All Chapters of The Mate Time Stole: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

SAYA I was running again. The forest stretched endlessly around me, dark and unfamiliar, yet somehow I knew every turn. I knew which roots would catch my feet, which branches would scrape my arms, and which narrow paths would lead nowhere. I’d never been here before, at least, not awake. But I’d been running through this forest for eleven years, always chasing him. The man ahead of me moved effortlessly between the trees, never looking back. I could never see his face, only the broad line of his shoulders, the dark hair at the nape of his neck, and the impossible certainty that if I could just catch him, everything would finally make sense. Tonight, I was closer. Much, much closer than I’d ever been. My lungs burned as I pushed harder, ignoring the branches tearing at my skin. “Wait!” I shouted after him, but he didn’t stop. I ran faster, and the distance between us shrank. Ten steps. Eight. Six. My fingers stretched toward him. “Please!” The word tore out of me, raw with despe

Cassian It was different this time because I wasn’t running, and neither was she. We stood in the middle of the forest, separated by only a few feet of damp earth as the trees rose around us, impossibly tall, their branches twisting together overhead until the sky disappeared. Everything felt strangely still, as though the forest itself were holding its breath.I had been here before, more times than I could count, in the same forest with the same pull in my chest and the same woman waiting for me on the other side of it. For years, I had chased her through these woods, always arriving a moment too late because she was always there, always just beyond my reach, and every time I got close enough to see her, she disappeared.But tonight, she didn’t disappear.Instead, she took a step forward, and I held my breath as if breathing might make her change her mind, then she took another step, bringing her closer. For years, I had watched her from a distance, a silhouette between the trees,

CHAPTER FIVE — MATE SAYA I had seen those eyes before. I didn’t know when or where but the moment I looked into them something inside me broke loose. Mate. The word echoed inside my head and froze me in place as my breath caught somewhere between my lungs and my throat My wolf.She had never spoken to me before, not when I was angry or afraid and not even during the countless nights I’d woken from those strange dreams with my heart racing and my skin damp with sweat. She had always been there, silent and distant, a presence I felt more than heard. Until now. Mate.The word came again, softer this time but no less certain, and I stared at the man standing across the garden. No,not just a man but him. My heart began to pound as the realization settled in. It was him, the man from my dreams. For one terrifying second, everything around me disappeared. The children, the garden and the voices drifting from the main building all faded away until there was nothing left but him, starin

I couldn't stop thinking about Cassian, not just about the way he'd looked at me yesterday or the strange things he'd said, but about how little any of it made sense. If he really saw me as nothing more than another trainee, why had he looked at me that way in the garden? Why had he spent the entire training session avoiding my eyes, only to tell me to be careful around him when I finally confronted him? And most importantly, why was my mate the one asking me to stay away from him?The thought had been bothering me since I woke up, because everything I'd ever heard about mates told me it should have been the opposite. There was supposed to be a pull, an almost instinctive need to be near each other. Your wolf recognized your mate before your mind could catch up, and once you found them, staying away was supposed to be the hardest thing in the world. But Cassian seemed to be making it look remarkably easy.By late morning, I decided I needed something else to occupy my mind.I was head

CASSIAN I knew it was her before she even sensed me. The moment I caught her scent in the forest, I knew exactly who had followed me there, and I should have turned around before she sensed me. Instead, I stayed and worse, I let my wolf take over. For the first time since I had arrived in the Southern Territory, I didn’t fight him when he pulled me toward her. I knew exactly what I was doing when I lowered my head and let her come closer. I knew it was Saya from the moment her scent reached me, yet I still allowed myself to stand there and look at her as if I hadn’t spent the last few days convincing myself that distance was the only thing that could keep her safe. The moment she touched her nose to mine, I nearly broke. It was such a simple thing, something so instinctive and innocent, yet it brought back a feeling I had spent centuries trying to bury. Her warmth, her scent, the way she leaned into me without fear, trusting a creature she didn’t even know, made every wall I’d