Chapter 1

• Catherine's POV
• The sun stung my eyes, and I slowly sat up from bed and found myself in an unfamiliar room.
• The clothes scattered on the ground were the ones I wore at the mating ritual last night.
• Yesterday was a mating ritual in Shadow Forest.
• It was a tradition that werewolves living in New Jersey held a mating ritual in Shadow Forest every year.
• Alpha and Luna of every pack would bring their unmated werewolves here, looking for their mates at the ritual.
• Of course, if one didn't find one, the ritual next year was waiting for him.
• Once the ritual started, I strolled around with a drink, with no desire to find my mate.
• Well, you must wanna know why, because I was wolfless.
• As I was strolling around with a glass of raspberry juice in my hand, I saw my stepmother Elena Anderson talking to my stepsister Gina Wyatt under a tree in the corner of the square.
• Although I didn't have a wolf, my hearing was particularly excellent.
• Thus, I could still hear what they were talking about at a distance.
• Although Gina lowered her voice, I still heard it.
• They are speaking ill of my mother.
• Anger was boiling up inside me. How dare she!
• So when they were done talking, I stopped Gina while she was alone, asking her to apologize to my mother.
• Apparently, she didn't mind my warning and with a shitty face written with 'so what', so I spilled berry juice all over her, smiling to see her screaming and running away.
• But my stepmother was angry and shouted in Luna's tone, "Catherine! Find your sister now!"
• I couldn't disobey Luna's orders even if I were not willing, so I came for Gina.
• "Gina! Where are you?" I was now at the periphery of Shadow Forest, some distance from the square. If I kept moving forward, I would go deep into the forest. I didn't think that Gina would lose her mind and run into the forest late at night.
• I tried hard to ignore the laughter of the crowd to see if there were Gina's footsteps.
• Suddenly, I smelled the scent of vanilla.
• I smelled countless fragrances, but I swore that none of them were as attractive as this one.
• I followed the scent and tried to approach the source. When I got close to a tree, a tall man sprang out from behind the tree.
• Instantly, a strong scent of vanilla came at me. Though I couldn't see the guy's face in the dim light, I knew he wasn't one of my pack members.
• "Who are you?" I asked carefully. His breathing was loud, and I had a feeling that he was staring at me in the dark. In such a case, I didn't dare to act rashly.
• Suddenly, he pounced at me and had me in his arms. He was so strong that I couldn't break free.
• Just as I attempted to shout for help, I abruptly had a strange feeling. My consciousness seemed to be occupied by another person. I couldn't think clearly and fainted in the end.
• When I woke up again, I was in this strange room.
• I pushed away the blanket and got out of bed, picking up my clothes. There was a man's suit jacket hanging on the back of the chair beside me. What the hell? I angrily threw it onto the bed, and this jerk actually left just like that?
• 'Is he my mate? Why can't I sense anything now?'
• Despite the pain between my legs, I put on my clothes.
• But then I found that the obsidian pendant given by my mother was missing.
• After I looked for it everywhere in the room and became frustrated, I heard a knock on the door.
• My stepmother and father rushed in as I opened the door.
• "Alpha Wyatt, your daughter had been fooling around with a stranger for a whole night while the entire pack was looking for her. If others knew about it, our pack would be embarrassed!"
• Elena put on a surprised look and shouted at my father. After that, Elena looked at me balefully.
• Elena snorted and said, "Catherine, I asked you to look for Gina yesterday. But what did you do? You were actually having fun here."
• "No, I wasn't!" I hurriedly explained.
• "Look at the hickeys on your neck. Are you still trying to deceive your Alpha?"
• I subconsciously covered my neck. The damn man had left many hickeys on my neck.
• "Catherine, I'm so disappointed in you." Troy glanced at my neck and then looked at the messy room, shaking his head.
• I came from the Black Moon Pack, and my father was the Alpha. My mother was Paisley Davis, the last Luna of the pack. Yet she died when I was three years old.
• To be honest, I knew that Luna was indispensable to a wolf pack. However, my father married Elena only two months after my mother died. That was why I found it hard to believe my father was sad about the death of his mate.
• Elena had been targeting me ever since I could remember. Obviously, not every pack was lucky enough to have a nice Luna.
• "I didn't fool around." I calmed down and said calmly, "I met a werewolf on my way to find Gina, and then I fainted. I have no idea why I'm here. I think he is probably my mate."
• "Your mate?" Elena sneered. "Impossible. You are lying. You won't have a mate."
• "I know I don't have a wolf, but many werewolves like me have found their mates. Am I right?" I tried to be patient in front of my father, despite my dissatisfaction with Elena's attitude.
• Although I was angry about what the man had done to me, I did have a strange feeling yesterday. Yet I didn't know if that was the feeling between mates.
• Elena didn't answer my question but looked at my father instead.
• "When you were born, a witch made a divination for you and said that you were a werewolf who would never have a mate," Troy said slowly as he looked at me with pity. This came as a shock to me.
• "That's impossible! Impossible! How could I not have a mate?" I subconsciously said.
• Now I was even more desperate than I had been when I found that I had no wolf at the age of eighteen.
• My mind was in turmoil, and I couldn't think calmly at all. Werewolves all lived in groups, and any werewolf without a mate would be lonely for the rest of his life.
• "Would your father lie to you?" Elena said mockingly. Then Elena looked at my father and said, "Darling, I know you are in a dilemma. But the higher-ups of the pack are outside, and we have to handle this properly."
• "Catherine, I won't be partial to you even though you are my daughter." Troy took a deep breath. His face became calm, and there was solemnity and authority in his tone.