The Truth He Shouldn’t Know

For a moment, everything in the room went silent—so silent I could hear the wild beating of my own heart.

Mate.

He’d said it so easily.

Like the word wasn’t capable of tearing my entire life apart.

My aunt was the first to move. She stepped between Justin and me, her voice trembling.

“She’s human. Aria is human. You must be mistaken.”

Justin’s gaze sharpened on her like a blade. “I don’t make mistakes.”

His eyes slid back to me, and something in them softened—something too fierce, too intense, too claiming.

“She’s mine. Every instinct I have tells me so. The bond doesn’t lie.”

My pulse stumbled painfully. “Stop saying that.”

“I can’t,” he said simply. “Because it’s true.”

I backed up until my spine hit the wall. “You don’t know me.”

He took one slow step toward me. “I know enough.”

Aunt Mila  exhaled shakily. “Alpha… please. Aria has lived with me her whole life. She has no wolf in her. No traces, no signs”

“But I felt her,” he said, voice low and definite. “Last night. When the Blood Moon rose, something in her called out.”

My stomach twisted. “I didn’t call anything.”

“Yes,” he murmured. “You did.”

His gaze swept over me, not lustful not yet but intense, searching, almost reverent.

“I felt your fear,” he said quietly. “Heard your heartbeat. Your presence hit me like a storm.”

He stepped closer. My body tensed.

“And the second I saw you,” he continued, “I knew you were the source of the pull.”

My voice wavered. “A pull toward what?”

His answer was immediate. “Toward you.”

Heat rose to my cheeks despite the fear curling under my ribs.

Justin  took another step, standing close enough for me to feel the warmth radiating off his skin.

“A wolf doesn’t choose his mate,” he said softly. “The bond chooses for him.”

I shook my head. “I’m not Justin , I’m not a wolf.”

For the first time, something unreadable flickered across his eyes.

Sadness.

Anger.

Restraint.

“You’re not human either,” he said finally. “Not fully.”

Aunt Mila tensed behind him.

He noticed.

His eyes darkened. “You knew.”

Her breath caught. “Alpha, I”

“You knew,” he repeated, his voice a dangerous calm that sent chills crawling down my arms.

I turned toward her, heart sinking. “Aunt Mila?”

She closed her eyes. “Aria… please, let me explain”

“No,” Justin said, stepping between us with Alpha authority. “She deserves the truth. All of it.”

The room trembled under the weight of his angercontrolled, cold, but unmistakable.

“A rogue pack has been sniffing around the borders for weeks,” he said. “Searching for someone. Searching for her.”

He jerked his chin toward me.

My aunt’s face went pale.

“They smell something in her blood,” Justin continued. “Something old. Something powerful. Something they want.”

My throat tightened painfully. “Why me? What did I do?”

“You were born,” he said simply.

I stared at him, breath caught in my lungs.

Justin moved to stand directly in front of me again—towering, protective, desperate, like he couldn’t stop himself from being close.

His voice softened, but the obsession underneath it was growing sharper, more dangerous.

“You’re in danger because of what you are,” he murmured. “And I will not let anyone touch you.”

His hand lifted, hesitated then brushed a strand of hair behind my ear with an intimacy that stole my breath.

Aunt Mila gasped softly, but Justin didn’t look away from me.

“You feel it too,” he said quietly. “The pull. The way your heartbeat changes when I’m near.”

I opened my mouth no sound came out.

Because he was right.

A warmth spread through my chest whenever he got too close, like my body recognized something my mind didn’t.

“I won’t lose you,” Justin whispered.

“You don’t even have me,” I said, voice barely a whisper.

He smiled then slow, dark, certain.

“Not yet.”

A shiver ran down my spine.

Then

A sudden crash erupted outside the house. Wood splintered. Something growled low, vicious, too close.

Justin’s eyes snapped toward the door, glowing gold, Alpha instinct taking over.

He moved in front of me instantly, body tense, protective, lethal.

“Rogues,” he said, voice dropping into a deadly growl. “They’ve found her.”

My aunt screamed.

Justin  turned his head just enough to speak to me, his voice a promise wrapped in steel.

“Stay behind me, Aria. I’ll kill every last one of them before they lay a finger on you.”