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

Facing the sudden intruders, Selena was on high alert. Newly empowered as Alpha, she could feel a surge of strength welling up from within—an undeniable gift from the Moon Goddess. She was itching for a fight.


Why not use these rude trespassers as sparring partners? Selena thought, stepping forward with a few of her wolves toward the imposing black wolf leading the group. The closer she got, the stronger the familiar sensation grew.


As the mist cleared, she finally recognized the wolf standing across from her.


No, she didn’t even need to see him clearly—she simply knew who he was.


They called each other’s names simultaneously. Their wolves halted, tense and uncertain, sensing the charged atmosphere between their Alphas.


In that brief moment, the aggression radiating from Selena dissipated, replaced by a desire to draw closer, to feel the warmth of Charles’s wolf.


134 A Declaration of War