My Father looked at me sternly, for a brief second I could have sworn pity flashed through his eyes, softening them up, before the stone cold blue eyes that Sapphire inherited returned.

“You were rejected, not only in front of our entire pack, but several notable members from other packs. It’s a shame I’m not willing to endure. A sign of weakness. Weak wolves drag the pack down—what am I saying, you’re not even one of us, you’ve never been.” He pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke.

The words hit me like a truck rammed into me with full force.

I was a weak child growing up, I didn’t have the same strength that other children my age had. I got fatigued easily, I couldn’t train with the other pack children, all things that Sapphire did effortlessly.

But it didn’t matter, everything was supposed to change on my eighteenth birthday.

Every werewolf shifted unfailingly on their eighteenth birthday. Sapphire did, just like several other wolves before us.

I didn’t.

That was five years ago. That moment turned my entire life upside down. I became an outcast. Hated, scorned, ridiculed.

“Father, please, don’t say that. I am one of you. I am part of your pack.”

“Never say that again!” He snarled. “You have no idea how much it pains me to be associated with you, and you know what? I am tired of it, tired of you,” he jabbed a hand in my direction as he said the last word.

“I want you out of my pack before the night ends. If I find you loitering on my pack grounds, you will be considered a rogue and I will treat you like how a pack treats any rogue wolf on their territory.”

“Father, please. There’s nowhere for me to go. This pack is all I’ve known my entire life,” I begged.

“Then I suggest you find someone stupid or desperate enough to take you on as a second chance mate tonight, but after your little stunt at the party, I’d say you have a better chance of making it out of my territory before my patrol guards hunt you down.”

Patrol guards? Hunt me down?

Someone wake me up from this nightmare!

I bowed my head and even though I wanted to burst into tears, something in me refused to despair.

The meet and greet also helped people whose mates had died, or people that had lost hope of finding their mate after waiting for years, to connect with new people and find a second chance mate.

“Goodbye, Silva. Please don’t force me to have your blood on my hands tonight.”

I heard my father’s footsteps moving away from me, the distance between us growing farther and farther till I could no longer hear him.

It took me a minute to pull myself together, every part of my body was hurting. My jaw felt dislocated and my back was throbbing severely, but still I forced myself to my feet. This pain was just a minor setback, compared to the scorn I’ve felt all my life, this was nothing.

I stood up shakily.

I know it sounded like a crazy idea but I was going to have to do my best to convince someone, anyone, that I could be their second chance mate.

There was no way I could survive by myself outside my pack.

But who was crazy enough—no, desperate enough to accept someone like me as a mate?

I was on the path back to the pack house, but as I pushed one shaky leg forward a branch snagged against my cloth.

“Damn it!” I groaned and with all my frustration I ripped the fabric out of the slender claws of the tree’s branch.

My own strength surprised me and the cloth freed itself with one awkward tug, but the momentum stole my balance from underneath me and I stumbled backwards.

I closed my eyes, waiting to hit the ground but the impact never came. Instead, two strong arms wrapped themselves around me.

“Careful.”

One word. Just one word and my body froze.

There was so much power behind it, a ferociousness I have never felt before in my life. My entire body felt like jello, how could one man’s voice make me feel so weak?

“Are you hurt?” The voice asked again and it took all the power in me to not let out a whimper. I kept my eyes shut and shook my head.

“If you’re going to stay so comfortably in my hands, the least you can do is look at me when I’m talking to you.”

Embarrassment colored my face a bright red and I leaped out of his hands with a speed that I have never displayed in my entire life.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it! Was it too late to run?

“I’m so sorry,” I rushed out. My head was still bowed, hoping I could somehow escape his gaze, and hide my embarrassment if I just kept looking down. I had no doubt I would look like a tomato if I looked up.

“Look at me,” He said again, not forcefully nor aggressively, but something inside me was compelled to raise my face to meet his.

My eyes slowly traveled up his body, from his scoffed boots, up the rugged denim of his jeans, clinging to the muscular thighs underneath. His pecs stretched out the fabric around his chest, giving his body a sexy V-like shape and when I finally looked up at his face, I let out a gasp and stumbled backwards involuntarily.

He was stunning—no, that wasn’t it.

He looked beautiful and dangerous in the same breath. His hair were rough and untamed long curls that framed his face and stopped just below his sharp cheekbones. He had a scar that ran down his left eye, chiseled jaws that look like they were carved from marble. His skin was perfectly sun-bathed.

He looked like a god.

A beautiful, wrathful god.

He reached out his hand to caress my jaw, the exact place my father had hit me mere minutes ago and instinctively I flinched away from him. He pulled his hands back.

“Are you hurt?” He asked again, this time a little softer.

Who was this stranger? Why was he so concerned if I was hurt or not? Did I look so delicate he thought that I hurt myself just from stumbling and falling into his hands?

“I’m fine, don’t mind me. I’m just very clumsy. I trip all the time,” I rushed out, eager to put some space between me and the incredibly handsome stranger. He probably had a mate somewhere waiting for him. “Thank you for catching me,” I finished and stepped past him as I walked hurriedly to the pack house.

“I saw what happened.”

I froze in my tracks when I heard his voice behind me. What did he mean?

“Excuse me?” I asked as I turned to face him.

“I said, I saw what happened. No one should be treated like that, especially not by their own family.”

I was at a loss for words. I didn’t want pity from anyone, a stranger no less.

I don’t know if there’s something about my skinny frame that made everyone think I would fall apart if even the wind blows a little too strongly.

All my life, I’ve been ridiculed by my pack members and by my family, pitied by those that thought they were better than me. I sure as hell would not accept the pity of a stranger that doesn’t even know anything about my life.

“Maybe you should mind your business,” I snapped. “Whatever you saw doesn’t concern you in any way. Stop eavesdropping on other people’s conversations and lingering around the forest like some sort of creep.”

He let out a loud laugh, flashing a row of bright white teeth that somehow made him look sexier.

“For someone that's going to be evicted out of her pack and hunted down by the end of tonight, you sure have a lot of pride.”

Embarrassment shot through me at his words, but then rage quickly followed. I closed the space between us as I walked up to him. “You have no right to talk to me like that. My conversation with my father was none of your business.”

“What if I told you I could find you a mate before the end of tonight?” He asked. There was a smug look in his eyes as he spoke. Was he… mocking me?

“I don’t have time for your games. I might be desperate but I’m not gullible,” I replied

“I’m serious. I know someone that’s in need of a mate. Someone almost as desperate as you.”

I didn’t want to show it but somewhere deep inside me, hope bloomed a little.

“Who is he?” I asked, careful not to let the hope I felt show in my voice or on my face.

He slipped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer in one swift, fluid motion.

“You’re looking at him.”