Fated Mate Isn’t Me

“Luna… these are this morning’s alerts.” Gamma Lily set a stack of briefings on my desk, head bowed so low she might as well have been staring at the floor.

I waved her out.

For seven straight days, Adrian didn’t come home.

Instead, the gossip headlines kept coming: he took Emma to an auction and bought her a blue-diamond necklace; he accompanied her to a private clinic and got photographed gently patting her back in the hallway; after a Council meeting, he openly held her hand as they left…

I grabbed my bag and drove straight to Blood Moon Pack’s main hall.

The Omega at the front desk went pale when she saw me. She looked like she was about to call upstairs, but one glance from me stopped her cold.

I walked straight to the Alpha-only elevator, swiped my card, and went up.

In the office area, Emma was standing at the copier, wearing a fitted, professional outfit.

“Ann?” She saw me and instinctively took a step back.

I didn’t give her time to react. I walked up and slapped her across the face hard.

The crack of it dropped the entire office into instant, stunned silence.

“Emma. If Adrian refuses to send you away and wants to pity you, fine.” My voice carried cleanly through the air. “But you’d better get your position straight. As long as I’m not divorced, you’re the mistress.”

She covered her cheek, tears trembling in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Luna. I never meant to ruin your marriage. I just…”

“Ann!”

Adrian’s voice came from behind me.

He strode over and pulled Emma behind him, staring at me with ice in his eyes.

“When did you start throwing your weight around like this?” he sneered. “Don’t forget you used to be the one getting bullied. Without me, you wouldn’t be standing where you are today.”

My heart felt like it had been stabbed straight through.

Yeah. Back then, I was the Ann living under the White family’s roof, the one everyone pushed around. If I hadn’t met Adrian… how could I have ever become today’s Luna?

But the same man was now using my ugliest past to humiliate me.

“Go home,” he ordered. “We’ll do this by pack law.”

I almost laughed.

Any pack member who disobeyed an Alpha could be punished by pack law, kneeling inside a vow circle drawn in salt and silver powder, sealed under moonlight while an elder read the vows and the wolf soul backlash tore through you.

When we did our mate ceremony, we marked each other in front of the Moon Goddess’s statue.

Back then he’d said, “In this lifetime, I’ll never let pack law touch you.”

Emma suddenly let out a small groan and went limp.

“Emma!” Adrian caught her, the anger on his face instantly replaced by concern.

He shot me a vicious look. “If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive you.”

He carried her toward the elevator without even looking back at me once.

I stood there, feeling the stares around me, some pitying, some mocking.

The last bit of warmth in my chest went out.

When I got back to the House, it was already late.

The second I pushed the door open, two unfamiliar Omegas grabbed me one on each side.

“Luna, forgive us. The Alpha ordered us to take you somewhere.”

I fought, but it was useless.

They shoved me into a car and drove west, out into the suburbs.

We stopped in front of the Moon Goddess temple.

Adrian stood beneath the towering doors, his silhouette in the night hard as iron.

“Emma woke up,” he said. “The doctor says she has a mild concussion, and… her emotions are unstable.”

I stared at him coldly, saying nothing.

“Do you know why I have to keep her close?” He took a step toward me, voice low. “Because that night a year ago… she was pregnant with my pup.”

My breath hitched.

“Because I suppressed her, she kept changing jobs. She overworked herself…” His voice carried a pain I’d never heard from him before.

“She miscarried. While I was chasing you publicly, sending drones to announce our engagement, she was lying in a hospital bed alone. The doctors even said she showed signs of postpartum depression.”

“If you hadn’t broken up with me back then, none of this would’ve happened,” Adrian said quietly.

“Ann, you owe her.”

“You think I owe her?” I finally spoke, my voice hoarse.

“Yes.” He admitted it without flinching. “Ann, that slap you hit too hard. She can’t take it.”

He turned, bowed slightly toward the massive doors, then said to the elder beside him, “Please. Keep her here. Let her atone for Emma.”

I stared at him, disbelief burning. “Adrian, you’re locking me in here?”

“Not locking,” he corrected. “Spiritual practice. Seven days. I’ll come get you.”

He turned to leave. I lunged and grabbed his sleeve. “What if I refuse?”

He gently pulled free, his eyes empty of warmth. “Then you’ll never get a divorce. Ann, you should know this. I’m Alpha. I lead this marriage. Without my consent, you can’t divorce me.”

He walked away.

The temple doors closed behind me, slow and heavy.