The Stolen Mate

Selene The first thing I noticed wasn’t the silence. It was the burn. Needles crawled beneath my skin, sharp and relentless, like fire threaded through every vein. My lungs dragged in air too heavy, too thick, as if the oxygen itself wanted me to choke on it. My head pounded with each heartbeat, a drumbeat of pain that made me want to claw my skull open just to let the pressure out. And then there was the worst thing. The silence where my wolf should have been. Not quiet. Not sleeping. Not distant. Just.. gone. I bolted upright, my breath tearing through my chest, and nearly toppled straight back into the mattress. My muscles trembled, weak as water. I reached inward, where Luna had always been, the steady presence in the back of my mind. She had been there every day of my life. My other half. My shadow. My tether. Now there were nothing. “Luna?” My whisper was raw, desperate. “Say something. Please.” The void that answered me wasn’t just silence - it was wrongness. Hollow and sharp, like jagged glass under my skin. My body itched so fiercely I dragged my nails down my arms until angry red streaks rose, but the fire inside didn’t fade. Something had happened to me. Something deliberate. A faint smell lingered in the room, sickly sweet, cloying and bitter underneath. Herbs. Spices I didn’t recognize. A drug. My gaze snapped to the door just as the first knock rattled it. “Selene?” The voice was feminine, musical, dripping with false sweetness. Lilith. My half-sister. My rival. My curse in human form. She knocked again, firmer this time. “Are you awake? You’ve got twenty minutes before the ceremony. You wouldn’t want to be late for your big moment, would you?” Her laugh followed, light and cruel, floating through the wood like poisoned honey. Ceremony. My stomach lurched. My coming-of-age ceremony. Tonight was supposed to be the night I met my fated mate, the night the Moon Goddess revealed him to me. Every wolf dreamed of it, trained for it, lived for it. That first intoxicating moment when your scents intertwined, when your wolf howled in recognition, when the world shifted and finally, finally all made sense. Except I couldn’t feel my wolf at all. And my scent… my heart plummeted as dread gnawed at me. I stumbled across the room and braced myself against the old mirror propped in the corner. A pale, sweat-slick stranger stared back at me. My hair was a dark tangle around my face, my lips bloodless, eyes wide and rimmed with red. But worse - the subtle, instinctive pull of my scent was gone. The warm spice I’d carried all my life, the one Luna used to nuzzle at, the one that was supposed to draw my mate to me was... gone. I inhaled. Exhaled. Tried again. And nearly gagged. It wasn’t me. What clung to my skin, faint but unmistakable, was hers. Lilith. Fuck. This was Lilith's scent. It twined around me like a noose, delicate and perfumed, sharp underneath. I knew it as well as my own. The same scent that used to taunt me in the training yard, when the boys looked a beat too long at her curves. The same scent that once lingered in my father’s study after she left, a reminder that no matter how hard I worked, how loyal I was, Lilith would always be the shining star in his eyes. Now it coated me. I staggered back from the mirror, bile rising in my throat. She had done something. Taken something. And with my wolf gone, my body burning, my head splitting - I had no defense. Knock. Knock. “Twenty minutes, little sister.” Her voice was sing-song. “Try not to embarrass yourself.” Her footsteps retreated down the hall, light as a cat who had just buried her claws in your back. The clock ticked in the silence she left behind. Twenty minutes. In twenty minutes, I was supposed to stand in the sacred circle, surrounded by my entire pack, and discover the one the Goddess had chosen for me. My fated mate. The Alpha. The bond every wolf longed for. But what if he couldn’t find me? What if the scent that called to him wasn’t mine at all? My hands trembled as I pressed them to the dresser, forcing myself upright. My knees threatened to buckle, but I wouldn’t collapse. I couldn’t. Not now. If Lilith thought she could take this from me, if she thought I’d just walk quietly into the fire she’d set, then she didn’t know me at all. She may have stolen my wolf. She may have stolen my scent. But she would not steal my fate. The silence pressed down harder with every tick of the clock. Five minutes. That was all I had if I wanted to face the ceremony without looking like a corpse dragged out of the woods. I lurched toward the bathroom, every step a war. The cold tiles bit into my bare feet, steadying me just enough to shove myself beneath the shower spray. The water was frigid at first, then scalding, needles against my already raw skin. I scrubbed until my arms ached, until the soap slipped from my fingers, until my nails carved half-moons into my palms. But no matter how hard I tried, the wrongness clung. My wolf was gone. My scent was tainted. Every inhale smelled like her - sweet, sharp, suffocating. “Get out of me,” I hissed, scrubbing harder, but it was useless. The mirror fogged as I stumbled back into the room, dripping, shaking. My body still burned. My head still rang. But the seconds were vanishing. The dress lay waiting at the foot of my bed: white, ceremonial, pure as moonlight. The kind of gown generations of girls had worn when stepping into the circle for the first time. Tonight, it was supposed to make me radiant. Sacred. Chosen. On me, it felt like a shroud. The fabric clung too tightly, whispering against my skin as I pulled it over my head, every brush reminding me of the fire licking beneath. My hands trembled so badly I nearly ripped the delicate stitching, but I forced the zipper closed and turned to the mirror again. A ghost stared back at me. White dress. Damp hair clinging to flushed cheeks. Eyes too wide, too red. I looked like prey dressed up for s*******r. “Fix it,” I muttered, shoving myself toward the vanity. My fingers fumbled through my tangled hair, twisting it into something simple, something that didn’t scream chaos. A touch of powder to cover the sickly pallor, a smear of color on my lips. Nothing fancy. Just enough to keep anyone from asking questions. Because if anyone asked, if anyone looked too closely, they might see the truth: that I was broken before I even stepped into that sacred circle. A single chime echoed from the hall. The signal. Five minutes. I stood on shaking legs, pressing my hands to my stomach to hold the nausea down. Every wolf in the pack would be there tonight. Every eye would be on me. Waiting to see who the Moon Goddess had chosen. What if She had chosen no one? I forced a breath into my lungs, the taste of her perfume still sharp on my tongue, and moved toward the door. My fingers curled around the handle, cold metal digging into my skin. One step forward, and there was no turning back. “Goddess,” I whispered. “If you’ve ever listened to me… please don’t abandon me now.” And with that, I stepped out into the hall.