My Forbidden Mate

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

My sandals crunched loudly against the gravel as I marched across the courtyard, every step I took was fueled by mix of humiliation and pure rage.

How could he look at me the way he did in the dark? From whispering sweet nothings , letting our wolves intertwine to acting like I was invisible under the light of day? And why exactly was he letting Eliza wrap herself around him like she belonged to him?

I bit my teeth so hard I could feel them almost breaking.

Before I could reach the VIP building, a huge but warm hand clamped around my wrist, jerking me hard to the side, almost making me fall. The hand pulled me behind one of the thick stone pillars of the pack house before I could even see whom it belongs to.

I opened my mouth, ready to snap at the person who would dare do this. I was about unleashing every angry word and profanities boiling in my chest, but the words died on my tongue.

Dylan.

His chest was heaving like he had just run a relay race, his striking blue eyes flashing with panic and fierce protectiveness. He pressed me flat against the cool stone pillar making a chill shiver run down my spine. His broad frame blocking me completely from the view of the courtyard.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” his voice was a harsh, desperate hiss.

“Me?” I scoffed almost with a mocking voice, while also trying desperately to yank my arm from his grip.

I gave up on getting out of his grip because all my effort was to no avail. My heart hammered wildly against my ribs, reacting to his proximity just like it always did.

“What am I doing?! You walk around here acting like that night never happened! You ignore me, you avoid me, and now you’re parading around with…Eliza?” I started off with anger, but my voice slipped off to hurt towards the end of my statement.

“Keep your voice down,” Dylan growled at me lowly, leaning in so close I could feel the heat radiating off his skin. My wolf reacted a bit to this, but I kept her under control. The familiar scent of cedar swallowed me, making my traitorous wolf purr shamelessly in satisfaction again even as my mind screamed in protest.

“No! I won't keep my voice down!”

Tears of frustration pricked the backs of my eyes, and I tried so hard to keep it under control.

“You almost marked me, Dylan. You called me your mate! And then you just walked out. Without a word? You left me burning in my own bed while you ran off to that bi***

Dylan tightened his jaw so hard his muscle almost burst. His eyes darkened, and for a second, the iron walls he built around himself cracked, revealing a deep, agonizing pain.

“You don’t understand,” he choked out, his voice dropping to a raw, broken whisper. “If anyone finds out—if the elders, or worse, the Council finds out what we are—they won’t just separate us, Ivy. They’ll destroy you to protect the pack's laws. I’m keeping you safe.”

“By breaking my heart?” I whispered back, the fight draining out of me, leaving only a hollow ache.

Before he could answer, the sound of light, clicking heels echoed near the edge of the pillar.

“Dylan love? Alpha, are you out here? The elders are looking for you…”

Eliza’s sweet, sickeningly familiar voice cut through the air, dangerously close.

Dylan froze. The panic rushed back into his eyes, instantly extinguishing the vulnerability he showed earlier making it seem I had imagined it all in my head. Without another word, he took a huge step back, raising his emotional walls right back up into place. He looked at me not as a mate, not even as a sister, but as a total stranger.

“Stay away from me, Ivy,” he said loudly, projecting his voice just enough for approaching footsteps to hear. “Stop acting like a pathetic child demanding attention.”

The cruel words felt like a physical slap across my face. Before Eliza rounded the corner, Dylan turned on his heel and walked away, leaving me standing alone in the shadows, shaking with a rage and heartbreak that refused to die.