MAYA
My head spun, and my breath came out uneven from the intensity of the most shattering o****m I’d ever experienced. A small, fleeting smile tugged at the corners of my lips.
Alpha Kael is my mate.
The thought settled over me like a balm.
Finally… finally, the agonizing heat cycles would end. I had a mate now, fated to me by the Moon Goddess.
And he wanted me. No… he claimed me. With the same desperation that had clawed at my insides for years. For the first time in so long, I felt seen and wanted.
I clung to him as my heart swelled with a fragile hope that he felt the same, and that maybe this was the start of something real.
But then he pulled away without a word.
My fingers slid off his shoulder as he stood. I watched, stunned, as he reached for his clothes. The smile faded
