My Fated Mate Chose My Sister, So I Claimed the Vampire Heir novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Valentine Lie
Camryn kisses Gavin in front of Seren, demands to see Seren's mystery mate at tonight's Alpha supper, and Seren points at Evander Mourne, who whispers that he knows she is human and agrees to be her lie.
My foster sister had her mouth on my ex-boyfriend's when I walked into last period, and when she saw me she went very still.
I stopped in the doorway with my bag on one shoulder.
It was the first day back after winter break, and I had spent all of it dodging her.
I had mapped every stairwell and every back hallway.
I had made it to the final class.
Gavin pulled away first.
The tips of his ears were red, which they always went when he was ashamed of something.
"Seren," he said. "Hey."
Camryn turned and pressed two fingers to her lips.
"Oh, Seren. I'm so sorry you had to see that." She winced. "You know how it is with fated mates. We can't help ourselves."
"I get it," I said. "Totally."
I walked to my seat three rows back and set my bag on the desk.
My hands were steady. I made sure of it.
The last full moon of December is the wolves' mating ceremony.
Every pack member who turns eighteen shifts for the first time, and the Moon Goddess shows them the mate she chose.
Gavin and I had been together for years. I was sure it would be us.
I stood in the clearing in my white dress and waited for my bones to crack.
They never did.
Wolves howled all around me, and I stayed human-shaped and silent.
Gavin walked right past me to Camryn, who stood there silver and new, and he kissed her when she shifted back.
He did it in front of the whole pack.
Camryn is the Fenners' real daughter, and I am the foster girl.
They found me alone at the tree line as a newborn and took me in. She wanted the Alpha's son long before I got him.
By morning the whispers had started. Did she even try to shift? Is she human?
Humans died out generations ago, and the pack puts out any girl who has no wolf.
So I lied.
I told everyone a bond had pulled at me that night, because I was a late shifter.
Late shifters are rare, but they exist, and pack law protects a bond that is still forming.
The lie bought me two months.
Camryn dropped into the seat across from mine, and Gavin took the one beside her.
"It's Valentine's Day, so tonight is the Alpha's Moon Supper," she said. "Every mated pair sits at the long table. So where is your mystery mate?"
"He's taking me," I said. "We have big plans."
There was no mate.
A girl from a southern pack leaned in from the next desk. She collected gossip, and her eyes were bright.
"Who is he? I know every unmated wolf for fifty miles. One of the wolf twins from the east dorm? A fox? A bear?"
"None of them," I said. My mouth had gone dry.
Camryn hadn't said anything in a while. She was watching me.
The girl gasped and grinned.
"Seren. Please tell me he's not a vampire."
That was when the door opened, and the room went silent.
Evander Mourne walked in first.
He was a head taller than Gavin, with black hair falling across his forehead and a sharp jaw.
Two more vampires followed him and took their seats without a word.
Everyone knew who he was. His father, Lord Aurelian Mourne, rules every vampire court, and Evander would rule them after him.
His friends shoved wolves into lockers for fun, and nobody on campus dared stop them.
Nobody looked at him. Nobody spoke.
I looked.
I always looked at Evander Mourne, and I had never been able to say why.
His eyes swept the room and stopped on mine.
Camryn followed my stare, and she laughed out loud.
"Oh my Goddess. Look at her face, Gavin. It's him."
The girl beside her squealed. Half the class laughed with her.
"Seren's mate is a vampire," Camryn said. "That's the funniest thing I've ever heard."
"Cam, stop," Gavin said.
"Why? Are you worried about her?"
His ears went red again.
Camryn leaned across the desk, still smiling.
"Fine. Prove me wrong. Bring him to the Alpha's table tonight, or I tell the Alpha you lied."
I had two choices.
I could tell the truth and be dragged to the border by morning.
Or I could make the lie bigger.
So I stood up.
I walked down the aisle past three rows of wolves who would not look at me.
I stopped at Evander Mourne's desk.
"I hear you're taking me to the Alpha's supper tonight," I said.
He did not laugh.
He stood, slowly, and he was close enough that I had to tip my head back.
He bent to my ear, and he said, low enough that only I could hear, "You smell human, little wolf. I won't tell anyone."
I could not move.
Then he straightened and said in a voice that carried to every corner of the room, "Seven o'clock, love. I'll bring the car."
He knew what I was.
And he had just agreed to be my lie.
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