HER MATE

Her unhinged laughter died in her raw throat, replaced by a suffocating, heavy silence. Elowen fought back a sudden well of bitter tears, refusing to let them fall in front of the man who had just discarded her.

Elowen stood her ground, her voice a raspy whisper filled with poison. "I don’t have a family. You stopped being my father five years ago. I have been a servant in this house for years. You never cared. It doesn't matter if you make it official now. I have been a slave to your new family since she arrived."

Varkas merely stared back with cold apathy. He did not flinch. He did not show a single trace of remorse or guilt. He dismissed her immense suffering with a careless wave of his hand.

Varkas reprimanded her, his tone flat and unyielding. "You are far too sensitive, Elowen. You are an only child who cannot take a cruel joke from your stepsiblings. They only wanted you to loosen up. Stop causing trouble. What you did last night nearly sparked a clan war. The Alpha is furious right now. Pack your belongings immediately. You are moving to the pack house to work as a lowly servant."

He ignored her feverish exhaustion. He ignored the bruises forming on her skin and the water dripping from her hair.

Elowen did not argue. She dragged her tired, burning body out of the grand study and walked to her bedroom. She collapsed onto her thin mattress, curling up while still trapped in her freezing, soaking wet clothes. Her muscles screamed in agony. Her head spun with a rising fever. She lay there agonizing over the cruel irony of her fate. She was just hours away from midnight. It would be her eighteenth birthday, the sacred, monumental moment she would finally get her wolf. Yet, instead of a celebration, she was discarded like trash, shivering and sick in the dark.

The next morning, the sickness had settled deep into her bones. Still burning with a severe fever, Elowen forced herself out of bed. She found a new backpack in her closet and shoved her few meager belongings inside.

She whispered the quiet, hollow greeting to the empty room. "Happy birthday to me."

Not a single soul remembered her milestone. She left the house before dawn. She wanted to avoid being chased out by Skaris or Calista, knowing they would relish the opportunity to humiliate her one last time. The frosty morning air bit at her flushed skin as she dragged her aching feet toward the imposing pack house.

When she finally arrived to register for her servant duties, Gamma Dravos was waiting. He took one look at her pale, sweaty face and let out a heavy sigh of sheer annoyance.

Dravos scoffed, shaking his head. "You should know better than to run away and cause our pack so much trouble."

He marched her down a gloomy, narrow corridor into the omega’s quarters. He shoved her inside a tiny room and left her isolated. The space was claustrophobic. A flimsy bed sat pushed against one wall, and a small, cracked window was locked shut with a rusted deadbolt.

Elowen dropped her backpack on the dusty floor and sat on the hard mattress. Dizziness washed over her in sickening waves. She was weak. She desperately needed to find a pack healer before her fever cooked her from the inside out.

Before she could gather the strength to stand, the heavy wooden door slammed open. Krovos stormed into the cramped room, cornering her.

Krovos growled, his jaw tight with fury. "You cost us a massive fortune. My father got a call from Alpha Xarion last night. He is furious about your trespassing stunt and is visiting personally this afternoon."

Elowen glared at him through her spinning, blurred vision. "You should have just let me leave."

Krovos scoffed at the idea of her freedom, stepping closer to block her only exit. "And let you have what you want? I am not going to be generous with you, Elowen. You cost me my mate. You are going to stay in this pack to atone for your mistake."

Elowen tried to scream for help, but her parched throat only produced a raspy, broken shout. "Leave me alone!"

Krovos swiftly crossed the tiny room in two long strides. He seized her neck, wrapping his thick fingers tight around her windpipe. He choked her, cutting off her air supply in a sudden motion. He brutally pushed her backward, pinning her down onto the hard bed.

Elowen clawed frantically at his thick wrists. She gagged, her lungs burning for oxygen.

Krovos snarled against her skin. "Mind your tone when you speak to me."

He lowered his head and forcefully kissed her sensitive neck, pressing his wet mouth against her pulse point. Elowen whimpered in profound disgust and sheer helplessness. She kicked her legs, trying to dislodge him, but Krovos was too heavy. He shifted his weight, moving his rough hands down her body to touch her bare inner thigh. His fingers gripped the tender flesh, squeezing hard enough to leave dark, painful bruises.

She gagged out, tears of frustration pricking her eyes. "No... get off!"

Krovos was oblivious to the fact that her birthday had already passed and she had just come of age. He smirked, his breath hot and repulsive against her ear. "It is a pity you are still so young. But soon, Elowen. Once you come of age, I promise I am going to break you even more. You will be my personal pleasure toy."

He gave her inner thigh one last harsh squeeze before releasing her windpipe. Krovos straightened his posture, cast a victorious look down at her gasping form, and walked out of the room.

The moment his presence vanished, Elowen curled into a tight, trembling ball on the mattress. She hacked and coughed, rubbing her bruised neck. The phantom sensation of his hands made her skin crawl. She was too weak to seek a healer now. Exhaustion and severe fever dragged her under, plunging her into a deep, agonizing sleep.

Hours later, Elowen jolted awake in the pitch dark.

Her eyes snapped open. Her body was scorching hot from the inside out, burning like she had swallowed live coals. Her breaths came out in heavy, ragged pants that echoed in the silent room. The excruciating process of shifting had begun. Her bones cracked and popped, twisting under her skin. Because this normally required an adult wolf's careful guidance to survive the sheer trauma, she was forced to endure the bone-breaking agony alone.

She screamed into her pillow as her spine realigned with a sickening crunch. Sweat poured down her face. Every nerve ending in her body felt like it was on fire, tearing her apart muscle by muscle.

But suddenly, cutting straight through the blinding pain, a devastatingly sweet scent hit her heightened senses. It smelled like rain-soaked pine and dark spices. It was rich, powerful, and wildly intoxicating.

Her inner instinct roared to life, screaming a single word in her mind.

*Mate!*

Overwhelmed by this primal, magnetic pull, the blinding agony of her shifting bones receded into the background. Elowen scrambled out of bed. She fell to her hands and knees, frantically searching for the source of the intoxicating aroma while trying to figure out how to force her shifting bones forward.

She stumbled to her feet. Her bare soles dragged blindly across the cold floorboards. She shoved her door open and stumbled out into the dark pack house halls. She could not see straight. The fever and the chaotic shifting magic blurred her vision, but the scent was a beacon. It pulled her forward, step by agonizing step, guiding her through the winding corridors.

She dragged her burning body up a grand staircase, leaving wet, sweaty footprints in her wake. The aroma grew stronger, richer, wrapping around her frantic senses until she could think of nothing else but finding him.

Elowen finally reached the end of a long, pristine corridor. She stopped dead in front of the heavy wooden doors of the alpha’s study room. The scent was pouring out from the crack beneath the heavy oak.

Against every single shred of her better judgment, her wolf clawed at her mind, desperate and ravenous. Elowen reached out with a trembling, sweaty hand. She grabbed the brass handle and yanked the heavy door open.

Her mate was inside!