He Told Me to Swim, I Bought the Island

My mate, Alpha Aidan, promised me a yacht for my birthday.

Instead, he gave it to another she-wolf.

"Diana, we're on Cradle Island waiting for you. Why are you so late?"

"The yacht's full. Just swim over."

He wanted me to swim like a dog begging for scraps.

He thought he was punishing the weak she-wolf he found on the battlefield.

I contacted my father.

"Dad, I've decided on my birthday present this year.”

“I want you to buy me Cradle Island."

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1

Tonight was my birthday.

Aidan Amberwood once promised me, “I’ll throw you a grand birthday party. I even commissioned a custom yacht just for you.”

“Let’s call it Diana’s Grace,” he’d whispered, “because my Diana will always be my guiding moonlight.”

I had waited so long for this day, waiting for him to unveil it tonight.

The time Aidan promised to pick me up came and went, but he never appeared. He wasn’t answering my mind-links, either.

Just then, a vibration buzzed through my mind. It was the Pack-Link—a gift from Aidan on my last birthday, connecting me to every member of his pack. Right now, it was boiling over with activity.

Someone shared an image: a brand-new yacht docked at a pier. Painted on its hull was a name in the Old Tongue: Jasmine.

There was a moving image, too. He and a woman with shoulder-length hair were embracing on the deck of the yacht, popping a bottle of champagne against its bow in a christening.

The crowd was cheering, “Mark her, mark her!”

The image froze the moment the woman named Jasmine pressed her lips to Aidan's, searing itself into my mind forever.

The mental blow staggered me. I wanted to scream into the link, but I couldn't form a coherent thought. My knees buckled. I reached for a nearby rock to steady myself, but the psychic tremors from the Pack-Link made my fingertips go numb.

Just then, a private mind-link from Aidan came through. “Diana, Jasmine and the others have gone ahead to Cradle Island to prepare for your birthday party. The whole Pack is here, so it’s too late to come back and get you. Can you make your own way to the island in a little while?”

My voice was numb, not sounding like my own. “Aidan, didn’t you say you would come for me on the new yacht? Weren't you waiting for me to be there for its maiden voyage?”

He paused, his voice deepening slightly. “Diana, it’s a minor thing. When we were naming the yacht, everyone felt ‘Diana’s Grace’ didn’t quite fit. They thought ‘Jasmine’s Dream’ was a better match for its aura, so we settled on that.”

“It’s just a name. Whatever it’s called, it’s still my birthday gift to you. It’s still your yacht.”

A lump formed in my throat. Jasmine was Aidan’s one that got away—a violinist from a declining clan who had been traveling abroad for years. She had only been back for a few months but had already turned my relationship with Aidan into a complete mess.

Jasmine's cloyingly sweet thoughts chimed in. “Oh, I hope Diana hasn’t misunderstood. I told you all not to name the yacht after me. It would make her unhappy. You just had to play this little prank.”