Mated to a Heart I Can’t Claim

Here I was, years after graduation, at an alumni party, listening to everyone gossip about my mate and his old flame.

The party was winding down. The air still buzzed with forced laughter and the scent of champagne.

I hid in the shadows of the balcony, listening to their whispers.

"Did you see Alpha Caspen's face when Victoria made that toast? The look in his eyes…"

"They were the perfect couple back then. A pureblood princess and the most powerful Alpha of their generation. A match made in heaven."

"Alpha Caspen hasn't gotten close to any she-wolf for years, except for pack business. I knew it. He was waiting for her!"

And me?

What was I? A consolation prize from the Fates?

I slipped away unnoticed and went back to the apartment we shared.

Late that night, Caspen came home, smelling of the cold and whiskey. He went straight to the shower.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

I opened it to a messenger in the Sterling family livery.

He shot me a condescending glance, handed over an exquisite wooden box, and left without a word.

My fingers trembled as I unlatched the lid.

A handkerchief lay inside.

The scent of irises hit me instantly. Victoria's signature.

Beneath the handkerchief was a card. The handwriting was bold and flamboyant.

"Cas, I'm back."

Cas.

My breath caught. It felt like an invisible hand had closed around my heart and squeezed.

Everyone in our pack—in the entire Alliance—called him Alpha Caspen. It was a sign of respect. A demand.

I was the only one allowed to call him "Caspen."

Only Victoria.

Only she dared to use that intimate nickname, to cross all his defenses so easily.

I crushed the card in my fist.

When I walked into the bedroom, Caspen was already in bed, asleep.

I slid under the covers, my body stiff.

A second later, his hot body pressed against mine.

Caspen's strong arms wrapped around my waist out of habit, pulling me tight against his chest.

This used to soothe my insecure soul.

But tonight, the scent of irises clinging to me filled the air.

Caspen didn't wake, but his breathing unconsciously grew heavier.

The mate mark on my neck burned, not with warmth, but with ice. A cold so deep it made me shudder.

He was holding me, but was his wolf responding to another woman's scent?

My face was pale. My gaze drifted over his broad shoulder to the half-open door of his study.

Moonlight fell on the personal safe in the corner.

The code was 1029.

Right after we were mated, I'd accidentally seen him enter it.

That was the day our mate bond had awakened.

I'd been so naive. I thought it was his clumsy way of being romantic.

I had secretly blushed, filled with a joy that lasted a whole year.

Until one day, while organizing the pack's most classified files, I saw Victoria's profile.

October 29th.

That was her birthday.

I stared at that impenetrable safe for a full two minutes.

My eyes ached, but I couldn't shed a single tear.

I hung my head, finally giving up on lying to myself.

Memories of the past shot through me like poison-tipped arrows.

I remembered the Blood Moon at the academy. The night Caspen first transformed into his Alpha form.

In front of the entire school, he'd torn the still-bloody Alpha fang from his own neck. Then, with a possessive grin, he'd hung it around Victoria's.

It was the symbol of his power. He let her wear it, a blatant display of his favor to the whole world.

And now?

Caspen never let me touch any of his personal things.

"Don't touch my desk."

"Stay out of my study."

Those cold warnings… I used to think he was just fiercely territorial.

No, he was just guarding his territory for someone else.

The smell of irises on the handkerchief wrapped around me like a snake, tightening its grip on my throat.

I lay awake all night.

I lay there, hopeless, and watched the darkness bleed into dawn.

Until dawn, when Caspen woke up.