I’m rejecting him—even if my heart doesn’t agree. Atlas Arcturus is trouble. I knew it from the start. I knew it from the second he kissed me after I agreed to be his pretend girlfriend. But I seriously underestimated how one alpha heir could take my heart and destroy it.

I keep my head down. In this backward pack, females rank low, and my bad leg makes me damaged goods. It doesn’t help that I’ve never shifted. I don’t mind the late-20s single life, though. No one’s paying any attention as I build an illicit farmer’s market empire. My roomies and I are doing it for ourselves, and if life under Killian Kelly is stifling, at least it’s predictable. We can deal. But when biology finally kicks in, I lose my mind. I claim our alpha as my mate. And he rejects me in front of the whole pack.

I was born a mistake, a hybrid unwanted. I act tough, soft inside to survive. All I need is a savior. Here he comes. As my fated mate, he triggers my innermost itch to love, but he loathes and rejects me like I'm worthless.

As the adopted and weakest member of my pack, I’ve always been an outcast and mistreated, especially since I've never been able to shift into my animal form. Every time I try to find a way to escape my personal hell, my pack leader stops me, vowing that I'll never be free from him.

My life was like a train on a fixed track. I knew I would inherit the pack, but didn't know that Alpha’s duty included arranged marriage. So naturally, I disliked the girl chosen by my parents, even though she was my Mate-gorgeous and intelligent! The matebond guided me to claim her, but my rational side forced me to reject her after a perfect night. I didn’t realize my love until I lost her, when she left the pack to pursue her dreams. However, my love did not die once I saw her again, at my engagement to someone else.