The Stand-in Mate

Mirella’s gaze lingered on me for a moment longer, slow and deliberate, like a wolf circling something it already knew was cornered.

Then she tilted her head slightly, the moonlight catching in her hair like spun silver.

“I’ve been meaning to ask since we first met,” she said softly, almost kindly. “Don’t you think… we look alike, little sister?”

The words struck deeper than any claw.

Little sister.

Not mate. Not rival. Not even stranger.

Just an echo standing in the wrong place.

Heat rushed to my face—shame, disbelief, something raw and unnameable tightening in my chest. Around us, the corridor felt suddenly too narrow, the air too sharp with her scent, too confident.

She was smiling.

I couldn’t bear it.

So I turned and left before my wolf could do something foolish.

**

Back inside the private hall, the laughter of my colleagues should have soothed me.

It did not erase what I had just heard—but it dulled it, like warm wine poured over ice. For a moment, I let myself sit among them, pretending I was still whole.

Pretending I was still untouched by this night.

Then the door opened.

The sound cut through the room like a snapped branch.

Kaiden stood there.

For a heartbeat, he did not move. His gaze swept over the room, over the gathered pack members, before landing on me.

Something in his expression shifted.

Not relief.

Not warmth.

Anger.

Contained, sharp, and already restrained too tightly.

He clenched his jaw. “Elyria.”

My name, spoken like command.

Before I could respond, he turned and stepped back into the corridor.

“Come out.”

I hesitated only a moment before following.

The moment I crossed the threshold—

Pain.

His hand struck my face with force enough to turn my head.

The sound echoed against stone.

Silence followed.

It was the first time Kaiden Fenwick had ever raised his hand to me.

I stared at him, stunned, as my cheek burned hot beneath his palm’s memory.

But he did not look away.

No regret softened his eyes. Only fury.

“Why did you push Mirella?” His voice was low, controlled, but trembling at the edges. “She twisted her ankle, Elyria. I told you I would explain everything when I returned, and you still chose to act like that?”

My breath caught.

Push?

“What are you talking about?” I whispered.

Down the corridor, Mirella appeared.

Slowly.

Carefully.

As if the world itself might break her if she moved too fast.

Her clothing was slightly disheveled, faint stains on her sleeve, her steps unsteady—yet she fell just before reaching us.

A perfect fall.

Kaiden moved instantly.

He pushed past me without hesitation, crossing the distance in seconds, catching her before she hit the ground.

As if I had never been there at all.

“I told you I would bring her to you to apologize,” he said, voice gentler now as he held her. “Why did you come out here alone?”

Mirella shook her head softly in his arms. “It’s nothing serious. She probably didn’t mean it.”

Her eyes lifted briefly—just briefly—to mine.

Then away again.

“I’m fine,” she added. “Don’t blame her too much.”

A pause.

Then, quieter: “If Alpha Garrick hears that you struck his sister… it may strain the bond between you.”

At the mention of my brother’s name, Kaiden’s expression flickered.

Only for a heartbeat.

Then it hardened again.

“She is Garrick’s sister,” he said firmly, “and he entrusted her to me. If she is in the wrong, it is my duty to correct her.”

Correct me.

The word landed like a stone dropped into still water.

I let out a small laugh before I could stop myself.

It sounded wrong even to my own ears.

“Correct me?” I repeated softly. “What exactly did I do wrong, Kaiden?”

He turned back to me.

His eyes were sharp now.

“You knew there were no witnesses in that corridor,” he said coldly. “So you thought you could act without consequence.”

For a moment, I almost couldn’t believe him.

Not because it hurt—

But because it was so effortless.

So decided.

“If there were no witnesses,” I asked slowly, “then how are you so certain it was me?”

Mirella stepped forward slightly, still leaning into his support.

“Why would I lie?” she said gently, almost wounded. “You think I would accuse you without reason?”

Kaiden didn’t look at her.

He only looked at me.

“And I have known Mirella since we were children,” he said. “She does not lie.”

A pause.

Then—

“And you do?”

Something inside me went still.

After seven winters of shared hunts, shared winters, shared silence beneath the moon—

That was all I had become.

A question mark beside her certainty.

My voice came out quieter than I intended.

“So that’s it?”

No answer.

Only his silence.

And in that silence, everything I had once called ours quietly ceased to exist.

I turned away.

“Elyria!” his voice sharpened behind me. “Stop.”

I did not.

My cheek still burned where his hand had struck me. My chest felt strangely hollow, as if something had been taken without me noticing when it left.

At the front hall, I did not return to the private room.

I did not explain.

I simply settled the silver marks for the meal, left word for my companions through the attendant, and sent a final message carved into a small rune slip:

Something has come up. Continue without me. It is on me.

Then I walked out into the night air alone.