Her Returned Mate (The Gathering Shadows Series, Book I)

Rayne stood looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her a pale green ballgown clung to her curves and left little to the imagination. Her jet-black curls are swept up and pinned to her head, leaving her neck exposed. Tonight was the night that most of the unmated wolves in all the North American packs would hopefully find their mates. She was sure all of them were just oozing with excitement.

She was not.

She didn’t want a mate. She didn’t need a mate.

She planned on leaving her pack behind. Becoming a rogue. No one here would miss her. No one in The Jade Moon pack cared for one little orphaned wolf. The Alpha only allowed her to stay because she was his old Beta’s daughter. Her parents were killed in the last pack war ten years ago. She was eight years old the night her parents died. The night her life changed and all those who loved her were taken from her.

Finding a mate was supposed to bring the other half of her soul into her life. She doubted seriously that it would be good. Very little in the last ten years was good. She was Beta born but treated like an omega. Except for tonight. Tonight, they groomed her for her mate, if he was even out there, hoping she would be taken her off their hands.

“Earth to Rayne!” A voice shouted from the doorway to the ratty little room she called her bedroom.

She looked over to see the Alpha’s daughter Bridgette standing in the doorway in her skin tight blood-red ball gown. Her face caked in makeup, her lips a deep red, and her eyes lined in black eyeliner to make her blue eyes stand out. She looked like a painted-up whore. Fitting since it matched her behavior. Rayne would be beyond happy just to be away from Bridgette.

“It is time to go and you know how father hates to be kept waiting, so let’s get moving.” Her voice just oozed bitchiness.

“Let’s go then. The sooner we get there, the sooner I can get back here and on with my life,” She lifted the skirt of her gown and walked to the door.

“You mean the sooner you can get back here and clean up this mess and the one in my room?” She lifted one of her finely sculpted eyebrows and smirked at Rayne.

This bitch has been one of Rayne’s worst enemies since they were kids. Her brother was nice to Rayne, and she hated it. She hated that anyone showed Rayne any kind of affection that she believed should always be given to her. Drama queen was not a title for her, she was much more self-absorbed and narcissistic than anyone Rayne had ever met. Seeing as how she had never been outside Jade Moon territory, that wasn’t saying much.

Rayne look her straight in the eye and shrugged. She had no intention of coming back here tonight. She had stashed a bag full of her belongings in a tree outside the pack borders. She would leave the party after the required two hours, grab her bag, and leave this life behind. No one would even know that she left until late into the afternoon tomorrow. By then she would be miles away if things went her way for once.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and followed Bridgette down the hallway that led to the attic door. They climbed down the stairs to the first floor of the Alpha’s mansion to find Alpha Wilson standing in the entry hall glaring up at them as they descended the stairs. He radiated power and anger at being left waiting. His dark eyes glittering with his anger. His dirty blond hair was slicked back and looked like it needed a wash. He was in a deep charcoal grey tux that looked nice. His tall frame is slightly hunched over because of an unhealed training injury. He refused to let the pack doctors heal him and claimed he would be fine. It had been three weeks and the more time that passed, the angrier he got that he wasn’t healing as fast as he used to.

“About time you two got down here. I have been waiting for over twenty minutes.”

She knew if they didn’t hurry that she would wear one of his bruises for the rest of the night. Not that she wasn’t used to being his punching bag, but tonight she would not be his victim again. Rayne is done being this pack’s whipping dog. Bridgette grabbed her arm and pulled her down the remaining stairs and over to Wilson. Even she was afraid of him when he was angry. Which lately was all the time. Rayne knew this pack would be better off when Wilson’s son Alec took over, but there was no way that she was waiting around here to see that happen.

Rayne squared her shoulders and prepared to go to the ballroom where hundreds of wolves from all over North America were milling about, drinking, dancing, and waiting for their mates to find them. Once a year this ball was held in a different pack’s territory. Each year every unmated wolf would join the party, hoping they would find the other half of their soul in the form of their mate.

“Let’s go, ladies, midnight is an hour away and I am sure there will be a lucky wolf out in that room for each of you,” Wilson walked into the ballroom ahead of them, paused for a moment to see that they were following him and when he saw that they would follow him, he made his way to the bar.

Bridgette looked at her with that arched brow smirk of hers, then moved off towards the dance floor with her single-minded goal. To make herself the center of attention so that every male in the room would notice her. That worked just fine for Rayne, as her goal was to hide in the shadows until she could safely be certain that Wilson was drunk and she could slip out of the mansion and get on with her plans.

Hello readers

Welcome to Rayne’s story

This is book one of The Gathering Shadows Series

I hope you enjoy

Happy reading and stay safe

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