Fated No More

Freya's POV

I planted my heels and glared straight into his chest. "Not even in your wildest dreams," I snapped, my voice sharp enough to draw blood. "That ship sailed a year ago!"

"Freya!" Kaelen lunged forward, his fingers clamping around my forearm. Fury surged beneath my skin, prompting Lyra to rumble a deep, vibrating threat from the back of my throat. Kaelen ignored the warning entirely, locking his grip down to pin me right where I stood.

"Unclench your hand before my wolf decides to redesign your arrogant mug," I snarled, trying to wrench my arm free. "She is fiercely loyal to me, and she won't think twice about tearing your throat out."

Kaelen flinched slightly at the sheer hostility in my tone, yet his fingers didn't budge an inch.

"So you admit I'm easy on the eyes?" he teased, a cocky smirk tugging at his mouth. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Get your hands off me!" I spat, leaning back. "Or I swear—"

"Be serious, Freya," Kaelen cut in, dipping his chin until his lips nearly brushed the shell of my ear. "Are you honestly trying to convince me that your wolf would maul her own fated mate?"

"Care to find out the hard way?" I barked back, closing the remaining inch between our chests and tilting my chin up to lock eyes with him.

Neither of us blinked as the friction between us thickened into a suffocating stalemate.

Backing down wasn't in my blood. If he knew what was good for him, he would back off before I dropped Lyra's leash and let her have a piece of him.

"Luna Freya, Alpha Kaelen," the host Alpha of the Zenith Moon Pack called out from across the floor. "Is everything alright over there?"

Our little scene had clearly drawn unwanted eyes.

"Everything is fine," Kaelen answered smoothly, the corners of his mouth curving upward as a glint of pure amusement danced in his eyes.

Taking his sweet time, Kaelen uncurled his fingers from my skin, lifted both palms in mock surrender, and took a single step backward.

"If we are done here," I bit out, smoothing down the front of my midnight-blue gown as heat radiated off my skin. "I have far better ways to spend my night than wasting breath on a two-minute ex-mate!"

Kaelen parted his lips to fire back, but I shoved my middle finger straight in his face, spun on my heel, and bolted down the corridor along the path Gael had taken earlier.

I didn't care what kind of speech he had rehearsed; hell would freeze over before I gave that bastard a second shot at ruining me.

My exit didn't faze him in the slightest. The sharp squeak of his dress shoes pivoting against the waxed floorboards echoed right behind me, proving he had every intention of hunting me down to finish this conversation.

"Something isn't adding up with Alpha Kaelen," Lyra muttered inside my head. "He is way too desperate to get his point across."

"Tell me about it," I replied silently.

Was the man completely delusional? He was the one who threw me away, and I had already picked up the pieces and moved on. The mate bond was dead and buried, leaving me with zero attachment to him.

"Where on earth did Gael disappear to?" I muttered under my breath. "His whole job tonight was to stay glued to my hip and run interference against my insufferable, ego-tripping ex."

I lifted my chin and drew in a sharp breath through my nose, filtering through the crowded hall's perfumes until I caught Gael's familiar scent.

My eyes narrowed as the trail pulled me away from the main ballroom and down a dim, deserted hallway.

What on earth had gotten into him?

At the far end of the passage, I pushed through a heavy side door that opened out into the cool night air of the pack gardens.

Wandering along the stone paths for a few minutes, I finally spotted Gael slumped alone on a stone bench right beneath the Moon Goddess statue, both hands tangled deep in his hair.

"He looks completely crushed," Lyra whimpered softly, sending an uneasy chill straight through my chest.

I quickened my pace and closed the distance between us.

"Gael?" I called out gently. "Talk to me, are you okay?"

He gave a stiff shake of his head, keeping his face angled toward the ground so I couldn't see his expression.

"What happened back there?" I pressed, stepping right up to the edge of the bench.

"I was an idiot to think something like that could actually happen for me," Gael choked out, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, a sudden jolt of alarm hitting me.

Please, Goddess, don't let this be what I think it is.

"He took one look at me and wanted nothing to do with me," Gael sobbed, his shoulders shaking.

Damn it!

"You ran into your fated mate tonight?" I asked, keeping my voice as gentle as possible.

That explained why he had vanished from the banquet hall so abruptly, leaving me completely exposed when Kaelen cornered me.

"Yeah," Gael cried out, his bottom lip quivering violently.

"Walk me through it," I murmured, dropping onto the cold stone beside him and resting a steady palm between his shoulder blades.

"He severed the bond on the spot," Gael said, letting out a wet sniffle. "He didn't even give me five minutes before walking away."

Hot, protective fury flared in my chest.

What kind of monster pulls a stunt like that? Gael had the biggest, most loyal heart of anyone in our pack.

"Give me a name," I demanded, my fingers curling into tight fists on my knees. My temper was already boiling over, and I was itching to unsheathe my claws and rip a chunk out of whoever did this to him.

"Alpha Vance," Gael mumbled through his fingers as a fresh wave of tears spilled down his face.

My breath caught for half a second before a quiet sigh of relief slipped past my lips. That rejection was honestly a massive bullet dodged.

Alpha Vance was notorious garbage—a greedy, cutthroat leader who cared way more about lining his pockets than looking after his own people. Half the packs in the region despised the man, and watching my best friend get tied down to a toxic bastard like that would have been a nightmare.

I wrapped my arms around Gael's trembling shoulders and guided him down until his head rested squarely in my lap. As I murmured quiet reassurances, he let go and cried silently, grieving the bond that had just been ripped away from him.

Knowing how low he was sinking, my fingers automatically began carding through his hair in a slow, familiar rhythm I always used whenever he was hurting.

I let out a heavy breath.

Watching him absorb that kind of brutal internal damage tore me up inside, and I knew deep down that tonight was going to leave him guarded and terrified of ever trusting anyone with his heart again.

A flicker of motion at the edge of my vision made me turn my head, and I rolled my eyes with an internal groan when I spotted Kaelen lingering a few yards away. He had his shoulder propped casually against the rough stone of the pack house, wearing a dark grin as he watched us without making a sound.

Did the guy ever take a break from lurking in the shadows?

"The sheer audacity of that male," Lyra snarled in my head. "First he throws us away like trash, and now he's prowling around us like some obsessed stalker."

"Just block him out," I told her, shifting my focus entirely back to Gael, whose heavy sobs had finally quieted down into soft whimpers.

"Listen to me," I said softly. "I happen to have the ultimate cure for a shattered heart waiting back at my place."

I used my thumbs to brush the damp tracks from his flushed cheeks as he slowly pushed himself upright, his skin blotchy and red from crying.

"You do?" he asked, a hitching breath catching in his throat.

"Sure do," I promised warmly. "There is a massive tub of ice cream in the freezer with your name all over it, and you have full permission to bury it under every single topping in the pantry."

"Even fresh strawberries?" he asked, blinking up at me.

Strawberries were his absolute weakness, and truthfully, I was a sucker for them too.

"Especially those," I said with a small smile. "We can tell the driver to pull over at a market on the way home and grab the sweetest carton they have."

I got to my feet and held out a hand, pulling him up beside me. "Come on, let's get out of here and not waste another second in this place."

The drive back toward our territory passed in heavy silence.

Gael kept his forehead pressed near the glass, staring blankly out at the passing road while the lingering pull of a broken mate bond still clouded his eyes.

Twelve months ago, on the night Kaelen shattered me, I had worn that exact same hollow look.

My thoughts slipped backward to that miserable night.

I hadn't bothered getting into a vehicle after walking out of that hall. Lyra had surged to the surface, forced the shift, and bolted straight into the pouring rain, pushing our four legs to the absolute limit just to put miles between us and Kaelen.

We tore through the drenched timberland for hours on end, desperately trying to outrun the raw, gaping ache carving through my chest.

By the time I finally dragged myself back home, I was soaked to the bone, shivering violently, and running on empty. That kind of damage leaves a permanent mark on your soul, a jagged scar that never truly fades no matter how much time passes.

When I slipped through the pack house doors that night, I went straight up the stairs to my bedroom without even letting Gael know I had made it back safely.

The heartbreak had gutted me for nothing, leaving me hollowed out and burning with humiliation over the fact that my own fated mate had looked at me and chosen another woman instead.

I gave myself until sunrise to fall apart.

After that night, I locked the secret away and never breathed a word about Kaelen to Gael, refusing to see pity in my best friend's eyes.

Movement in the rearview mirror yanked me back to the present as a sleek black SUV pulled up right behind our bumper.

"He really doesn't know when to quit," Lyra snarled, pacing inside my head. "Let me out of here so I can shred his tires and his face!"

"Easy," I told her, keeping my eyes on the mirror. "We can ditch him effortlessly once we hit the trees."

Lyra let out a scoff, though she knew I was right; ironpelt wolves were built far stronger and ran significantly faster than ordinary pack wolves.

I leaned forward and tapped the partition, instructing our driver to pull onto the shoulder, and the sedan glided to a halt along the gravel edge.

"Why are we stopping?" Gael asked, blinking in confusion as he looked around.

"Both of our wolves are wound up tight and need a hard sprint to burn off tonight's garbage," I said, popping the door handle and stepping out onto the asphalt. "Stretching their legs will do us both some good."

"What about our formal wear?" he protested, glancing down at his suit. "Your father is going to—"

"Gael," I cut in firmly. "Let's be real, you are never going to want to look at that suit again after tonight, and my dad won't care about a shredded dress."

Letting out a long, defeated breath, he clicked his door open and stepped out onto the roadside beside me.

After rattling off quick instructions for the driver to head back without us, I surrendered to the shift, shifting into my massive black ironpelt wolf and lunging straight into the dark treeline with Gael's wolf right on my heels, praying we could outrun Kaelen before the night was over.