True Mate After Betrayal

The messenger raven arrived at dawn, its black wings cutting through the gray morning mist like a blade through silk. I was feeding Summer her breakfast—oatmeal with honey, the only thing that seemed to stay down lately—when I heard the familiar tap against the window.

My hands trembled as I unrolled the parchment, Summer's concerned eyes tracking my every movement.

"Alpha Pierce Stone has fallen in battle against rogue forces while defending Shadowridge Pack territory. The pack mourns their brave leader."

The words blurred. My chest constricted, and for one terrible moment, I couldn't breathe. Pierce was dead. The mate who had rejected me, who had sent Summer and me away like unwanted baggage, was gone. I should have felt relief. Maybe even satisfaction.

Instead, I felt hollow.

"Mama?" Summer's small voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. "What's wrong?"

I forced myself to smile, tucking the message into my pocket. "Nothing, sweetheart. Finish your breakfast."

But everything was wrong. Despite the rejection, despite the incomplete bond that still pulled at my soul like a fraying thread, Pierce had been my mate once. The Moon Goddess herself had chosen us. And now he was dead, and I hadn't even been there. Hadn't said goodbye. Hadn't told him that I'd forgiven him, even though I wasn't sure I had.

I had to go back. I had to see for myself, pay my respects, find some kind of closure to this nightmare that had become my life.

* * *

Two nights later, I slipped through the forest paths I'd once known as well as my own heartbeat. The moon hung heavy and full above the trees, painting everything in shades of silver and shadow. Summer was safe with Old Martha, the rogue she-wolf who'd taken pity on us when we had nowhere else to go.

The closer I got to Shadowridge territory, the more my wolf stirred uneasily beneath my skin. Something felt wrong. The forest was too quiet, the usual night sounds muted and strange. The bond—that cursed, incomplete mate bond—pulled at me with unexpected strength, almost vibrating with an intensity I hadn't felt in months.

He's dead, I reminded myself. You're just imagining things. Grief does strange things to the bond.

But when I crested the final hill and looked down at the pack grounds, my heart stopped.

Torches. Hundreds of them, blazing against the night sky. Music drifted up from the clearing—not the mournful dirges of a funeral, but something bright and celebratory. Laughter echoed through the trees, punctuated by howls of joy.

My legs moved without conscious thought, carrying me closer. I stayed in the shadows, moving between the ancient oaks that ringed the ceremonial clearing. The same clearing where Pierce had been crowned Alpha. Where we'd completed our mating ceremony five years ago, his teeth marking my neck, my soul binding to his.

My fingers unconsciously touched the scar. It burned.

I pressed myself against the rough bark of an oak tree, peering through the branches, and