Chapter One
Cecilia's POV
An accident took my sight when I was a child. From that day on, my world was nothing but darkness.
When I was little, Derek, my childhood sweetheart, held my hand and swore he would be my eyes and protect me for the rest of my life.
But as we grew older, he began to see me as a burden just because I was blind. He fell for my bright, outgoing younger sister, Lilith.
He often hid my cane and watched me struggle to find my way. Then he and Lilith would laugh at me together.
Today was my coming-of-age mate party. It was supposed to be the day Derek and I became mates.
Instead, he brought in five werewolves and had them pretend to be him so I would have to pick him out from among them.
He said that if I chose him correctly, we would mate today.
But I could smell every one of them clearly.
Not a single man among the five was Derek.
Then again, whether I chose him or someone else had stopped mattering a long time ago.
Today was my coming-of-age mate party, the most important day of my life.
In front of our pack members, relatives, and friends, we were supposed to join with our fated mates in a mating ceremony.
“Cecilia, are you ready?”
Derek’s voice came from the doorway.
He was my childhood sweetheart, my fiancé, and the man who was supposed to become my mate today. As always, he smelled like sea salt mixed with a hint of tobacco.
“I’m ready.”
I sat at the vanity while the makeup artist applied my makeup.
“Good.”
Derek’s footsteps came closer, but he didn’t approach me. He stopped three paces away.
Then I heard five more sets of footsteps.
Five male werewolves whose scents I didn’t recognize.
They followed Derek into my dressing room and lined up in front of me.
“Let’s play a little game, Cecilia,” Derek said. “You’re always saying you could recognize me in a crowd by my scent, even without being able to see. Today is supposed to be your mating day, so I brought four of my friends. There are five of us altogether. Pick me out, and we’ll mate today.”
The dressing room went completely silent.
The makeup artist gasped in shock, then hurried out of the room.
Making a blind bride-to-be choose her own fiancé from a lineup of men was humiliating.
But that was the kind of man Derek had become.
He loved Lilith’s bright, cheerful smile. He loved that she could drive fast and hunt with him.
Meanwhile, all I could do was sit quietly in a corner and listen to them laugh together.
“What’s wrong? Afraid to choose?” Derek grew impatient when I stayed silent. “It’s just a little fun, Cecilia. You’re not going to ruin it, are you?”
More footsteps came from the doorway.
My parents, Mr. and Mrs. Howard, had arrived with my younger sister, Lilith.
“Don’t be afraid, Cecilia. Trust your instincts,” my mother said.
“Exactly. Derek loves you so much. You’ll recognize him, won’t you?” Lilith added in her sugary voice.
I slowly rose to my feet, gripping my cane.
I might have been blind, but I had never given up on myself.
Over the years, I had trained my senses of smell and hearing until they became exceptionally sharp. I could hear a leaf fall a hundred yards away and detect even the faintest scent in the air.
The breathing patterns of the five men standing before me, the weight of their dress shoes against the carpet, and every scent they carried registered clearly in my mind.
Five men.
Not one of them was Derek.
He was standing beside the door. His familiar scent was so strong that it made me sick.
He thought that because I was blind, I couldn’t tell what was happening.
He had brought in other men to pretend to be him while he stayed out of it himself.
If I chose the wrong man, he could laugh at me and use my mistake as an excuse to postpone or cancel the mating ceremony.
I knew exactly what he was trying to do.
“All right,” I said calmly.
If he wanted to play a game, I would play along to the end.
After all, it no longer mattered to me whom I chose.
With my cane in hand, I walked forward one step at a time. I passed Derek by the door without hesitation and approached the five men standing in a line.
Derek’s breathing stopped for a moment.
I could feel him staring at me.
I stopped in front of the man who smelled like cedar.
He was tall, half a head taller than Derek.
I heard his heartbeat suddenly lose its steady rhythm, and I caught the pleasant scent of cedar on him.
I raised my hand and pointed to his chest, then spoke calmly.
“I choose him.”
The entire dressing room fell silent.
Derek’s tense breathing immediately eased, and he even let out a quiet laugh of relief.
A second later, Lilith clapped excitedly.
“That’s amazing! Cecilia, you’re so good at this. You recognized Derek right away!”
