He Never Knew I Was His True Mate

My mate, Alpha Grant, ran a pack in western Washington. A witch had cursed his wolf the day he was born, and he could never pick out a she-wolf's scent well enough to know his true mate.

He spent five years hunting for her. Every dead end wore him down a little more until he finally quit.

That was the moment he chose me.

On our bonding night, he told me the real reason.

"Mara," he said quietly, "I didn't have a choice. If the pack found out their Alpha couldn't even find his true mate, they'd see me as a joke. So I picked you. You're my chosen mate, but I swear no one will ever take your title. You're my Luna. Even if I find my true mate someday... nothing will change that."

Then he looked away and added, "I'm cursed, but I still have to look for her. I have to search every corner of the pack."

After that night, she-wolves started turning up at our den, one after another. Every single day.

Some were shy and some were bold. Some brought gifts, and some just stared at him with hope.

They all wanted the same thing: to find out if he was their mate.

And me? I just watched. Luna in name only, and never in his heart.

I had begged and cried so many times that I'd lost count. It changed nothing. Night after night, he brought new she-wolves home.

For a while, I told myself he'd get tired of it. Then he brought home three young sisters from a werewolf club. He paid more for their first nights than any Alpha ever had. A witch had told him that sleeping with more than two virgins from the same bloodline would wake his wolf's dormant sense and lead him to his true mate.

To Grant, the sisters were a gift from the Moon Goddess, his last shot at breaking the curse. He moved them right into our home.

"Don't worry, Mara," he told me. "This is the last time. The second my wolf gets his scent back, it's over."

But the ritual didn't go the way he'd hoped. He got hooked on the three omega sisters. Their wolves couldn't keep up with an Alpha night after night, and all three collapsed and ended up in the infirmary.

From their infirmary beds, the sisters made their demands. He'd taken their first nights, they said, so who would want them now? He could pick one of them as Luna, or they'd vanish before his wolf ever got his scent back.

He came to me in that soft, coaxing voice he used whenever he wanted me to make things easy for him.

"Mara... let's break our bond for now. You know this is my one chance. When my wolf wakes up and finds my true mate, I'll take you back. I promise. You'll be my Luna again."

I nodded, and I watched him get ready to bond with them.

What he didn't know was this.

The true mate he'd been chasing all these years was me.

And I was never going back to him.

By the time he learned the truth, it was far too late.

When we came out of the regional pack council, Grant texted the three sisters the news before he said a word to me.

Then he turned to me, awkward and unsure. "Mara, I promise I'll come back for you once my wolf gets his scent back. It won't take long. Just wait for me."

"I understand," I said softly.

But I knew better.

There was no future for us.

I watched him walk off, glowing with hope. In his head, nothing had changed. He truly thought I'd be sitting here waiting when it was all over.

I thought back to the night we bonded, and everything he'd told me then:

"Mara, I was cursed as a pup. My wolf can't sense his mate, so I have to try everything. I'm an Alpha, and this is humiliating. If word gets out that I can't find my true mate, the other packs will stop respecting me. I have to keep searching, whatever it takes."

So I put up with it all. I watched him bring home one young she-wolf after another, and each time he hoped she'd be the one.

Until last week.

Somewhere, he'd found a witch who said the curse would break if he slept with more than two virgin she-wolves from one bloodline. Only then would his wolf's senses come back.

So Grant combed through every pack he knew of until he found them: three sisters.

Working at a werewolf club.

He offered more for their first nights than any Alpha before him, and as soon as the deal was done, he drove them straight to our den.

From then on, our home was his playground. The garden, the parking lot, the bathtub, even the kitchen. Every corner became a stage for his lust.

I watched all of it in silence.

I learned to keep smiling until I was alone. For a long time, I wouldn't let myself blame him.

The three omega sisters couldn't handle an Alpha's appetite night after night. When they collapsed, the pack rushed them to the infirmary.

As Luna, I did what I thought I had to. I kept the scandal away from pack reporters and protected his name across the territory.

But nobody noticed what it cost me. Not even Grant.

My pride was gone, and so was my faith. So was my love.

Even after the three sisters were released from the infirmary, Grant didn't stop.

He gave in to their every whim and treated each word they said like a command from the Moon Goddess herself.

Brooke, the eldest, wanted a place to keep cats.

So Grant had the staff rip out every flower I'd planted, rebuild the whole area and fill it with cats of every kind.

Paige, the middle sister, complained that their bedroom was too small and too dark.

So Grant asked me, ever so gently, to give up my bright, spacious suite, the one that used to belong to the Luna, and he handed it over to them.

Tessa, the youngest, was crazy about mangoes.

So Grant told the chef to order crates of them and make every mango dessert he could think of, even though my wolf was allergic to mangoes.

Whenever I touched one by accident and started choking in pain, Grant just patted my back and said, "It'll be over soon, Mara. You can put up with a little discomfort, can't you?"

In the end, even the act fell apart.

The three omega sisters cried and begged to be claimed as his mates, or else they'd leave. Grant made his choice.

He took me to the regional pack council to cut our bond.

It had all been a lie from the start.

I was never more than a spare wolf in that den, a stand-in Luna.

On the drive home through the cold, damp dusk, I sat silently in the passenger seat.

My hands lay in my lap. My eyes were empty, and tears dripped onto my dress.

I had found my true mate. The cruel part was that he never knew it.

He never sensed that the Moon Goddess had blessed him with me. For years, I'd waited for him to turn around and say, "My true mate was right beside me the whole time."

But he never did.

Reality spoke louder than my hope.

And now none of it mattered.

Even if I was his true mate, I didn't want to be anymore.

Then Grant's phone rang.

I recognized the ringtone.

He'd set it just for them.

"Grant, we got lost in the woods," Tessa sobbed on the other end. "There's nobody here, only scary noises. Please come and get us. We're so scared..."