Parents shouldn’t get to name their babies at birth. They should have to wait until their child is older and can show you their true personality. For example, my name is Rebel Sterling and I am anything but a rebel.
Little did I know I was fated with my name just as I was fated to a mate I never asked for.
I grew up in a normal town with a normal mother and a normal routine. My life was boring in the best way. School buses, homework, and summer jobs. My mom worked hard to provide for me and make sure I had everything I needed.
Where my friends were sneaking out for parties in the wild, I was color coding my planner and organizing my sock drawer. I did everything I could to fit in. Perfect grades, yearbook club, plain makeup and average clothes.
I didn’t want to stand out, even though the deep amethyst purple of my iris threatened to expose how different I truly was. I hid my secret behind dark brown contacts and avoided being around anyone in the dark when they glowed the brightest.
My father was some billionaire king that lived in the city. My mother had been his mistress and after I was born, she hid us away in the small town where nothing remarkable ever happened.
My biggest worries were math tests and whether my crush would text me back. That is, until my eighteenth birthday.
My mother had warned me that my father would come for me, that my birthright would take me away from my ordinary life.
She wouldn’t tell me what that meant and I didn’t ask. My eyes were sign enough that there were things I didn’t understand about myself, but they were also the reason I craved to have the most normal life I could. I didn’t want to be different, I just wanted to be like everyone else.
The day of my birthday was wrought with worry. My mother had a cupcake with a candle ready for me at breakfast accompanied by a scared gleam in her eyes. We didn’t talk about what today meant.
I had never met my father. I didn’t even know what he looked like. All that my mother would tell me is that he was dangerous and powerful. There was a reason we were in hiding and, with the day looming over our shoulders like a dark cloud, she hoped everything we’d done to be invisible to the outside world would protect me from him.
However, the pull of whatever power lit up my eyes was too great for our efforts and as soon as I walked through my front door after school, I could tell by the look on my mom’s face that something was wrong.
She greeted me with a fake smile, asking how my day went. She handed me a small box with a bow that contained a star and moon locket before guiding me to the kitchen where she said a special guest was waiting. I didn’t need to ask to know it was my father. I could feel his presence as soon as I stepped foot off the school bus.
I thought about running before I walked up to my house, but I knew it wouldn’t have worked. If he found me here, he could find me anywhere.
When I walked into the kitchen, I saw him sitting at the table my mother and I shared every meal together. His back was straight and his suit was expensive. He looked to be quite a bit older than my mother and I wondered how they were ever together.
"Rebel Sterling?" He asked in an authoritative tone that sounded like he was born a boss. He didn’t need to ask my name, he already knew who I was. His eyes matched mine even with the contacts shading my eyes true color, though his radiated with a deep sapphire. He waited, as though needing confirmation before he could proceed.
I nodded, my mother frozen by my side. "Out loud," he commanded. "Yes," I said weakly, and he waited again, giving me a look that made me shrink.
"Yes, I am Rebel Sterling." Pleased, he pulled a paper from his suit jacket and laid it out on the table, then gestured for me to sit.
Following orders, I took my seat across from him, trying to look as small as possible. I understand now why we ran, why my mother wouldn’t talk about him. His presence scared me deep within my bones, in an unsettling way that made me fear ever disobeying him.
"This is a contract stating that, as your father, I have the right to assign you to a mate of my choosing. As a blood right, you have no say in the matter and you are required by the Lunar Laws to obey. Pack your bags and say your goodbyes."
I sat motionless, I had no idea what he was talking about. I looked at my mother who was standing in the corner with her eyes fixed on the floor. Unsure how to respond, I pulled the contract over to me and read over its contents.
An insignia blossomed across the top of the page and the rest appeared to be normal contract terminology but with terms that looked like they were from a fantasy.
By the authority of the Lunar Laws,
Magnus Sterling of the High Sovereign Line
Hereby binds and surrenders his authority over his firstborn daughter, Rebel Sterling of the High Sovereign Sterling Line
To Alpha King Grayson Bale of the Obsidian Syndicate
This union will be sealed in blood and law, irrevocable after the subject’s eighteenth cycle and upon completion of the Binding Rite.
Thereafter, all rights shall rest solely with the signee unless death or decree under Lunar Laws adjutication is given.
I wondered what the High Sovereign Line was and more importantly who this Grayson was that I was now promised to when my father snatched the contract from my hands.
Slamming it back down on the table, he produced a pen. "You don’t need to know what it says, you have no rights here. Sign it."
Looking to my mother, she quietly whispered, "Just do it, honey." Scared and hurt by my mother’s reaction, I took the pen and signed my name, not knowing what I was agreeing to.
We retreated upstairs where my mother helped me pack, silently crying as she did so. "Will I ever see you again?" I asked her.
"I don’t know." Her voice weak and defeated.
I suddenly felt like my entire life had been meaningless, like everything I had been trying to do was useless and I was doomed to the wrath of my father, or even more terrifying, to this Grayson Bale.
"Where am I going?" My mother was sitting on my bed weeping now, "I don’t know." Her dark silky hair covered her face as she cried, the same hair that I inherited. I wanted to memorize what she was like because I also, didn’t know if I would ever see her again.
When it was time for me to go, I felt it rather than heard my father say it. A pull took over my body and my legs felt restless in a way that only moving in the right direction would ease. I met him in the living room, suitcase in hand, and hugged my mother goodbye.
I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye to my friends. None were super close to me, but I had known them my whole life and I felt sad to just disappear on my birthday of all days. I wondered what my mother would tell people had happened to me.
The waiting car was too fancy for this town, and it carried its own driver and security. The men didn’t make eye contact with either of us and no one spoke a word as we drove off. In the car, my father asked for my phone.
"You won’t be needing this where you’re going." He said as I handed it over. He tucked it into the inside of his shirt pocket and leaned back in his seat, staring out the window.
I felt naked without my phone. I stared out the window too, bored without any electronic entertainment.
After we had been on the road for a while, I finally gathered the courage to ask where we were going, "Will I be staying with you at your house?" He scoffed as though it were an insult to even suggest it.
"I’m dropping you off at the airport with one of my men to see you to your new mate. I wouldn’t stain my walls with the scent of a whore’s daughter like you."
Taken aback by his coarse words. I recoiled into my seat, set on remaining silent until we reached our destination, happy to be rid of him too.
There were no sweet goodbyes at the airport, no father wishing his daughter good luck on her new adventure.
I stood at the gate, holding my mother’s birthday locket in my hands as my father gave his final warning. "Do not disappoint me. If you do, I will deal with you. Permanently."
I flinched inwardly, staring at the scuff on his perfect shoes. I nodded and his guard took me by the arm to guide me to my flight.
Once boarded, a relief flushed over me. I didn’t know if the Alpha King would be any better than my father, but I was still happy to have his power over me vanish. I felt like I had just stepped into a different world. I’d never even been on a plane and now I was on my way to whatever an Alpha King was.
The flight took too long but not long enough for the time the sun started to rise as we landed. I eagerly watched the changing landscapes before we finally arrived. I had never dreamed of visiting Britain, but now it was supposed to be home. If Grayson was a king here, then would that make me a European queen? Would I have royal subjects and crown jewels?
After another long drive, we neared a castle-like dark stone manor surrounded by smaller lodges. Rolling green hills in every direction and pristine stone walls closing it in. Sheep roamed free along the land and a mist clung to the ground like smoke.
The moment we crossed the large and intricate iron gates that allowed us entrance, I instantly felt that same pull that my father commanded, not knowing who it could be for now.