Charles’ breath quickened, and his movements became more urgent. “I’m close,” he gasped in my ear, his voice breaking between moans. My own pleasure surged, and I couldn’t hold back the scream that tore from my throat. A wave of electric tingles swept through me, my temples throbbed, and the world around me faded into white…
Every pore on my body felt wide open, heat radiating from me in waves. It was surreal, as if I were in a dream, feeling everything but grasping none of it…
I could hardly believe it—I had married this man, the infamous Alpha of the Black Valley Pack, Charles McLean, and I had just slept with him.
But there was no love between us. We weren’t fated mates.
Since his first shift at eighteen, Charles McLean had never found his fated mate. And after one engagement after another, each of his fiancées had died under mysterious circumstances. Rumor had it that he wore a mask to conceal his hideous face and that he was a cruel, violent man who would kill without hesitation. People whispered that he had murdered his previous fiancées.
His last fiancée—my sister—was terrified of him. Horrified by the stories, she had vehemently refused to marry him. And just before the wedding, she found her fated mate. So, without warning or preparation, I was forced to take her place, pushed into marrying Charles in her stead, to stand as his wife in name only and the unacknowledged Luna of the Black Valley Pack…

A Substituted Bride But A Fated Luna

Our reaction to seeing each other surprised my mother. She glanced back and forth between us for a moment and asked uncertainly, "Charles, do you know the fortune teller, Nyx?"


"Nyx is Selena's aunt. We met once when I went to the Moon Sea Pack," I explained to my mother as I stared at Nyx in front of me.


My mother's expression changed and she covered her mouth in surprise. "This... They don't look like a family!"


"If you ever talk about Selena in front of me again, that's the end of our relationship!" Nyx angrily corrected her.


After Nyx said this, my mother didn't say a word for a long time. I looked at the expression on her face, and from what I knew about her, I could guess what was going on in her mind. She was very concerned about Nyx's kinship with Selena, but she wanted Nyx to read my fortune, and those two thoughts were fighting in her head, and she didn't know which one would prevail.


114 The Fortune Teller