The Alpha Without A Mate
1087 Words
Chapter Two: The Alpha Without a Mate
Alpha Malik’s POV
I stopped believing in mates a long time ago.
Not because I doubted fate, but because fate had already made its decision about me and then taken it back.
My first mate died before she ever learned what it meant to belong to an Alpha.I was twenty-one, newly crowned as the Alpha of Lynx Pack, still learning how to balance power and restraint. She was gentle, warm, everything my wolf craved in the chaos of leadership. The bond had been fresh, fragile, not yet sealed by ceremony or claim.
Then a border war took her. By the time I reached the battlefield, the bond had gone silent and dead .
The elders said I was lucky. Many Alphas went mad when their mates died. I didn’t. I survived. I ruled. I buried the ache deep enough that even my wolf learned not to howl.
Years passed.Wolves brought me daughters, sisters, hopeful glances dressed as coincidence. I rejected them all. Not out of cruelty, but because nothing answered inside me.
The bond never came again.Eventually, the pack stopped expecting it to. I became the Alpha who ruled without a Luna. The ruthless one. The cold one. The one whose wolf obeyed because he had no other choice.
I thought that was the end of it.
I was wrong.
The bond awakens like a blade driven straight into my chest.I am standing in the council hall when it happens. Elders arguing over territory. Guards at attention. My attention is fixed on order and law.
Then my wolf roars.Not in rage.
In recognition.I grip the stone table as power drove through me violently, cracking something inside my carefully built control.
The bond snaps into place so suddenly it steals my breath.
Mate.
The word is not a whisper this time.
It is a command.
No.
I force the denial down hard, locking my wolf behind iron discipline forged through years of loss. The elders notice my stillness. One of them shifts uneasily.
“Alpha?”
“I am fine,” I say.
The bond pulls again, dragging my senses toward the residential wing. Toward her.My brother’s wife.The wolfless girl.
The one fate had apparently been hiding from me all these years.She has shifted.
And fate, mocking and merciless, has chosen now after years of silence to return my mate to me in the most forbidden form possible.
I dismiss the council immediately .By the time I reach my chambers, the bond is a constant ache, hot and demanding. My wolf prowls restlessly beneath my skin, furious and possessive.
She is mine.I have not allowed myself to think that word in years.I summon her under Alpha authority. Not desire. Not instinct. Authority.
It is the only thing keeping me from tearing the pack apart to reach her.
When she enters, the bond tightens instantly.
She looks smaller than she did last night, but there is power in her now raw, untrained, unmistakable. Her scent has changed completely. Silver. Ancient. Laced with something that makes my wolf bare his teeth.
Mine.
I force my expression into neutrality.
“Close the door.”She obeys.
Silence stretches between us, thick and volatile.
“You shifted,” I say.
“Yes.”
Her voice trembles. She tries to hide it.
“You are twenty-five,” I continue. “You are Late.”“I know.”
The bond pulses sharply, like a warning.
I turn away from her and pace once, fists clenched behind my back.
“You were never wolfless,” I say finally. “You were restrained.”She inhales sharply.
I stop and face her.
“You carry a rare bloodline,” I continue. “Golden wolves do not awaken easily. Power like that is… delayed.”
Her eyes widen. “Then my parents—”
“Were not cursed,” I say. “Neither were you.”
The truth settles heavily.She swallows. “And the bond?”There it is.I meet her gaze fully now.“You are my mate.”
The words taste like betrayal and salvation all at once.Her knees almost give out.
“I’m married,” she whispers.
“To my brother,” I say.
Silence crashes down between us.
I feel it then the guilt, sharp and bitter. Not just toward her. Toward him. My younger brother. The one who trusted me enough to marry her without question.
“I didn’t ask for this,” she says.
“Neither did I.”
But fate has never cared about consent.
I move closer, stopping just short of touching her. The bond screams for contact, but I deny it ruthlessly.
“I will not claim you,” I say.
Her breath stutters.Relief flickers across her face and something else. It was Disappointment.
“Not now,” I add. “And not without consequence.”
She wraps her arms around herself.
“What happens to me?” she asks.
“For now,” I say, “you remain silent.”
Her head lifts sharply. “You want me to lie?”
“I want you alive.”
The truth is brutal.
“If the pack learns this now,” I continue, “they will not forgive it. Neither will the elders. You will become a political weapon. Or worse.”
“And you?” she asks quietly.
I meet her gaze. “I am Alpha. I will survive.”
But the bond trembles, exposing the lie.
“And my husband?”
My jaw tightens.
“That is the problem fate has handed us.”
She turns to leave.The bond flares suddenly, violently, stealing the breath from both of us. She gasps, holding the doorframe.I am at her side instantly. My Control snaps.
My hand hovers inches from her waist. My wolf surges, furious and desperate.
“Alpha,” she breathes.
I lean down, my voice low, deadly restrained.
“I lived years without a mate,” I tell her. “I buried that part of myself and ruled in silence.”
Her breath shakes.
“But fate has returned you to me,” I continue. “And now it expects me to deny what I am.”
I straighten, stepping back before I cross a line that cannot be undone.
“This bond has awakened,” I finish.
“And it will not be ignored forever.”
I watch her leave.
And for the first time since my first mate died, my wolf does not go quiet. He waits.
- Writer
