the
weak heart she claimed had caused it.
That day, I forgot to take them.
I had been too busy building Odette’s perfect night.
“Nerys.”
Her voice came from the stairs.
Odette walked down in a white training suit. Her blond
hair fell around her shoulders, and the Ironwood crest
shone at her throat.
Evander had given her that necklace.
The whole pack knew why.
Ironwood did not require its Alpha to choose a fated mate. The leadership board cared about strength,
bloodlines, and stability.
Odette was the strongest unmated woman in the pack.
Evander was expected to claim her before sunrise.
“My dress is still wrinkled,” she said.
“It came back from the tailor an hour ago.”
“Then steam it again.”
“I’m setting the Alpha’s table.”
Odette smiled.
“Do both. Unless you want Mom to hear that you’re jealous again.”
My fingers tightened around the box.
“I’m not jealous.”
“Of course not.”
She moved closer.
“Why would a wolfless girl be jealous of the future Luna?”
The front doors opened before I could answer.
Cold air swept through the hall.
Every nearby wolf lowered its head.
Evander Rook had arrived.
He was twenty–six and had led Ironwood for three years. A black coat stretched across his broad
shoulders, and snow melted in his black hair.
His amber eyes found me first.
They always did.
“Little bird,” he said.
The private name warmed something in my chest.
Odette hurried forward and wrapped her arms around him.
Evander caught her, but his gaze stayed on me.
“You look tired.”
My mother answered for me.
“Nerys has always been delicate. Odette worked twice
as hard and hasn’t complained once.”
Evander’s jaw shifted.
“I asked Nerys.”
The Alpha command underneath his words made the lights seem to hum.
My mother stepped back.
“I’m fine,” I said.
Evander glanced at the boxes in my arms.
“Put those down.”
“I have work.”
“Not anymore.”
He took the boxes and handed them to a guard.
Odette’s smile thinned.
“Evander, Nerys likes helping.”
“Then she can help by resting before her birthday party.”
“It’s my Luna ceremony.”
“It is also her birthday.”
No one had defended my right to that day before.
That was Evander.
He had been my closest friend since I was fourteen. He
brought me books when I was sick and taught me to drive.
He also sat outside the clinic every time the doctors
confirmed that I still had no wolf.
I loved him long before I understood what love could cost.
“Walk with me,” he said.
We crossed the courtyard beneath the half–finished lights.
“You didn’t take your medicine,” he said.
I touched my empty pocket.
“How did you know?”
“You always smell like bitter orange after you take it.”
“I forgot.”
His wolf moved behind his eyes.
“Maybe forgetting once won’t kill me.”
“Don’t joke about that.”
I looked toward the ballroom.
“After tonight, will we still do this?”
“Do what?”
“Talk. Drive into the city. Watch bad movies when you
can’t sleep.”
He stopped walking,
“Why would that change?”
“Odette will be your Luna. She hates me.”
“Odette doesn’t decide who matters to me.”
“But the pack decides who you marry.”
His eyes darkened.
“There are things I can’t explain yet.”
“That sounds like a warning.”
“Maybe it is.”
He lifted one hand as if he wanted to touch my face.
Then Odette called him from the doors.
Evander dropped his hand.
At eleven fifty–nine that night, I stood behind the
ballroom curtains in my work clothes.
Odette waited beneath the glass ceiling in silver silk.
Evander stood beside her while the pack counted down to our birthday.
Ten.
Nine.
His head turned.
Five.
Four.
His eyes found mine behind the curtain.
One.
Pain and heat struck my chest at the same time.