Chapter Two: The Mate Bond

POV: Silver Colt

“My bones broke first. Then came the voice—low, guttural, and angry: “You’re finally awake, Silver.”

They never told you how much it hurts—when someone’s wolf is awakened.

They speak of beauty and destiny. Of the honor of awakening. They don’t talk about the pain. The blinding, bone-cracking pain that shatters you before it builds you again.

I screamed into the night, my back arched against the cold earth. My vision blurred. My limbs twisted. Fire rolled beneath my skin, searing every nerve as though my body was rejecting itself.

And then… she came.

Not with kindness. Not with grace.

But with rage.

“You’re finally awake, Silver.”

Her voice wasn’t human. It was ancient. A growl threaded with fury and sorrow. And it was inside me.

My wolf, Zorry.

And for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel alone.

I didn’t feel cursed.

I felt… complete.

Since my wolf awakened, it has been such great changes. The ground pulsed beneath my fingers. The wind whispered secrets. My senses exploded.

I could hear the wings of moths. Smell the dew clinging to the grass. I could feel the heartbeats of those walking nearby in the pack square.

Everything was… alive. More alive than I’d ever known it could be.

I rose to my knees, shaky and gasping. My hands were still human, but filled with something deeper now. Something wild.

Zorry hummed beneath my skin, a protective presence. Her thoughts tangled with mine, her instincts sharpening mine, "The curse they feared… it was never a curse. It was me. Hiding. Waiting. Watching."

“What do you mean by that. I asked you earlier, but then you told me it was a spirit yet untapped.”

My wolf laughed. I had always thought wolves were only known for brawls and growls. “You’re right, Silver. But the connection between the curse and the ancient spirit wasn’t complete as of when you just clocked eighteen.

And that’s when I felt it. A pull.

I had always experienced eerie pulls at my body, but this was a different case entirely. It was a violent, magnetic force yanking at my chest. The aroma of concentrated lavender, pine and rose mixed together filled my nostrils.

My breath caught. “My mate is around.” Zorry’s voice echoed in happiness.

Mate.

Zorry’s whisper seared through me like a band. “Mate. Our mate is close.”

I stood, every nerve alert. My feet moved before my mind could catch up. Past the fire pit. Through the trees. Deeper into the night.

My skin buzzed with something electric, raw and uncontrollable.

He’s near. He’s here.

“You know this can’t work between the both of us,” a deep voice echoed from behind.

I turned immediately to see who it was.

It was Volvo Blackwood. “Hi!” I greeted, a warm smirk tugged at my lips.

SMACK!

A punch was the response from the sincere greeting I gave. A pool of liquid iron filled my mouth. “Who’re you greeting. An Alpha like me can’t be seen with an outcast like you,” he spat.

“But I didn’t do anything wrong in greeting you, Volvo,” my hands covered the swollen cheeks as I laid flat on the floor, in swarm of pain.

“Oh. Oh. Oh,” he exclaimed, “I see where all this is coming from. You think your rank has been upgraded to a gamma, which is why you have the guts to stand to greet your Alpha instead of bowing as an omega should do.” he grinned.

“Not that my Alpha,” I pleaded, trying to hold the dam of tears that had threatened to break.

“You’re a liar,” a familiar voice cut through the already tensed air from behind me.

For a moment, I prayed to the moon goddess for the ground to swallow me whole. What Amelia was doing here.

“I eaves-dropped her conversation with Nathan. She gripped his neck, threatening that she will begin taking her revenge to all those who humiliated her as an omega,” her voice was so stern that I even started falling for the words.

“That’s not true, I never said that,” I pleaded, “Amelia, please stop the lies.”

Volvo’s eyes just rested on me, “You can’t be gamma and think you can intimidate or whatever you want with other innocent pack wolves,” he said sneeringly, “But one thing is sure—you disgust me, Silver.”

I turned to Amelia, a cold smirk tugged at her lips was unreadable as though her schemes under her sleeves were going well—to get Volvo for herself.

Volvo Blackwood—An Alpha-blooded. Towering. Battle-scarred being. “Just leave.”

**********

He stood close to the riverbank in nothing but black training trousers, his back shinning with sweat streaming down his skin. His shoulders were broad, tense. His silver eyes caught the moonlight, making him look like something carved from stone.

Even now, he stole my breath.

I remembered being fifteen, watching him from the shadows as he trained in the courtyard. The way he moved like a storm. The way everyone gave reverence to his silence.

He was the boy I was never supposed to look at.

The future Alpha.

The pack’s golden son.

And now—my mate.

I stumbled closer, breath hitching. “Volvo…”

He turned slowly.

His eyes met mine—and widened.

For a moment, I thought I saw it. The same magnetic force. His lips parted, a muscle in his jaw clenched. The bond pulled tight like a wire strung between us.

He stepped forward. I almost cried with the thought of what happened earlier today to happen again.

He feels it. He knows, but what can be of an orphan like me.

“Don’t.”

His voice was low. Dangerous. Like a blade pulled half out of its sheath.

I blinked. “What?”

“You’re not doing this.”

I took a shaky step forward. “You feel it. I know you do. The bond. Forget all Amelia said earlier today, she was lying.”

“The poor girl calls it a lie,” his voice wasn’t budging laced with anger.

“The bond is fake,” he snapped, voice hardening. “A delusion born from your cursed blood.”

The words sliced.

I flinched. “That’s not true—”

“I don’t know what kind of trick you pulled to make it seem like we’re connected. But you and I?” He scoffed. “We are nothing.”

I stood frozen, the air thick with shame.

“But…” I whispered, “Zorry. She woke. The bond—it’s real.”

His eyes darkened. “You think I’d be fated to you? A cursed Omega without a mother or wolf for eighteen years? A girl whose very existence brought death?”

“I didn’t choose this…”

“No. But neither did I. And I am sure as hell won’t let it decide my future.”

His hands clenched into fists. “I’m going to be Alpha. I need strength. Legacy. A Luna the pack can respect. Not a charity case who should’ve died the day she was born.”

I staggered back, breath stolen from my lungs. Every word bruised something deeper. “I thought…” My voice cracked. “I thought maybe—”

“Stop thoughting little girl,” a cold smirk hung on his lips. “Just know that this eighteen years of your life has been a doom, but let me shock you. This is just the beginning.”

Then he turned his back on me without letting me utter any words.

Zorry whimpered inside me, low and broken. My wolf felt it too—this rejection was an agony we hadn’t been prepared for.

I took one last desperate step forward, holding the hem of his cloak, “Volvo, please, you can’t just leave I and my wolf in agony, your wolf too yearns for this bond. And I feel it.” Tears streaming down my cheeks.

He spun sharply, fury radiating from every pore of his skin. “You think a cursed mutt like you could be tied to me?” he laughed, “My wolf don’t even feel this bond.”

Then he spat on the ground in front of me.

“This is the last time you touch me. Get out.” He said, kicking my face with his foot.

I couldn’t hide it anymore. The secret. “I carry something that Moonveil pack and the dynasty have been looking for.”