The Mate He Thought Was Human

Nova’s POV I could feel something watching me but no matter where I looked, I couldn't see anything. I slowly turned, my eyes searching through the darkness. A wolf stood a few feet away, staring directly at me. I took a step back, but before I could get any farther, another wolf appeared beside it. Then another. Within moments, the darkness around me seemed to come alive with them. I expected them to attack but they didn't. Instead, they lowered their heads. I stared at them in confusion, unable to understand why they were bowing to me. Then, a voice came from somewhere behind me. "Come home." My heart stopped. I turned around but there was no one around. Then I heard the voice again, “Come home Nova”. I woke up gasping, my heart racing, fingers clutching the bedsheet. I stared around my room but could find nothing, no wolves, no strange forest but just my bedroom. I pressed a hand against my chest. “Again?” I hated these dreams not because they scared me but because they never gave me answers. Every time I thought I was getting close to understanding them, I woke up. For years, I had tried to figure them out. I had written down every detail I could remember, searched for explanations online and even asked Mum more times than I could count. She never gave me a straight answer. I was tired of being told there was nothing to understand. I wanted answers. I wanted to know why I kept dreaming about wolves, why they bowed to me, and why that voice always called my name. Maybe one day, I would finally find out. A soft knock sounded against my door. “Nova?” I quickly wiped the sweat from my forehead. “I’m awake, Mum.” The door opened slightly, and Mum peeked inside. “You’re awake already?” “Unfortunately.” Mum shook her head, trying not to smile. “Dress up for school and come downstairs. Breakfast is getting cold.” I pushed myself up against the headboard. Then, I dragged myself out of bed and stood in front of the mirror. Eighteen years old Nova stared back at me, dark curls wild from a restless night, warm brown skin, and eyes heavy with exhaustion. I had always been different. Not in ways people could easily point out. Just quiet, unsettling differences. I heard things I shouldn’t, animals reacted to me in ways they didn’t with others. ********************************* IN THE DINING ROOM… ********************************** “Mum?” She looked back. “Hmm?” I hesitated. “I had the dream again.” “You should stop thinking about this dream. It means nothing.”Her expression changed for the briefest moment. “Eat your breakfast and get going to school. Okay??” Mum said as she pecked my cheeks Deep down, inside me I knew the dream meant something. I sat down, forcing myself to eat. She moved around the kitchen with quiet care. She was constant in a life that had always felt slightly incomplete. I didn’t know where I came from, but I knew she loved me. ……………………………………… A sudden, harsh screech of brakes tore through the air, the kind of sound that makes your body react before your mind understands. That was when I saw a car coming straight at me. There was no time to move. My body froze like it didn’t belong to me anymore. The smell of burnt rubber filled the air, sharp and choking, while my heartbeat thundered in my ears. My heart was pounding, but anger quickly replaced the fear. Whoever drove like that clearly didn't care whether someone was standing in the road. The driver’s door opened. He stepped out like the crash meant nothing. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair slightly messy, like he didn’t care enough to fix it. His sharp blue eyes locked onto me immediately, irritation flashing in them like I had ruined something important. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” His voice was cold. He had nearly hit me, and somehow I was the one being scolded. I stared at his hand around my wrist, then slowly looked back at him. “You nearly ran me over,” I said. “And you're worried about me getting myself killed?” His jaw tightened. “You walked into the road without looking.” “And you were driving like the road belonged to you.” I said without looking away. Most people probably would've apologized by now. I wasn't most people. He closed the distance in seconds and grabbed my wrist before I could react. The moment his hand touched my skin, a sharp electric current shot through me. It was sudden, like my body had been struck by something invisible and alive. My breath caught so hard it hurt. My heart slammed against my ribs once, twice, then started racing like it was trying to outrun something I could not see. Everything around me began to fade. Noise blurred, movement slowed, until only that point of contact remained:his hand on mine. Then I noticed him. He did not move like everyone else. He went completely still, like the moment our skin touched, something in him recognized something in me, even if I did not understand what it was. His grip tightened slightly, not painful but certain, like he was making sure I would not disappear and that was when the strangest part hit me. I did not just feel his touch but claimed by something I did not have a name for. My thoughts scattered. My instincts told me to pull away, but my body did not listen. Because for some reason I could not explain, letting go felt like losing something I had never had before but suddenly could not live without it. He left my hand, entered into his car and drove off without saying a word. But somewhere across the city, that same man gripped his steering wheel, his thoughts unraveling around a single truth he couldn’t ignore. She is my mate. And she was human. In his world, that made her the most dangerous thing she could be