The Mate He Thought Was Human

Chapter 5

Nova's POV

Damien was silent for several seconds. His eyes stayed on mine.

“Theirs.”

My heart stopped. “What are you saying?”

Damien didn't answer immediately. He just looked at me and for a moment the entire room felt like it was holding its breath. Something was shifting in his expression like a man deciding how much weight a person could carry before it became too much.

He took a slow breath. “I’m saying, Nova... you were never human.”

Before I could ask what he meant, a knock sounded at the door.

Beta Jace stepped in without waiting. His posture was straight, his voice low and controlled, but something underneath it was urgent.

"Alpha." He glanced briefly at me then back at Damien. "We have a situation. Northern border. Three rogues. They crossed twenty minutes ago and they're still moving."

Damien's expression changed instantly. Whatever had been in his eyes a moment ago was gone, replaced by something harder and more familiar. He stood.

"How many confirmed?" he asked.

"Three visible. Possibly more hanging back."

Damien's entire expression hardened. “Lock down the northern border.”

Jace nodded.

“And nobody leaves the pack grounds until I return.”

“Especially her.” He looked at me briefly, just long enough to say something without saying it and then, they were gone. The door clicked shut behind him.

I sat there staring at the space where he had been.

He had left without answering me.

My question was still hanging in the air, unanswered and heavy, pressing against the inside of my chest like something that needed to get out. I stood slowly and walked to the window.

The forest stretched endlessly in every direction. Dense and green and completely still from where I stood, though I knew from what I had already seen that still didn't mean empty. There was life out there. An entire world operating by rules I didn't know existed forty-eight hours ago.

Not the attack. Not the growl that had vibrated in my chest before everything went dark. Not even Damien telling me calmly that werewolves were real and that I was sitting in the middle of their territory. All of that should have felt impossible. It should have sent every rational part of me scrambling for an explanation.

I should have felt terrified but instead, something about this place felt strangely familiar.

I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know how to explain it. And I wasn't sure I wanted to.

I was still at the window when the door opened again.

I turned expecting Beta Jace or maybe the older woman with the kind eyes but It wasn't either of them.

The girl who stepped in was around my age, maybe slightly older, with sharp features and the kind of posture that made it clear she had never once doubted whether she belonged somewhere. Her eyes moved over the room first and then landed on me, and whatever she found clearly didn't impress her.

"You're awake," she said. It wasn't warm.

"Apparently," I said.

She stepped further into the room, arms crossed, gaze steady and assessing. "How long is Alpha Damien planning to keep a human here?"

The word landed differently than it should have but something about hearing it said like a category I had been placed in without my consent made. Something quiet and unnameable stir in my chest that I immediately pushed back down.

"I don't know," I said carefully. "I didn't exactly choose to be here."

"No," she said. "But you're here. “Humans don't belong here. And bringing one into the middle of pack business puts everyone at risk. She is going to be a problem here.”

She wasn't shouting, wasn't threatening me with anything specific but the way she said it made it clear she wasn't talking about me getting hurt. She was talking about what my presence here might cost them.

I held her gaze. "I'm not trying to cause problems. I'm trying to go home."

"Then go."

“Believe me, I didn't ask to be here.” I said

“But you're here now.” Lena said.

Something flickered in her expression. Not quite surprise. More like irritation at an obstacle she hadn't accounted for.

The door opened again and Beta Jace stepped in. His eyes moved to the girl first then to me.

"Lena," he said quietly.

The girl turned. "She shouldn't be here, Jace."

"Alpha Damien brought her in," he said. "That means she stays until he says otherwise."

"She's human."

"She's a guest," Beta Jace said. His voice didn't rise but it didn't need to. There was a weight behind it that made Lena go quiet in a way that told me exactly where Beta Jace stood in this pack's structure. "Treat her accordingly."

Lena looked at me one more time. Then she uncrossed her arms, straightened her shoulders and walked toward me with her hand extended. The hostility hadn't disappeared. It had just been set aside carefully and temporarily.

"Lena," she said.

I shook her hand. "Nova."

She nodded once and left without another word.

Beta Jace waited until the door closed before turning back to me. He looked at me the way he had before, that same careful, slightly too long assessment that I couldn't quite read. Like he was looking for something he wasn't sure he was going to find.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” I asked.

His expression barely changed. “Like what?”

“Like you're trying to figure out something.”

For the first time, he looked away. “Maybe I am.”

"Sorry about what Lena said," he said. "Pack members can be protective of their territory."

"She called me a problem." I said.

"She called your presence a problem," he said. "There's a difference." He pulled the chair from beside the desk and sat down unhurriedly.

"How's your head?"

"Still attached," I said. "I need to go home."

He didn't look surprised. "I know."

"My mother doesn't know where I am. She will be worried. She will probably already be calling people." I paused. "She doesn't even know what happened to me."

Beta Jace was quiet for a moment. "I understand," he said finally. "But you can't leave without Alpha Damien's permission. Not from here."

"Why not?"

"Because this is pack territory," he said simply. "And right now the same people who came after you tonight are still out there. Letting you walk out alone would be sending you directly back to them."

I hated that he was making sense but I wanted to go home. I wanted my mother but the memory of those men chasing me down the street was still too fresh. Leaving now might mean walking straight back into their hands.

"When will he be back?" I asked.

"When the situation is handled," Beta Jace said. "It shouldn't be long."

I sat back down on the edge of the bed. "Fine."

Beta Jace stood. He paused at the door and looked back at me with that same expression.

" Try to rest. Nobody will touch you while you're under Alpha Damien's protection.”he said.

“You look familiar,” he said.

My stomach tightened. “From where?”

He stood. “I don't know.”

Then he left.

The room was quiet again.

I lay back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling, listening to the pack house settle around me.

I thought about Mrs Lina, whether she had called the school. Whether she was sitting at the kitchen table with cold tea and her phone in her hand waiting for me to walk through the door.

I thought about the dream. I thought about what Damien had said.

Wolves don't bow to humans.

I was still turning that over when I heard it.

A howl.

It came from somewhere deep in the forest, long and low and unlike anything I had ever heard. Not the kind of sound you heard in films or read about in books. This was something else entirely. Something that seemed to travel not just through the air but through the ground, through the walls, through whatever space existed between outside and in.

I sat up slowly.

The howl should have frightened me but instead, my entire body went still because something inside me had responded to it. Something quiet and instinctive that moved before I could stop it, like a reflex I hadn't known I had. Like something in my chest recognizing a sound it had been waiting to hear.

I pressed my hand against my chest.

The howl came again.

And this time, something inside me answered.

I froze.

What was happening to me