How I Met My Mates

The Moon Goddess must have a sick, twisted sense of humor.

I stood in the dead center of the sacred mating circle, my heart hammering so violently against my ribs that I was certain the entire pack could hear it. 

Above us, the full moon hung heavy and swollen, bathing the clearing in a suffocating silver light. Hundreds of eyes locked onto me. 

Some held a flicker of pity, but most were dripping with cold, naked mockery.

And then, there was him.

Ryker Blackthorn. Alpha Prince of the Icefang Pack and the undisputed golden boy of our world. He was towering, devastatingly handsome, and entirely untouchable.

He was also my fated mate.

The cosmic bond had snapped into place the exact moment our eyes met three months ago during the Solstice festival. 

I’d felt it like a bolt of pure lightning rushing through my veins—an undeniable, soul-deep pull that made my inner wolf howl with a joy she had never known. 

For the first time in my life, I believed that someone might actually see me. Really see me. Not just as the quiet, curvy, plus-size Omega girl who was always pushed into the shadows, but as someone worthy of love.

Tonight was supposed to be the night he claimed me before the pack. Tonight was supposed to be my fairy tale.

Instead, Ryker stood before me in his tailored black suit, looking like an ancient war god, his handsome face carved from stone. 

When he spoke, the words that came out of his mouth didn't just break my heart—they shattered my entire existence.

"I, Ryker Blackthorn, Alpha Prince of the Icefang Pack… reject you, Elara Voss, as my fated mate."

The words sliced through the air. The fated bond, which had been a warm, glowing thread tethering our souls, snapped like a whip.

Crack!

An agonizing, white-hot pain exploded in my chest. It felt as if someone had plunged a frozen blade directly into my heart and twisted it. My lungs seized.

 I gasped for air, my hands clawing at the fabric of my emerald-green dress as my knees buckled. I barely kept myself upright, my nails digging into my palms until I drew blood just to anchor myself against the physical agony.

Laughter, cruel and unrestrained, erupted from the crowd.

"Did he really just reject the fat Omega?" a high-ranking pack member whispered loudly, not even bothering to hide his smirk.

"Look at her. She actually thought the alpha would want a soft, useless thing like her to rule beside him."

Ryker’s icy blue eyes never wavered. There was no warmth in them, no shared history, only a chilling, calculated disgust.

 "You are weak, Elara. You are too fat. You have no powerful lineage, and your wolf can barely shift. A true Alpha needs a Luna who commands respect, not someone who makes him a laughingstock. You would only drag me down with that big body of yours."

The tears burned hot behind my eyelids, but I clamped my jaw shut, swallowing the sob rising in my throat. I refused to let them see me cry. I refused to give him the satisfaction of my tears.

I forced my chin up, even as my inner wolf whimpered in absolute, soul-crushing agony inside my mind. "Is that all, Alpha Prince?"

Ryker’s jaw clenched. For a fraction of a second, a shadow of something resembling guilt flickered across his perfect features—but it was gone before I could even register it, replaced by a wall of absolute indifference.

"Yes," he said coldly. "The bond is severed. You are dismissed."

But the nightmare wasn’t over.

Before I could even turn to run, a slender, striking figure stepped out from the front row of the crowd. It was Cynthia. My stepsister.

She was everything I was not: tall, gracefully thin, with platinum-blonde hair that fell to her waist and a sparkling, manipulative smile that the pack adored. She wore a skin-tight silver gown that left very little to the imagination.

"Oh, Ryker," Cynthia cooed, her voice dripping with sweet poison as she glided toward him. She didn't look at me, but the triumph radiating off her was suffocating. "You made the right choice. Our pack deserves a strong, beautiful Luna. One who can actually run with the hunters."

Ryker turned to her, and the coldness in his face instantly melted into something sweet and passionate. He reached out, wrapping a possessive hand around Cynthia’s slim waist and pulling her flush against his chest.

"And I have chosen my true Luna," Ryker announced, his voice booming through the clearing, amplified by his Alpha aura. "Cynthia Voss will stand by my side. I accept her as my chosen mate."

The pack erupted into deafening cheers and applause.

My heart didn't just break; it turned to ash. My wolf whimpers in my head. My own stepsister—the one who had spent years making my life a living hell behind closed doors—was stepping into the life that the moon goddess had promised to me. And Ryker was holding her as if she were the only woman in the universe.

Cynthia threw her head back, offering her throat to him, and looked right over his shoulder to lock eyes with me. A slow, vicious, victorious smirk spread across her lips.

I couldn't breathe. The air in my lungs felt like broken glass.

I turned on my heel and walked away. I didn't run—not yet. I kept my back straight, my head held high, forcing my legs to move one agonizing step after another while the whispers of "fat-ass reject" and "pathetic Omega" followed me like physical blows.

The moment the dark canopy of the forest swallowed me, my composure dissolved.

I ran. I sprinted blindly through the thick undergrowth, the branches clawing at my face and tearing the hem of the emerald dress I had spent weeks picking out. I ran until my chest burned and my legs turned to lead. 

Finally, deep in the forbidden territory near the pack borders, I collapsed against the trunk of an ancient oak tree.

I slid down the rough bark, burying my face in my hands, and let the first sob escape. It was a raw, guttural sound of pure grief.

Why wasn't I enough? I cried out to the silent forest. Why did she make me like this if I was only meant to be discarded?

A sudden, sharp rustle in the shadows made my wolf freeze. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

"A beautiful girl shouldn't waste her tears on a boy who is too blind to see her worth," a deep, velvety voice murmured from the darkness.

I gasped, scrambling backward against the tree.

Out from the thick fog stepped a man. He didn't look like any wolf from our pack. He was towering, with broad shoulders clad in a flawlessly tailored black suit that screamed old money, power, and absolute danger. 

His hair was dark as midnight, but it was his eyes that locked me in place—they were a striking, glowing silver, watching me with a predatory intensity that made my breath catch in my throat.

The air around him hummed with a terrifying, suffocating power. He was an Alpha, but his aura was older, darker, and infinitely more dominant than Ryker's.

"Who are you?" I demanded, wiping my tears quickly, trying to summon whatever strength I had left. "This is Icefang territory. You shouldn't be here."

The stranger smiled, a slow, dangerous curve of his lips that sent a shiver straight down my spine.

"My name is Dominic," he said, taking a slow step forward. The scent of rain, cedar, and dark magic filled my senses. "And I go wherever I please, little wolf."

He stopped just inches from me, his towering frame completely eclipsing the moonlight. He looked down at my tear-stained face, his silver eyes tracing the curves of my body with an appreciation that made my skin hot.

"I saw what happened in the circle," Dominic murmured, his voice low and laced with a deadly promise. "I saw how they humiliated you. How they took what was yours."

My chest tightened with renewed pain. "If you came here to mock me too—"

"No," he interrupted softly, tilting my chin up with one warm, calloused finger. The touch sparked like electricity. "I came to offer you a proposition."

“Huh?” I stared at him, my heart hammering for an entirely different reason now. "What kind of proposition?"

Dominic leaned in close, his breath brushing against my ear, sending a thrill of forbidden heat straight down to my thighs.

"Three days of your complete submission," he whispered darkly. "You give yourself to me entirely. Your body, your obedience, your trust. And in return, I will help you destroy Ryker Blackthorn and everyone who laughed at you tonight. I will make them beg on their knees."

My breath hitched. The offer was insane. It was dangerous. But as I pictured Ryker’s cold eyes and Cynthia’s triumphant smirk, a dark, roaring spark of fire ignited in the ashes of my broken heart.

Revenge.

I looked up into the silver eyes of the devil in front of me, and for the first time tonight, a cold, sharp smile touched my lips.

"Deal!"