Chapter 2

Chapter Two

“What are you doing?”

At the sound of her mother’s voice, Leah spun around from where she stood at the easel in her bedroom. Luckily she hadn’t had her paintbrush lifted to the canvas, or she would have ruined her work.

Sucking in a breath, she set her free hand over her heart. “Mom, you scared me.”

Her mother stood in the doorway, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed. “And again, I have to ask, what are you doing?”

Leah opened her eyes wide and nodded toward the canvas. “What does it look like I’m doing? Painting.”

Her mother glanced around the room, frustration wafting off her. “Leah…”

She didn’t need to say more. Leah knew her mother was exasperated, and she knew why. She just couldn’t bring herself to care.

Leah’s sister, Khloe, squeezed around her mother to enter the room. “Oh… Yikes.” She winced as she headed for the dress hanging against the closet.

Leah’s mother groaned. “I told you Khloe and I would be up here in ten minutes to do the final fitting. Why aren’t you dressed? There’s paint all over your arms, your hands, and your face. You’re going to have to shower before you can come anywhere near the dress.”

Leah had gone to her room intending to put on that stupid dress, but she’d found herself lured to her easel instead. Anything to avoid reality. She didn’t even want to look at the dress. She had the sudden urge to fling her paintbrush that direction so it got splattered with blue paint and was ruined.

What would happen if her ceremonial dress was destroyed two days before the claiming? Based on what she knew about the tradition, the mating was going to happen no matter what. Even if she shaved her head, sliced up her face, and went to the ceremony naked, it would happen.

She didn’t have the balls to cut her hair, though, and there was no way she was going near a sharp knife.

“I’m never going to understand you,” Khloe declared as she turned toward the bed, leaped into the air, and landed with a huge bounce. That was Khloe. Filled with energy and spunk. She was grinning. The happy child. The one who took everything in stride. The one who’d embraced the ridiculous mark she’d been born with from the moment she’d been old enough to understand what it meant.

Leah, on the other hand, hated the stupid mark she bore and what it represented. Why couldn’t she have been skipped? Khloe was jealous that Leah was a year older and would be mated off before her. Leah would gladly trade places in a heartbeat. She’d wished a million times that she could burn that mark or cut it off. What if her arm were amputated? Would she still be forced into a barbaric union with an old man she didn’t know?

It was extremely rare for two sisters to both bear the mark. Of all the shifters living in the valley, some families went generations without producing an heir with a mark. It was just Leah’s dumb luck that her family had two daughters and both were fated to be claimed by a stranger in an antiquated custom that should be abolished. It surprised her that no one else seemed to agree with her.

For her entire life, she’d been told how lucky she was, what a privilege it was that she would be whisked away to live among strangers in the mountains. She was meant to be grateful and feel proud. All Leah felt was bile rising in her throat.

“It’s so unfair,” Khloe said, crossing her arms and pushing out her bottom lip in a fake pout. She was such a happy person that her eyes were still dancing while she pretended to be angry.

Leah couldn’t help but laugh. Even though she and her sister disagreed wholeheartedly about this mating custom and had very little in common, they’d always been close. “How about if we trade places? You can pretend to be me and head to the ceremony in two days. I’ll run off and hide in the mountains so I never have to go at all.”

Unfortunately, Leah was not kidding. She would do that in a heartbeat if she thought it would work. It wouldn’t, of course. For one thing, her mate would scent the difference before he even got to the ceremony. For another thing, their marks would not match. Tempting, though.

“Leah, you’re getting paint on your day dress,” my mother pointed out, her voice laced with exasperation. “There are paint stains on every one of your dresses.”

Leah lifted the brush of blue paint and dragged the tip down the center of her chest, leaving a long blue line.

Her mother gasped, eyes popping out of her head.

Khloe giggled. “Mom, chill. It doesn’t matter. She’s never going to wear that dress again, remember?”

Their mother rubbed her temples and sighed. “Still. It’s disrespectful. The dress could go to another family.”

Leah rolled her eyes. “Sure. That’s exactly what some other girl in town wants—another drab brown gunnysack dress that reaches her ankles, high on her neck, and down to her fingers. A used one. What a dream,” she drawled sarcastically.

“ Leah ,” her mother chided. “Where did I go wrong with you? You’ve got to pull it together.” She clapped her hands once and stepped farther into the room. “Get in the shower. Hurry. You have to try the ceremonial dress on so I can make adjustments. You’re making me nervous.”

“Do we have any cyanide?” Leah asked. She turned toward her sister. “How long does it take to die from cyanide poisoning?”

Khloe giggled again. “I think you’re going to have to accept this. From what I’ve heard, as soon as you meet him, you’ll suddenly feel like everything is right in the world.” She sighed, tipping her head to the left and blinking dreamily.

Gross . Leah wanted to vomit.

Her mother pointed toward the hallway. “Bathroom. Shower. Now.”

Leah took a deep breath, set the paintbrush down, and reluctantly left the room. As soon as she was in the bathroom, she locked the door and started peeling the layers of clothing off.

First, there was the outer brown dress, then two layers of shifts. Leah hated this dress and the fact that every dress in her closet looked just like it. It was the traditional clothing for unmated girls. Like a school uniform except no one ever changed out of them when they got home.

Because she felt bad about the paint, she turned on the sink and ran the front of the dress under the water. It rinsed out easily. No one would ever know she’d had that little tantrum after it went through the wash. Yay for the poor girl who got this exciting hand-me-down dress.

Leah turned on the shower, and while she waited for it to warm up, she stared at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess with sprinkles of paint in it. It was yet another thing that made her different, caused her to stand out. It was red. Not a little red, very red. And wavy. If she pulled a strand, it reached down past her butt. There was nothing she could do to tame it except pin the front back and hope for the best.

She hadn’t been born with pretty blue or green eyes like some redheads. Nope. She had brown eyes. And freckles. Lots of them.

There were a few other girls in her school who had red hair, and most of them were teased by other students, but few people teased Leah. She figured it was because she was surly and marked.

Maybe she’d get lucky and her intended mate wouldn’t be attracted to her. Maybe he would take one look at her, gasp, and return to the mountains so she could go back to her home in peace.

She smirked. Yeah, right .

She glanced down at her naked body. She supposed her figure was nice. Her mother always told her so. Her people by and large frowned on vanity, so looks weren’t something she’d dwelled on much, but her mother had caught her frowning at herself in the mirror many times and had quietly told her she was precious and beautiful. When Leah had gotten older, her mother had whispered to her that she had a body her mate was going to love.

Leah sighed. At least she had that one thing going for her. She stepped into the shower, closed her eyes, and let the water run down her body. She shuddered as she thought about the stupid dress. It was white with delicate gold lace sewn into it. A ceremonial dress she would wear with gold sandals.

In two days, she would be expected to put the stupid dress on, her mother and sister would fix her hair, and then she would be taken to the slaughterhouse.

There was no way out of this, but she didn’t have to like it. Maybe if she scowled long enough at her mate, he would leave her alone. Ha . As if that was going to happen.

She wasn’t stupid. She would be expected to get naked, spread her legs, and take the stranger into her body. After that, she would shift for the first time into wolf form. At least she had that to look forward to. She did long to experience her first shift.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe her mate would be kind and let her shift whenever she wanted and run wild in the woods.

Sure. That was super likely.

A girl could dream.