I Pray To Never Be His Mate

A deadly silver parasite infected my brain, causing my mind to regress to my fifteen-year-old self.

But my Fated Mate, Alpha Hunter, firmly believed my madness was just a pathetic act.

He brought his mistress, Ivy, into our home and allowed her to brainwash our five-year-old son against me.

When Ivy faked a shallow scratch on her neck, Hunter crushed my hand under his boot and threw me into a freezing dungeon lined with toxic silver dust.

He even handed our son a pair of scissors, watching coldly as the boy shredded my dead mother's dresses.

"Eat it, you ugly old witch!"

My own flesh and blood screamed those words at me while kicking a bowl of rotting meat at my bare feet.

To break my spirit completely, Hunter dragged me into a thunderstorm and forced me to look at the burned ruins of my slaughtered pack, ripping away my only safe memory.

I didn't understand why the Mate chosen by the Moon Goddess would torture me so ruthlessly, or why my own child treated me like a filthy Rogue.

It wasn't until I lay dying on a hospital bed, completely blind and coughing up black blood, that the mental dam broke and my twenty-five-year-old memories finally returned.

I didn't know that the man who called me crazy would soon kneel before my corpse-and that I would smile, turn my back, and leave him drowning in hell.

Chapter 1

Chloe POV

The sharp sting of cheap, overpowering floral perfume masking something rotten dragged me from a dizzying headache.

I opened my eyes and found myself standing in a massive, modern living room filled with expensive leather furniture and crystal chandeliers.

I did not know how I got here.

I am Chloe, the proud daughter of the Silver Moon Pack's Alpha.

I am fifteen years old, carrying the rarest and most noble White Wolf bloodline in our history.

My Inner Wolf, a restive spirit I had always pictured as white as mountain snow, paced the confines of my mind, its hackles raised at the scent of the strangers before me.

A tall, broad-shouldered man stood there, radiating the oppressive, heavy scent of a powerful Alpha.

His eyes were dark and furious, staring at me as if I were a criminal.

A flicker of raw, inexplicable pain passed through his dark eyes, but it was quickly swallowed as a woman in a silk dress clung tighter to his arm, releasing a thick wave of that cloying, artificial scent.

She was the source of that revolting Rogue stench.

Rogues were feral things, their scent forever tainted by the grime of their betrayals.

A knot of revulsion tightened in my stomach, and I pinched my nose.

"Get this filthy Rogue out of my sight," I commanded, my chin raised high.

The man's jaw clenched so hard I could hear his teeth grinding.

"How dare you speak to Ivy like that, Chloe?" he growled, his voice vibrating with a dark, terrifying energy.

I did not care who he was.

No one disrespected a White Wolf.

I raised my hand and slapped him hard across his cheek.

The sharp sound echoed through the massive room.

The Beta butler standing in the corner gasped, his face a mask of waxy incomprehension.

"I said, kick them out!" I yelled at the butler, fully expecting my father's warriors to rush in and obey me.

Suddenly, a small blur rushed at my legs.

It was a little boy, maybe five years old.

He bared his tiny, undeveloped fangs and bit down on my calf with a surprising viciousness.

"Don't hurt my daddy and Auntie Ivy!" the pup screamed.

My Inner Wolf reacted on an impulse older than thought.

I released a wave of my White Wolf aura, pushing the feral little brat away from me.

He tumbled backward onto the thick carpet and immediately burst into loud, dramatic sobs.

She is a bad woman, Daddy!

The pup's voice, thin and sharp, echoed in my head through the Pack's telepathic Mind-Link.

The iris around the man's pupil spasmed, and a web of dark crimson filaments instantly swallowed the brown.

The air in the room grew thick, pressing down until my lungs struggled for purchase as he unleashed his full Alpha aura.

"You would harm your own flesh and blood just to drive Ivy away?" he roared, stepping toward me. "You gave birth to him, Chloe!"

I pulled a tissue from my pocket, wiped my fingers in disgust, and threw it right at his angry face.

"Are you insane?" I scoffed, crossing my arms.

"I am fifteen years old. I have not even met my Fated Mate yet. The Moon Goddess has not revealed him to me-I would know his scent the moment he walked into the room, and yours is nothing but a stranger's stench. "

"I have never smelled a mate's scent in my life," I continued, glaring at him. "Do not try to pin this feral stray pup on my noble bloodline."

The woman, Ivy, slowly picked herself up from the floor.

She tilted her head, deliberately exposing her fragile neck in a submissive Omega posture.

"I just came back for some files," Ivy sobbed, her voice trembling.

"You do not have to pretend to be crazy, Luna Chloe. I know you hate me."

I sneered at her pathetic display.

"You have zero high-ranking wolf aura," I mocked, stepping closer to her. "Get off my territory before I have you thrown to the borders."

Ivy let out a soft whimper and turned as if to run away.

The man grabbed her wrist, pulling her behind his massive back.

He released his heavy, storm-like scent, wrapping it around her to declare his protection.

He took a massive step forward and grabbed the collar of my shirt, lifting me slightly off my feet.

"The Silver Moon Pack is gone, Chloe," he sneered, his hot breath hitting my face.

"They were slaughtered ten years ago."

My chest tightened, and a hot thrumming started in my temples, the blood in my neck pulsing against the thin membrane of my skin.

"Liar!" I screamed, kicking at his legs.

"My Alpha father just taught me how to hunt yesterday!"

I shoved him away and ran toward the vintage telephone on the mahogany desk.

I needed to call my father's private line. I needed my Pack's warriors to come and rip this lying man to shreds.

Before my fingers could touch the dial, a large hand slammed down on the device.

He ripped the phone cord straight out of the wall.

"Your dead parents were useless, weak fools!" he barked, his red eyes flashing with cruelty.

A loud ringing sound filled my ears.

Nobody insulted my parents. Nobody insulted the Alpha and Luna of Silver Moon.

I swung my hand again, slapping him on the other side of his face with all the strength my fifteen-year-old body had.

The room went dead silent.

The man's breathing became heavy, a guttural sound from deep in his chest, like a beast about to rip into flesh.

"Guards!" he roared, using the Alpha's Command.

The sheer command in his voice drove the air from my lungs and sent a weakness through my knees.

Two massive Warriors rushed into the room, their heads bowed in submission.

"Throw her into the underground dungeon," he ordered, his voice dripping with venom.

"The one lined with silver dust. Leave her there for three days with no food."

A Warrior reached for my arms.

I grabbed a heavy silver candlestick from the desk and smashed it against the Warrior's head.

The silver candlestick felt like a brand against my palm, the metal hissing as it made contact with my skin, but I did not care.

"Don't touch me!" I screamed, fighting like a cornered animal.

More Warriors piled on top of me, pinning me to the floor.

Suddenly, a blinding pain exploded behind my eyes, as if a nest of hornets had been disturbed within my skull.

Warm liquid dripped from my nose, splashing onto the floor.

It was blood, but it was disturbingly dark.

"Stop the pathetic acting, Chloe," the man said coldly, staring down at my bleeding face.

"Take her down."

The Warriors dragged me away from the light, pulling me down the cold stone stairs into the suffocating, velvet black of the dungeon.

I opened my mouth to call out for my father, but only a weak, broken sob came out.

As the iron door slammed shut, sealing me in the silver-laced darkness, I pressed my burning palm against the cold stone and whispered a prayer to the Moon Goddess. I did not know then that she had already abandoned me-or that the man who had just thrown me into this tomb was the Mate she had chosen for me before I had drawn my first breath. And his wolf, buried beneath layers of rage and Ivy's cloying scent, was already howling in anguish-a howl he would not understand until it was far too late.