Unawakened Wolf, Broken Mate Bond

We met when we were five, and we had our mate ceremony at twenty-five.

Damian guarded me for twenty long years.

Even though my inner wolf had never awakened, he still claimed me as his only Luna.

Everyone in the Frostveil Pack said I was his entire world.

Until I discovered the devastating truthmy inner wolf finally woke up, and the very first thing she smelled on Isabella was Damian's scent.

A scent that meant Damian had marked her.

So, the reason he refused to mark me for the past seven years wasn't "for my own good" like he had always claimed.

And the ultimate irony? When I was miscarrying our babies, he was in Isabella's bed.

He even pointed a finger at me, accusing me of framing his precious Isabella: "Evelyn, how did you become so malicious?"

I just laughed.

He asked me why I didn't explain, why I didn't fight back, why I didn't beg for mercy.

Explain what? Explain how the twins in my womb were literally killed by the sheer heartbreak he caused?

Or explain that Isabella, the girl playing weak and innocent by his side, was never his fated mate to begin with?

I didn't say a single word.

I simply vanished from his world, erasing myself as cleanly as if he had never loved me.

But Damian, why are you searching the entire world like a madman now that I'm gone?

Evelyn POV

Everyone believed I was the center of Damian's universe.

He had protected me for twenty years. From a reckless teenager to the powerful Alpha of the Frostveil Pack, he would have burned down half the city if I so much as frowned.

But that very same Damian had spent the last seven years weaving a web of lies that completely ruined my life.

...

I was born in the Moonclaw Pack. My parents died when I was young, and I was raised by my grandfather, the Alpha. I was supposed to be the next in line, but my inner wolf never showed up.

After my grandfather passed away, I willingly gave up my right to lead. I handed the Moonclaw Pack over to Oliver, our loyal Beta.

Then, I left the pack territory. I went to a university in the city, studied fashion, and eventually followed my dream of becoming a bridal designer.

Using the inheritance my grandfather left me, I opened a boutique bridal shop.

Damian and I grew up together.

When I turned eighteen, he swore to the Heavens that I was his fated mate.

But then he told me that because my inner wolf hadn't awakened, marking me would cause physical damage to my body.

I had never heard of such a rule, but I trusted him blindly.

Until recently, when my werewolf strength finally began to bleed into my veins.

Today, I was planning to buy a cake to celebrate the fact that Damian and I were going to have our first son.

But instead, I ran into Isabella. And I smelled Damian's scent all over her.

It was the unmistakable, deep scent of an Alpha's mark.

My fingertips turned ice-cold instantly, and my head started spinning.

Isabella was the daughter of a maid from my old Moonclaw Pack. She was always the quiet, timid girl who kept her head down and spoke in whispers.

When I was eighteen, she told me she wanted to leave the pack to live in the city, and I even gave her a large sum of money to help her start over.

To think she had been with Damian this entire time.

I couldn't breathe. My chest ached so badly that my vision blurred.

From knowing him at five to becoming his Luna at twenty-five, Damian was my religion.

I loved him to my bones. I trusted him more than I trusted myself.

I never tracked his location or questioned his whereabouts, because the security he gave me once made me feel invincible.

But reality just slapped me right across the face.

I didn't storm over to confront them. Instead, I quietly walked back to my car.

I even forgot the cake I was supposed to buy.

I started the engine and drove aimlessly into the city traffic.

The bright sunlight streamed through the windshield, but it couldn't melt the freezing cold in my heart.

My phone screen lit up. It was a text from Damian, written in his usual demanding tone: [I bought that blue diamond you liked at the auction today. Wash up and wait for me in bed tonight.]

A rare blue diamond had gone up for auction in London recently.

Damian once told me that the blue color looked exactly like my eyes, and that only I deserved to wear it.

I stared at the screen, feeling nothing but disgust.

Before I knew it, I had parked my car near the entrance of a private marina.

Through the iron gates, I spotted a familiar yacht.

It was the yacht Damian had gifted me for my twentieth birthday.

There he was, standing on the deck, holding another woman in his arms.

The woman was wearing a white sundress, her long hair blowing in the wind. It was Isabella.

On the table in front of them sat the small cake Isabella had just bought.

Isabella scooped up a bite of cake and fed it to Damian. He smiled and took it.

In the next second, Damian cupped the back of her neck and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

The cheers of the guests on board were carried away by the ocean breeze, sounding distant and muffled.

Memories of our past flashed through my mind like a cruel movie.

At eighteen, when my grandfather died and my wolf still hadn't emerged, Damian held me at the funeral. He swore he would protect me forever. For him, I turned down an offer from the top design school in Paris and stayed at a local college.

At twenty, when a star player on the college football team sent me roses, Damian beat him so badly the guy ended up in the hospital with multiple fractures. He then filled my entire car with thousands of red roses, declaring possessively in front of the whole campus: "Evelyn is mine. Anyone who touches her dies."

At twenty-two, when the pack elders pressured him to find a capable Luna who actually had a wolf, he proudly announced to the entire pack that I was the only Luna the Frostveil Pack would ever have.

Once, I thought those were proofs of his deep, burning love for me.

Now, those sacred vows felt like nothing but a sick joke.

I laughed until tears streamed down my face, my entire body shaking.

Twenty-five years. I had spent my entire life loving a man, only to realize I was the only one moved by it.

If that was the case, then this man who occupied my entire existence needed to be ripped out of my life.

I wiped my tears, bypassed our house, and went straight to Oliver.

"Oliver," I said, my voice eerily calm. "Do you want to become stronger?"

Oliver blinked, completely caught off guard.

"I want to ruin Damian," I said. "I might not be your fated mate, but I carry the Alpha bloodline. If you mark me, your power will multiply. The Frostveil Pack has been taking over our territory since my grandfather died. I want you to take it all back. Actually, I want the Frostveil Pack to vanish completely."

Oliver stared at me for a very long time.

I thought he was hesitating because of the consequences.

"You don't have to worry. My wolf is finally waking up. And I won't cling to you. If you want to reject me afterward, you can do it whenever"

Before I could finish, he looked into my eyes and said, "Okay."

Evelyn POV

When I got back to the villa, Damian was already waiting.

He was sitting on the sofa, his dark eyes drilling into me like ice picks. "Where have you been all afternoon?"

He couldn't reach me for hours, and his patience had clearly run out.

I looked at him, but all I could see was the image of him kissing Isabella on the yacht.

"Why aren't you talking?" Seeing my silence, Damian stood up and stepped closer. He wrapped his long arm around my waist, pulling me flush against him. "Do you want me to punish you again?"

At the word "punish," my body went stiff.

I remembered when I was twenty. We had a huge fight, and I ran off to go surfing at the beach to blow off steam.

Damian went absolutely crazy. He deployed the entire pack guard to search the city.

When he found me, he locked me in our beach house for two full months.

It wasn't until I cried and begged, swearing I would never disappear again, that he finally let me go with bloodshot eyes.

I was afraid of him. I was terrified of his suffocating, obsessive control.

Right now, I couldn't let him notice anything. I couldn't let him know I was planning to run.

"I..." I clenched my fists, forcing myself to calm down. My voice shook slightly. "I went to the hospital... to ask the doctor about some tests."

I couldn't tell him I was pregnant.

I was already three months along.

Sure enough, Damian's expression softened, and the grip on my waist loosened.

He assumed I had gone behind his back to do those painful fertility treatments again.

Immediately, a look of deep pain and guilt washed over his face. He leaned down and kissed my forehead, his voice deep and raspy. "Didn't I tell you not to go anymore? I told you, having you is enough for me. I don't want to see you suffer through those painful procedures."

If this were yesterday, I would have been deeply moved by his words.

Today, it just made me sick.

Damian's phone rang. He answered it, muttered a few quick words, and hurriedly left the house.

Half an hour after he left, my phone buzzed. An unknown number sent me an audio file.

I tapped play. Damian's familiar voice, mixed with the clinking of glasses, filled the quiet room.

"...Isabella is four months pregnant. I have to give her a proper title."

His friend's shocked voice followed. "What about the girl at your house? I thought you loved Evelyn to death."

"Evelyn can't conceive," Damian's voice sounded incredibly tired. "But the Elder Alpha insists that the Frostveil Pack needs a pureblood heir."

My face drained of all color.

In the recording, his friend sighed. "The Elder Alpha's control is getting out of hand. If he hadn't forbidden you from marking Evelyn back then, and literally forced you to feed her those wolfsbane suppressants to prevent her from conceiving, you wouldn't be in this mess right now."

Wolfsbane suppressants...

It felt like a lightning bolt struck me. The blood in my veins turned to ice.

I remembered seven years ago, the morning after the Luna Gala. Damian had handed me a cup of herbal tea with a strange, bitter smell.

He told me it was a special blend to help with my weak constitution.

So, from the very beginning, he had been poisoning me.

From our very first night.

At the end of the recording, Damian murmured, "I love Evelyn. That will never change. We grew up together, and she's perfect as a Luna. But Isabella... she's my fated mate. When I'm with her, I feel a passion I've never felt before."

His friend snorted, hitting the nail on the head. "You're just greedy. You want a passionate mistress, but you also want a quiet, obedient Luna to keep your house."

The recording cut off.

My knees buckled, and I slid down to the cold floor, clutching my phone.

He loved me?

He loved me with a fake mate bond and a lifetime of poison?

Evelyn POV

I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

Crying was useless.

But right then, a sharp, stabbing pain bloomed in my lower abdomen. It felt like a hot blade was twisting inside me.

The pain didn't fade. Instead, it grew worse by the second, and cold sweat instantly drenched my back.

With shaking fingers, I dialed Dr. Hale's number.

Marcus was my closest human friend. He was a doctor, and he was one of the few humans who knew about the werewolf world.

I couldn't go to the pack doctor. If I did, Damian would find out immediately.

"Marcus, my stomach hurts so badly..." My voice cracked with pure terror. "Please save my babies. Help me save them."

Marcus's panicked voice came through the speaker. "Don't panic! Get to the clinic right now. I'm clearing my schedule!"

Half an hour later, I arrived at the private clinic alone.

The pain was so intense that my face was completely pale. I wore a large trench coat, sunglasses, and a hat, leaning heavily against the wall just to take a step.

But as I rounded the corner of the VIP corridor to take a shortcut to Marcus's office, I ran straight into the last person I wanted to see.

Damian.

He was carefully shielding Isabella, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist, keeping the passing nurses from bumping into her.

He looked so protective, exactly the way he used to look when he shielded me.

The sheer irony of the scene made the pain in my stomach explode. I froze, clutching my abdomen, watching them walk past me just a few yards away.

"I'm sorry. If it weren't for keeping this from Evelyn, I would have had the pack healer look at you," Damian murmured, his voice dripping with worry.

Isabella leaned against his chest, her voice sweet and submissive. "It's okay, Damian. I'm just an unranked wolf. To be able to carry your child is more than enough for me."

Damian's eyes softened even more. He kissed the top of her head. "You are always so understanding."

He paused, his tone turning slightly annoyed. "Unlike Evelyn. She always demands this and that. I wish she were even half as mature as you."

Right. I was the demanding one.

In that moment, I felt a rush of warm liquid escaping my body.

Then I heard him say, "That blue diamond from the auctiononce I get it, I'll have it set into a ring for you. Consider it my gift to you."

So, the blue diamond that allegedly looked like my eyes was actually meant for her.

"Oh," Isabella suddenly said, "does Evelyn like the brooch you gave her last time? I spent a lot of time picking it out. I hope she can be nice to my baby for my sake."

Their baby?

I heard Damian's low chuckle. "Silly girl. Of course she likes it. I already told her that once you give birth, we will take the baby and raise it as our own. That's the only way our child can legally inherit the pack. Don't worry, she will respect you as the child's biological mother."

So, under the assumption that I was barren, he had already planned my entire future.

He wanted me to raise his bastard child with another woman.

No, they were the true mates.

I was just the outsider occupying the Luna seat.

A wave of fury and grief crashed over me. The pain in my abdomen reached its peak, and my legs gave out.

I couldn't listen anymore. I turned around, trying to drag myself to Dr. Hale's emergency room.

Just as I took a few steps, my phone rang. It was Damian.

"Where are you, babe? I got breakfast and roses ready for you, but you're not home," his voice was warm, like he was coaxing a toddler.

I leaned against the freezing wall, feeling the life draining out of me.

"Are you overthinking again?" he said softly. "Don't worry. If you really want a child, we can adopt one in a few months. I'll make sure you get to be a mother, okay?"

Adopt one?

While my own children's lives were slipping away, he was talking to me about adoption?

"No need..."

I spoke into the phone, my voice so weak it sounded like a whisper from the grave. "The babies... are already gone."

The phone slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor.

Before darkness swallowed me, I saw a bright, terrifying pool of red spreading across the white tiles.

Damian, you killed our babies. You did this.

Evelyn POV

When I woke up, the surgery was already over.

Marcus stood by my bed, holding a medical chart, his eyes filled with sorrow. "Evelyn, I'm so sorry... You were hemorrhaging when you got here. We did some tests, and it looks like a combination of severe emotional shock and a chemical rejection in your body. We tried our best, but we couldn't save them."

I stared at the ceiling, tears silent as they soaked into my hair.

There was no screaming. Just a hollow, empty silence.

"It's not your fault, Marcus," I whispered. "He killed them before they even had a chance."

He had killed our past, and now he had killed our future.

With the last physical connection to him severed, Damian and I were finally done.

Marcus paused, lowering his voice. "I suggest you go back to your pack and have a trusted healer look at you. Your body... it's healing at an abnormal speed. Luckily, I was the lead surgeon, so no one else noticed."

I nodded. Placing a hand on my stomach, I could indeed feel a warm, strange current flowing through my icy veins.

"My wolf," I whispered. "She's waking up."

Marcus's eyes lit up. "That's amazing!"

I gave him a weak smile, but shook my head.

He didn't know that even if my power fully returned, I had no intention of staying here.

Despite my weakness, I couldn't bear to lie in that bed for another second.

The phone on the nightstand buzzed. It was an image and a location pin from an unknown number.

The image was of a wedding dress I had designed myself. It was my proudest creation.

The location pin was for the most luxurious bridal boutique in New York.

A boutique that I owned.

I ripped the IV out of my hand, ignoring Marcus's protests. I changed into my clothes and took a cab to the boutique.

The cab pulled up across the street from the shop.

I sat in the backseat, feeling that unfamiliar power coursing through my body.

She was repairing me.

My wolf. In my darkest hour, she had finally come to save me.

But it was too late to save my babies.

Through the large glass windows of the boutique, I immediately spotted Damian and Isabella.

He was holding her, his eyes filled with adoration. "I can't give you a public ceremony yet, but I still want to see you in the most beautiful wedding dress in the world."

Just then, several luxury sports cars pulled up in front of the store.

The doors opened, and a group of familiar faces stepped out.

Kael Blackwood and several others. They were all our mutual friends, people who had witnessed my twenty-five-year relationship with Damian.

I rolled down my window slightly, and their voices drifted across the street.

"Is Damian really doing this for Isabella? Isn't he worried Evelyn will find out?"

"Why would he worry? He never marked Evelyn anyway, so she won't feel a thing. Besides, the girl has an heir in her belly right now. Keeping her happy is the priority."

So, everyone knew.

I was the only fool kept in the dark by the entire world.

I had just lost my babies, and here they were, celebrating the upcoming birth of another.

My hands shook with rage. The hatred inside me was the only thing keeping me upright.

Using my master key, I slipped into the boutique through the back door and went straight to the third-floor VIP balcony.

I stood in the shadows, looking down coldly at the pathetic farce below.

Damian was dressed in a tailored tuxedo, and Isabella was wearing that dress.

The dress I had spent countless sleepless nights designing to commemorate my first kiss with Damian.

Now, another woman was wearing it, receiving blessings from my friends.

"Put the ring on! Put the ring on!"

The crowd cheered, and Kael whistled. Damian pulled out a midnight-blue velvet box and dropped to one knee.

From my high vantage point, I could see it clearly.

Inside was a custom Cartier ring set, identical to the ones we had chosen years ago.

Even the sacred symbol of commitment wasn't unique.

Just as Damian was about to slip the ring onto Isabella's finger

I pulled the master power switch.

The entire boutique plunged into pitch-black darkness.

Then, I pressed the remote control in my hand. A single, powerful spotlight beamed down from the ceiling, shining directly on me on the third-floor balcony.

Evelyn POV

The guests froze, their glasses suspended in mid-air. The smile on Isabella's face shattered.

"Ev... Evelyn?" Damian's face drained of color. He looked terrified. He instinctively pushed Isabella away, ran up the stairs to the third floor, and threw his arms around me.

"Let me explain!" he stammered, his voice trembling. "This is just a rehearsal! I wanted to surprise you for our anniversary!"

He fumbled in his pocket, pulled out the ring, and tried to force it onto my finger.

But the size was wrong. It got stuck painfully at my knuckle.

"Isabella!" Damian screamed down the stairs, not even looking back. "Tell Evelyn the truth!"

Isabella's eyes welled with tears, her voice dripping with submission. "Evelyn, it's true. Damian planned this surprise for you. I was just helping him rehearse."

Damian clung to her words like a drowning man, tightening his grip on me. "Evelyn, you are the only one I've ever loved. How could I ever betray you..."

What a disgusting hypocrite.

Isabella sniffled, her voice loud enough for everyone to hear. "I wish Damian and Evelyn a lifetime of happiness. I hope you guys have your own baby soon."

Their own baby...

A wave of pain shot through my abdomen.

Isabella couldn't keep up the act anymore. She covered her face and ran out of the shop.

"Isabella!"

Damian roared. He pushed me away so violently that I lost my balance, slamming hard against the wooden railing. My vision went black for a second from the pain.

And just like that, he left me and all our friends standing there as he chased after her.

As soon as Isabella ran out, she dashed toward a black sedan parked by the curb.

Damian caught up to her, opened the driver's door, and started the engine.

The car roared to life, tires screeching against the asphalt.

But just as the sedan sped into the intersection, a massive semi-truck blasted through the red light, slamming violently into the passenger side.

BOOM!

The screech of tearing metal echoed through the street.

The sedan flipped twice before landing upside down in the middle of the road, debris scattering everywhere.

Damian, covered in blood, crawled out of the shattered window. He ripped the passenger door open with his bare hands and pulled a bleeding, unconscious Isabella out.

Isabella was just an unranked wolf; she didn't have the rapid healing powers of an Alpha.

She lay in his arms, her breath shallow. "Save... save our baby..."

Damian looked back at me, standing on the balcony. The eyes that once held nothing but love for me were now filled with pure, unadulterated hatred.

With all his strength, he screamed up at me, "Evelyn! I told you it was just a rehearsal! Why didn't you believe me? Why did you have to kill her and my baby?!"

The accusation hit me like a physical blow.

The friends downstairs rushed out, pointing fingers at me.

Kael was the first to speak. "Don't you know how much Damian loved you, Evelyn? He even banished Isabella, who loved him for years, from the pack for five years just for you! This rehearsal was for you! She was just helping him!"

Another friend chimed in, "Yeah, Evelyn, why are you so heartless? Isabella is so innocent. She just loved Damian. Why did you have to drive her to her death?"

Their twisted accusations rained down on me.

I looked at their self-righteous faces and suddenly burst into laughter.

Evelyn POV

My friends twisted the truth, blaming me.

It was laughable.

These were the same people who once raised their glasses to toast to Damian and my eternal happiness.

Now, they stood on a moral high ground.

In their eyes, Damian's five-year affair was completely excusable, and I was the malicious, unreasonable one for not stepping aside.

Isabella was rushed to the hospital.

Damian called the pack healer to the human clinic.

Miraculously, the baby survived.

Damian knelt by Isabella's bed, whispering to her unconscious form with a mix of relief and regret:

"Isabella, I'm so sorry. It's my fault. I should have never let my past feelings for her make me weak."

"You are my fated mate. I can't lose you. I loved the wrong person all along."

Loved the wrong person. Those words sliced through my heart.

Standing in the shadows of the hospital corridor, I remembered when Damian held me at eighteen, telling me I was his fated mate.

Even though I didn't have a wolf to feel the bond, I had been happy for years.

I also remembered that it wasn't me who insisted on staying.

I could have gone to the best design school in Paris, living my life like a normal human. My grandfather's inheritance was more than enough to give me a luxurious, peaceful life.

I regretted everything.

If I had known this love would turn so ugly, I would have never started it.

I decided to leave.

I took one last look at the man crying over another woman, turned around, and walked toward the elevator.

Behind me, I heard a heavy thud.

Damian had collapsed onto the floor.

But this time, I didn't turn back.

Damian, you taught me how it feels to be abandoned. I will remember it well.

I got back to the villa late at night.

I opened my phone. The pack's social media feeds were flooded with posts from our mutual friends.

They were all reposting videos of Damian putting the ring on Isabella's finger, with the same caption:

[Happy 5th Anniversary to Damian and Isabella! Stay happy forever!]

In the photos, he looked incredibly devoted, and she was smiling like a queen.

The whole city was celebrating "Isabella." What a joke.

My phone rang. It was Elder Alpha Reginald.

"Get to the hospital right now! Damian needs you!" the old man commanded, his voice cold and arrogant.

I stared out at the dark night, my voice devoid of any warmth. "Elder Alpha, Damian and I are nothing to each other. I have no obligation to save him. Also, thank you for your 'generosity' seven years ago. Because of you, I don't even have to go through the official rejection process."

I hung up and blocked everyone from the Frostveil Pack.

A clean break.

I didn't sleep that night.

I pulled out my boxes and started packing every single thing that had to do with Damian. I was going to burn my past to ash.