Harper Shen had only just turned eighteen, a child mate. Mateo Fox’s wolf wanted to claim her, but Mateo at forty, didn’t give in to his basic animal urges. On the night of her transition, Harper is cruelly rejected by her alpha, her mate. Crushed and banished from his pack, for seven years, Harper has had no choice but to live with that rejection. The worst night of her life, realising she’d been mated to someone who didn’t want her.
Helplessly her father hadn’t been able to do anything except follow instructions. She is now part of a new pack, and has finally made a life for herself, within Franny’s pack.
Initially when she’d been banished from the Fox pack, her wolf had felt desolate. Harper hadn’t felt much better realising at eighteen, everything she’d ever known, had been taken away from her because the alpha didn’t want to be her mate.
Over time, those feelings had changed, and whenever she did think of Mateo, her wolf was nonplussed about it. The years had passed and they’d both grown used to the feelings of loneliness. There had been a couple of men who’d showed an interest, but being already mated didn’t feel right. She’d known her wolf wished for a different outcome, that they could be indifferent, but Mateo was out there. It wasn’t like he was dead. He’d rejected them.
Mateo was not going to mate with a young girl. Harper was too innocent and the pack would have eaten her alive. For the last seven years, he’d been visiting her new pack without her being aware, just so he could be closer, inhale her scent, and allow his wolf to know relative peace.
On the way to Harper’s new pack, he picks up a scent and follows it to a human bar. That’s where he sees his mate for the first time in seven years.
On the first night of transition, the body goes through undeniable pain, bones break, and souls pretty much shatter. In addition to the excruciating pain, she experienced a moment of joyous spark, where for a short time, she believed she had found her mate. All the strange senses and the smells—everything—is always a little crazy after that first transition, add to that pain, the one person who is meant to love her, here for her unconditionally, unceremoniously banishes her. He wanted nothing to do with her.
Within twenty-four hours, she was banished from all she had known, and sent to a foreign pack.
Now, after seven years—not a week, or a month, but seven long years, where she has finally made a life for herself—he turns up and expects her to be happy with his presence. Unprepared for her rejection, despite his father’s warning of living to regret his hasty actions.
He expects her to want to mate with him, go back to that life, where all the people witnessed her rejection and humiliation, having regretted sending her away in the first place. Harper doesn’t make it easy on him, in fact she was resolute on keeping him at a distance.
He learns to seek advice from those closest to her, Franny and her parents.
Seven Years Later
Franny and Harper visit together, their children playing. She’d left Silver’s pack and arrived back at her old pack, shocked to see there was a party to celebrate her return. Assuming the role of alpha’s mate was initially challenging. Every week, members came to her with problems. By the end of the first week, she asked Mateo to speed up the work on her shop. Within two months, she had her beauty boutique open. She and Mateo now had two children. William and Bethany, and they would soon be expecting their third.
Mateo,regretted rejecting her and regularly declared his love for her. Harper reconciled that she hadn’t been ready to be a mate. At eighteen, she’d been granted two gifts. Her mate, and her freedom. Mateo’s rejection had meant she was able to live her life, be free, grow up and discover herself. All Mateo had done was wait until she was ready.
She had confessed that to him on their last anniversary that she saw their seven years apart as the time she needed to grow up.