The Rival’s Fake Mate

Chapter 3 Silver

The hall stopped breathing.

For one suspended heartbeat, nobody moved. Nobody spoke. The candles flickered against stone walls, their flames trembling as if they understood something catastrophic had just happened.

Logan Thorn stood beside me, calm as winter.

My chest still burned from Keal’s rejection. The pain clawed through my ribs with every breath, but another sensation pushed through it now.

Shock.

Complete, absolute shock.

Keal stared at Logan like he had lost his mind. The crowd looked between us, confused and frightened.

Then Keal laughed.

A harsh, disbelieving sound.

“You can’t be serious.”

Logan finally looked at him. “I rarely waste my time joking.”

The air shifted again. Wolves near the front instinctively stepped back from him.

Keal’s golden eyes narrowed. “She is my fated mate.”

A few minutes ago, those words would have meant everything to me.

Now they sounded like poison wrapped in regret.

Logan’s expression didn’t change. “Interesting. Because a moment ago you seemed eager to get rid of her.”

Keal’s jaw tightened.

“You don’t get to walk in here and claim what belongs to my pack.”

Belongs.

The word sliced through me more cleanly than the rejection had.

I wasn’t a person to him. I was territory.

Property.

Something another Alpha might steal.

My wolf whimpered softly, wounded and exhausted.

Logan’s voice remained dangerously even. “She doesn’t belong to anyone.”

Keal took a step forward. “Reverse the claim.”

Murmurs spread through the hall.

Alpha Rowan moved off the platform, tension carved deep into his face. “Keal, think carefully before you speak.”

“No.” Keal’s gaze locked on me, fierce and possessive in a way it had never been before. “I refuse to let him take her.”

My stomach twisted.

Take me?

Minutes ago, he had stood in front of the entire pack and called me defective.

Now suddenly I was worth fighting over because Logan Thorn wanted me.

Something inside me hardened.

Keal looked at me directly. “Silver, listen to me. I spoke in anger.”

A bitter laugh almost escaped me.

Anger didn’t make someone call their mate unfit.

Anger didn’t make someone publicly humiliate a woman already hanging by a thread.

He moved closer, lowering his voice slightly. “I can reverse the rejection.”

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

My father’s head snapped up.

Even Alpha Rowan looked startled.

A rejected bond could sometimes be restored if both wolves agreed before the severing became permanent. It was rare. Painful. Dangerous.

Hope flashed across several faces around the room.

Not mine.

I looked at Keal and saw the truth clearly for the first time.

He didn’t want me.

He wanted to stop Logan from having me.

The distinction mattered.

I drew a slow breath despite the ache in my chest.

“Silver,” Keal said, more urgently now. “Choose carefully.”

Choose carefully.

As if I hadn’t spent years trying to be careful. Careful with my smile. Careful with my failures. Careful not to embarrass my family. Careful not to take up too much space while everyone waited for me to become something useful.

And where had all that carefulness brought me?

To the center of a hall full of wolves whispering about how cursed I was.

I lifted my chin.

“No.”

Silence crashed down again.

Keal blinked. “What?”

“I said no.”

The words came out steadier than I felt.

A tremor ran through my wolf as I continued, louder this time so the entire hall could hear.

“I accept your rejection, Keal Ashford.”

His face drained of color.

The bond in my chest gave another violent pull, then splintered.

Pain exploded through me.

I sucked in a sharp breath as tears burned my eyes again, but I forced myself to stay standing.

The connection snapped.

Not completely gone, but broken enough that the worst of the burning began to fade.

Keal stared at me like he couldn’t believe what I had done.

“You’re making a mistake.”

“Probably,” I admitted softly. “But it will be my mistake.”

Then I turned away from him.

Logan stood beside me, watching with unreadable silver eyes.

For a terrifying second, I wondered if he would step back now that the drama had escalated beyond amusement.

Instead, he held out his hand.

Large. Steady. Waiting.

The entire hall watched me.

My father looked horrified.

My mother had tears streaming down her face.

Every instinct screamed that this was insane.

Good.

Insane had already become my specialty tonight.

I placed my hand in Logan Thorn’s.

Warmth closed around my fingers immediately.

The contact sent a strange shiver through me—not the desperate pull of the mate bond, but something solid and grounding.

Keal’s control shattered.

“Get your hands off her!”

He lunged.

Everything happened at once.

Keal’s wolf surged beneath his skin, claws extending as he launched himself toward Logan with a furious snarl.

The crowd screamed.

Logan didn’t move.

Not even an inch.

Dark smoke erupted from beneath his boots.

It poured across the polished floor like living shadows, thick black mist swallowing the space between us and Keal in a heartbeat.

The temperature plunged.

Candles flickered violently.

The smoke rose in twisting tendrils around Logan’s body, curling over his shoulders like something alive and hungry.

I froze.

The stories were true.

Goddess.

The stories were true.

Keal skidded to a stop as the darkness slammed into him. His wolf howled inside the smoke, suddenly uncertain.

The shadows circled him, not touching him, just close enough to promise what would happen if Logan allowed them to.

Terror exploded through the hall.

Wolves stumbled backward. Some dropped to one knee instinctively. Others couldn’t even look directly at Logan anymore.

I could barely breathe.

The smoke smelled like cedar burned to ash and something ancient that made my instincts scream run.

Logan’s voice cut through the darkness, low and deadly.

“No one tries to take what is mine."

The smoke thickened and vision blurred.

Keal tried to push forward anyway but a crack was splitting through the stone floor beside his feet.

Keal's wolf howled in pain, Alpha Rowan stepped forward with both hands raised.

“Alpha Thorn, please.”

The older Alpha’s voice carried genuine fear now.

“Keal has acted foolishly. I apologize for my son.”

The shadows continued to coil through the hall.

Logan’s silver eyes remained fixed on Keal.

“One more step,” he said quietly, “and your son will learn why even my enemies avoid provoking me.”

Nobody doubted him.

Not after seeing this.

Alpha Rowan turned sharply to Keal. “Beg!"

Keal’s howls grew more erratic, his wolf on the floor forcing him to shift back. His chest heaved and his lips parted "Please"

I could hear Keal’s mom crying in the background, her sobs filling the growing chaos around us.

"Please, Alpha Logan," I heard Alpha Rowan say before the smoke slowly retreated.

It sank into the floor like ink disappearing into water until only Logan remained, perfectly composed, as if he hadn’t just terrified an entire pack with a thought.

My knees felt weak.

Logan glanced down at me briefly. “Still alive?”

A shaky laugh escaped me despite everything. “Disappointingly.”

One corner of his mouth twitched.

Alpha Rowan cleared his throat carefully. “Alpha Thorn… perhaps we should discuss this privately.”

“This?” Logan asked.

“The… situation.”

Logan looked at me first, which startled me more than the shadows had.

“Do you need anything from your home?”

The question caught me off guard.

Nobody had asked what I needed all night.

I swallowed. “My clothes. A few personal things.”

Alpha Rowan seized the opportunity. “Good. Silver can gather her belongings while you and I speak in my office. I would prefer this matter resolved without further bloodshed.”

Logan studied him for a long moment.

Then he nodded once.

“Fifteen minutes.”

Relief washed across Alpha Rowan’s face so quickly it was almost painful to watch.

Logan released my hand slowly.

The absence of his warmth felt strangely noticeable.

“I’ll be waiting in his office,” he said.

I nodded, unable to trust my voice.

As I turned toward the exit, whispers erupted behind me again.

But they sounded different now.

Not just pity.

Fear.

Fear of the woman who had walked out of the Moon Binding Ceremony holding Logan Thorn’s hand.

The night air hit my face as I hurried home.

The path to our house felt longer than it ever had before. My chest ached from the broken bond, each step sending dull throbs through my ribs.

Light spilled from the kitchen windows.

I almost kept walking.

But I had nowhere else to go.

I pushed the door open quietly.

My father stood in the center of the room waiting for me.

His expression made my stomach sink.

My mother sat at the table crying silently into a cloth.

The moment the door closed behind me, my father exploded.

“What is wrong with you?”

I flinched.

He advanced immediately. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done tonight?”

“Dad—”