The Mate Who Chose Herself

Blood, Bond, and Betrayal

The world tastes of iron.

It wakes me before I do. The sharp tang of it clinging to my tongue, burning my nostrils. My chest heaves, every breath a struggle as I realize what I’m seeing.

Blood.

Streaked across the white sheets, soaking into the mattress in places I cannot bear to look. I collapse back against the headboard, knees drawn to my chest, and the panic hits me like a storm. My wolf scrambles, frenzied, clawing against the tight cage of my ribs.

This isn’t supposed to happen. Not like this.

I curl further into myself, shivering. The bond with Rowan still pulses beneath my skin, fierce and alive, an echo of rejection that I’ve been carrying like a wound. But this… this is something else. Something sharp, terrible, and beyond my comprehension.

I’m not alone for long. A soft knock at the door, hesitant, polite.

“Nyssa?” The voice is calm, soothing, but it sets my nerves on fire. Maelis, the pack healer, slips inside the room before I can answer. Her eyes widen slightly, taking in the blood, the trembling, the fear.

“You… you need to calm yourself,” she says gently. “Sit down. Breathe.”

I shake my head. “No, no… you don’t understand. Something’s wrong.” My hands tremble as I pull at the sheets. “I can feel it. Something is, ”

She kneels beside me, hands warm against my cold skin. “I know,” she whispers, almost to herself. Then her gaze hardens. “Nyssa, you’re carrying a child. Alpha blood.”

The words hang in the air like a blade. My mind seizes. Alpha blood. Rowan’s child.

The room tilts.

“Pregnant?” I croak, voice hoarse. “But… that’s impossible… He, he chose her. He, he denied me.” My wolf growls low in my chest, teeth unseen, claws scraping against my ribs. Impossible does not exist when the bond has chosen.

Maelis nods slowly. “It is true. You’re carrying Rowan’s heir. And you, ” She hesitates, glancing at me with concern that doesn’t reach my panic. “You must be careful. If anyone discovers this… the consequences will be catastrophic.”

I swallow. My throat feels raw. “Catastrophic? What… what would they do?”

Her eyes meet mine, sharp, steady. “They would take the child. Or erase it.”

The words make my heart hammer like a drum. Erase. The very concept makes my stomach twist. My wolf snarls and snaps, unable to calm the panic clawing at the edges of my mind.

I stare at the ceiling, breathing shallow, trying to make sense of a world that has suddenly turned upside down. Rowan. My mate. My Alpha. My bond.

And now… a child.

I don’t know whether to scream or to weep.

Before I can do either, the door bursts open. My mother steps in. Not gentle. Not comforting. She smells of power, control, and disappointment.

“Nyssa,” she says, voice low butcutting, “what have you done?”

I flinch. Her eyes are cold, assessing. Not a mother’s warmth, but a pack leader’s calculation. “I, ” I try to speak, but she cuts me off.

“You’ve done something dangerous. Reckless. Irresponsible. Carrying his child… after he rejected you… after the council…” Her words are sharp as knives. “Do you know what this means? If anyone finds out, this child will destabilize the entire pack. If you aren’t careful…” She doesn’t finish the sentence, but I don’t need her to. The threat is clear. Erasure. Disappearance. Death by omission.

I clutch the sheets. “So what am I supposed to do? Hide it? Pretend it doesn’t exist?”

Her gaze softens ever so slightly, but only for a fraction of a heartbeat. “You survive. That is all. And you must protect it. No one else can. Not him. Not your father. Not even your sister.”

I let out a shaky breath. My mind reels. My wolf snarls inside me, furious, betrayed, confused. He is ours. He chose wrong. He is mine.

And yet Rowan, he remains unclaimed, distant, untouchable.

I know I cannot stay.

I leave the pack healer’s cabin and wander the halls of the Hale estate, silent, unseen. The bond thrums against my ribs, a living reminder of the mate who denied me, of the life growing inside me that he will never claim.

Eventually, I can’t ignore it any longer. I need answers. I need the truth.

I find Rowan in the private study, his silhouette outlined against the city lights pouring through floor-to-ceiling windows. He doesn’t turn when I enter. He knows I’ve come. He always knows.

“Rowan,” I say, voice steadier than I feel. “We need to talk.”

He finally looks at me. His eyes are dark, unreadable, but I feel it, the flicker, the c***k of something raw beneath the surface. Not anger. Not dominance. Vulnerability.

“Sit,” he says quietly.

I remain standing. “No. I need to know. Did you feel it?”

He stiffens. His jaw tightens. “Yes. I felt it.”

My chest seizes. “And yet you chose her?”

His shoulders sag slightly. The controlled, unyielding Alpha mask falters. “Yes. I chose her.”

I blink, searching for any hint of shame, regret, anything. I see… almost nothing. Just the weight of his decision, of the empire he’s built, of the political war he’s fighting.

“Why?” I demand, voice rising. “Why me? Why did my wolf scream at you and it didn’t matter? Why, ”

“You’re not weak,” he interrupts, quiet but sharp. “Nyssa, you were never the problem. You… were inconvenient.”

Inconvenient. The word echoes inside me like a dagger. Never weak. Never wrong. Just… inconvenient.

I stare at him. My chest burns. My wolf snarls, claws unsheathed. He is mine. He is ours.

He does not flinch. Does not apologize. Does not reach.

“I am carrying your child,” I whisper. “And you… you let me leave. You let me be erased.”

Rowan leans back against the massive desk, eyes dark. “You’re stronger than you think. That is all you need to know. I cannot claim you. I cannot claim the bond. I cannot… love you. Not publicly. Not now. Not ever without risking everything I’ve built.”

I laugh, bitter and hollow. “Love? You call this love? Love would have meant choosing me.”

“Choosing you,” he says, soft and terrible, “would have destroyed everything.”

The words hang in the air, suffocating, undeniable.

I realize then, fully, that this is not weakness. This is survival. He survived. He won.

But I will survive too.

That night, I pack quickly. My hands shake, but I work efficiently. I take only what I can carry, what can keep me alive on the road. Clothes, supplies, a small knife, a satchel. And the tiny life I cradle against me with every careful movement.

The hallways are silent, the estate sleeping under the weight of power, wealth, and inherited dominance. I slip out through a side door, heart pounding. I do not look back.

The city stretches before me, dark and dangerous. My wolf whispers warnings, but beneath them lies something else, anticipation, excitement, determination. Survival is no longer enough. I will not just survive. I will protect what Rowan refused to claim.

The night swallows me whole.

And somewhere behind me, Rowan watches.

He does not move. He does not call. He does not stop me.

He lets me go.

I walk for hours, along empty highways and through forests, avoiding any human settlement. My body is weary, my mind spinning, but the tiny heartbeat against my ribs is stronger than anything I have ever known. It is real. It is mine. And it is more important than the pack, the council, or even Rowan.

Somewhere along the way, I realize something else. My wolf feels it too, a faint, impossible stirring. Another presence. Another bond. Not as strong as Rowan’s, not yet, but undeniable. It is faint, tentative, and it sends a thrill through me I do not understand.

Who, who could it be?

I shiver at the thought. The pack cannot protect me. Rowan will not. And yet… I am not entirely alone.

I continue walking into the night, knowing nothing is the same. The world I left behind is gone. The life I am carrying is the only thing that matters now.

And I do not know who will find me first, the friend, the enemy, or something… else entirely.

As I collapse beneath the twisted roots of an ancient oak, the wind sharp against my skin, I clutch the tiny life against my chest and realize, I am being watched.

A shadow moves among the trees, deliberate, silent. Not human. Not entirely.

And my wolf howls.

Something impossible is coming for me.