My Mate Sent Me to Die in Frostpeak

I don't remember making the decision to push the door open. One moment I'm frozen in the hallway, the next I'm standing in the doorway of Damian's study, and they're both staring at me like I'm a ghost.

Hope's face drains of color. She steps back from Damian, smoothing down her shirt with trembling hands.

But Damian—Damian doesn't look guilty. He looks annoyed.

"Gemma." My name comes out flat. Cold. "You shouldn't be here."

"Two years," I hear myself say. My voice sounds strange, distant. "You've been with her for two years."

Hope opens her mouth, but Damian raises his hand and she falls silent immediately. The obedience between them is so natural, so practiced. How many times have they done this? How many secret moments have they shared while I was desperately trying to fix myself for him?

"This doesn't concern you," Damian says, and his voice begins to shift. The air in the room grows heavy, oppressive. His Alpha aura unfurls like a dark wave, pressing down on my shoulders. "You need to leave. Now."

The command in his tone would have brought me to my knees a week ago. Would have had me apologizing, retreating, hating myself for daring to question him.

But something inside me has broken. The ritual, the betrayal, the years of suppressing Travis—it's all shattered something fundamental.

"No." The word leaves my lips before I can stop it.

Damian's eyes flash dangerous gold. "What did you say?"

"I said no." My hands are shaking but I don't back down. "You don't get to do this. You don't get to—"

"KNEEL." The Alpha command crashes over me like a physical blow, his voice resonating with power that makes the windows rattle.

My knees buckle. The force of his aura drives me down, and I catch myself on my hands, gasping. The silver from Hope's ritual burns hotter in my veins, weakening me further.

"You did this to yourself," Damian says, and he's walking toward me now, each step deliberate. "Your defective wolf. Your violence. Your inability to be the mate I needed. You pushed me into her arms, Gemma. This is your fault."

The words cut deeper than any physical wound.

"I sacrificed everything for you," he continues, and now there's heat in his voice. Anger. "My Alpha inheritance. My father's approval. I gave it all up to protect you from those rogues, and this is how you repay me? By questioning my choices?"

Inside my mind, Travis is screaming. Raging. Throwing himself against the barriers with such force that I can feel them cracking.

"I tried," I whisper, still on my knees, still pinned by his aura. "I tried so hard to be what you wanted."

"You failed." Damian's voice is merciless. "And now you'll accept this arrangement quietly, or I'll have you removed from the pack house entirely. Hope is my true mate. You're just—"

"Convenient," I finish for him, the word bitter on my tongue. "I heard."

Hope makes a small sound behind him, but I don't look at her. Can't look at her. If I do, I might actually lose control completely.

"Go back to your room," Damian orders. "We'll discuss this later. When you're calmer."

Calmer. As if I'm the one being unreasonable. As if I'm the problem.

I force myself to stand, even though his aura is still pressing down on me, even though every instinct screams to submit. My legs shake but I hold his gaze.

"You're right," I say quietly. "We'll discuss this later."

I turn and walk out, each step measured and controlled. I don't run. I don't cry. I don't give them the satisfaction.

But Travis—Travis is done waiting.

---

The pack gathering the next day is mandatory. Every wolf in the territory crowds into the main courtyard, the afternoon sun beating down on us as Damian addresses concerns about recent rogue activity near our borders.

I stand near the back, trying to be invisible. Trying to hold Travis down as he claws and snarls inside my mind, demanding blood, demanding justice.

Hope is at Damian's side, playing the role of concerned healer, her expression appropriately serious. No one knows. No one suspects.

The rage builds with every second I watch them together.

"—increased patrols," Damian is saying, his voice carrying across the crowd. "We won't tolerate any threats to our pack's safety."

That's when Travis breaks free.

The shift happens so fast I don't have time to fight it. One moment I'm human, the next Travis surges forward, seizing control with a violence that makes several nearby wolves stumble back in shock.

My vision sharpens. Predatory. My eyes must be glowing because I can see the fear rippling through the crowd.

"LIAR." The word rips from my throat in a voice that's mine and not mine, carrying Travis's fury. The sound echoes across the courtyard, silencing everyone.

Damian's head snaps toward me, his expression darkening. "Gemma, stand down."

"You talk about protecting the pack," Travis snarls through my lips, and I'm walking forward now, the crowd parting before me. "But you can't even be honest with your own mate. What kind of Alpha are you?"

Gasps ripple through the gathered wolves. No one challenges an Alpha like this. No one.

Damian's aura explodes outward, his Alpha command rolling over the courtyard. "I said STAND DOWN."

But Travis doesn't kneel. Doesn't submit. Instead, my wolf meets that command with his own raw power, and I feel it surge through me—wild, untamed, refusing to be suppressed anymore.

The two forces collide in the space between us, and Damian actually takes a step back, his eyes widening in shock.

Then Hope is moving.

She rushes forward, her healer's bag already open. "She's gone feral!" she screams at the panicked crowd. "Everyone get back! She's dangerous!"

I'm so focused on Damian, on Travis's challenge, that I don't see her coming from my blind spot.

The needle plunges into my neck.

Liquid silver floods my system, and Travis's roar of fury is the last thing I hear before the world goes dark.