My Mate Sold Me to Protect His Mistress

Dr. Morrison's hands shook as he inserted the IV line into my arm.

"Alpha, this is dangerous," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Luna Kiana has already lost significant blood from her injuries. If we take more—"

"Do it." Christopher didn't even look at me. His entire focus was on Adelynn, who lay on the examination table with her eyes half-closed, one hand pressed dramatically to her stomach.

"I feel so weak," she murmured. "Everything's spinning."

Christopher gripped her hand like she was dying. "How much blood does she need?"

"Alpha, she has a bruised wrist. There's no internal bleeding. I've done a full examination—"

"How. Much."

Dr. Morrison's shoulders sagged in defeat. "Two pints. Maybe three. But Luna Kiana can't spare—"

"Then take it from someone else," I managed, my voice hoarse. The room kept tilting sideways.

"Adelynn has a rare blood type," Christopher said flatly. "You're the only compatible donor in the pack."

Of course I was. We shared a father, after all.

I watched the blood flow through the tube, dark red and warm, draining from my body into a bag that would go into hers. Each pulse made my vision blur a little more. Luna whimpered deep in my mind, her presence growing fainter.

*Hold on,* I told her. *Just hold on.*

But she was slipping away, retreating to someplace I couldn't follow. The mind-link between us stretched thin, then thinner, until it snapped like a broken thread.

The silence in my head was absolute.

"Luna?" I tried to call her, but there was nothing. Just emptiness where my wolf should be.

Panic clawed up my throat. "Stop. Stop the transfusion. My wolf—"

"Keep going," Christopher ordered.

Dr. Morrison looked at me, and I saw the apology in his eyes before he turned away.

The last thing I heard before darkness took me was Adelynn's satisfied sigh.

I woke up three days later in the same cell, with a note on the nightstand: *Rest. You're no use to anyone weak.*

No use. The words burned worse than the wolfsbane had.

It took me another week to gather the strength to walk. Luna still hadn't returned. The emptiness where she should be felt like a missing limb, phantom pain that never stopped.

I needed air. I needed to remember who I was before all of this.

I needed my mother.

The guards didn't stop me when I left. Maybe they'd been ordered not to. Maybe they just didn't care.

The forest path to my mother's memorial tree was overgrown, but my feet remembered the way. She'd planted it when I was five—a silver birch that caught moonlight like water. We'd carved our initials into the bark together, her hand guiding mine.

I heard the chainsaw before I saw them.

My father stood beside the tree, his face set in grim determination. Adelynn perched on a nearby stump, scrolling through her phone, occasionally pointing to where she wanted the gazebo positioned.

The chainsaw bit into white bark, and I screamed.

I don't remember running. I just remember my hands on my father's arm, trying to pull him away, trying to stop the blade that was cutting through my mother's memory.

"Stop! Please, you can't—"

He shoved me off. "Adelynn needs this space, Kiana. Your mother's been gone for fifteen years. It's time to move on."

"This is all I have left of her!"

"You have your memories." He revved the chainsaw again. "That should be enough."

I lunged for him, desperate, and something massive slammed into me from the side. I hit the ground hard, the air knocked from my lungs. Christopher's Gamma, Derek, pinned me down with one hand, his expression apologetic but firm.

"Don't make this harder, Luna."

I struggled anyway, watching through tears as the chainsaw carved deeper. The tree groaned, tilting, and I felt something inside me tilt with it.

Then Christopher was there, his presence filling the clearing like a storm.

For one desperate moment, I thought he'd come to stop this. To protect what mattered to me, just once.

"Let her up," he said, and Derek released me.

I scrambled to my feet, pointing at the half-cut tree. "Christopher, please. This is my mother's—"

"You attacked your father." His voice was ice. "You tried to assault your sister's property development."

"Property development? This is sacred ground!"

"This is pack land, and I decide what's sacred." He stepped closer, using his height to loom over me. "Adelynn has been nothing but gracious to you, and you repay her with violence and jealousy. I'm starting to think the Rogues had the right idea about you."

The words hit like a physical blow.

Behind him, the tree fell with a crash that echoed through the forest. Adelynn clapped her hands together, delighted.

"Perfect! The gazebo will look amazing here."

I looked at Christopher, at this man I'd loved since childhood, and saw a stranger.

"You're a monster," I whispered.

He smiled, cold and sharp. "No, Kiana. I'm an Alpha. And you're going to learn the difference."

The invitation arrived the next morning, written in Adelynn's looping handwriting.

*You are cordially invited to the Mating Ceremony of Alpha Christopher Spencer and Adelynn Bennett. Your presence is required to perform the Blessing of the Sister.*

I stared at the words until they blurred.

Christopher appeared in my cell doorway that evening, his expression unreadable. "You'll attend. You'll perform the blessing. And you'll smile while you do it."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I'll exile Marcus, Elena, and every other pack member who's shown you kindness." He said it casually, like he was discussing the weather. "They'll be Rogues by sunset. Their families will suffer. All because you couldn't put aside your selfishness for one ceremony."

I thought of Marcus, who'd left me that tablet. Of Elena, who'd tried to treat my wounds when Christopher wasn't looking. Of the young guard who'd brought me extra blankets.

"You'd really do that."

"Try me."

He left, and I sat in the darkness, holding the invitation, feeling the last pieces of my heart turn to ash.