The Mate Who Chose Herself

The Woman Who Vanished

The night is merciless.

I run through the darkened forest, boots sinking into the wet earth, branches tearing at my clothes and hair. The world smells of pine, wet soil, and fear. My wolf thrashes within me, desperate, hungry, terrified, and yet oddly exhilarated. She knows this is survival, but survival is nothing compared to the anger thrumming in my chest.

Every breath I take tastes of betrayal and iron. Rowan. My mate. The Alpha who denied me. The bond that screamed for him and was ignored. And now… a child. My child. Rowan’s child.

I keep moving. The pack estate disappears behind me, swallowed by darkness. I do not look back. Not once.

The wind carries noises I cannot identify, rustling leaves, distant snapping twigs, but the forest is alive with more than just wildlife. My senses are heightened, sharpened by the bond and the terror. My wolf sniffs the air, growls low, warning me: danger is near.

I ignore her. Survival demands speed, not caution.

Hours later, I stumble onto a desolate highway. The pavement glistens with rain, empty and silent under the ghostly glow of streetlamps. My legs ache, muscles screaming, but I force myself onward. My mind is consumed with the chaos I left behind and the life beating within me, warm and insistent.

I pause, trying to catch my breath. I glance around.

And that’s when I see them.

Two figures, emerging from the shadows. Wolves. Not my kind, but their presence sends a spike of fear through me that feels almost tangible. They move with precision, predatory grace, eyes glinting in the faint light.

My wolf snarls, teeth bared, claws itching against my ribs. Fight. Run. Decide.

I run.

The first steps are clumsy, my boots slipping on wet asphalt, but instinct and adrenaline take over. My heart thunders so loudly I can almost hear it in the trees. Behind me, the footsteps multiply. They are faster than me. Too fast.

Panic claws at my chest. I’m not trained for this. I’m not a fighter. I’m a woman carrying a child. Yet somehow, somewhere inside, I know I cannot stop. I cannot be caught.

I stumble again, my wrist scraping against the ground. Pain shoots up my arm, but I do not stop.

Then,

A sudden movement. A shadow descending from the darkness. One of the attackers lunges. I barely have time to register before a figure intercepts, a blur of motion, and the man knocks the wolf aside with precision I cannot comprehend.

He lands in front of me, blocking the second figure. The world narrows to him. Cold eyes. Lean, deadly calm. Every inch of him radiates lethal intent.

“You’re safer with me than without me,” he says, voice low, controlled, without a hint of question.

The words hit me like a thunderclap. My wolf growls low, cautious, intrigued. Choose. Follow. Trust.

I stare. The stranger does not ask my name. He does not ask why I am bleeding, why I am running, why the weight of Rowan’s rejection and the life inside me have driven me to this forested highway. He only waits.

I have no choice.

“Yes,” I whisper. “I… I’ll go with you.”

He offers a hand, strong and steady. I take it. And suddenly, the world shifts.

We move fast. Silent. Efficient. Every step calculated. Every shadow observed. He does not speak again, but I feel his awareness, the constant scanning of the forest, the road, the world beyond the trees. My wolf relaxes slightly, sensing safety where there should be none.

Hours later, we stop at a safehouse perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. The building is stark, modern, almost military in its precision. Inside, the air is cold, sterile, yet safe.

“Stay here,” he says, placing a hand against the wall, scanning the perimeter with eyes that miss nothing. “Do not leave.”

I sink to the floor, exhausted. My body shakes with relief and terror and the weight of everything I’ve run from, and the weight of the life I carry.

“Who are you?” I ask, voice trembling.

He doesn’t answer immediately. His gaze lingers on me, assessing. Measuring. Watching.

“Silas Moretti,” he finally says. “You don’t need to know why I’m here. Not yet. All you need to know is that if you trust me, you live. If you don’t… you die.”

The clarity of his words is almost comforting. For the first time, someone is not hesitant, not cautious, not conditional. He simply chooses me.

I close my eyes. My wolf curls inside me, cautious but relieved. Someone has chosen us without condition. Finally.

---

The night stretches. Silas sets up a small perimeter, checking locks, windows, and exits. Every shadow is accounted for. Every potential threat mapped. I sit against the wall, feeling the weight of the world pressing against me.

My hand instinctively goes to my stomach. The baby moves, faint, tentative, but alive. Rowan’s child. My child. I feel the bond, still thrumming faintly, buried under fear, anger, and exhaustion.

Silas doesn’t speak. He doesn’t watch me. He simply allows me to exist in the room, breathing, trembling, alive.

Hours pass. I do not sleep easily. My wolf prowls, senses strained, aware. And then, something shifts.

A flicker of… recognition.

Another presence. Faint, almost imperceptible. But it is there. A bond. Not Rowan’s, not mine, but something new. Something alive. Something that awakens a part of me I had buried deep inside.

I freeze. My wolf growls. Someone else. Not him. Not now.

The sensation is fleeting. It disappears as quickly as it arrives, leaving only questions.

I clutch my stomach and breathe slowly. I am not alone. But who is watching? Who is connected to me, to this new life, in a way I cannot yet understand?

---

Morning comes, gray and silent. The sea beyond the cliff shimmers, cold and indifferent. Silas moves with quiet efficiency, setting food and water before returning to his watch. I sit wrapped in a blanket, hands resting over my stomach, feeling the warmth, the small pulses of life.

“Why did you save me?” I ask, voice trembling. “Why… me?”

Silas’s eyes meet mine, sharp and unreadable. “Because you had no one else. And because leaving you to them would have been a mistake.”

“Who are ‘they’?” My wolf stiffens at the word. Danger. Predator.

“That doesn’t matter right now.” His tone brooks no argument. “What matters is that you survive. That child survives. That is all you focus on.”

I nod, though I do not fully understand. My mind is too full of Rowan, of betrayal, of loss, and now… of Silas. A stranger who somehow makes me feel safe without a single touch, without a single word of comfort.

---

The days blur. I remain hidden. Silas moves like a ghost, unseen but always present. He is a shadow in the corner of my vision, a shield I cannot see, a promise I do not fully trust. My wolf tests him constantly, sniffing, probing, sensing danger, but even she hesitates, reluctant to reject the calm certainty of his presence.

And then, one night, as I drift into a light sleep for the first time since leaving the Hale estate, I feel it again.

A bond. Faint. Almost imperceptible. Like a whisper of wind against my skin.

I bolt upright. My wolf snarls. Something has changed.

The presence is close. Too close.

And yet… it feels familiar.

Not Rowan. Not my child. Someone else. Someone my wolf recognizes. Someone whose name I do not know, whose face I have never seen.

And it terrifies me.

As I sit shivering against the cold stone wall, clutching the life inside me, I realize something impossible:

Silas Moretti isn’t just a protector.

My wolf recognizes him.

The memory, faint, buried, almost erased, whispers in my mind. A warning. A truth I cannot yet grasp.

Who is Silas Moretti… and why does my wolf remember him?

Something dangerous, inevitable, and inescapable is coming.

And I have no idea how to survive it.