Alpha’s Forbidden Mate

The forest always felt different at night—but tonight, it felt alive.

Carolina pressed her palm against the cool glass of her bedroom window, staring out into the tree line that bordered her family’s land. The wind whispered through the branches like it was trying to tell her something… something just out of reach.

Or maybe that was just her nerves.

Tomorrow, everything would change.

“Carolina!” her mother’s voice called from downstairs. “You better not be sneaking out again!”

Carolina smirked faintly, pushing away from the window. “Not tonight,” she muttered under her breath.

Not the night before her eighteenth birthday.

Not the night before she got her wolf.

Across town, Xander Hale stood at the edge of the training grounds, fists clenched at his sides.

“You’re distracted,” his father said sharply.

Xander didn’t turn. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” Alpha Marcus Hale corrected, his voice carrying the weight of authority that made even seasoned wolves step back. “And tomorrow, ‘fine’ won’t be enough.”

Xander exhaled slowly, forcing his jaw to unclench.

Tomorrow.

The word echoed in his head like a challenge.

Every werewolf in the pack received their wolf at eighteen—but Xander wasn’t just any wolf. He was the Alpha’s son. The future Alpha.

Expectations had followed him his entire life, but lately… they felt heavier.

Because lately, something felt off.

Restless.

Like something—or someone—was coming.

Carolina lay awake long after the house had gone quiet.

Her heart wouldn’t settle.

Her skin tingled like electricity was humming just beneath it, and every sound outside seemed amplified—the rustle of leaves, the snap of a twig, the distant call of an owl.

It was starting.

Her wolf.

Even before the shift, you could feel it coming. Everyone said so.

But no one talked about how overwhelming it was.

She sat up suddenly, her breath catching.

There it was again.

A pull.

Not toward the forest.

Toward something else.

Someone else.

“Okay,” she whispered, swinging her legs off the bed. “That’s new.”

Xander felt it at the exact same moment.

A sharp, sudden tug in his chest.

He doubled over slightly, gripping his shirt.

“What the—”

It wasn’t pain.

It was… recognition.

His wolf—still dormant but stirring—reacted instantly, pushing forward like it had been waiting for this moment.

For her.

Xander’s head snapped toward the tree line.

“Who are you?” he murmured.

Carolina didn’t remember leaving the house.

One minute she was in her room.

The next, she was barefoot in the grass, the cool earth grounding her as she moved toward the woods like she was being called.

This wasn’t normal.

This wasn’t supposed to happen until after the shift.

But something inside her—something wild and newly awake—didn’t care about rules.

The deeper she went into the forest, the stronger the pull became.

Until—

She stopped.

Someone else was there.

Xander stepped out from the shadows at the same time she did.

They froze.

For a moment, the world went completely silent.

No wind.

No insects.

No sound at all.

Just them.

Carolina’s breath caught as her eyes locked onto his.

Dark. Intense. Familiar in a way that made her chest tighten.

Xander felt it slam into him like a force he couldn’t fight.

His wolf surged forward, not with aggression—

But with certainty.

Mine.

The word echoed in his mind, powerful and undeniable.

Carolina’s heart raced, her instincts screaming something she didn’t fully understand yet—but it felt just as strong.

Just as inevitable.

“What is this?” she whispered.

Xander took a step closer, his voice low and steady despite the storm inside him.

“I think…” he said slowly, eyes never leaving hers,

“…this is something that’s not supposed to happen until tomorrow.”

The air between them crackled.

Electric.

Dangerous.

Fated.

And neither of them knew yet…

That tomorrow wouldn’t just give them their wolves.

It would change everything they thought they knew about themselves, their pack—

And each other.