My Fated Alpha Picked The Wrong Woman

Nolan knocked on my door at seven in the morning.

I knew it was him before I opened it. The ache that had sat on my chest all night, heavy as a wet stone, loosened the second he stepped onto my porch.

I hated that. I hated it so much my eyes stung.

"Aria." He stood there in a gray henley, hair still damp. "Can I come in?"

"No."

"Five minutes."

"You had a year of five minutes, Nolan."

He didn't argue. He just stepped forward and pulled me into his arms.

*Mate,* Sable sighed, and she leaned into him like a flower turning toward the sun. My cheek pressed against his collarbone before I could stop it.

He felt the moment I didn't shove him away. I felt his shoulders relax.

"There," he murmured. "See? We're fine. We're always fine."

He kissed the top of my head. Slow. Soft.

"Vanessa needs a title," he said into my hair. "Her father's pushing the council. If she's Luna, the Elders back me on the border treaty. That's all it is. A respectable position for her. You're the one I chose, Aria. You've always been the one."

I closed my eyes.

Then I put both palms flat on his chest and pushed.

He stumbled back half a step, blinking.

"You kissed her hair like that last night," I said. "I watched you."

His jaw went tight. "It's not the same."

"It looked exactly the same from where I was standing."

"Aria—"

"Field assessment's at two. Don't be late, Alpha."

I shut the door in his face. Then I slid down the back of it and pressed my knuckles to my mouth until the shaking stopped.

---

The assessment ran across Hollow Gorge. A rope bridge, sixty feet long, a hundred feet of nothing underneath. Each wolf had to cross carrying a supply pack, timed.

Nolan went first. Alphas always did.

I watched from the far platform with my arms crossed. I told myself I wasn't watching.

Halfway across, a plank snapped under his boot.

The bridge lurched sideways. Nolan dropped to one knee, grabbing for the rail, and the whole left side began to sag.

My body moved before my brain did.

"Nolan!"

I sprinted onto the bridge. The ropes bucked under my feet. I reached him, fisted the back of his shirt, and hauled with everything I had.

"Move! Move, the anchor's tearing!"

"Aria, get back—"

"Shut up and *move*!"

I threw him forward. He hit the platform hard, rolling onto the wood.

Then the rail under my hand gave way.

My feet went out from under me. Something jagged ripped along my right arm, wire or splintered wood, and hot blood ran down to my wrist.

I dropped.

A hand slammed around my forearm.

Nolan lay flat on the platform edge, half his body hanging over, his fingers locked on me. The pull flared between us, warm and sure. Even dangling over the gorge, my heart slowed down.

*He's got us,* Sable whispered. *He won't drop us.*

"I've got you," Nolan grunted. "Hold on. Just hold on."

"I'm holding."

"Good. Give me your other hand."

I swung up my left hand. He reached for it.

"*Nolan!*"

The scream came from the far end of the bridge.

Vanessa. She'd stepped onto the first planks behind me. Now she was sprawled on her stomach, clinging to a rope, her pale hair whipping in the wind.

"Nolan, help me! Please, I'm slipping! *Nolan!*"

His head snapped toward her.

I felt it. The tiny shift in his grip. His fingers loosening a single degree.

"Nolan," I said. "Look at me."

He didn't look at me.

He shifted his weight and pushed my wrist sideways, pressing my bloody fingers onto a side rope hanging off the platform.

"Grab this," he said. "Hang on. I'll be right back."

"What? No. No, my arm—"

"You're strong, Aria. You'll hold."

"My grip's slipping! Nolan, I'm bleeding, it won't hold—"

He was already on his feet.

"*Nolan!*"

He ran. Away from me. Toward her.

The rope slid through my slick palm like it was greased. One inch. Two. My cut arm burned like fire, my fingers went numb, and then there was nothing in my hand at all.

I fell.

The harness jerked me so hard my teeth clacked together. The backup safety line. I'd forgotten it existed. I swung over the gorge like a broken pendulum, wind roaring in my ears, blood dripping off my fingertips into the dark.

I didn't scream.

I couldn't find the air for it. I just hung there and laughed once, a cracked little sound, because of course. Of course he'd said he'd be right back.

"Aria."

A low voice, above me. Steady.

I tipped my head up. Rhys knelt at the platform edge, both fists wrapped around my safety line.

"Don't move," he said. "I'm pulling you up."

"I wasn't planning to go anywhere."

"Good. Keep the jokes coming. They're helping you breathe."

He hauled. Hand over hand, his shoulders flexing, the scar on his brow white with strain. When I got close enough, he grabbed my harness strap and dragged me over the edge onto the planks.

I landed on my knees. My whole body shook. My arm was a mess of red.

Rhys yanked off his belt and cinched it above the cut. "Look at me. Stay with me. That's deep."

"Where is he?"

"Aria."

"Where's Nolan?"

Rhys's jaw flexed. He didn't answer.

He didn't have to.

I turned my head.

On the far platform, Nolan sat with Vanessa in his lap. She was sobbing into his neck, perfectly whole, not a scratch on her. He'd wrapped both arms around her. He was stroking her hair, his head bent low, murmuring something I couldn't hear.

He didn't look across the gorge. Not once.

The bond tugged at me anyway. Sable rose up inside my chest, whining, straining toward him, toward that warmth that wasn't for us anymore.

I pressed my good hand hard against my sternum.

"Stop," I whispered. "Stop looking for him."

Rhys went still beside me.

*But he's our mate,* Sable cried.

"He had a choice." My voice came out quiet and very clear. "He didn't choose us."

Inside me, for the first time, my wolf went silent.