ALPHA'S ACCIDENTAL MATE

SELENE The night before my wedding should have been a dream. I should have been picturing myself wearing the beautiful wedding dress and accepting Jasper as my husband. But instead, I'm standing at the door of the guest room in my house, staring at the scene that will break me forever. Jasper is naked. Entwined with Celeste's body. My older sister. The woman who always said she was better than me. The one who always laughed when people said I would become Luna one day. My fingers freeze on the doorknob. The taste of bile rises in my throat. For a second, I think I’m imagining it. But then, he sees me. "Selene, this isn’t what it looks like." My voice comes out like a sharp whisper. "Isn’t it? You’re f*****g my sister a day before our wedding, you traitor!" Celeste laughs. She doesn’t even try to cover herself. She just looks at me like she’s savoring my pain. "Don’t cry, little sister. You were never good enough for him, Selene. Someone had to show you before it was too late." My hands shake. My heart races. I feel like I’m suffocating. "Be a good girl and leave the room so we can finish what we were doing." I look at Jasper, who no longer looks at me. I feel the tears in my eyes. I feel rage. Rage for being so foolish. I don’t answer. I just take a step back. Then another. And then I turn around and run. I run as if hell itself is chasing me. As if running could erase the image burned into my memory. The rain hits me like blades. The light dress I wore to the rehearsal dinner is soaked in seconds. My high heels sink as they hit the mud. But I don’t stop. The whole world is collapsing with me. And no one runs after me. I leave the mansion. I leave my family. I leave everything. For two years I thought Jasper loved me, but now I see he didn’t. I walk with no idea where I’m going. I just want to disappear. Drown in something that isn’t this pain. When I see a faint light in the trees, I approach it like I’m following a calling. A tavern. The wooden sign swings in the wind: Broken Moon. I enter, pushing the door with my shoulder. The wood creaks loudly. Inside, the smell is strong — alcohol, smoke, and the stench of tired werewolves. Several eyes turn to me. But none stay longer than two seconds. No one cares about a wet, trembling werewolf with puffy eyes from crying. I sit at the bar, not looking at anyone. "Something strong," I say. "The strongest drink you’ve got." The bartender watches me for a moment, then sets a cracked glass in front of me. I drink without thinking. It burns. It’s awful. But that’s what I want. I want to burn from the inside until I forget. "It’s not common to see a female werewolf drinking alone like this." The voice comes from my right. It’s deep, slow, almost mocking. I turn slowly. He’s sitting in the corner of the bar, holding a bottle. He’s dirty, unshaven, and has golden eyes. His clothes are worn, covered in dry mud. But something about him makes me hesitate. A stranger. Just a regular man, maybe. "Drinking to forget life, little werewolf?" "Maybe." "Must’ve been something serious." He spins the bottle in his hand. "Love? Family? Or both?" I let out a bitter laugh. "Both." "Want to tell someone who won’t judge you?" I don’t know why, but I tell him. I talk about Jasper. About Celeste. About the shame. The rage. About how pathetic I feel. He listens to everything without interrupting. Without reacting. Just drinks and listens. "Don’t cry for those who laughed at you," he says, once I fall silent. "If they hurt you, then hurt them. Do better than them." "Easy for you to say." "What’s your name?" he asks, drinking more. "Selene. And you?" "Kael." I raise an eyebrow, holding back a smile. "Kael from where?" "Just Kael." I sigh, ordering another drink and keep talking: "Well, Selene. I’m just telling you the truth." "What do you mean?" He gets up from the dark table and sits beside me. I blink, watching him more closely. Around his neck is a necklace with a symbol of a wolf howling at the moon. I’ve never seen anything like it before. "If they betrayed you, then betray them." I stare at him. "Are you offering me revenge?" "I’m offering you more than that, Selene." "What?" "I’m offering you marriage." I stop breathing for a second. "Are you crazy?" "Maybe. But I know a broken heart when I see one. And I know what heals it. It’s not crying. It’s revenge." "You don’t even know me. You think it’s normal for people to get married the same night they meet?" "You don’t know me either. But that didn’t stop your fiancé from choosing the wrong woman." He stands and gets closer to me. I stop breathing when I feel his lips very close to my ear. "Marry me. Now. And tomorrow, everyone will know Selene didn’t cry… she got her revenge. That she wasn’t left at the altar… she chose someone else." I stay silent. The drink spins in my head. But it’s more than that. It’s the pain. The shame. The thirst to show that I’m not the poor betrayed girl. I’m more. "You’re just a regular man, right?" "I’m just what you need me to be." "I can’t accept this." "You need to accept if you want to see Jasper and your traitor sister fall together. I know him, he’s a dumb traitor and he deserves to suffer." I think again about what I saw. About how humiliated I felt by Celeste and Jasper, and I don’t want to feel like that again. I lift my head, getting very close to Kael’s face. "Promise me this. If I marry you, I’ll get my revenge..." "I promise..." He touches my face, and maybe I’m too drunk when I kiss him. I’m not kissing my fiancé, but a stranger in a tavern. The kiss is good, very good, and I don’t want to stop. "Come with me...", he whispers against my lips and I frown. "Where to?" "We’re getting married." Our wedding takes place under the full moon, with an old werewolf who officiates our bond by reading from the sacred book. Kael holds my hand and speaks the words that can’t be undone. "I, Kael Graves, claim you, Selene Evans, as my mate and my wife, before the old gods and the new." The elder werewolf hands Kael a dagger, and he cuts the skin of his wrist, making it bleed — then it’s my turn. "I, Selene Evans, take you, Kael Graves, as my mate and my husband, before the old gods and the new." It’s done. I married a stranger.