Bound By Contract, Claimed By Fate

A Mate's Denial

DOMINIC

“When fate whispers her name, he answers with refusal—but his wolf will never let him forget.”

I forced my eyes open, everything hazy and swimming in shadows. The steady beep…beep of a machine echoed in my ears, reminding me I was still alive—barely. My body felt like lead, every attempt to move stabbed me with weakness I couldn’t explain.

Then… she touched me.

Katherine’s hand brushed mine as her soft voice cut through the fog. “Steady yourself,” she whispered, as if her words alone could hold me together.

And somehow—they did.

A rush of energy surged through my veins, chasing away the heaviness. Strength. Heat. Life. My wolf stirred violently inside me, howling for her as if she were oxygen after drowning. For the first time since I collapsed, I didn’t feel broken. I felt whole.

But the realisation made my blood run cold.

No… this can’t be.

Katherine. My wife. My contract bride. The human I swore was nothing more than a business arrangement. She couldn’t be the reason my wolf was clawing inside me, demanding her touch like it was destiny.

“There’s a mistake,” I told myself, forcing the thought down. “She’s human. Fragile. Ordinary. She can’t be my mate.”

Feelings don’t lie, my wolf growled, his voice low and unyielding, rattling inside my skull. You feel her. You know her. She’s ours.

I clenched my teeth, refusing to accept it. No. It was impossible. Werewolves and humans were never paired—it was law, nature, fate itself. It had never happened in our history.

And yet… every beat of my heart when she touched me said otherwise.

“Where am I?” I asked, the world still a smear at the edges as I fought to sit up.

“You’re at the hospital,” Katherine said. Her voice was low, careful; worry had hollowed her cheeks. She reached for my hand like she needed proof I was still there.

I drew a ragged breath. “I’ve got work to do,” I lied, planting my feet and trying to shrug off the IV. “There’s a pile on my desk that won’t manage itself.”

Katherine’s fingers tightened around mine, firm enough to stop me. “You’re not going anywhere until the doctor says so,” she shot back, the steel in her tone surprising me. “Sit down, Dominic.”

I let out a short, humourless sound. “You sound like my assistant.”

She snorted, anger and something softer flickering in her eyes. “I’m not your assistant. I’m the woman who’s going to watch you kill yourself if you don’t slow down.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and for one beat, she looked suddenly small. “Do you understand how terrifying it was to see you fall?”

Heat crawled up my neck. “Maybe I’m scared of being useless,” I said, quieter than I meant to. “If I die, at least the empire—”

“Don’t,” she interrupted, leaning in close until I could see the tremor at the edge of her voice. “Don’t wrap your life in numbers and call it meaning. You terrified me. You think I want to lose you and spend the rest of my life with ‘if only’ carved into every morning?”

I tried to stand again, reflex and stubbornness bigger than sense, but Katherine’s hand caught my sleeve. Her jaw was set. “Next time you faint, I swear to God I’ll sign you out of the hospital and drop you at your office,” she warned, and when she said it I heard the joke and the threat both. “But if you make me sit through another night like this, I won’t pretend to be all calm about it.”

For a blink, I saw something I’d never let myself admit: she cared in a reckless, inconvenient way I hadn’t earned. It made me angry and grateful and something like afraid all at once.

I exhaled. “Fine,” I muttered, the word rough but honest. “Doctor first. Then your circus.”

She gave me a look that was half scowl, half relief, then turned and walked away, the click of her heels a small, steady rhythm in the fluorescent hush.

“Brother,” Adrian said as he eased into the room, voice low, too smooth. He kept his distance, grin half-present, like he was stepping into a play where everyone already knew his lines.

I didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Save the performance,” I snapped. My voice felt thin in the sterile air. “I heard you came because you enjoy watching me fall.”

He shrugged, the motion lazy, irritating. “We’re family, Dom. That’s what family does—turn up when the fireworks start.” He reached out and tapped my shoulder in a careless, patronising sort of way.

The touch should have been small. Instead, it made something inside me flare—annoyance, old resentment, the dull ache the sickness gave me. “This isn’t a stunt,” I said. “I have to keep playing the fool for the doctors. For Katherine.”

Adrian’s eyebrows jumped. “Katherine?” His tone was mock-surprised, but there was a knife behind it. “Since when did you grow a conscience?”

He watched me like he was waiting for me to fold, and I imagined how his mouth would curl if I showed any sign of weakness.

“Since never,” I lied, because admitting I cared felt like handing him the last piece of ammunition. Still, his presence made the room smaller, the air thicker. Adrian always had a way of making a crisis read like entertainment—and he loved being the audience.

I forced myself to lean back against the pillows, playing the role of the weak, fragile man these humans believed me to be. Katherine couldn’t suspect, none of them could. The truth about what I was—what our family was—had to stay buried.

“Adrian,” I called just as he reached the door.

He paused, turning with that bored, knowing look in his eyes.

“Tell me something,” I said carefully, my voice low, almost hesitant. “Can a werewolf ever… be mated to a human?”

For the first time since he walked in, Adrian’s expression shifted. He tilted his head, studying me, suspicion flickering in his gaze. “No,” he said flatly. “It’s never happened. And if it ever did… it would be a curse.” His words were sharp, deliberate, almost like a warning.

He rested his hand on the doorknob, then glanced back at me with narrowed eyes. “Why do you ask?”

I dropped my gaze to the floor, schooling my face into indifference. “Nothing. Just curious.”

Adrian didn’t look convinced, but he let it go, slipping out of the room with the same smooth ease he’d entered.

But his words stayed with me, striking deep like a blade. It’s never happened. And if it ever did… it would be a curse.

My chest tightened, my wolf stirring restlessly beneath my skin. The truth pressed down on me, relentless and cruel. If Katherine—sweet, fragile, human Katherine—was truly my mate, then I couldn’t keep her.

I would have to reject her.

Because an Alpha like me couldn’t be bound to weakness.

Not without destroying us both.