Chapter Three
776 Words
Gabrielle did not sleep.
She lay awake on the thin servant mattress, staring at the cracked ceiling as the events of the
night replayed endlessly in her mind. The forest. The silver eyes. The word mate spoken in
horror. The way Caden had looked at her, not with desire, not even hatred, but fear.
Her chest ached.
Every breath felt wrong, like the air refused to settle properly in her lungs. She could still feel
him.
That was the worst part.
A pull tugged constantly at her chest, low and insistent, as if something inside her was reaching
for something that had been torn away too soon. It made her restless, her skin too tight, her
thoughts scattered.
Just before dawn, heavy footsteps thundered down the servant corridor.
The door burst open. “Get up”
Two guards stood there, eyes cold, hands already reaching for her arms.
“What’s happening ?” Gabrielle whispered, panic rising.”
“You’ve been summoned” one of them said flatly. “The alpha demands your presence.”
Her stomach dropped.
They didn’t give her time to dress properly or wash the forest dirt from her skin. They dragged
her through the corridors as wolves emerged from their rooms, whispering openly now.
“That’s her.”
“The human.”
“The one the Alpha heir scented last night.”
Gabrielle’s heart pounded painfully as the grand hall doors swung open.
The room was packed.
Alphas from allied packs. Betas. Elders. Noble families seated in perfect rows. Power thickened
the air, pressing down on her so heavily her knees trembled.
At the center stood Caden Blackwood. Tall. Untouchable. Cold.
His face was carved from stone, but his jaw was tight, his shoulders rigid like a man standing on
the edge of a cliff.
Alpha Lucas sat on the throne above him, eyes sharp and calculating.
“Bring her forward.”
Gabrielle was pushed to the center of the hall. She felt naked. Exposed.
Her heart screamed at her to look at Caden, to beg, to demand answers, but fear kept her gaze
glued to the marble floor.
“Last night,” Alpha Lucas began, his voice echoing, “a bond was sensed within our territory.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
“A mating bond.”
Gasps followed.
“A bond involving a human.” Laughter broke out. Humiliation burned through Gabrielle like
acid.
“Caden Blackwood,” Lucas said sharply “Step forward.”
Caden obeyed.
“Do you accept Gabrielle Stone as your destined mate?”
Silence swallowed the hall. Gabrielle lifted her head slowly.
Just once, Caden’s eyes met hers, there was pain there.
And something darker.
“I reject her.”
The words struck like a physical blow. The hall erupted.
“No Alpha heir has ever—”
“This is disgraceful!”
“She should be executed!”
Gabrielle’s vision blurred as shame crushed her chest. Her legs buckled, and she would have
fallen if a guard hadn’t grabbed her arm painfully.
“She is human,” Caden continued, his voice hard, rehearsed. “Weak. Unfit to stand beside me as
Luna.”
Each word carved into her flesh.
The pain did not feel metaphorical,It felt physical. Like something inside her chest had cracked
open. Gabrielle had spent her entire life being unwanted — but this was different. This was the
universe itself looking at her and deciding she was not enough.
Her mate had rejected her before she even understood what belonging felt like.
If the one person fate chose for her could not love her…Will anyone ever?
Alpha Lucas smiled. A satisfied, cruel smile.
“You hear that?” he said to the hall. “Even the bond knows its mistake.”
Laughter rang out again and Someone spat near her feet.
“Take her away,” Alpha Lucas ordered.
As the guards dragged her backward, Gabrielle’s pendant flared hot beneath her dress.
Her breath hitched.
Something ancient stirred inside her. The air shifted.
Caden sucked in a sharp breath, his wolf howling in panic as her scent changed, deepened,
sharpened into something wild and intoxicating.
No, he thought desperately. Not now
But it was too late.
Gabrielle cried out softly as heat surged violently through her veins, curling low in her stomach
like wildfire. Her fingers clenched, nails biting into her palms as power pulsed beneath her skin.
No one else noticed. But Caden did.
His head snapped up, silver eyes blazing as the bond screamed its protest.
“What have I done…?” he whispered.
For the first time in his life, the Alpha heir of Blackwood was afraid.
- Writer
