I woke up with a jolt, cold air biting my exposed skin.
Trees. Darkness. Forest floor beneath me.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I frantically glanced around. How did I get here? I was wearing only a thin nightgown, my feet bare and freezing against the damp earth.
The last thing I remembered was falling asleep in my bed at the packhouse. Now I was somehow in the middle of the Blue Mountain forest in the dead of night.
On Mate Hunt night.
Terror seized my throat. Of all nights to find myself alone in these woods, this was the worst possible one. Tonight, unmated wolves ran wild, their primal instincts unleashed as they searched for potential mates.
Humans like me weren't supposed to be anywhere near this ritual.
A distant howl cut through the silence, followed by another. They were getting closer.
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the pine needles digging into my soles. Think, Hazel. I needed to find my way back to the packhouse before any wolves found me.
Another chorus of howls, closer now. My breath came in short gasps as I started running, branches whipping at my face and arms. The moon provided just enough light to avoid crashing into trees, but not enough to see clearly where I was going.
My foot caught on an exposed root, and I went down hard. Pain shot up from my ankle as I tried to stand. Great. Sprained or worse.
Limping now, I pushed forward, each step sending jolts of agony up my leg. Tears blurred my vision, both from pain and rising panic.
"Hazel?"
I spun around to find Liam standing a few feet away, fully clothed. Relief flooded through me. Jules' best friend. Safety.
"Liam! Thank god. I don't know how I got out here, but I need help—"
His usually friendly face twisted with something I'd never seen before—contempt.
"What the hell are you doing out here?" he snarled, keeping his distance. "Are you insane? Or just stupid?"
I recoiled at his tone. "I—I woke up here. I don't know how—"
"Sure you didn't," he sneered. "You just happened to wake up in the exact area where Julian was running tonight."
Before I could respond, movement in the trees caught my attention. Julian emerged from the darkness, bare-chested, wearing only shorts. My heart leapt at the sight of him—my boyfriend, my safety, my everything.
But he wasn't alone.
A woman trailed behind him, inhumanly beautiful with golden hair cascading down her back. She wore Julian's jacket, which swallowed her petite frame. His arm was draped possessively around her shoulders.
The world tilted sideways.
"Jules?" My voice sounded pathetically small.
Julian's eyes widened when he saw me, then narrowed into something cold and unfamiliar. The woman beside him leaned closer into his embrace, her perfect face curious.
"Who's this?" she asked, her voice musical and confident.
Julian's jaw tightened. "No one important."
The words hit like a physical blow. Six years together, and I was suddenly "no one important"?
"Jules," I whispered again, tears spilling freely now. "What's happening?"
The woman's eyes lit with understanding. A smirk played at her lips as she extended her hand toward Julian's chest, placing it over his heart in a deliberately intimate gesture.
"I'm Selena Vance," she announced, triumph coloring her voice. "Julian's fated mate."
The ground seemed to drop from beneath my feet. Fated mate. The magical, mystical bond that werewolves searched for their entire lives. The bond that, once found, superseded all other connections.
The bond that made six years of love meaningless in an instant.
"That's not... we were..." I couldn't form coherent thoughts.
Julian's hand clamped around my upper arm, fingers digging painfully into my flesh as he dragged me several feet away from the others.
"What the fuck are you doing out here, Hazel?" he hissed, his familiar brown eyes now darkened with rage. "Did you follow me? Are you spying on me?"
"No! I woke up here, I swear! Jules, you're hurting me—"
"Stop calling me that!" His grip tightened further.
"Julian, please." Tears streamed down my face. "I don't understand what's happening."
"What's happening is that I found my fated mate tonight," he growled. "And you're embarrassing yourself."
I shook my head, disbelieving. "But what about us? Six years, Julian. Six years."
Something snapped in his expression. His hand shot to my throat, fingers closing around it with frightening strength.
"There is no 'us' anymore," he snarled, his face inches from mine. "There never should have been. You were just... convenient. A placeholder."
Black spots danced at the edges of my vision as his grip tightened. This wasn't Julian—my sweet, protective Jules who'd held me through nightmares and promised me forever. This was a stranger wearing his face.
Just as suddenly as he'd grabbed me, he released me. I collapsed to my knees, coughing and gasping.
Julian stepped back, looking at his hands in horror for a brief moment before his expression hardened again.
"We're done, Hazel. I have my true mate now. Whatever we had... it's over."
I looked up at him through tear-blurred eyes. "You can't mean that."
"I do." His voice was flat, emotionless. "Go back to the packhouse. Tell my father what happened if you want, but it won't change anything." He glanced back toward where Selena waited. "I belong to her now."
Without another word, he turned away. A few steps later, his body contorted, bones cracking as he shifted into his magnificent wolf form. He didn't look back once as he loped away toward his waiting mate.
I remained kneeling on the forest floor, shivering in my thin nightgown, ankle throbbing, throat bruised, and heart shattered into a thousand pieces.
The sound of footsteps told me Liam had approached. I looked up, hoping for some small comfort from my boyfriend's—ex-boyfriend's—best friend.
Instead, he looked down at me with cold eyes. "You should have known better than to think he'd choose a human over a fated mate," he said, his voice flat. "You never belonged here, Hazel."
Then he, too, turned and walked away, leaving me utterly alone in the dangerous, moonlit forest.