CHAPTER 50: CHAPTER 50: MATE

Mate.

My hand stilled midair, the dagger hovering inches from my chest, my grip slackening as if the air had been pulled from my lungs. I blinked once. Twice. But the monster looming above me didn’t disappear.

Neither did the word.

Mate.

I’d never heard anything sound more terrifying.

It wasn’t just the way he said it—low and filled with emotions, like it came from somewhere deeper than language. That was what came after. The silence that pressed against my ears, the tremble in my fingers that didn’t come from fear this time. The word didn’t echo aloud again.

But the same word repeated in my head, like confirming that it was all real. Like a secret my body had known long before my mind could name it.

Mate.

I swallowed hard, but the taste of blood and dirt clung to my tongue. My thoughts scattered, trying to make sense of what had just happened and what was still happening. I knew the voice that answered from inside me; it was not my wolf...it was my own.

The wolf loomed over me, chest heaving as if the weight of the forest pressed down on him too. His breath came hot against my skin, stirring the dirt and leaves between us.

He didn’t move at first. Just stood there, massive and silent, his claws sunk deep into the soil on either side of my head. The weight of him kept me pinned to the cold earth, and I could feel every shift in his body, every ragged breath that scraped through his throat.

Then he lowered his head.

His muzzle brushed against my neck—slowly, deliberately—and I went still. The dagger trembled in my grip, caught between instinct and something else I didn’t want to name.

He inhaled, a long, dragging breath that made something in my chest curl inward. It wasn’t just that he was scenting me. It was the way he did it—slow, careful, like he was trying to memorize the pieces of me I no longer knew how to hold together.

Then he growled.

A sound that didn’t come from his throat alone but from somewhere deeper.

"Mate."

He said it again like he was savoring the taste of the word on his tongue.

And it sent a ripple through me.

Not the kind I expected. But something deeper. Like the faint hum of a current slipping beneath the surface of my skin.

His nose brushed against my collarbone, and I felt it—that jolt. That strange spark where his touch met my flesh.

He nosed along my throat again, pressing into the space between my shoulder and collarbone, breathing me in like I was something holy.

And still... all I felt was dread.

Something inside me shifted, but not the way they said it would. Even though there was a burst of warmth, there was no sense of safety. Just a hollow ache beneath my ribs.

A part of me recognized the word, but not the bond.

Mate, the word tasted wrong in my mouth. Like betrayal.

This wasn’t a fairy tale. This wasn’t fate wrapped in warmth and comfort.

This was the same man who had turned his back when I needed someone most. The same man who dragged me down and marked me like an animal made me his property.

The same man who was silent when I was dragged to the warriors quarters, and now he was telling me that I am his mate.

I tightened my grip on the dagger, but he was too focused on my scent that he did not even notice the dagger clutched in my hand.

He pressed closer, caught in some haze of instinct. His snout brushed my jaw. But it only made me more disgusted. As the shock of the word mate faded, my senses came back.

"Get off me," I said with my shaking voice.

He didn’t move. So I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Get OFF ME! YOU Bastard!"

The words tore from my throat like something broken loose. I kicked, shoved, and struggled against his weight. But he didn’t flinch.

"I hate you," I said, my voice shaking with each breath. "I hate all of you. You ruined me."

He was still now. Just watching and listening.

"And now you’re here?" I asked. "Saying that word? Like it means something?"

I blinked, and tears slipped down my face.

"You saw," I whispered. "You knew what they would do with me, but you turned away."

My throat burned. The words were harder now.

"You let them—" I stopped. Swallowed. Couldn’t finish.

So I screamed again. Louder this time. Wordless. Angry. Broken.

I slammed my fists into his chest, again and again, to make him feel something. feel the pain and helpless I have felt.

"You don’t get to call me that," I said, quieter now. "You don’t get to have me."

His breathing shifted. And I heard a low whimper escaping his throat...he recoiled at my words like I had said something that had hurt him. He still thinks that I have no right to say that.

Tears escaped my eyes. How pathetic I am—to be mated to the very monsters who ruined me, who humiliated me at every turn. What kind of sick game is this?

It seems the Moon Goddess is still not satisfied with my agony, that she actually mated me to him. How could she? Now I hated her too. After all, are we not all her children? How could she let her own child be abused like this?

But it didn’t matter. I refused to follow the fate she has chosen for me.

"I’d rather die than be your mate." The words left my mouth with so much hatred, it didn’t even shock me—because it came from the anger I had silently swallowed for days, born from abuse and humiliation.

I lifted the dagger and turned it—not toward him, but toward myself. Pressed the tip to the soft skin of my throat.

His eyes went wide. He growled with warning at my face... I could feel the shock and hurt behind his eyes.

I didn’t move the blade away.

"You want to claim me?" I hissed through gritted teeth, my voice shaking but firm. "Then watch me leave you behind—with the blood of your dead mate."

His eyes widened in an instant, horror flashing across his face as the tip of the dagger pressed into my skin, drawing the first line of blood.

"No!" he gasped, his voice cracking as panic surged through him.

In a blink, his massive wolf form shimmered and shifted. Bones snapped and reformed, fur receding, until he stood before me in his human skin—bare, desperate, and breathless. It didn’t even take seconds before he lunged forward, arms outstretched to stop me.

"Don’t—please!" He shouted with a pained voice. "Don’t do this!"

But it wasn’t me he was trying to save. It was her. His mate.

A bitter laugh broke from my lips. Of course. I knew this would work. I knew the threat of death would drag the human out of the wolf. Not because he cared about me—but because he couldn’t bear the thought of losing what was his.

But I wasn’t done. I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t some fragile thing that would crumble at the sight of his panic.

So when he stepped closer, hand reaching for mine with pleading eyes, I didn’t flinch.

Instead, I drove the dagger forward—straight into his chest, just inches away from the frantic beat of his heart.

His mouth fell open in shock, a strangled sound leaving his throat like he could not believe what I did to him.

I met his gaze with a cold voice. "I told you, you don’t get to have me."