“Yes, we will provide you with the location, and you will bring her to the island. For reference…” Father is about to breathe life into the Cube when I clear my throat to draw his attention toward me.

I know what comes next. They’ll pull up the human woman’s details on the Cube, flaunt her desirable qualities as if they’re selling an item, then hand me a photograph as if I’m meant to fall in love with a picture.

I’m not ready to go down that road. At least I have one more night to swallow this tough pill and bury my true feelings forever. At least, for one more night, I can dream about the human who haunts my desires before her image is tainted by another.

Lifting a dismissive hand, I rise to the sound of the screeching of the chair’s feet against the tiles. “That’s not necessary. I don’t need to know what she looks like or who she is. It’s not like I want to form a predetermined idea about the human who’s been chosen as my mate.”

I’ll meet her, appease her accordingly, and get from it what the clan needs. It’s as simple as that.

It’s not that taking a human as a mate is my foe. It’s time that’s become my enemy. The time I thought I had when Draco picked me as the Beta and passed the human mating process torch to our younger brother, Aragon. Luck had been on my side, but I didn’t utilize it well enough.

I only have myself to blame.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare my quarters for the arrival of my mate,” I bid kindly with a curt nod.

“Of course, Felix,” Father agrees.

None of the Council members catch onto the gloominess hanging over my head as I drag my feet out of the room.

It’s not the quarters I need to prepare but my mental state. Tonight, I will say goodbye to the memory of the woman who captured my heart as I embark on this next chapter of my life.

Even if it pains me to do so.

Chapter 2 - Sierra

“Peace… Peace… Peace…” I take a deep breath in while mentally chanting the single word, a mantra to draw peace to my mind, body, and soul.

The scent of sage wafts into my lungs, the calmness I seek washing over me as I take this moment for myself. I bring my hands together to give gratitude before resting them on my knees with my legs folded on the ground. My morning kicks off with positivity flooding through me and pushing away any negative thoughts and emotions from the night before.

God knows there’s been a lot of that lately, and I’m the only one who can clear my energetic field before embarking on my day.

When I feel more positive than I did last night, I center my breathing again and open my eyes. There’s nothing like the rejuvenation of a meditation to clear out those intrusive thoughts. Even if I wish, I wouldn’t have them altogether.

Unfolding my legs and getting to my feet, I pad across the carpeted floor toward the front door. Though the yoga studio is only a few months old, it’s garnered enough feet to keep the place afloat and pay for the little luxuries I enjoy.

As I greet my clients at the door, I can’t help but be grateful for the heartbreak I’d suffered a few years ago. As a struggling young woman on the brink of a mental breakdown, it had taken someone building me up and then breaking me down again for me to finally chase my dreams. I’d achieved those dreams and a hefty slice of inner peace when I qualified as a yoga instructor and opened my own studio.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. The roadbumps come in the form of memories of the only man I’d given my heart to. When those memories surface, I have to remind myself that I’ve come a long way. After all, it’s just a man who broke me, which in turn led to me finding myself and my true purpose in life.

It’s not like he’d been the only man who broke me. All my life, I’d suffered at the hands of my father’s brutal words, his taunting remarks about my weight, and his determination to have me follow in his footsteps.

At my most vulnerable point in life, I opened up my heart to a man who didn’t hurt me with words. Instead, he broke me to pieces with his rejection and abandonment, leaving me to pick up the pieces over the course of the last few years. Lifting my lips into a smile, my heart swells with pride when I look at the almost-full room.

I guess all my pain and suffering was worth it in the end.

“Good morning, ladies,” I greet my fellow peace-seekers as I stand in front of the room. “We’ll begin at the top of the mat, inhaling our hands above our heads.”

I take a deep breath as the ladies who’ve signed up for morning classes at the studio do the same. The inner zen I feel is worth every ounce of the suffering and challenges I’d faced—even if it was at the hands of my own father and the only man I’ve ever loved.

Men…

Who would have thought that they’d be the ones who pushed me toward my true calling?

The best part of it all?

I don’t feel the need to have another man in my life. I am way too empowered now to take on another man’s traumas and make them my own.

“... Exhale and get into downward dog position,” I instruct as I plant my rear toward the air, head directed at the yoga mat. “And inhale as you come into cobra.”