Mated to my target

Dragged into his world

SELENE'S POV

Pain brought me back to consciousness, sharp in my ribs, like someone was kicking them, then spread to the throbbing behind my left eye and my right wrist where the chains had bitten deepest. I opened my eyes slowly, carefully.

I'm not dead.

I dragged my gaze to an unfamiliar ceiling above me, white stone, smooth, nothing like the rough walls of the compound where I lost consciousness. I stared at it for a moment, assessing the softness beneath me, the warmth, the smell of clean linen.

I sat up slowly. My head swam. My ribs ached with every breath and there was a bandage wrapped around my left forearm that had not been there before. Someone had treated my wounds while I was unconscious. Someone had also changed my clothes.

The last I remembered was a group of men entering our cage, the sounds of a raid somewhere above us. I had been too weak to register it before darkness took me.

"You're finally awake," a sweet voice said, drawing me from my thoughts.

A woman stood at the foot of the bed. Warm brown skin, hair pulled back, Beautiful.

"How are you feeling?" Her voice was warm. "The healers weren't sure you'd make it through the night."

Everything about her was warm. I don't trust it.

"Where am I?" I asked. My voice came out rougher than I expected.

"Somewhere safe." She tilted her head slightly.

" Can you tell me your name?"

Somewhere safe is not an answer. She was avoiding the question, but she made it feel reassuring.

"Selene," I said. Just the name, nothing else.

"Selene." She repeated it like she was testing it. "I am Lily, Lily Ashveil, Do you remember what happened to you?"

I remembered enough. The compound. The cage. The darkness that had come after. What I did not remember and what I needed to understand before I said anything else, was how I had gotten here and whose bed I was currently sitting on.

"Some of it," I said carefully. "The compound." I stopped, letting her fill the silence if she wanted to.

She did not fill it, instead, she just watched me with patient eyes and waited. But I did not say anything more.

"We pulled you out of the ironfang holding cells three days ago,The ironfang Alpha is dead, Most of his pack members too, The pack doesn't exist anymore, You were one of the few we found still breathing " she said finally. "You were brought here for treatment."

"Brought here? Where is here?"

She smiled again, still warm. "We will get to that, tell me about yourself first," She leaned forward slightly." Where are you from? How did you end up in that compound?"

Then it dawned on me, the real reason she was acting as she did was that she was trying to gather information. She wanted my story before I had a chance to construct one.

I gave her the pieces of a cover I built on the spot.

"I am packless, I was wandering and unfortunately I landed at the wrong place at the wrong time." Safe truths and careful half-lies stitched up together just enough information to give. She listened to every word with that same expression, warm, attentive, filling everything I said.

She was opening her mouth to press further when the door opened and I forgot what Lily and I were talking about.

A man walked in. He was Broad, had dark bronze skin and gold eyes that swept the room once and landed on me like they had been looking for me specifically.

My wolf went feral. My wolf had always been calm. Controlled. But right now she was clawing at the inside of my chest. desperate to get out. Heat exploded behind my breastbone, and my breath snagged hard. I gripped the sheets on the bed so hard trying to contain it that my knuckles went pale.

Mate.

The word tore through me before I could process what was happening to me properly. His scent hit me next like fire and honey, sharp and sweet, invading every corner of my mind. It was so intoxicating, I couldn't pull away. I wanted more than just to perceive his scent.

I couldn't look away, I couldn't breathe properly. For a long moment, I wasn't a person with pain or a painful past. I was nothing but the pull, the ache, and the recognition and certainty that this man standing before me is MINE and I am HIS.

Calm down, Selene. You don't know this man. You don't know where you are.

I made myself breathe. Slow, in and out through the mouth. The same way I had taught myself to breathe through pain when I was seventeen and had nothing left.

Then his eyes moved from me to Lily.

She had gone completely still. I watched her gaze drop to the space between us and I knew she felt it. Her chest rose, her jaw tightened and without saying a word, she left slamming the door behind her.

The door had barely stopped shaking when his eyes came back to me. Steady. Unbothered.

"How do you feel right now? I hope the pain has subsided a little," he asked in a soft tone, gently touching my forehead

"A little," I managed, trying to recover from the chills his hands just gave me.

He began tending to my wounds, and he gently lifted my legs to examine my dislocated ankle. His hands traced the curve of my ankle, as he dabbed ointment onto the scrape on my knee, blowing air on it to ease the pain before carefully wrapping it in a bandage.

Every touch lingered, Shivers ran down my spine with every touch, a warmth blooming in me that had nothing to do with the injury. I tried to tell myself that it was just care, but my body refused to listen.

"Rest. Once you've recovered, there will be questions and your answers will decide your place here." With that he left the room, The door clicked shut behind him, and his scent began to thin.

I sat in silence and tried to breathe normally, but my chest was not cooperating. That pull, that warmth was still there even now.

A few minutes passed, then the door opened and a young girl came in carrying a tray, she set it down and turned to go.

"Wait please." She stopped. "Where am I ?"

She looked at me like the question surprised her. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Duskblood pack," she said simply. "Alpha Nightbane's stronghold." She walked out and closed the door.

Duskblood pack.

I said it again in my head, slower, maybe the second time it would make more sense.

The man with gold eyes. The one who had walked through that door and undone seven years of discipline. The one about whom my wolf would not stop screaming about even till now. was Draven Nightbane.

I looked down at my hands. They were shaking.

Seven years of planning, seven years of building walls and telling myself I was ready for anything.

I had woken up inside my enemy's territory. My fated mate was the Alpha I had spent seven years loathing.

And Lily,

She is his.