HIS UNWANTED MATE

For five years, I suppressed my Royal White Wolf bloodline to be Sam’s "Chosen Mate," waiting for a Mark that never came. I cut ties with my powerful family, accepting a paper certificate instead of a soul bond, all because I loved him.

But my sacrifice meant nothing. Sam brought his mistress, Lily, and a child into our pack house, forcing me to accept them. He claimed the child was his because I was "barren," humiliating me to protect his fragile ego.

The betrayal turned deadly over breakfast. Lily laced my food with Wolfsbane, then slashed her own chest to frame me. When Sam rushed in, he didn't check the facts. He pinned me against the wall by my throat, ignoring my swelling airways as the poison took hold.

"If she dies, you die."

He threw me to the floor like garbage and rushed his mistress to the hospital, leaving me to suffocate alone. I had to crawl to my room, clawing at the floor tiles, to reach the antidote my father had given me years ago. As I retched up the toxin, the last of my love for him was purged along with it.

I stood up and walked to the backyard rose garden—the symbol of our marriage. I doused it in gasoline and struck a match.

Before the Royal Guards arrived to take me home, I pinned a rejection letter to the front door with a dagger.

"I reject you, Sam. And by the way, check your old medical files. You’re the one who is sterile."

Chapter 1

Echo POV:

The paper felt too light in my hands. It was high-quality parchment, embossed with the golden seal of the White Moon Pack, certifying that I, Echo, was the "Chosen Mate" of Alpha Sam.

In our world, the Moon Goddess usually calls the shots. Fated Mates, bound by soul and scent. But for the unlucky ones, the law allows a "Chosen Mate"-a legal binding, a promise of loyalty, usually followed by a Marking ceremony. *A bite to the neck. A mixing of blood.*

Five years. I had been staring at this certificate for five years. And my neck was still unmarked.

"Echo? Are you upstairs?"

Sam's voice drifted from the hallway. My hearing, sharper than a human's but dull for a wolf of my bloodline, picked up the heavy tread of his boots. I had suppressed my wolf for him. I had cut ties with my powerful family to be with him, a simple Pack Alpha who claimed to love me.

I moved to the door, intending to greet him, but stopped when I heard a second voice. It was Joshua, his Beta.

"The Elders are pressing again, Alpha," Joshua whispered urgently. "They want an heir. They are asking why the Luna hasn't produced a pup in five years."

I held my breath. This was my shame. The doctors said my wolf was dormant, my womb cold.

"Let them ask," Sam's voice was dismissive. *"As long as Echo thinks she's broken, she stays guilty. And a guilty wife doesn't ask why she hasn't been Marked."*

The floor beneath me seemed to tilt.

"But the certificate..." Joshua hesitated. "If she finds out it was never filed with the Lycan Council... that it's just a prop..."

"She won't," Sam snapped. "She's cut off from her royal family. She has no one but me. I need her bloodline's prestige to hold this Pack, Joshua. But I need an heir, too. That's why we have Lily."

Lily. The fragile, sweet Omega who worked at the pack orphanage.

"Lily and the pup are doing well," Sam continued, his voice softening. "I have to go see them. We have to maintain the lie, Joshua. Echo is the barren trophy. Lily is the real mother."

My knees gave way. I didn't fall, but I sank against the doorframe. My inner wolf, who had been sleeping for years, stirred. *It wasn't a roar, but a low, painful whine of betrayal.*

The certificate in my hand crumbled as I clenched my fist. A fake. A prop.

I heard Sam coming up the stairs. I scrambled to my feet, throwing the paper into the drawer. When he opened the door, I was standing by the window, shaking.

"Echo?" Sam walked in, his face arranging itself into a mask of concern. He smelled of forest pine-his scent-*but underneath, there was something cloying. Cheap vanilla.* "You look pale, darling."

He reached for me. I flinched.

"I'm fine," I managed to say, though my voice sounded hollow. "Just... thinking about us."