All Chapters of THE MATE HE COULDN'T CLAIM : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Chapter 2 The SummonsPOV: Adelina McKennaThe car ride from Ohio to Aspen felt like falling into someone else’s life.Everything smelled wrong. Too clean, too sharp, like leather and ozone and money. I sat wrapped in a sleek wool coat someone had left folded on the backseat, probably worth more than my last three paychecks combined. My bare feet rested on hand-stitched carpets. There was bottled spring water in a sterling holder between the seats and a touchscreen I didn’t dare touch.I should’ve felt important.Instead, I felt like a stray mutt dressed in borrowed elegance.The man driving who never gave his name spoke only when absolutely necessary. I asked once if I could call my mother.“No devices while in transport,” he replied, as if he were reading from a manual. “You’ll have access to secure comms when you arrive at the Lodge.”I leaned against the window, watching telephone poles blur past, and wondered how everything had changed in twenty-four hours.One day I was scrapin

Chapter 4Goodbye, OhioPOV: Adelina McKennaThere’s a strange kind of silence that follows the truth.It’s not peaceful. It’s not comforting.It’s the kind of silence that hums in your bones and makes you feel like you’re standing at the edge of a cliff, barefoot, wind howling around you, and someone just whispered: Jump.After my mother’s confession, everything felt surreal.She didn’t say much the next morning. I didn’t either. We moved around each other like ghosts quiet, cautious, not sure if the wrong word would break the thin layer of control we were both holding onto.I packed like I was going on vacation, even though I knew better. Jeans. Hoodies. My one black dress. Toothbrush. Two pairs of beat-up shoes. My sketchpad and pencils, which I hadn’t touched in months. The pendant my mother had kept hidden from me my inheritance, apparently tucked into the pocket of my duffel.That was it.Twenty-five years of life distilled into a single worn-out bag.I couldn’t bring myself to

Chapter 6Bond IgnitionPOV: Adelina McKennaThey say the mate bond feels like gravity.What they don’t tell you is that it doesn’t just pull it burns.I couldn’t sleep that night. Not because the room was unfamiliar, or because the air was thinner this high in the mountains, or even because the entire Silver Fang pack had just stared at me like I was an infected wound. No, sleep was impossible for one reason:Daxon Reyes.His scent still clung to my skin. Cedar smoke, sharp steel, and something electric like rain right before a storm. His gaze still haunted me, echoing in my skull like a song I couldn’t forget. And that moment the second our eyes locked had carved itself into me like a brand.Every cell in my body had screamed, Mate.Every piece of me, even the parts I didn’t know existed, had recognized him.And yet… he turned away.No acceptance. No rejection. Just silence.What the hell was that?I paced the length of the balcony for what felt like hours, my bare feet cold against

Chapter 8 Murmurs and JudgmentPOV: Adelina McKennaI woke to whispers.Not literal ones, not words spoken in my ear but whispers carried on scent, on looks, on the deliberate pause in conversation whenever I entered a room.The air in Silver Fang’s estate had changed overnight.Or maybe it was me who had changed.Because I was done waiting.The parchment Caleb had given me lay on the bedside table, glowing faintly in the firelight as if it had absorbed my resolve. Every time I looked at it, the truth called louder: I am not nothing. I am not lost. My blood has power.And the moment I stopped trying to earn my place in this pack and started claiming it, they smelled the difference.That’s the thing no one tells you about wolves. It’s not just about rank or legacy or rituals. It’s about presence. And the second I stopped hiding my spine behind politeness, they felt it.And they didn’t like it.By breakfast, the murmurs were louder.Whispers as I passed through the stone halls.“She’s

Chapter 10Public Rejection POV: Adelina McKennaThey say fate can’t be broken.That the bond, once ignited, is forever.But I learned that day beneath the torches of the Circle, with a hundred eyes burning into me that even destiny can be manipulated.Even fate can be twisted.Even love, when placed in the wrong hands, becomes a weapon.It should have been a victory.After standing my ground before the Council. After Dax took my hand in front of his entire pack. After the bond flared like the moon itself had blessed us.For one beautiful, impossible moment, I thought it was over.That I’d found my place. That the worst was behind us.But wolves don’t forget challenges.And those who feared what I represented… had been planning longer than I’d known.It happened two days later.The Silver Fang Council called a “formal proclamation.” Not a ceremony. Not a celebration.A proclamation.Cold. Legal. Final.I should’ve known something was wrong when Maren refused to look me in the eye tha