My Orphan Mate ✓

Chapter Three

LYRA
________

The next day dawned far too soon. I had barely slept and was still trying to get used to my wolf.

The sisters had barged in to my room as soon as I had stepped back in the house this morning. Three hours later and I was strolling through the courtyard with Jasmine's younger sisters, Alana and Josie. I wasn't sure why they brought me here, but I wasn't complaining- anything to delay the ceremony. 

I was to be their Luna in a mere few hours. The thought alone made my stomach twist. 

Every step felt heavier than the last. I was supposed to smile today, to appear like I wanted this, bow to the alpha in front of everyone, and promise myself to him. A man that was not my mate. 

The thought made me stumble mid-step, and the soft patter of the sisters' feet behind me came to a halt. I heard them mumble something unpleasant, but I ignored them. I was more intrigued by the emotions cursing through me. 

A cold shiver ran down my spine. My wolf. She had spoken her first word earlier, her voice strange in my mind. I didn't fully understand our connection yet, but she didn't shy away from showing her displeasure when she found out I was going to be alpha Gabriel's Luna. He's not the one, she told me over and over. 

But her input didn't matter anymore. It was too late.

I wanted desperately to find Jaxon and Ava to tell them the news, to try figure out a way out of this, but I had been given no chance. I had pleaded for one of the younger females this morning to retrieve Jaxon for me. Yet, there was no sign of him, or Ava. The pair had been trying to find ways to help me out of this arrangement, but neither could help. Jaxon had advised that I leave the pack entirely, but I couldn't envision a life beyond the pack.

My wolf snarled for the first time at the thought running through my head, and I was in a silent debate with her, not realising we were now alone in the courtyard. 

I stopped walking and glanced around, the yard now eerily quiet as a strange sensation coursed through me. The flowers swayed gently, but the laughter of the two sisters had vanished. They never left my side when on duty, I was oddly surprised. 

"Are you sure that's her?"

The unfamiliar male voice sliced through the stillness. 

I froze.

That voice didn't belong here, or in the pack. The courtyard was reserved for the women of the pack house, no males were ever allowed. Did Jaxon send these men?

My wolf was suspicious and didn't like their presence, but I was yet to understand her. 

"They wouldn't dare deceive me," another voice added, deeper and calm. "It has to be her."

My body turned before I could stop it. Two strangers stood at the edge of the path, both tall and radiated the kind of strength that made the air feel thinner. 

The taller one had black hair and golden-brown eyes that locked onto mine, unflinching. The other's curls caught the morning light, his blue eyes scanning me as if searching for something only he could sense.

I didn't know every member of the pack yet, but I knew quickly these men did not belong here.

I took a small step back. "Who are you?"

Neither answered. The dark-haired one narrowed his eyes at my question before nodding to the other. 

"Get her."