2.Mate
1248 Words
~KARA~
Mate.
The word hits like thunder in my chest. A visceral boom I feel in my bones. My knees threaten to give way, but I stay rooted—because I’ve learned how to stand on shattering ground.
Like a tree in a storm, bending, never breaking.
The ballroom is silent.
Not silent like before a ceremony.
Silent like before a war.
The air thickens. Every breath feels like inhaling glass.
Behind me, the scent grows stronger. Pine. Ash. Smoke. Storm. A scent that digs into old wounds and tears them fresh. Every inhale is an invasion. Every second I don't turn is a battle under my skin.
My lungs ache. My pulse stutters. But I don’t move.
My wolf has gone still.
Then, she whispers again—Mate.
It’s not a call. It’s a claim.
I don't look back.
I can’t.
Because if I do, I might forget all the reasons I walked away.
All the nights I sewed my heart shut just to survive him.
The footsteps start—slow, heavy, deliberate. Each one sends a ripple of tension through the air, the kind that snaps just before a storm breaks.
Gasps.
Chairs scrape.
Then someone breathes his name like a curse:
“Alpha Ryder Williams.”
His name shouldn’t still feel like a knife in my chest.
But it does.
Sharp. Familiar. Still stained with love I never scrubbed clean.
And then I feel him.
No—I sense him before I even see him.
The power rolls off him in waves—raw, angry, dominant. It coils around my throat, my waist, my pulse.
My skin prickles like it remembers being touched by that power—and it’s terrified to crave it again.
I turn, and—
He’s there.
Ryder.
Gods.
Time does cruel things to people, but it’s done nothing to soften him.
Only sharpened him. Like a blade that’s been honed by fury.
He stands at the entrance like the storm he always was—taller now, leaner, harder. The blood-red moon spills behind him, tracing his outline in molten fury. His jaw is tight, shoulders braced, black shirt stretched over muscle and hate.
His eyes snaps to mine and he looks at me like I’m the fire that burned him alive.
And he plans to burn back.
Then—his wolf rises.
It slams into the room like lightning. Power cracks outward, forcing bodies back, making elders step behind their guards.
The chandelier trembles.
A low, guttural growl echoes—not from his throat, but from somewhere deeper. Beneath his skin. Beneath his control.
It scrapes across my soul like a forgotten melody.
My wolf answers before I can stop her.
Inside me, she’s no longer hesitant. She’s wild. Furious. Alive.
I feel her pressing against my chest, clawing toward him like he’s the air we’ve been starving for.
I take a step back—shaken by myself.
My limbs tremble. My breath fractures.
We’re two magnets ripped apart by history, and fate just flipped the poles.
Ryder’s jaw clenches.
His gaze never leaves mine—not even when Aleric steps forward with a growl of his own.
“What are you doing, Ryder?”
“Claiming what’s mine.”
Mine. That single word unravels me more than anything.
The heat of it wraps around my ribs, and I can’t tell if it’s comfort or a cage.
“She is mine,” Aleric hisses beside me, but his voice feels far away. Faint. Unimportant.
“She was never yours,” Ryder growls.
Low. Controlled. Lethal.
My heart slams into my ribs.
Each beat screaming his name.
Aleric steps toward me. “She gave her blood.”
“But not her vow,” Ryder says without looking at him. “And her wolf has already answered me.”
My wolf growls again. Loud. Proud. Unafraid. Attesting to what he's saying.
I feel her fury bloom beneath my skin, hot and untamed.
My father growls from behind the altar. “Enough! This is a ceremony—she’s already promised!”
Ryder turns to the elder. “Then let me make it official. I invoke the Blood Moon Claim.”
The elder stiffens. “You understand the consequences?”
“I do.”
He confirms, eyes fixated on me.
A claim—against another Alpha’s Luna—invites war. Retaliation. Chaos.
But the Blood Moon Claim is absolute. No duel, no law, can override it.
The elder looks at me. “Kara Livingston. Do you accept the mate claim of Alpha Ryder Williams?”
Everything freezes—every breath, every heartbeat, every lie I’ve ever told myself about forgetting him. All of it comes to this single moment.
I look at Ryder.
He’s trembling.
Not from weakness.
But from restraint.
Like his wolf is seconds away from ripping through his skin.
He doesn’t want to want me.
But he does.
And that makes two of us.
I don’t even know when I say it.
But the word falls from my lips like fate:
"...Yes."
The council erupts. Elders shouting. My father roaring. Aleric snarling.
But all I hear is the blood pounding in my ears.
Thunder in my veins. A storm with his name.
All I see is Ryder. The cruel smirk tugging at his lips.
And the ghost of the boy who once said he’d give up everything just to ride beside me.
Now he’s come back with nothing left to give—except the last piece of his hate.
And he’s offering it like a curse.
“They’re faking it!” Aleric growls, grabbing my wrist.
“Are we?” Ryder challenges.
Before anyone can blink, he crosses the ballroom and grabs a nearby omega—
“Ryder!” I shout.
Just as his lips crash onto hers.
“Ahh!”
Agony.
It rips through me like claws. I stagger, gasping. My chest blazes with pain that has no origin—no wound, only betrayal.
It’s like my soul is being torn from the inside, screaming without a voice.
He shoves the omega away just as fast. My eyes blur with tears as the pain fades, slow and searing.
I clutch at my chest, desperate to stitch the ache back into silence.
When I look up—he’s staring right at me.
And his eyes are ice.
Hate. Triumph. Fury.
Am I really that hateable?
“This is proof enough,” an elder says. “Only a true mate’s betrayal would cause pain without a mark.”
“But she was already promised!” my father protests.
He still doesn’t get it.
“No vow is greater than the Blood Moon,” the elder snaps. “The Moon Goddess herself has spoken. Be grateful your daughter was chosen.”
Grateful? He’s probably regretting ever agreeing to my wedding date or leaving Ryder on the guest list.
“This can’t be real,” Aleric growls. “She’s not his.”
“Silence!”
“The wolves have answered. The Moon has blessed. There is no law above this bond,” the elder declares.
“We bear witness to the union created by the Moon herself.”
He looks at Ryder.
“Alpha Ryder… claim your Luna.”
Ryder begins to move.
Step by step. Slow. Intentional.
Like he’s walking toward fate with teeth bared.
And I don’t know if he’s going to kiss me, ruin me, or both.
But I know this:
Whatever happens next—
It's always going to be him.
- Writer
