Howl: I Met My Mate

CHAPTER 3 THE WOLF WAKES

He didn't leave.

For twenty minutes, Cade stood outside my door. I could feel him through the wood — his Alpha power pressing against it like a storm trying to get in.

I could also smell him. Pine and winter snow. And under that, fury and fear. So much fear it made my new wolf whine.

Let him in, she whispered inside my head. Our mate is hurting.

He is not our mate, I snapped back silently. He is our murderer.

She growled, confused. She didn't remember dying. She only knew the bond.

"Elara," Cade's voice came again, lower this time. He wasn't knocking anymore. "If you don't open this door in five seconds, I will break it down. And your father will make me pay for it, but I will still do it."

That was so Cade. So possessive. So certain that I belonged to him.

In my first life, I would have melted.

In this life, I stood up, wiped my tears, and opened the door myself.

He was too close. I had to tilt my head back to look at him. Up close, I could see the gold flecks in his eyes were spinning wildly. His wolf was fighting for control. His hands were fisted so tight his knuckles were white.

Behind him, the hallway was empty. My father must have dragged everyone away to give us privacy. Or Cade had ordered them away with an Alpha command.

"You lied," he said, his voice rough.

"I never lie," I said.

"Selene is not —" He stopped, jaw clenching. "How do you know about fated mates? Who told you?"

"I have always known," I said. "The whole territory knows Alpha Cade Wilder rejected his fated mate two years ago. You just never told me it was her. Your Beta's little sister."

His eyes widened. That was not public knowledge. Only his inner circle knew who his fated had been. I only knew because Selene had whispered it to me while I bled to death.

How did I explain that?

Luckily, I didn't have to. My own pain made me cruel.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out? Did you think I was so desperate to be Luna that I would marry a man who stares at another woman when he thinks I'm not looking?"

That hit. I saw it hit.

"Is that what you think?" he stepped forward, forcing me back into my room. He kicked the door shut behind him. "That I don't want you? Elara, I—"

"Don't." I held up a hand. "Don't say you love me. Not tonight."

He stared at my hand like I had slapped him.

In my first life, our first year of marriage had been... polite. He was kind. Attentive. He bought me gifts, he protected my pack, he held me at night. But he never kissed me like he was starving. He never marked me. He never lost control. He touched me like I was glass that might break.

I had thought it was because I was wolfless. Because he was being gentle.

Now I knew it was because he was holding himself back for her.

"You are under a lot of pressure," he tried again, his voice trying to be soft, Alpha-soft, the voice that made wolves obey. "Your father is sick. The silver mine—"

"Ah, the mine. There it is."

His mouth snapped shut.

"The reason you are really here," I said, and my voice finally broke. "Say it, Cade. Say you need White Moon's silver to make Blackstone untouchable. Say my father came to you begging because Rogues are attacking our borders and we have no wolf. Say marrying me is a business deal. Just say it and stop pretending this is love!"

The room went silent. So silent I could hear my own heart hammering.

Cade's face went completely blank. That was his most dangerous face. The Alpha face.

"Is that what you think I am?" he whispered. "A man who would buy a wife?"

"Isn't that what you did?"

He moved so fast I didn't see it. One second he was by the door, the next his hands were on either side of my head, caging me against the wall. Not touching me, but close enough that his heat burned me.

"Look at me," he commanded.

My wolf howled yes, Alpha inside me. My human heart said no.

I forced my eyes to his.

His golden eyes were bleeding into black. His fangs were out. He was this close to shifting inside my bedroom.

"I rejected Selene because she is cruel," he growled, each word shaking. "I rejected her because when I saw you at your father's Alpha ball three years ago, a sixteen-year-old wolfless girl who stood up to a Rogue Alpha twice her size to protect a child, I knew. I knew you were supposed to be mine. Not by fate. By choice. My choice. My wolf has not stopped wanting you since."

Tears streamed down my face before I could stop them. Three years ago? He had noticed me three years ago?

No. No, he was lying. He had to be lying. Selene had said—

A sharp, white-hot pain ripped through my spine.

I screamed.

Cade caught me as my legs gave out. "Elara!"

It felt like my bones were breaking and reforming. Like fire was being poured into my veins. My back arched. My nails dug into his arms, and I felt them sharpen.

"Get — get off—" I gasped.

"You're shifting!" Cade's voice was pure shock. "Gods, Elara, you're shifting! For the first time! You need to—"

I had never shifted. Wolfless girls sometimes shifted late, at twenty-five, but most never shifted at all. The pain was legendary. Agonizing.

But this wasn't just pain. This was power.

The voice in my head was no longer a whisper. It was a roar.

MINE. HE IS MINE. THE PACK IS MINE.

My eyes flew open. I knew they were no longer brown. They were glowing. I could see it reflected in Cade's terrified, awestruck face.

Gold. But not his gold. White-gold. Like moonlight on snow.

Outside, over the White Moon forest, every single wolf started howling at once.

And downstairs, Selene screamed.

Because she felt it too. Every wolf in a ten-mile radius felt it.

A new Alpha had just awakened.

And she was not a Luna at all.