Chapter 2: A Scent That Isn’t Mine
1076 Words
The full moon hung heavy in the sky, casting silver light over the packhouse. The celebrations were in full swing—the Alpha King had come to Silverfang Pack to search for his mate. I watched from the edges, the place I had always belonged, as wolves laughed, drank, and danced beneath the stars.
Mates found each other tonight. I knew that. I had spent my childhood dreaming of this moment, only to have those dreams shattered long ago.
I had no mate. And if I did, he did not want me.
“You should be resting,” my friend Cassia said, appearing beside me. Her long, golden hair shimmered in the moonlight, her striking blue eyes filled with mischief. She was the Beta’s daughter, beautiful and strong. Everything I was not.
I forced a small smile. “You know I don’t fit in with them.”
Cassia rolled her eyes. “That’s because you hide in the infirmary all day. Come on, just enjoy the night for once.”
I turned to argue, but then I felt it—an invisible force gripping my chest, my lungs, my very soul.
A scent.
It hit me like a storm—rich, intoxicating, and completely overwhelming. It was warm spice and wild cedar, laced with dominance and raw power.
The crowd shifted, parting as if fate itself had commanded them to.
And then, he was there.
Alpha King Killian.
His golden eyes darkened with something primal, something possessive. His body went rigid as he inhaled deeply.
And then, to my horror, his gaze landed on Cassia.
The world tilted.
Cassia gasped, stepping back as if struck. “K-Killian?”
A cruel smirk tugged at his lips as he stalked toward her, his eyes glowing with undeniable certainty. “Mate.”
The word shattered me.
No.
No, this wasn’t right.
Cassia wasn’t his mate.
But she smelled like she was.
And I…I smelled like nothing at all.
Alpha Killian’s POV: The Moment Fate Betrayed Me
The scent struck me like a thunderclap.
It wasn’t gradual or subtle—it was instant, primal, a force that wrapped around my senses and dug its claws into my soul. It was intoxicating—wild cedar and something rich, something mine.
For a moment, the world around me ceased to exist. The music, the laughter, the clinking of goblets—all of it faded into a dull hum as my instincts sharpened. My wolf rose, prowling beneath my skin, demanding that I find her.
My mate.
The one the Moon Goddess had chosen for me.
The crowd parted before me, a sea of meaningless faces, until my gaze locked onto a single pair of wide blue eyes.
Cassia.
The Beta’s daughter.
My mate.
The certainty hit me like a blow. My entire body tensed as my wolf howled in triumph. The bond was there—I could feel it, thrumming beneath my skin like a fire that had just been lit.
But something was wrong.
My mate should have been drawn to me. She should have been unable to look away, her body should have instinctively reached for mine just as mine did for hers.
But Cassia…
She stumbled back.
Fear flickered in her eyes. Not desire. Not recognition.
And then—
I smelled it.
Lurking beneath the intoxicating scent of my supposed mate was something foreign. Something off.
A second scent—one that didn’t belong to her.
My wolf snarled, rage boiling in my chest.
Something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.
Cassia gasped, shaking her head as she whispered, “K-Killian?”
She looked just as confused as I felt. My jaw clenched. I took a step closer, watching her reaction carefully. She stiffened, her breathing shallow, her hands trembling slightly.
A smirk pulled at my lips, but it wasn’t amusement I felt. It was suspicion.
“Mate,” I said.
I waited for the bond to settle. For the magnetic pull to demand I claim her.
But it never came.
And in the corner of my vision, another figure stood frozen.
Selene.
She stood at the edge of the gathering, hidden in the shadows as she always was, her body rigid, her face pale.
My golden gaze flicked to her for only a second—long enough to see the devastation in her eyes.
Something twisted inside me.
Something dark.
Why did she look like she had just been ripped apart?
And why—when I looked at her—did my wolf whimper?
Cassia’s POV: A Stolen Fate
I couldn’t breathe.
The Alpha King’s golden eyes bore into mine, his voice thick with finality as he uttered the word that sent my entire world spiraling out of control.
“Mate.”
No.
No, no, no—this wasn’t supposed to happen.
A cold sweat broke out along my spine as every wolf in the courtyard turned to look at me. Their eyes were wide with shock, but none as wide as my own.
This wasn’t real.
It couldn’t be real.
I wasn’t his mate.
But he thought I was.
Because I carried the scent of his fated one.
Selene’s scent.
Guilt clawed at my throat, suffocating me as I stole a glance at her. She was standing just beyond the light, hidden in the shadows as she always was, but this time—this time, she looked like she had been shattered into a thousand pieces.
I knew that look. I had caused that look.
Because I had taken something from her.
Something that wasn’t mine.
My hands trembled at my sides. I hadn’t meant for it to go this far—I had only wanted to know what it was like. To be noticed. To be desired the way only a fated mate could be.
But I hadn’t realized the consequences.
I hadn’t realized it would bind the most powerful Alpha in existence to me.
Killian took a step closer, his scent—dark, dominant, overwhelming—wrapping around me like an iron cage. I swallowed hard, every instinct screaming at me to run.
I didn’t want this.
I had dreamed of finding my mate, of experiencing that once-in-a-lifetime pull that everyone spoke about, but this wasn’t it. This was wrong.
I knew it.
Selene knew it.
But Killian…
He didn’t.
And if he ever found out—if he ever realized that the mate bond he felt wasn’t real—
I would be dead.
- Writer
