All Chapters of Fated in the Dark : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Fate had a cruel sense of timing. Mira stood between two men—the Alpha who had just claimed her with a look, and the stranger whose presence made her bones hum—and not for the first time, she wanted to run but couldn't. The bond coiled like barbed wire through her chest. It pulled at her muscles, tried to force her closer to them, as if her body had decided love was more important than logic. Her wolf whimpered, aching for completion. Her human side wanted to scream. She took a step back. “I didn’t ask for this,” she said aloud, though it sounded weaker now than an hour ago. Rhett’s eyes flicked to her—stormy, unreadable. He didn’t look like the type to back down from anything, and he sure as hell didn’t look like he knew what to do with a mate who wasn’t interested in being claimed. Good, that made two of them. You were supposed to be free, Ellan. That voice in her head was her mother’s, long dead and never kind. Freedom had always been a mirage anyway. Mira had grown up s

Rhett Calder was not a man who lost control. That was the entire point of being Alpha: control of his pack, instincts, and emotions. However, as he sat at the long stone table beneath the Summit canopy, listening to Alphas argue over border patrols and territory alliances, his wolf refused to settle. Mira sat two seats away, arms folded, legs stretched out like she had nothing to prove, and Jace sat just behind her in the circle of observers, quiet as a shadow. Rhett could feel both of them. The bond crackled beneath his skin like static electricity. The longer they stayed close, the harder it became to ignore the constant hum in his chest like something unfinished was trying to complete itself. He’d spent the night walking the camp's perimeter, sleepless, furious. Mira was his mate. The gods had branded her into his soul. That was hard enough, but now another man, a Beta no less, was tied to her too? It didn’t make sense. Bonds didn’t work that way, at least, they weren’t suppos

The beer was warm. She should’ve finished it earlier, but time had a way of unraveling around emotions she didn’t know how to name. Mira sat on the windowsill of her borrowed room, one boot propped against the stone frame, the other foot dangling into the cool air. The Blackstone house was quiet, too quiet for a pack so large. Even the wolves here moved like soldiers. Everything about this place whispered order. Everything about her whispered danger. She took a long sip, staring out at the dark treetops glowing silver beneath the moonlight. She hadn’t wanted this. Not the Summit, not the bond, and especially not the twisting, unsteady ache in her chest that hadn’t stopped since she first locked eyes with Rhett Calder…or the one that bloomed deeper, slower, when Jace Rowan’s voice brushed against her spine like a memory that hadn’t happened yet. She didn’t trust either of them. She didn’t trust herself either. Why now? Why them? She let the bottle rest against her thigh, fingers

Rhett sat at his desk, staring at the security footage on the wall monitor. It looped through drone footage of the eastern border, interspersed with infrared signatures and coded timestamps. Still no sign of what had taken out patrol two. Still no sign of peace inside his own damn chest. A quiet knock came at the door, followed by a voice that didn’t wait for permission. “Still brooding over the fight, or the female?” Tarek, of course, strolled into the office like he owned it. Which, to be fair, he kind of did. He was the only person in the entire pack who got away with talking to Rhett like that, and he’d earned it. Rhett didn’t look up. “Don’t you have actual duties?” “I do,” Tarek said, shutting the door behind him “But watching my Alpha get thrown on his ass in front of two dozen warriors is part of my job description. You just made it more entertaining than usual.” Rhett’s lips twitched, but he didn’t smile. Six years as his Beta. Ten as his brother-in-arms. Longer as the

It wasn’t supposed to be a real mission. Just a recon run, low-risk terrain, low-profile intel collection. A test of team cohesion, Blackstone’s security tech, and the task force’s ability to not kill each other in close quarters but the forest had other plans. Now Mira was crouched beneath the twisted carcass of a fallen tree, blood in her mouth, sweat on her neck, and two growling, pissed-off males flanking her on either side. “Everyone else is still back at the outpost,” Jace said, voice low. “We got separated at the ridge when the det charge went off. “Yeah, I noticed,” Mira muttered, adjusting the strap on her thigh holster. Rhett didn’t speak. He stood a few feet away, back to them, scanning the treeline with his usual coiled intensity. His hands were flexing and relaxing at his sides, like he was ready to tear something apart. “Trap?” Mira asked. “Most likely,” Rhett said. Jace crouched beside her, steady eyes scanning the terrain. “Minimal blast pattern. Controlled. Not m