Chapter 2

Ivy went wide-eyed and she looked like she was about to explode with excitement.

"Calm down tigress," she heard her father's voice call out to her. She proceeded to ignore him as she went to take her place alongside the other girls. Aside from her, she could spot two other girls who were eligible for the ritual.

"Kneel," she heard the voice of the elder say out to them. They knelt down facing the hut. "Close your eyes."

She obeyed quietly as the old lady took a knife and three wooden bowls before turning to face the audience that had assembled before her. "You know what to do," she had heard her say to them.

Everyone nodded in silence as they took a spot on the ground and transformed into wolves before howling softly.

She felt someone holding her hand and a small sharp pain. She had been cut. Naturally she had enough tolerance that something like that wouldn't bother her.

She ignored it as she heard the sound of liquid meeting solid. It was her blood. It was just something short of three seconds when her accelerated healing kicked in and made short work of the wound.

She was aware of the fact that lycanthropy, the transformation of a person into a wolf, had some roots in the mystic arts. It wasn't wildly practiced but a few werewolves knew of some ancient rituals, one of which was the mate selection ritual. It was only natural she heard the voice of the elder begin to chant in a tongue that was unfamiliar to her. Despite not understanding what the words meant, she could feel the power that reverberated within each word and she flinched, really

flinched.

Ivy was anxious, nope, anxious was an understatement. Despite the fact that the mate selection ritual was an unpredictable event, she desperately wanted her mate to be Max. Her thoughts diverted to the werewolf. He was a fine specimen of a werewolf, standing at six feet and three inches. He was muscular and practically breathed strength in all of his actions. It also helped that he seemed to be the strongest out of all the wolves of their generation. He was well endowed and smelled divine. She mentally shook her head to clear him from her mind. Oh, she wanted him badly, every girl wanted him and he was first most likely the next in line to be an alpha. Having

an alpha as a mate had its perks. She wanted that for herself.

She didn't know when she lost all traces of control over her thoughts and slowly her body. Her eyes were forced open but the only thing could see was a brilliant white light. It was warm and despite how bright it was she didn't feel blinded by the intensity of it all. Sharp pain crawled up her body. She tried to scream but no words came out. Her breath left her and she gave into the pain. Only her ears worked as she heard the elder chant.

Slowly, she felt the pain die and sighed. She felt something else leave her and the sounds that she was hearing was replaced by a low humming sound. It was soothing and it forcibly caused her entire being to relax.

She lost all sense of direction because she couldn't tell for how long she had heard the hum. Time seemed like a foreign entity to her and slowly but surely, she felt all traces of her ability to control herself come back to her.

Something unexpected happened next. Her body forcefully jerked and the next thing she heard was a fierce howl before she felt her body hit the ground and all traces of control left. She had no idea how long it took before she regained control over herself. Her eyes opened slowly and she saw the elderly lady hunched over her. Her head felt heavy as she turned to see a pair of golden-brown eyes peering at her. She immediately recognized it as her father.

She suddenly bolted upwards as she looked around. Everyone was looking at her. "What happened?" she asked.

"The ritual was going well when all of a sudden you started jerking."

She blinked once. Twice. Thrice.

"Take this," she heard the woman's voice call out to her and she saw the same mixture she had eaten in the morning. This time she took it greedily and gulped everything down before turning to the elder again.

"Thank you," she said before taking a deep breath. "Did the ritual work?"

"It ought to have but I don't know what went wrong… you'll most likely have to –" she didn't get to finish her statement as Ivy's brother interrupted her.

"Will you look at that?" she heard him say and she turned to look at what he was pointing at.

She saw blood, her blood she realized, and it was shaping itself to become something. She turned to see everyone watching intently as the blood took form. It soon became an "M" and then an "A" was added to it. She felt her heart jump up her body and get stuck in her throat. The next letter she saw was an "X".

She held back the urge to suddenly scream. She had gotten Max as her mate. The same boy who was haunting her dreams with his amazing physique.

"Am I dreaming?" she asked them.

"You're as awake as us," she heard one of her brothers say. She slowly got up and turned to look for the werewolf. She saw him looking just as stunned as the others. Tears made their way to her eyes, not ones of sadness, but ones of extreme joy. The entire forest was silent before her as she faced her dream wolf. She saw his mouth move to speak. He was going to accept her.

"I don't think I can go through with this." And the tears rolled down almost immediately.