Mate

Kiki

—-

I stared at him, disbelief turning into something colder.

“So you don’t want me,” I said quietly. “You just need me to save your image.”

“No,” he whispered. “It’s not like that—”

“It’s exactly like that,” i cut in. “I’m not your shield, Dan. I’m not your cover. I’m not your convenient wife when your fated mate feels threatened.” It was obvious he wants to use me to protect his fated mate and this fact makes me sick… his beloved isn’t ready to take over the Luna position fully which makes me the only available option.

“Kiki… please,” he begged, voice low, desperate now.

I stepped back, spine straight.

“Don’t beg me. Don’t call me baby. Don’t ask me to save you. You didn’t save me.”

He flinched, and silence fell between them, thick and heavy.

I stared at him while he kept begging, his voice dropping lower each time, his hands shaking a little like he finally understood I was done with him. He kept promising anything I wanted, anything I asked, anything that would keep this moment from exploding in his face. I felt exhausted watching him crumble but I also knew this mess would turn into something bigger if I refused him now, and I honestly did not have the energy for another war.

I sighed and looked away.

“Fine. I will play along just for today. After this, you keep your promise.”

His shoulders dropped in relief and he tried to step closer again, but I raised my hand.

“Do not touch me. Leave. I will come downstairs in a few minutes.”

He nodded fast, too fast, almost tripping over himself as he backed up.

“Thank you. I swear I will do anything you ask. Anything. Just come down when you are ready.”

“Leave, Dan,” I repeated.

He left the room like a man running from a fire. He makes me wonder… who has he become becausehe’s nothing like the man I left my whole life to spend eternity with… does the bond change people so fast into a whole new person.

I stood there for a moment, breathing through everything that felt like it was crushing me. My babies. My home. My future. All turned into a broken thing because everyone decided my pain was a lie. I wiped my face even though the tears kept trying to escape again. I forced myself to dress well and pull my hair back so they would not see weakness dripping off me. I did not owe anyone my pain.

When I stepped into the hallway, the noise of deep voices rolled upward from below, loud and full of authority. I moved down the stairs slowly, gripping the railing because my body still hurt from everything it had lost. Before they even saw me, I heard Dan’s voice carrying across the living room.

“My wife will be down in a few minutes. She is weak right now because she just lost our babies.”

I stopped on the last step, my jaw tightening so hard it hurt.

In my mind I whispered, what a perfect double standard. The same man who refused to believe I had been pregnant, who called my pain an act, who let his mother call my dead children a lie, now stood there using my loss as a pretty speech to gain sympathy and respect.

He did not believe my babies existed, yet here he was selling the tragedy like it belonged to him.

I took another breath, straightened my shoulders, and kept walking.

The moment I reached the bottom of the stairs, a scent hit me so hard I almost staggered. It rolled through the room in a warm rush, deep and intoxicating, the kind of scent that wrapped itself around my senses before I could even think. It felt like stepping into sunlight after being trapped in darkness for years. My body reacted before my mind did, and then something inside me snapped awake with a force that shook me.

For the first time in my entire life, my wolf spoke.

She did not whisper. She screamed.

Mate.

The word tore through my head so loud I almost grabbed the wall. I blinked fast because what the actual hell was happening. My wolf had never said a single thing since I was born, not even a growl, not even a breath. Now she was roaring one word over and over until I felt dizzy.

I barely got the chance to breathe before an arm slid around my waist. Strong. Firm. Confident like it had every right to touch me.

The pull was instinctive and I found myself stepping forward even though my mind was still spinning.

Dan’s voice rose behind me like a bad echo.

“Meet my beautiful Luna.”

His hand tightened on my waist as he drew me closer to his side, lifting my left hand like he was presenting a trophy to the room. My wolf snarled inside me and tried to tear free because the touch felt wrong. Every inch of me wanted his hand off my body. Every part of me wanted to move toward the scent that had taken over the room.

I forced myself to look up because I needed to know where that scent came from.

And then I saw him.

The man standing directly across from me made the entire room fade. His presence filled the space without even trying, tall and broad with a posture that showed power he had never needed to announce. His eyes locked onto mine the moment I met them, dark and bright at the same time, warm yet dangerous, a storm wrapped in something I could not name. His face was carved with a kind of beauty that felt unreal. Not soft. Not delicate. Stunning in the way that made the world fall silent.

His breath caught.

Mine disappeared.

He stared at me like he had just found something he had been searching for all his life. The air between us tightened until I felt it in my bones.

Dan kept talking to the elders but the words faded like mist. All I could hear was the steady thrum of my wolf demanding to go to him.

The man took one slow step forward.

Another.

His gaze never left mine.

Dan’s arm clamped tighter around my waist as if he sensed something he could not understand.

The man’s jaw flexed as he looked at Dan’s hand, and his eyes darkened with a fury that made the air feel electric.