The Alpha's Forsaken Mate:Bound by Blood. Broken by Love. Hidden by Fate.

The wedding was nothing like the stories.

No roses. No moonlit kisses. No whispered promises under the stars.

Instead, Aria stood alone at the center of the stone circle, surrounded by wolves who stared at her like she was a mistake that refused to disappear.

She didn't wear white. She wore gray-plain, rough fabric that scratched against her skin. The color of ash. Of mourning.

At her side, Kael stood still as stone, towering, silent. The Alpha of the Nightfang Pack. Ruthless. Feared. Cold. And now, her mate.

He didn't touch her. Didn't look at her. His jaw was clenched, his hands folded behind his back like he was waiting for this to be over.

So was she.

"By the blood of the moon," the elder intoned, his voice deep and unwavering, "this bond is sealed-by fang, by flame, by fate. No force shall undo what the moon herself has witnessed." The wind hushed, as if the forest leaned in to listen. Aria stood motionless, heart pounding in her chest. Kael's hand remained at his side, cold and still. Around them, the pack watched, not in celebration, but in silence thick with judgment and fate.

The words echoed through the clearing. A few wolves howled-a forced, ceremonial sound. No one celebrated. No one smiled.

Especially not Aria.

When it was done, Kael turned and walked away without a word.

Not even a glance.

And so began her life as a Luna who wasn't truly a mate

Two Weeks Later

Aria wasn't sure what was worse: the silence, or the whispers.

She moved through the Alpha's estate like a ghost-neither welcomed nor acknowledged. The halls were grand, built from cold black stone and ancient timber, lined with furs and weapons, and echoing with footsteps that never stopped. But they weren't hers.

Servants passed her without bowing. Warriors smirked when she entered a room. One even muttered under his breath, "She's more shadow than wolf."

They weren't wrong.

She hadn't shifted since she was twelve-and even then, it had been weak, painful, incomplete. Her wolf had never spoken. Never surged forward the way others described. Some thought she didn't have one at all.

Kael had said nothing about it. Nothing about anything.

Their rooms were separate. They hadn't spoken since the ceremony. She'd tried once-to thank him for letting her stay in the estate, for not throwing her back to the omega quarters. He'd just walked past her, like her voice didn't exist.

So she stopped speaking to him altogether.

But at night... she would hear him. Alone in his quarters, pacing. Sometimes he would growl. Once, she'd heard him punch the wall.

She had pressed her back to the door, holding her breath. Not out of fear. But because for one aching second, she thought-he's angry with himself. Maybe... he regrets this, too.

But that small hope died quickly, as all her hopes did.

Lila was the only light.

"You can't keep fading like this," her friend whispered one evening as they sat beneath the moonlight on the east tower balcony. "You're not invisible, Aria. You never were."

"I think I am now," Aria murmured. "Maybe it's better that way."

"No. Don't say that."

"What do you want me to say, Lila? That I'm fine? That I don't feel like I'm suffocating in silence every day?"

Lila wrapped a shawl around her shoulders. "Then breathe somewhere else. Come away with me. Just for a night. We'll go to the outer woods. No one will notice."

"They always notice when I breathe wrong."

Aria's voice was barely a whisper, but the weight behind it was heavy. She stood near the window of the healer's quarters, her fingers clutching the edge of the frame as though grounding herself against the rising tide of despair.

"They watch me like I'm an infection. Like I'll spread weakness just by existing."

Aria's voice cracked as she spoke, the words brittle from being bottled up too long. She wasn't looking at Lila when she said it-her eyes were fixed on a knot in the wooden floor, as if afraid that if she looked up, the truth in her voice would unravel her completely.

"It's in the way they move when I walk by," she continued. "The way their conversations stop. Their eyes-gods, their eyes burn through me like I'm something rotten they can't wait to throw out."

She swallowed hard, her fingers tightening around the hem of her sleeve. "I try to stay quiet. I try to be useful. I do everything they ask-clean, serve, submit-and still, I feel them shrinking away. As if the moment I let my guard down, I'll infect them with whatever part of me they think is broken."

Lila crossed the room silently and sat beside her.

"They don't see the strength it takes just to wake up every day and keep going," Aria whispered. "But I'm tired of being ashamed for surviving."

Lila nodded. "Then stop apologizing for breathing. Let them choke on their cruelty instead."

Lila didn't answer at first. She sat across the room, grinding herbs with a deliberate rhythm that matched the quiet tension in the air. Then she looked up, her expression a mix of fire and heartbreak.

"Kael doesn't notice anything. That's the problem."

The words cut deeper than they should have, but Aria didn't flinch. She only stared harder at the moonlight dancing across the snow outside.

"I think he sees me as a duty," Aria murmured, "like I'm some weight the Elders dumped into his lap. A symbol. A joke."

"You're not a joke," Lila said firmly. She set down the mortar and crossed the room, her voice softening. "You are surviving a life that would've broken others ten times over."

Aria laughed bitterly. "Surviving doesn't feel like living."

"No," Lila agreed. "But it's the beginning of it."

Aria finally turned, eyes wet, but not weak. "I don't want to just survive. I want to matter. To someone."

Lila placed a hand on her shoulder. "Then make yourself matter. Not to Kael. Not to the pack. To you. And when the time comes-walk away. Don't wait for him to see you. Make him regret ever looking past you."

Aria nodded slowly. Somewhere in her chest, something small but fierce stirred.

Maybe survival was the first step.

But she was done being invisible.

Aria didn't reply.

Because it was true.

to be continued ...