He Abandoned Me for His Fragile Human Mate

Gabriel left three days before the ceremony.

He didn't make a big deal about it—just mentioned something about checking border patrol routes and verifying security for the gathering. But I caught the way his jaw tightened when Chelsea walked past, one hand resting on her belly like she was already showing.

"Something's off about her," he'd muttered to me that morning. "Her scent. It's not right."

I'd wanted to ask what he meant, but Marcus had pulled me away to finalize ceremony details, and by the time I looked for Gabriel again, he was gone.

Now, standing in my room with the ceremonial gown laid across my bed, I wished I'd pushed harder for answers.

The dress was stunning—deep midnight blue that seemed to shimmer silver under the light, like moonlight on water. My mother had commissioned it months ago, back when she'd thought I'd be wearing it for Lennox. She'd had it altered, the neckline adjusted to show where Ian's mark would go.

My fingers traced the delicate beadwork along the bodice. In two hours, I'd walk into that sacred clearing. Ian would be waiting. We'd complete the bond under the full moon, and everything would change.

Lyra hummed with anticipation, her presence warm and steady in my mind.

"Ready?" I asked her.

"More than ready," she purred. "Our mate is waiting."

I smiled, reaching for the dress—

Pain exploded through my skull.

I gasped, stumbling against the bed as the mind-link tore open with brutal force. Marcus's voice screamed through the connection, raw with agony.

"Astrid—border—rogues—help—"

Then nothing. Silence.

"Marcus!" I shouted into the link, but it was dead. Completely severed.

Terror clawed up my throat. Marcus was the future Alpha. He was strong, trained, nearly impossible to take down. If something had hurt him badly enough to cut the mind-link—

I didn't think. I just ran.

The pack house blurred past as I sprinted through hallways, down stairs, out into the evening air. Wolves called after me, but I couldn't stop. Couldn't explain. My brother was hurt. Dying, maybe. Every second mattered.

The forest swallowed me whole.

Branches whipped at my face and arms as I crashed through the underbrush, following the pull of the severed link toward the border. The sun had already set, leaving only the rising moon to light my path. My ceremonial slippers—stupid, delicate things—caught on roots and stones, but I didn't slow down.

"Marcus, please," I gasped into the empty link. "Please answer."

Nothing.

Lyra stirred uneasily. "Astrid, something's wrong. This doesn't feel—"

A shadow moved in my peripheral vision.

I spun, and Lennox stepped out from behind an oak tree.

His eyes were completely black. Not the warm brown I'd known since childhood, not even the cold calculation from the announcement. Just black. Empty. Feral.

"Hello, Astrid," he said, and his voice was wrong. Too rough. Too much wolf.

I backed up, my heart slamming against my ribs. "Where's Marcus? What did you do?"

"Marcus is fine." Lennox moved closer, and I saw the syringe in his hand. Clear liquid gleamed in the moonlight. "He's at the ceremony site, probably wondering where his sister ran off to."

The mind-link. The message. It had all been—

"You," I breathed. "You manipulated the link. How—"

"Chelsea has friends with useful talents." His lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Witches who owe her favors. It wasn't hard to fake a distress call."

I turned to run, but he was faster. His hand clamped around my arm—the same arm he'd grabbed in the garden—and yanked me back. I screamed, but his other hand covered my mouth.

"Shh," he whispered against my ear, and the wrongness of it made my skin crawl. "This will only hurt for a moment."

The needle pierced my neck.

Fire exploded through my veins. Wolfsbane. I knew the burn, the way it felt like acid eating through my connection to Lyra. Her howl of rage cut off mid-sound as the poison spread, silencing her completely.

My legs gave out. Lennox caught me, lowering us both to the forest floor as my vision blurred.

"I tried to do this the right way," he said, his black eyes boring into mine. "I tried to let you go. But you're mine, Astrid. You've always been mine. And if I can't have you as my chosen mate, then I'll take you as my captive."

I tried to speak, to scream, to do anything. But the wolfsbane had stolen my voice along with my wolf.

Lennox lifted me easily, cradling me against his chest like I weighed nothing. Through the haze of poison, I caught his scent—and underneath the familiar notes was something else. Something chemical and wrong that masked my own scent completely.

No one would be able to track me. Not my father. Not my brothers.

Not Ian.

"Don't worry," Lennox murmured as he carried me deeper into the darkness. "By the time they realize you're gone, we'll be long gone. Just you and me, Astrid. The way it was always supposed to be."

The last thing I saw before the wolfsbane dragged me under was the full moon rising above the trees—the same moon that should've witnessed my mating ceremony.

Instead, it watched as I disappeared into the night.