My Alpha Bonded His Mistress at Our Ceremony

I blinked several times, staring at the message glowing on the surface of the soulstone in my palm. It felt like a blunt force had struck my chest—I couldn’t even breathe. It was an invitation sealed with moonbinding sigils, its edges laced with silver thread—a symbol of pure-blood Alpha honor. "Alpha Fernando and Bianca cordially invite you to attend their bonding oath ceremony..." My lips cracked dry. My ears rang. I read the sentence over and over again, as if hoping that, just once, it would change into something else. "No." Leona’s voice shot through my mind, low and sharp, like claws raking across stone. "This isn’t right. He’s not the Alpha meant for us." No. This had to be fake. alpha fermando is blackthorn pack’s alpha. Bianca? The Beta cousin? The one Fernando always said was “just a friend”? My hand trembled as I stared at the sender’s spirit mark—it was Bianca herself. She’d always looked down on me for being a Gamma. Never hid her disdain. This had to be a deliberate attempt to humiliate me. Or maybe… a declaration of victory. But why... why had my wolf suddenly stopped responding to Alpha Fernando’s aura? "Because he never truly responded to us." Leona scoffed, her voice tight, bitter—wounded. "You thought it was a fated resonance. But it was never mutual. Just a fantasy born of your desperation." My heart thundered against my ribs like a war drum. Fernando was my fated mate. I knew the moment I first saw him on the night of my eighteenth Moon Ceremony. We hadn’t completed the marking ritual, true, but I thought... I thought he just wasn’t ready yet. "He wasn’t unready," Leona bit out, syllables as sharp as bone, "he was never willing. You gave us to an Alpha who made a joke out of the Moon Goddess’s vow." I needed to hear him deny this bond ceremony himself. Stumbling out of the council chamber, I raced through the runestone corridor, ducked into the nearest signal tower, and clutched my soulstone tightly, channeling soul-thread to form a message imprint. Before I could activate the resonance spell, the soulstone began to pulse violently, waves of silver-blue light rising—an Alpha-tier transmission. Fernando was contacting me. Thank the Moon. He was going to explain everything. He’d say it was a misunderstanding. I accepted the call at once. “Fe—” “...Thalia? That pitiful Gamma?” His voice struck like a blade of frost, laced with mockery. I froze. Something within me began to burn—dark, painful. Like silver venom surging backward through my veins. "You hear that?" Leona’s voice trembled too, but it was like holding back a scream with gritted teeth. "He doesn’t love you. Doesn’t respect you. Doesn’t even see us as a soul worth naming." “Please. She’s just a convenient tool. Like I’d ever make her my Luna.” My hand hovered in the air, numb. “She still doesn’t know?” another male voice chimed in, full of smug amusement. “The way she worships me, it’s pathetic,” Fernando sneered. “Cooking, cleaning, managing my alliance scrolls—might as well squeeze out the last bit of usefulness.” I instinctively covered my mouth, a guttural sob caught in my throat. Shame and soul-deep agony cracked me open from the inside. "He’s tearing our soul apart." Leona’s voice lowered to a near whisper. "And you still think he deserves a single tear?" “Didn’t you send her to the High Council Summit?” someone else asked. “Of course,” Fernando said. “Told her she’d represent me. She looked like she’d been handed a shard of the moon.” I remembered that day. I was ecstatic. I thought it meant he was finally ready to acknowledge me... publicly. Their laughter sliced me over and over again. “She was just a placeholder,” Fernando said flatly. “I’ve waited years for Bianca. Thalia was never more than passing time.” The ground beneath me crumbled. My whole world began to fall. “I’ve made sure she stays clueless. Once the ceremony is over, I’ll decide what to do with her next.” “And if she finds out?” “She loves me too much. She’d drink silver venom if I told her it was moonlight.” At that moment, my soul-link with him shattered. Not because of his betrayal. But because I saw it clearly now—he had never honored the connection in the first place. I ended the soulstone call. My body shook. Tears poured uncontrollably down my face. I looked pathetic. Just like they said. I had gathered sacred spring crystals to strengthen our bond resonance, begged healing witches for sigils to purge his battle toxins, done everything I could to nurture a future he never even planned to share. "You’re not pathetic," Leona whispered softly now, like her fury had ebbed into sorrow. "You just... loved." "But now it’s time. Time to shed this disgrace. Say the words you should’ve said long ago." I knew—if I didn’t sever this mate-bond myself, I would forever be shackled to his scorn. So I spoke, voice raw but steady: “I, Thalia, rejected you, Alpha Fernando, as my mate.” A faint trail of lunar markings faded from my shoulder. The bond could never be reforged. The marking ritual would never happen. And then Leona roared within me— “We are free!” I stood tall, wiped my tears, and untied the heartward talisman wrapped around my wrist. I was no longer the little she-wolf waiting in the shadows for love. I opened the hidden imprint archive in my soulstone and accessed a sealed frequency. “Alpha Ross,” I said, my voice calm and sure, “I’m ready to become your mate.” He was the alpha of sliverclaw pack. There was a brief silence. Then his voice came through—deep, steady, and gentle: “I’m glad,” he said. “Call me Ross.”