Ashina's fingers traced the delicate beadwork on a leather journal, but her mind was elsewhere tangled up in sandy brown hair and green eyes that crinkled when he smiled.
The annual Gathering Grounds buzzed with life, hundreds of wolves from dozens of packs converging on neutral territory for the year's biggest event. Merchant stalls stretched in every direction, overflowing with goods from distant territories, silver jewelry from the mountain packs, herbs from the southern forests, weapons forged by the renowned smiths of the eastern clans. The air thrummed with voices, laughter, the occasional territorial growl quickly smoothed over by mediators.
Ashina loved the annual gathering. Once a year, wolves from across the region came together to trade, to gossip, to forge alliances and settle disputes. It was chaos and community wrapped into three days of celebration. But today, she could barely focus on any of it. Her phone felt like it was burning a hole in her jacket pocket. She'd checked it five times in the last ten minutes alone, rereading his last message "Meet me by the pottery stalls at 3. Been missing you like crazy. Can't wait to see you, beautiful".
Eight months. They'd been together for eight incredible, intense, complicated months. sneaking around at the old mill on the edge of Silverpaw territory, of whispered phone calls late at night when her family was asleep. Eight months of his hands on her skin, his mouth on hers, his promises that soon they could stop hiding.
"When?" she'd asked last week, wrapped in his arms on a blanket beneath the stars.
"Soon," he'd murmured against her hair. "I promise, Ash. I just need a little more time. You know how my family have expectations, connections they want me to honor first. But after that, we can be open about us."
She'd nodded, pushing down the small voice that whispered it had been eight months of "soon", "almost" and "just a little longer." Because she loved him. She was sure she did. The way her heart raced when she saw him, the way she thought about him constantly, the way her body responded to his touch, that was love. It had to be.
"You've got that look again." Ashina blinked, realizing she'd been staring at the same journal for the past few minutes while the merchant, a middle-aged woman from the Riverbend Pack watched her with knowing amusement.
"What look?" Ashina set the journal down, cheeks warming.
"That lovesick puppy look. My daughter gets the same one whenever her mate comes home from patrol." The woman's smile was kind. "Meeting someone special today?"
"Maybe," Ashina admitted, unable to stop her own smile.
"Well, whoever he is, he's lucky."
If only it were that simple. If only she could introduce Darren to her parents, to her friends, to her pack the way normal couples did. If only she didn't have to pretend they were just casual acquaintances whenever anyone else was around.
Her phone buzzed. She grabbed it so fast she nearly dropped it.
"Running a few minutes late. Wait for me?"
Her stomach fluttered. "Of course. I'll be here".
She checked the time: 2:47 PM. Thirteen minutes. She could browse a little longer, maybe find something nice to surprise him with. Darren loved thoughtful gifts, always commented on how sweet she was when she brought him things.
Ashina wandered through the stalls, her wolf content and quiet beneath her skin. Her wolf had always been docile, easy-going, rarely stirring except during her monthly shifts and the occasional hunt. Some wolves felt their animal constantly, but Ashina's had always been more like a sleeping cat, present but peaceful.
The crowd thickened as she moved deeper into the market. Silverpaw Pack wasn't huge maybe a hundered members but combined with all the visiting packs, there had to be over a thousand wolves here. The annual gathering was the biggest event in their region, bringing together packs that might go years without seeing each other otherwise.
A flash of movement caught her eye, and she paused at a weapons stall. Her brother Torin would love some of these. The wind shifted a breeze, warm with late spring sunshine, carrying the mingled scents of leather and metal, of roasted meat from the food vendors, of hundreds of wolves pressed together and cutting through it all like lightning through a storm was a pine scent, Sharp and fresh like walking into the heart of a winter forest. Cold mountain air and snow-laden branches and something wild, ancient that reached into her chest and wrapped around her lungs. Her wolf surged.
After months, years of quiet contentment, her wolf slammed to the surface with a force that stole Ashina's breath. Every nerve ending ignited. Her vision sharpened until she could see individual threads in the fabric of the merchant's tent. The noise of the crowd became muted, then focused down to a single point.
Her head turned without her permission. Her eyes searched desperately through the crowd without knowing what she is looking for and suddenly Ice blue eyes locked with hers across seventy feet of crowded market. The world stopped.
Only the man standing frozen in the center of the crowd, staring at her like she'd reached into his chest and stopped his heart.
He was massive. Easily 6'5 feet of raw power barely contained in human skin. Broad shoulders strained against a black shirt, and even from this distance, she could see the corded muscle of his forearms, the dangerous grace in the way he held himself. Dark hair fell across his forehead, stark against pale skin and those piercing, ice-blue eyes that pinned her in place like a wolf pinned prey.
His face was all sharp angles and hard lines, high cheekbones, a strong jaw, a mouth set in a grim line. Handsome in a harsh, unforgiving way. The kind of face that belonged on ancient coins or carved into mountainsides.
Kendrick Ridge.
She knew him instantly, though she'd never seen him before. Everyone knew of Kendrick Ridge. The Alpha of Moonlit Pack, one of the largest and most powerful packs in the entire region. The Alpha who'd killed his own father in a challenge at twenty-two and had ruled with absolute authority ever since. The Alpha who'd expanded his territory, who crushed challenges and defeated rivals, who negotiated alliances with a ruthlessness that made other packs wary.
The Alpha who never smiled. Never showed mercy. Never lost.
The Alpha who, at twenty-seven, had never found his mate.
Until now.
The bond snapped into place.
Ashina felt it like a physical blow, a golden thread suddenly visible between them, humming with energy, vibrating with a frequency that resonated in her bones. It sang through her blood, wrapped around her heart, and sank roots so deep she knew she would never be free of it.
Her wolf threw itself against her ribcage with a howl of pure joy.
MATE. MATE. MATE.
No, no, no, this couldn't be happening. She had Darren. She loved Darren. She'd given him her heart, her body, her trust. She'd waited eight months for him to be ready, had been patient and understanding and the bond pulsed, and a wave of sensation crashed over her. Something deeper. Something primal. Recognition. Completion like a piece of herself she hadn't known was missing had suddenly clicked into place.
Home, her wolf whispered. Finally home.
But that was impossible. Home was Darren's arms. Home was their secret place at the mill. Home was the future they'd planned, the life they'd build once he was ready to make them public.
Kendrick moved.
The crowd parted before him like the sea before a storm. heads lowering in instinctive submission, conversations dying mid-sentence. He walked toward her with purpose. No, not walking rather stalking. Moving with the fluid grace of a predator who'd spotted his prey. His eyes never left hers.
Ashina's heart hammered against her ribs. Her hands shook. Every instinct screamed at her to run, but her legs had turned to stone. The bond pulled at her, a physical tug in her chest that urged her forward, begged her to close the distance, promised her that everything would make sense if she'd just.....No.
She took a step back.
His eyes flashed and even across the distance, she saw his jaw tighten.
The crowd was watching now. Hundreds of eyes had turned toward them, sensing the drama unfolding. Whispers rippled outward like waves.
"Is that"
"Alpha Ridge"
"Oh my God, is he"
"His mate"
Ashina took another step back, and this time she bumped into someone. A firm hand steadied her shoulder.
"Easy there." The voice was male, calm, authoritative.
She glanced back and found herself looking up at a man only slightly less imposing than the Alpha stalking toward her. He was tall, with dark hair and kind eyes, but the power radiating from him marked him as high-ranking. Beta, probably.
"I've got you," he said quietly, and there was something protective in his stance, like he'd step between her and danger if needed but he didn't step between her and Kendrick. Because Kendrick wasn't danger. Not to her. The bond sang with certainty. He would never hurt her, would protect her with his life, would tear apart anyone who threatened her.
That's not the point, Ashina thought desperately. I don't want this. I don't want him.
Kendrick stopped three feet away.
Up close, he was overwhelming. He towered over her, radiating heat and power and that scent until she was drowning in pine and winter and something uniquely, devastatingly him. She could see the pulse jumping at his throat, could hear his breathing, controlled but faster than normal.
Could see the way his hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, like he was fighting the urge to reach for her.
"You." His voice was deep, rough like gravel and smoke. "Finally."
The single word carried so much weight relief and longing and something that sounded almost like pain.
Ashina couldn't speak. Couldn't think. Her mind was a white blank of panic and confusion and the mate bond screaming at her that this was right, this was perfect, this was fate.
His eyes traveled over her face cataloging, memorizing and she felt stripped bare under that intense gaze.
"Three months," he said, and there was a rawness in his voice now, like the words were being dragged out of him. "I've been searching for three months."
Three months.
The same three months she'd been falling deeper for Darren, planning their future, believing in his promises.
"I've been waiting," Kendrick continued, and his eyes were so intense it hurt to hold his gaze. "Waited to claim you as mine."
The word "mine" resonated through the bond, and her wolf practically purred.
Ashina found her voice. "I don't know you."
Something flickered across his face, maybe surprise that she could speak. "You know me. The bond knows me."
"The bond is wrong." The words came out shaky, unconvincing even to her own ears.
"The bond is never wrong." He took a half-step closer, and she had to tilt her head back to keep eye contact. "You're mine. My mate. Given to me by the Moon herself."
"No." Barely a whisper.
The gathering had gone completely silent. Every wolf within a hundred feet was watching, listening, bearing witness to whatever was happening between the powerful Alpha and the unknown she-wolf who seemed to be rejecting him.
Because that's what she was doing, wasn't it? Rejecting her mate. Rejecting fate itself.
"No?" Kendrick repeated the word like he'd never heard it before. Like it didn't compute.
"I can't" Her throat closed around the words. She forced them out anyway. "I'm with someone else."
The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.
Kendrick's expression didn't change, but something shifted in his eyes cold and dangerous. "Someone else."
"I love him." She lifted her chin, defiant despite the terror coursing through her. "I'm sorry, but I didn't choose this. I didn't choose you. I choose him."
For a long moment, Kendrick just stared at her. The bond between them pulsed with something the impression of something vast and tumultuous.
Then his mouth curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. It was too sharp.
"Darren Kale," he said softly. "Twenty-four years old. Born to the Silverpaw Pack. Works in his family's lumber business. Spends his free time at the old mill on the eastern border."
Ashina's blood turned to ice. "How do you....?"
"I know everything about the wolf who's been touching what's mine." The words were quiet, deadly. "I know how long. I know where. I know that he's been lying to you."
"You're wrong." But her voice shook.
"Am I?" He tilted his head, and the movement was predatory. "Ask yourself why he hasn't marked you, little wolf. Eight months together and your neck is bare. Why is that?"
She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think past the roaring in her ears.
"Ask yourself why he keeps you hidden. Why he won't tell his family. Why it's always 'soon' and 'not yet' and 'just a little longer.'"
"Stop." Tears burned at the corners of her eyes. "You don't understand"
"I understand perfectly." He leaned down, bringing his face level with hers, and his eyes were arctic. "He's using you. And when you figure that out, when he breaks your heart the way I know he will, you'll come to me."
"Never." The word came out fierce, definite.
"We'll see." He straightened, and suddenly the cold mask was back, the ruthless Alpha who showed no weakness. "I'll give you time. Time to learn the truth. Time to come to me willingly."
"I won't"
"You will." Absolute certainty. "The bond demands it. Fate demands it. And when you're ready, I'll be waiting."
He turned and walked away, the crowd parting before him once more. And with every step he took, the bond stretched tighter, pulled harder until Ashina thought it might snap her in half. But it didn't snap. It just held, painful, connecting her to a man she didn't want, refused to want.
Around her, the whispers exploded.
"Did she just reject...."
"Alpha Ridge's mate...."
"Who is she?"
"Silverpaw Pack, I think...."
"Is she insane?"
Ashina's phone buzzed in her pocket.
Darren.
She grabbed it like a lifeline, read his message through blurring eyes "Sorry babe, something came up. Can we meet later? Maybe tomorrow?"
Something came up.
Eight months of "something came up" and "maybe later" and "I'll make it up to you."
No, she told herself firmly. Kendrick is wrong. He's just trying to manipulate you. Darren loves you. He does.
But as she stood alone in the middle of the gathering, surrounded by staring wolves, connected by an unbreakable bond to a man she'd just rejected, Ashina couldn't shake the terrible feeling that her entire world had just shifted beneath her feet.