The Alpha's Forgotten Mate

I spent three years as Kieran Blackwood's secret lover, waiting for him to mark me.

Instead, while he was out handling so-called "pack business," I picked up his phone and discovered he'd just announced a bonding ceremony — with someone else.

In that moment, I understood. I was never his chosen mate. I was nothing more than a warm body in his bed.

The notification popped up at 10:30 PM.

BREAKING: Blackwood-Silvercrest Alliance Confirmed — Alpha to Bond with Childhood Sweetheart

I stared at the headline, reading it over and over, each word driving into my chest like a silver blade.

In the photo, he wore a black suit, all sharp lines and raw Alpha dominance radiating off him. Beside him stood a blonde woman in a white gown — Selene Silvercrest, daughter of the Silvercrest pack Alpha. Her hand rested in the crook of his arm, possessive and assured.

As if he'd always belonged to her.

As if she'd already won.

My phone slipped from my fingers and landed with a dull thud on the leather couch.

I wanted to tell myself it had to be fake. But the article was published by a legitimate supernatural outlet, and the comments came from verified accounts.

I slid down to the floor in a daze, shoulders trembling with laughter — but somewhere between one breath and the next, the laughter turned, and my eyes burned red.

That was when the lock turned on the other side of the door.

"Lia?" Kieran's voice cut through the ringing in my ears.

I looked up at him as though seeing him for the first time. Those golden eyes — the same ones that had made me forget my own name on countless nights — were furrowed, studying me.

"Why are you on the floor?" He crossed the room in quick strides and bent to lift me up. I shoved his arms away.

He froze, then tried a coaxing smile. "What's wrong? Upset because I came home late? Is my little wolf angry with me?"

I looked at him — looked straight through him. He was the most feared Alpha in the North, yet he could slip into tenderness with me more convincingly than anyone.

"When were you going to tell me?"

He went rigid. His gaze drifted to the phone screen on the couch. I watched his expression shift — not into guilt, not into surprise.

Resignation.

As if he'd been waiting for this moment all along.

"Lia —"

"When, Kieran?" I rose to my feet. "When exactly were you planning to inform me that you're bonding with another woman?"

He walked to the liquor cabinet, poured three fingers of whiskey, and drained it in one swallow. "It's not what it looks like."

"No?" A jagged laugh scraped out of my throat. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like my mate announced a bonding ceremony with another woman without bothering to tell me first."

"She's not my mate." He set the glass down hard. "She's a contract. An arrangement between packs. She's a figurehead — nothing more. It won't change what we have."

"An arrangement?" I stared at him in disbelief.

"A strategic alliance. The Silvercrest territory, their connections among the southern packs — this is pack politics, Lia."

"No — actually, I wouldn't know." My voice came out sharper than I intended. "You've spent three years keeping me as far from your world as possible. I've never met your mother. I've never been introduced to a single member of your pack. Your wolves look at me like I'm a ghost."

"That was to protect you —"

"Don't." I held up one hand. "Don't feed me that line again."

His jaw locked — the same expression he wore when his second-in-command questioned an order. Cold. Controlled. Dangerous.

"Selene brings political capital. The alliance with Silvercrest secures our seat on the Elder Council. That is the full extent of her value."

"And what about me?" The question clawed its way out. "What am I?"

Something flickered behind his eyes, and his voice dropped half a register. "You're mine."

"But she's the one you're going to mark."

"In name only." He stepped closer. I stepped back. "It's just a ceremony, Lia. It changes nothing between us."

"What is there between us, Kieran? Three years — three years of you coming home only when it suits you. Of me waiting, hoping, deluding myself that one day you'd let me truly belong in your pack."

"I've been protecting you from the entanglements of my world. That's different."

"Will you complete the soul bond with her?" My voice cracked. "Or is it just for show?"

That half-second of silence was answer enough.

He reached up and dragged a hand through his hair — a rare fracture in that controlled exterior. "Yes. I'll complete the bond with her. But it won't change a single thing between you and me. You'll still be the woman I come home to. I'll give you everything you need."

"Everything except your mark."

"My mark is just an imprint on skin —"

"Your mark means I exist." Heat seared behind my eyes, but I refused to let the tears fall. "It means I'm not just someone you pick up and put down whenever it's convenient."

"Don't." His voice dropped to a dangerous register. "Don't reduce what we have to that."

"Why not?" I tilted my chin up to meet those golden eyes. "Isn't that exactly what I am? Your mistress. Your little secret, tucked away in an apartment. The pathetic fool waiting in the corner while you play the perfect Alpha couple with the woman your pack approves of."

His hand closed around my wrist, Alpha strength making it impossible to break free. "You think I want this? You think I want a woman I've barely spoken to my entire life as my Luna?"

"Then don't go through with it." I fisted the front of his shirt. "Tell them your choice is me."

"I don't have that right."

"You're the Alpha. You have every right." My voice was already breaking. "You just won't use it — not for me."

"It's not that simple —"

"It's exactly that simple." Three years' worth of words came flooding out. "If you truly loved me, you would've found a way. But I'm not worth it, am I?"

"That's not —"

"Then prove it." I threw every last chip I had onto this one sentence. "Mark me. Make me your Luna."

The words hung between us like a blade.

Then came half a second of silence, and something inside me turned cold and still.

"Lia…" His thumb traced slow circles over my pulse. "You know I…"

He didn't finish. He didn't need to.

So that was it. From the very beginning, I was the only one dreaming of a future with him. I was never part of his plan.

Every hopeful vision I'd ever held surged up at once and became blow after blow, hammering against my chest.

How pathetic.

I laughed, but a sharp acid rose in my throat.

I pulled free of his grip and gave a single nod. "I understand."

"Where are you going?"

"To bed." I turned and walked toward the bedroom. "I'm tired."

I closed the door, pressed my back against it, clamped a hand over my mouth, and wept without making a sound.

I suddenly remembered last month's full moon, when Kieran had taken me to the pack's sacred ground — Silver Pine Grove. He'd held me by the waist under the moonlight, nuzzled the side of my neck, and murmured, "One day, I'll mark you right here."

I'd imagined that scene a thousand times — moonlight, his mark, his claim. It had never once occurred to me that I was never the one he intended to have standing beside him.

On the nightstand, my phone screen lit up. I remembered a message my mother had sent a week ago. I'd ignored it at the time, completely lost in this carefully woven dream.

I wiped my face haphazardly, picked up the phone, and opened the conversation with my mother.

Sweetheart, I'd like you to meet someone. He's the son of an old friend of mine — the young Alpha of the Thornwood pack. Very impressive. Would you at least consider meeting him?

I stared at that message for a long time. Then I typed my reply, one word at a time.

Mom, do you still have his contact information?

She replied almost instantly, as though she'd been waiting all along.

Sending it to you right now. Are you alright, sweetheart?

I stared at the closed bedroom door and thought about three years spent waiting for something he was never going to give me.

I'm fine. Send me everything you have.