Mate.
My hand stilled midair, the dagger hovering inches from my chest, my grip slackening as if the air had been pulled from my lungs. I blinked once. Twice. But the monster looming above didn’t disappear.
Neither did the word.
Mate.
I’d never heard anything sound more terrifying.
It wasn’t just the way he said it—low and filled with emotions, like it ca from sowhere deeper than language. That was what ca after. The silence that pressed against my ears, the tremble in my fingers that didn’t co from fear this ti. The word didn’t echo aloud again.
But the sa word repeated in my head, like confirming that it was all real. Like a secret my body had known long before my mind could na it.
Mate.
I swallowed hard, but the taste of blood and dirt clung to my tongue. My thoughts scattered, trying to make sense of what had just happened and what was still happening. I knew the voice that answered from inside ; it was not my wolf...it was my own.
The wolf lood over , chest heaving as if the weight of the forest pressed down on him too. His breath ca hot against my skin, stirring the dirt and leaves between us.
He didn’t move at first. Just stood there, massive and silent, his claws sunk deep into the soil on either side of my head. The weight of him kept pinned to the cold earth, and I could feel every shift in his body, every ragged breath that scraped through his throat.
Then he lowered his head.
His muzzle brushed against my neck—slowly, deliberately—and I went still. The dagger trembled in my grip, caught between instinct and sothing else I didn’t want to na.
He inhaled, a long, dragging breath that made sothing in my chest curl inward. It wasn’t just that he was scenting . It was the way he did it—slow, careful, like he was trying to morize the pieces of I no longer knew how to hold together.
Then he growled.
A sound that didn’t co from his throat alone but from sowhere deeper.
"Mate."
He said it again like he was savoring the taste of the word on his tongue.
And it sent a ripple through .
Not the kind I expected. But sothing deeper. Like the faint hum of a current slipping beneath the surface of my skin.
His nose brushed against my collarbone, and I felt it—that jolt. That strange spark where his touch t my flesh.
He nosed along my throat again, pressing into the space between my shoulder and collarbone, breathing in like I was sothing holy.
And still... all I felt was dread.
Sothing inside shifted, but not the way they said it would. Even though there was a burst of warmth, there was no sense of safety. Just a hollow ache beneath my ribs.
A part of recognized the word, but not the bond.
Mate, the word tasted wrong in my mouth. Like betrayal.
This wasn’t a fairy tale. This wasn’t fate wrapped in warmth and comfort.
This was the sa man who had turned his back when I needed soone most. The sa man who dragged down and marked like an animal made his property.
The sa man who was silent when I was dragged to the warriors quarters, and now he was telling that I am his mate.
I tightened my grip on the dagger, but he was too focused on my scent that he did not even notice the dagger clutched in my hand.
He pressed closer, caught in so haze of instinct. His snout brushed my jaw. But it only made more disgusted. As the shock of the word mate faded, my senses ca back.
"Get off ," I said with my shaking voice.
He didn’t move. So I scread at the top of my lungs.
"Get OFF ! YOU Bastard!"
The words tore from my throat like sothing broken loose. I kicked, shoved, and struggled against his weight. But he didn’t flinch.
"I hate you," I said, my voice shaking with each breath. "I hate all of you. You ruined ."
He was still now. Just watching and listening.
"And now you’re here?" I asked. "Saying that word? Like it ans sothing?"
I blinked, and tears slipped down my face.
"You saw," I whispered. "You knew what they would do with , but you turned away."
My throat burned. The words were harder now.
"You let them—" I stopped. Swallowed. Couldn’t finish.
So I scread again. Louder this ti. Wordless. Angry. Broken.
I slamd my fists into his chest, again and again, to make him feel sothing. feel the pain and helpless I have felt.
"You don’t get to call that," I said, quieter now. "You don’t get to have ."
His breathing shifted. And I heard a low whimper escaping his throat...he recoiled at my words like I had said sothing that had hurt him. He still thinks that I have no right to say that.
Tears escaped my eyes. How pathetic I am—to be mated to the very monsters who ruined , who humiliated at every turn. What kind of sick ga is this?
It seems the Moon Goddess is still not satisfied with my agony, that she actually mated to him. How could she? Now I hated her too. After all, are we not all her children? How could she let her own child be abused like this?
But it didn’t matter. I refused to follow the fate she has chosen for .
"I’d rather die than be your mate." The words left my mouth with so much hatred, it didn’t even shock —because it ca from the anger I had silently swallowed for days, born from abuse and humiliation.
I lifted the dagger and turned it—not toward him, but toward myself. Pressed the tip to the soft skin of my throat.
His eyes went wide. He growled with warning at my face... I could feel the shock and hurt behind his eyes.
I didn’t move the blade away.
"You want to claim ?" I hissed through gritted teeth, my voice shaking but firm. "Then watch leave you behind—with the blood of your dead mate."
His eyes widened in an instant, horror flashing across his face as the tip of the dagger pressed into my skin, drawing the first line of blood.
"No!" he gasped, his voice cracking as panic surged through him.
In a blink, his massive wolf form shimred and shifted. Bones snapped and reford, fur receding, until he stood before in his human skin—bare, desperate, and breathless. It didn’t even take seconds before he lunged forward, arms outstretched to stop .
"Don’t—please!" He shouted with a pained voice. "Don’t do this!"
But it wasn’t he was trying to save. It was her. His mate.
A bitter laugh broke from my lips. Of course. I knew this would work. I knew the threat of death would drag the human out of the wolf. Not because he cared about —but because he couldn’t bear the thought of losing what was his.
But I wasn’t done. I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t so fragile thing that would crumble at the sight of his panic.
So when he stepped closer, hand reaching for mine with pleading eyes, I didn’t flinch.
Instead, I drove the dagger forward—straight into his chest, just inches away from the frantic beat of his heart.
His mouth fell open in shock, a strangled sound leaving his throat like he could not believe what I did to him.
I t his gaze with a cold voice. "I told you, you don’t get to have ."
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