CHAPTER 3: MATE

LYRA'S POV

The fortress gates open like a mouth swallowing me whole.

Iron groans against iron. Torches flicker on both sides of the entrance, casting orange light across cold stone. The guards push me forward. I stumble on the uneven ground, but no one catches me. No one helps me up.

I am alone.

The courtyard is bigger than I expected. Wolves train with swords in one corner. Others carry supplies across the muddy ground. Everyone moves fast. No one laughs. No one smiles.

There is a heaviness here. A weight in the air that presses against my chest.

The guards lead me past the training yard and into the main building. The hallways are dark and narrow. No windows. Just stone and more stone. The packhouse back home felt warm compared to this. This place feels like a tomb.

"Wait here," a guard says.

He pushes me into a small room. A table. Two chairs. A fireplace that has not been lit in years. The walls are bare except for a single painting, a woman with dark hair and sad eyes. I wonder if she is one of the dead Lunas.

I sit in the corner and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

---

Time moves strangely in that room. Minutes feel like hours. Hours feel like years. I count my heartbeats to stay sane. One hundred. Two hundred. Five hundred.

The door finally opens.

A servant enters with bread and water. She is young, maybe my age, with tired eyes and trembling hands. She sets the food on the table and backs away like I might bite her.

"What is your name?" I ask softly.

She flinches. "I am not allowed to speak to you."

"Why not?"

"The Alpha's orders." She disappears through the door before I can ask anything else.

I stare at the bread. My stomach growls, but I cannot eat. The knot in my throat is too tight.

Everyone here is afraid. Not of me. I am nothing. A servant. A slave. A debt payment.

They are afraid of him.

Alpha Kael.

---

I hear him before I see him.

Boots on stone. Heavy. Slow. Confident. The sound echoes through the hallway like a drumbeat. Other footsteps follow, lighter and faster, but they stay behind. No one walks beside him.

The door opens.

A man enters the room.

And everything inside me stops.

He is tall. Taller than anyone I have ever seen. Broad shoulders. Dark hair that falls across his forehead. A sharp jaw. Lips pressed into a hard line. His eyes are the color of winter storms—gray and cold and endless.

He wears black from head to toe. No decorations. No jewelry. No symbols of power except the way people look at him. Every warrior in the hallway lowered their eyes when he passed. Every servant pressed themselves against the wall.

This is Alpha Kael.

The cursed Alpha.

The man my father sold me to.

He looks at me.

And the world explodes.

---

It starts as a warmth in my chest. Small at first. Like a candle being lit in a dark room. Then it spreads. Down my arms. Up my neck. Through my stomach. My heart pounds so hard I cannot breathe.

My wolf wakes up.

She has been sleeping for years. Quiet. Patient. Waiting. I thought something was wrong with her. I thought the Moon Goddess had forgotten me.

But she was not sleeping.

She was waiting for him.

MATE.

Her voice fills my head like a scream and a song at the same time. She throws herself against my ribs, against my bones, against everything that keeps me in this human shape.

MATE! MATE! MATE!

I gasp. My hands fly to my chest. The room spins. I cannot see anything except him. His face. His eyes. His mouth.

He is mine.

The Moon Goddess gave him to me.

Salvation.

---

I look at his face, waiting for the same recognition. Waiting for his eyes to soften. Waiting for him to smile, to reach for me, to tell me everything will be okay.

His eyes widen. Just a fraction. Just for a second.

I see it. The spark. The pull. The bond snapping into place between us like a chain made of light.

His wolf knows me.

But then—

His face hardens.

The warmth in his eyes dies. The softness disappears. His jaw tightens. His hands curl into fists at his sides. He looks at me like I am a problem. A mistake. A burden he did not ask for.

No.

No, this is wrong.

He is supposed to be happy. He is supposed to save me. He is supposed to take me away from all of this.

Instead, he looks at me like he wants me gone.

---

The silence stretches between us like a blade.

I open my mouth. I do not know what I am going to say. Something stupid, probably. Something desperate.

But he speaks first.

"No."

One word. Quiet. Flat. Final.

My heart shatters.

"No," he says again. Like he is convincing himself. Like he is reminding himself of something important. "This changes nothing."

I shake my head. Tears burn my eyes. "But we are mates. The Moon Goddess—"

"The Moon Goddess does not rule this pack." His voice is ice. "I do."

He turns around.

Just like that.

He turns his back on me and walks toward the door. His boots hit the stone. Each step is a knife in my chest.

"Wait," I whisper. "Please."

He stops. For one terrible moment, I think he might turn around. I think he might change his mind.

He does not.

"You will be given a room," he says without looking at me. "You will not leave it without permission. You will not speak to anyone about what happened here."

"And if I do?"

He looks over his shoulder. His gray eyes meet mine one last time. There is something underneath the coldness. Pain, maybe. Or fear.

But he hides it fast.

"Then I will make sure you regret it."

The door closes behind him.

---

I collapse onto the floor.

My wolf whines inside me. She does not understand. Neither do I. We found our mate. The one person in the entire world made for us. The one person who is supposed to love us and protect us and never leave.

And he walked away.

He walked away like I meant nothing.

I press my forehead against the cold stone and let the tears fall. They drip between the cracks and disappear into the dark.

Why?

Why does my mate want nothing to do with me?

What is so wrong with me that even the Moon Goddess's choice is not enough?

The door does not open again. No one comes to comfort me. No one tells me everything will be okay.

I am alone in a fortress of stone and shadows.

And my mate hates me.