Chapter 2 My Fated mate

Sera's POV

I did not go upstairs after leaving the dining room. Instead, I slipped through the back doors and followed the stone path into the garden, grateful for the cool night air that greeted me after the warmth of the house. The voices behind me faded with every step, and by the time I reached the old oak tree at the edge of the property, I could breathe without feeling as though the walls were closing in around me.

I had been coming to this tree for years. It was one of the few places on the estate where I had never felt like an intruder, perhaps because nobody had ever bothered to claim it for Elara. When I had returned home at ten, frightened and covered in scars, I had discovered that there were very few places in the house where I could sit without being told that I was in someone's way. The garden had become my refuge, and this tree had become the place where I could collect myself whenever the rest of the family became too much.

I lowered myself onto the stone wall beneath its branches and stretched my legs, letting my head rest against the rough bark behind me.

Dinner kept replaying in my mind.

Elara beside Cairn, my mother preparing all her favorite food and my father praising her.

Cairn kissing her as though the rest of us didn't exist.

I had seen that kiss before I had even sat down, and although I had refused to let anyone see a reaction, pretending it meant nothing had required more effort than I wanted to admit.

Cairn was my fated mate.

I had known for years.

The first time I felt the bond, I had been eighteen. There had been no dramatic sign from the Moon Goddess, no sudden revelation that made the entire world stop. It had been a quiet recognition from my wolf, a warmth beneath my ribs whenever Cairn came close and an instinctive awareness that he was different from everyone else.

I had known and Cairn had known too.

I had seen it in his eyes more than once, even though he had never spoken the words aloud.

I had never demanded that he acknowledge it because I had already learned something most people never understood about fate. A bond could tell you who belonged to you, but it could not make someone love you, and I would rather live without a mate than spend my life begging one to choose me.

If Cairn wanted me, he knew where I was and i he wanted Elara, that was his decision.

I would not fight her for him.

The back door opened, and I knew who it was before I heard Elara's footsteps approaching across the stone path.

She stopped a few feet away and for a moment, neither of us spoke.

She folded her arms and told me that I had embarrassed her at dinner, not because of the cup but because I had deliberately brought up my past and made everyone uncomfortable. She spoke with the careful sadness she used whenever she wanted someone to see her as the victim, and I listened without interrupting because I knew from experience that arguing with Elara only gave her more material to use against me.

When she finished, I looked at her.

"I didn't bring up my past to hurt you. Mom told me I had to wait until everyone else had eaten because you get nervous around me, and I reminded her that I've been treated like that since I came home. I'm not going to apologize for telling the truth simply because the truth makes you uncomfortable."

Her mouth tightened. "You always make it sound as though I'm responsible for everything that happened to you."

"I've never said that."

"You don't have to. You look at me as though you resent me for having the life you lost."

I studied her carefully.

There was something almost convincing about the hurt in her expression, and perhaps that was why everyone believed her so easily.

"I don't resent you for being alive and loved," I said. "I resent the fact that when I came home, everyone decided that making you comfortable was more important than helping me recover."

She looked away. "I was a child too."

"So was I." The words left my mouth more softly than I intended.

For a moment, Elara's expression faltered but then footsteps sounded behind her.

Cairn stepped out of the house, his attention immediately settling on Elara. He noticed her expression before he even looked at me, and I watched his face change as concern replaced irritation.

"What happened?"

Elara turned toward him, lowering her eyes.

"I only wanted to talk to Sera. I didn't want there to be more tension between us, but she thinks I'm trying to take something from her."

Cairn's gaze moved to me. "Are you?"

I almost laughed. "No."

"Then why does every conversation with you become an argument?"

I pushed myself off the wall and stood straight. "Because nobody listens until I argue."

He gave me a cold look. "Maybe people would listen if you stopped making everything about what happened to you."

The words hurt, but I refused to let them show.

Instead, I looked at the man standing in front of me and wondered how someone who was supposed to be connected to me by fate could sound so completely detached from the person I had become.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know what I see."

"And what do you see?"

"I see Elara trying to make peace while you keep attacking her."

I glanced at Elara. She was standing beside him with her hands clasped in front of her, looking as though she had done nothing wrong.

"I haven't attacked her."

"You embarrassed her at dinner."

"It was an accident."

"And you still had to make everyone feel guilty afterward."

I felt my patience thinning, but I kept my voice controlled. "I didn't make anyone feel guilty. I simply refused to pretend that being told I could eat after everyone else was normal."

Cairn's expression remained hard. "You could have handled it privately."

"I have handled everything privately for fourteen years."

That silenced him for a moment but I continued before he could turn my words into another accusation.

"I have never asked this family to feel sorry for me. I have never demanded that anyone make up for what happened. I went back to school, I trained, I built my own life and I learned to live with the things I cannot change. The only thing I refuse to do is apologize because my existence makes someone uncomfortable."

Elara's eyes filled with tears and Cairn immediately noticed.

His attention shifted to her, and the softness that appeared in his expression made something inside me ache despite everything I had told myself. "Don't cry," he murmured.

She moved closer to him, and he placed an arm around her shoulders.

I looked away. That was enough. I didn't need to hear another word because Cairn had made his position clear.

"You should go upstairs, Sera," he said.

I looked back at him. There was no concern in his voice only annoyance.

"I was going to."

"Good. Leave Elara alone."

I held his gaze. "I have never chased you, Cairn."

He frowned, clearly not expecting the words.

"I've known for years that you're my mate, and I've never demanded anything from you because I won't chase a man who doesn't want to come after me. Whatever you decide to do with your life is your choice, but don't stand there and expect me to apologize for refusing to compete with Elara."

Elara's face went still and Cairn stared at me.

For several seconds, nobody moved ten his expression hardened again. "You're making this far more complicated than it needs to be."

"No," I said quietly. "I'm making it simple."

I stepped around them and headed toward the house. Behind me, I heard Elara whisper something to Cairn, followed by his quiet reassurance. I didn't turn around, I didn't need to because I already knew what I would see.

When I reached my bedroom, I closed the door and stood there for a moment with my hand still resting on the handle. The house was silent again, but the silence no longer felt peaceful. Cairn's words had lodged beneath my skin, not because I believed them, but because part of me had spent years hoping that the person fate had chosen for me might be the first person who would understand what I had survived.

He wasn't and perhaps that was a good thing, and perhaps it was better to know now than to spend years waiting for something that was never going to come.

I changed into my running clothes, pulled my blood-red hair into a tight ponytail and slipped my running shoes onto my feet. The moment I stepped outside, I felt lighter.

The track was waiting, it always was.

I walked through the gates of the training grounds and onto the familiar surface, allowing my fingers to brush briefly over the lane markings as I made my way toward the starting line. I had run here through rain, heat, exhaustion and injuries. I had come here after arguments, after victories and after nights when I had felt so alone that breathing seemed like work.

The track had never asked me to be anything other than myself. I set my watch and stretched, preparing for another run then heat moved through my chest.

I stopped.

At first, I thought it was the leftover strain from the race earlier that evening, but the sensation quickly spread through my ribs and down both arms. It wasn't painful. It was warm, almost soothing, except for the strange pressure building beneath it, as though something inside me were pressing against a locked door.

I looked around the empty training grounds but nothing had changed.

The trees stood motionless beyond the fence, and the lights around the track cast long shadows across the lanes.

I took a slow breath and tried to ignore the sensation but the heat intensified. My heart began beating faster then I heard something but it wasn't a sound from the trees and not a voice carried on the wind.

It came from somewhere inside me. The voice was unmistakably feminine, low and powerful, and so close that the words seemed to brush against my thoughts.

Run, Sera.

I froze.

The warmth surged through my body and for one terrifying second, I felt another presence stir beneath my skin, something fierce and watchful that seemed to recognize the voice even though I didn't.

Then everything went silent.

I stood alone on the track, staring into the darkness while my pulse hammered against my ribs.

I had spent my entire life believing I knew my body better than anyone.

Tonight, for the first time, I wasn't sure I knew what was inside it.