For as long as Isabel can remember, she’s been a rogue. Her parents are deceased; she has no pack, no mate, and no one at all except for her older brother Ben. She’s grown used to being a nobody, the butt of others’ jokes, and for the most part, alone.

But during a routine errand gone wrong, Isabel stumbles onto a pack’s territory and comes face to face with a fierce—and devastatingly attractive—shifter the likes of which she’s never seen or felt.

Isabel is certain this is her mate. But will he accept her, a nobody rogue? Or will he reject her to maintain his status in his pack?

With growing danger at every turn, Isabel finds herself in the center of a desperate war between amassing rogues and a fearsome pack, working not only to uncover the mystery of what happened to her once-happy family, but to win over the man she is certain is the love of her life.

Rejected by the Beta

The mating ceremony is drawing closer. 


The flower that I hid away is still with me and after one whole night of deliberation and my own confusion with Balin’s strange behavior, I decided to risk it.


The petals have a strange taste, almost like honeydew. 


I eat one and then I wait but when there are no side effects, I eat the rest.


The only reaction I have is late in the evening the next day when Balin hands me the drink he makes me since the day I arrived here. I’m in my room when I sip it, only to be overcome by nausea. One trip to the bathroom is enough for me to toss away the drink.


I consider telling Balin what happened, but I decide not to. There’s already too much on his plate.


Two days before the mating ceremony, I am confined to the cottage.


Balin is nowhere in sight that day, so I am startled when in the afternoon the door opens.


I look up, “Ba- What are you doing here?”


I despise Arista and I watch her close the door.


Chapter Ninety Six