The Heir He Denied

The champagne tray in my hands felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. My arms trembled under the strain but I forced myself to keep moving through the crowded ballroom of the Blackwood Estate.

Tonight was the most critical night in the history of the local business world and the pack. It was the night Damon Blackwood turned twenty one. It was the night he would officially take over as CEO of Blackwood Tech and assume the title of Alpha from his father.

Most importantly to the hundreds of women in designer gowns crowding the room, it was the night he would likely find his fated mate.

I adjusted my grip on the cold metal handles. Through the floor to ceiling glass windows, the glittering skyline of the city looked miles away. It was a reminder of where I belonged. Out there. In the shadows. Not in here with the elite.

"Watch it," a sharp voice hissed near my ear.

I stumbled and nearly dropped the expensive crystal flutes. Tiffany, the daughter of the Pack Beta, shoved past me. She held a smartphone in one hand and a martini in the other. Her red silk dress cost more than I would earn in ten years of cleaning this mansion.

"Sorry Tiffany," I whispered and kept my head bowed.

"It is Luna Tiffany to you," she sneered. She checked her reflection in her phone screen. "Or it will be soon. Damon is going to pick me tonight. We are the perfect power couple."

She strutted away on her Louboutin heels. I held my breath to keep from coughing at her expensive perfume. Tiffany had been proclaiming herself the future Luna since high school. The sad part was that the media and the pack believed her. She was a model. She was rich. She was popular.

Me? I was Aria. The orphan. The maid who lived in the servants' quarters. The girl who had not shifted by her eighteenth birthday. I was simply defective.

I moved toward the edge of the room. My eyes scanned the crowd despite my better judgment.

Damon stood near the grand staircase. He looked like he had just stepped out of a GQ magazine. He held a glass of dark amber whiskey. He was laughing at something his CFO was saying. Even from across the room the power radiating off him was suffocating. He was tall with broad shoulders that strained against his bespoke Italian tuxedo. His hair was the color of midnight and his eyes were steel grey.

He looked like a king of the modern world.

A dull ache settled in my chest. I had loved Damon since I was twelve years old. That was back before my parents died in the car crash and I was demoted to the staff. He used to be kind. But money and power do strange things to people. As he grew into his role as a tech mogul and Alpha, he became colder. Harder.

"Aria," the Head of