THEA POV
"Smile, Thea. People are watching."
My mother's fingernails dug into my arm as she positioned me at the front of the crowd. The best seat in the house to watch my sister marry my fated mate.
Lucky me.
"I can't do this," I whispered. The mating ceremony altar stood twenty feet away, decorated with white flowers and silver ribbons. In minutes, Dane would mark Sable's neck and bind himself to her forever. "Mama, please. Let me wait outside. I feel sick."
"You'll stay right here." Mother's smile never wavered, but her voice was steel. "The pack expects the Luna's sister to be present. Stop being selfish."
Selfish. Right. Because wanting to avoid watching my mate bond himself to someone else was selfish.
Through the bond burning in my chest, I felt Dane's nervousness. His anticipation. His determination to go through with this.
He still couldn't feel me. Three weeks had passed and he remained completely blind to our connection. Meanwhile, I felt everything—every emotion, every thought that leaked through. It was like living with a radio I couldn't turn off, constantly broadcasting someone else's life.
A life that should have been mine.
We have to stop this, Tempest whimpered in my mind. My wolf had grown weaker over the past weeks, her voice fading. If he marks her, if he completes the bond with the wrong mate—
"What?" I asked silently. "What happens then?"
Tempest didn't answer. Maybe she didn't know. Or maybe the answer was too terrible to speak.
Music started playing. The crowd hushed.
Sable appeared at the end of the aisle, and even I had to admit she looked beautiful. Her white dress sparkled in the candlelight. Her blonde hair was woven with flowers. She smiled like she'd won the greatest prize in the world.
She had won. She'd stolen my mate and convinced everyone—including him—that she deserved him.
Dane waited at the altar in formal Alpha attire. When he saw Sable, he smiled.
My chest cracked open.
It should be us, Tempest howled. Us walking toward him! Us he's smiling at!
But it wasn't us. It would never be us.
Sable reached the altar and took Dane's hands. The priest began the ceremony, speaking words I couldn't hear over the roaring in my ears. All I could focus on was the bond burning hotter with every passing second.
"Do you, Dane Thornbrook, accept Sable Calloway as your fated mate?" the priest asked.
"I do," Dane said firmly.
Lightning struck through my body. I bit down on my tongue to keep from crying out, tasting blood.
"Do you, Sable Calloway, accept Dane Thornbrook as your fated mate?"
"I do." Sable's voice was triumphant.
"Then by the power of the Moon Goddess, I pronounce you mated. Alpha, you may mark your Luna."
No. No, no, no—
Dane pulled Sable close. She tilted her head, exposing her neck. His eyes flashed gold as his wolf rose to the surface.
And he bit down.
The world exploded.
Fire erupted across my own neck—searing, burning, branding. I felt Dane's fangs piercing skin even though he was biting Sable. Felt the mate mark forming even though it was forming on her.
I tasted blood—my own, from biting through my tongue. My knees buckled. Only my mother's grip on my arm kept me upright.
"Don't you dare make a scene," Mother hissed in my ear.
The pain was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. It felt like someone was carving into my neck with a hot blade, burning a mark into my skin that shouldn't exist.
Through the bond, I felt Dane's satisfaction. His sense of completion. His wolf finally settling, finally quiet.
Because he thought he'd marked his true mate.
He had no idea he'd just branded me too.
The ceremony continued but I heard none of it. All I could feel was the burning on my neck and the bond solidifying, growing stronger, wrapping chains around my heart that would never break.
When the priest announced them as mates, the crowd cheered.
I ran.
My mother tried to grab me but I tore free, stumbling through the crowd of celebrating wolves. No one noticed the Beta's spare daughter fleeing—they were too busy congratulating Sable and Dane.
I made it behind the ceremony hall before my legs gave out completely.
"Help," I gasped to no one. "Someone please help me."
My neck was on fire. My chest felt like it was caving in. Through the bond, I felt Dane kissing Sable, felt his happiness, felt every emotion that should have been directed at me.
And I knew with terrible certainty that this was just the beginning.
Tonight was their mating ceremony. Tonight they would... complete the bond. Fully. In every way.
And I would feel all of it.
"Oh Goddess," I sobbed, clutching my neck. "Please make it stop. Please."
"Thea?"
A gentle voice broke through my panic. Hands touched my shoulders—small, careful hands.
I looked up to see Briar Ashworth kneeling beside me. The outcast Omega healer who lived on the pack's borders. We'd spoken a few times when she came to trade herbs with my mother.
"You're burning up," Briar said, concerned. Her violet eyes widened as she examined me. "Your neck—Thea, what happened to your neck?"
"What?" I touched the spot where pain burned brightest.
Briar grabbed my hand, stopping me. "Don't touch it. It's... Goddess above, how is this possible?"
"What? What do you see?"
"A mate mark." Briar's voice shook. "A partial mate mark. It's glowing silver under your skin, trying to manifest but being blocked somehow."
I stared at her. "That's impossible. Dane marked Sable, not me."
"I know what I see." Briar pressed her healing hands against my neck, her Omega gifts making her skin glow softly. "You have a mate mark that's half-formed. Like someone tried to brand you through a bond but couldn't complete it."
Through the bond, I felt Dane leave the ceremony hall with Sable. Felt his anticipation. His desire.
They were going to their private chambers. To finish what the ceremony started.
"I have to go," I gasped, pushing to my feet. "I can't be here. I can't—"
"Thea, wait! You need healing! This mark is unstable, it could—"
But I was already running again, deeper into the forest, trying to escape what was coming.
I couldn't escape it. The bond connected me to Dane no matter how far I ran.
When they reached their chambers, when Sable touched him, I felt it like she was touching me.
When he kissed her, my lips burned.
When they—
I screamed. Actually screamed, the sound echoing through the empty forest.
This was my life now. Feeling my mate love someone else. Feeling every touch, every kiss, every intimate moment between them.
The mate bond that was supposed to be a blessing had become my curse.
And as I collapsed against a tree, feeling everything happening in those chambers through our twisted connection, I realized something that made everything infinitely worse.
If Dane ever found out the truth—if he ever learned I was his real mate—he would hate me.
Because I'd let him mark the wrong woman. I'd stayed silent. I'd let this happen.
This wasn't just Sable's fault, or my parents' fault.
It was mine too.
And there was no way to fix it now.