Chapter 2 MY MATE

AMANDA'S POV:

I rushed home, only to freeze in my tracks at the scene before me.

The front yard was in chaos. Our clothes, boxes, blankets, and even kitchen utensils were strewn everywhere like trash.

"What in the world.?"

Two Pack enforcers stood stiffly near the porch, faces grim. Mom was on her knees, sobbing. Max clung to her, his small frame trembling. Mia stood rigid, her eyes burning with a fury that looked ready to explode.

I sprinted forward. "Mom! What's going on?!"

One of the enforcers turned. "Amanda Porter?"

"Yes," I gasped, breathless. "What is this?"

His expression was hard. "Your father. Beta Nathan Porter. did not die in the rogue attack three years ago, as reported."

I stared, uncomprehending. "What-"

Everyone knew my father had fallen in battle three years ago. I remembered that day-the crushing grief, the hollow void it left in our lives. He'd died protecting the Alpha, falling from a cliff, his body never recovered.

Father and I were so close; it took me years to piece myself back together. Donovan had been my rock through it all. Mom told me to hold my head high, that my father had died with honor, that he was the Pack's pride, and that I must carry that pride forward.

If what they said was true. if he was alive. did that mean we.?

The second enforcer stepped forward, shattering that fragile hope before it could fully form.

"He didn't die. He deserted. He fled the battlefield and joined forces with the rogues."

My blood turned to ice. Denial surged first, hot and immediate. "That's a lie! My father would never-"

"Believe what you want," he cut me off, his voice cold and final. "The Alpha has passed judgment. Former Beta or not, your father is branded a traitor. And the punishment extends to his bloodline."

"Punishment?" I whispered.

The first official gestured dismissively at our scattered belongings. "Your family is stripped of all privileges. Your Beta rank is revoked. You are to relocate immediately to the Omega tenement."

"Honestly," the other sneered, "the Alpha is being too merciful. Traitors like you should be stripped and hanged in the square as slaves for life."

Mia exploded. "You can't do that! We're not traitors! My dad isn't a traitor!"

She lunged at the man who had spoken-the one who had insulted the father she had always idolized. But a young girl was no match for a grown wolf. Without thinking, I threw myself in front of my sister just as the official aimed a vicious kick.

Mia screamed. "Amanda!"

Max rushed toward me. "Mandy!"

It took me a moment to find my voice. I wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth. "I'm okay," I lied, though my insides felt shattered and shifted.

"Amanda..." Mia looked up at me from where I held her, her eyes brimming with tears. She was never a girl who cried easily. But I had protected her. That kick would have broken her.

I forced a weak smile. "Really, I'm fine, Mia."

Mom hurried over, pulling both of us behind her as she faced the officials. "How dare you treat children like this! The Alpha would never condone such brutality! I demand to see him!"

"You think scum like you still has the right to an audience with the Alpha?" the cruel one spat. "Stop stalling. If you're not in the omega dorm by tonight, you can sleep on the streets."

"Mom," I interrupted, stopping her before she could argue further. "It's no use. Arguing with them won't help. We need to find shelter first. We can figure out the rest later."

The guard laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Now you're talking. Know your place, rats."

I didn't answer, just held his gaze with a cold, steady stare until he began to falter. "What are you looking at? You think I'm wrong?"

"Whether you're wrong remains to be seen," I said, my voice low but clear. "But if the day ever comes when I prove my father's innocence, you will regret every single word you've spoken today."

He snarled, raising his hand as if to strike me. "You little bitch-"

The other official pulled him back. "Don't waste your time on trash. The Mating Ball tonight is what matters."

Once they confirmed our eviction was complete, they sealed the door with the Pack's insignia.

I felt Mia trembling behind me. Mom wept softly. Our lives were crumbling before our eyes.

I watched it all, my hands curling into tight, cold fists.

This would not be our end. I would find the truth. I would clear my father's name.

---

The fading sunset found us hauling our meager belongings into the designated Omega tenement.

The air was thick with the smell of damp and decay. Cracks veined the walls, the floorboards groaned underfoot, and a cracked window in the corridor was haphazardly patched with yellowing tape. Eyes followed us from cracked doorways-some held a flicker of pity, but most were hard with open contempt. A sneer echoed from a nearby doorway, "The traitor's whelps think they can live here?"

We found an empty room at the end of the hall. Mom collapsed onto a rickety couch, her face ashen. The stress had triggered her old ailment, and she curled in on herself with a soft, pained sound. Max clutched my sleeve, his small voice trembling. "Mandy. can I sleep with you? It's so dark in here."

Mia sat beside me on the thin, newly-bought mattress we'd spread on the floor, her knees drawn to her chest. "We can't stay here," she whispered, her voice frayed. "We are not traitors. we can't."

I rubbed her back, my own throat tight. The memories of our old life-my spacious bedroom, the bookshelf my father built, sunlit breakfast nooks-clashed violently with the damp, mildewed reality of these peeling walls.

"Amanda," Mia looked up suddenly, a desperate hope in her eyes. "Donovan will help us. You're his best friend. And if he's your mate. he wouldn't let this happen."

My stomach twisted into a cold, hard knot. I hadn't told them about what happened on the field. How the boy who used to wipe my tears and fight my battles now looked at me like I was something rotten. Maybe he'd known about my father's alleged treachery all along. Maybe all those years of friendship meant nothing.

Donovan Reed was just like the rest of them, born to look down from a height I could never reach.

"You have to talk to him," she insisted, her grip tightening on my wrist. "You have to. As the Alpha's son, he has influence. He can fix this."

A coughing fit from my mother cut through the tension. She shivered on the couch, and Max tried to tuck the thin blanket tighter around her. Pale moonlight filtered through the broken window, glistening on the unshed tears in my little brother's eyes.

I looked at the crumbling ceiling, at my mother's pain, at my siblings' fear.

My nails bit half-moons into my palms. I didn't want to see him. I couldn't bear to watch the stars in his eyes turn to ice again.

But the cold night wind whistled through the cracks, stirring my mother's graying hair. I closed my eyes, the taste of ash and defeat on my tongue.

"Okay," I heard myself say.

---

The path to the Alpha's estate should have felt familiar and easy, but my heart was a leaden weight in my chest. Whispers and pointed stares followed me the entire way, and I had to concentrate to keep my chin raised. The path was decorated with silver lanterns and moonstone crystals, festive and bright, a stark contrast to the hollow dread consuming me from within.

My thoughts churned, torn between the Donovan I'd known my whole life and the one who'd shattered me on the field. Would he help at all? What if he refused? What if he humiliated me again, here in front of the entire Pack? Could I survive that?

The clock tower chimed midnight, signaling the height of the Mating Ceremony and the official start of my eighteenth birthday. The distant sounds of celebration felt like a mockery. All the dreams I'd once woven for this moment lay in ruins at my feet.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, forcing myself to remember my purpose: Find Donovan. Help your family.

And then I saw him.

My heart fractured all over again.

He stood across the terrace, wearing the formal attire I'd helped him choose last month. Gloria was draped on his arm, laughing up at him as if they'd just left the dance floor. He leaned down, pressing a tender kiss to her temple. A scene that should have been ours. A future he'd given away so effortlessly.

I wanted to flee. But in the very next second, his eyes snapped to mine across the distance.

And something. shifted.

A strange, dormant power stirred awake inside me, cutting through the heavy fog of my despair. His scent-really his scent, deep and wild like a storm-lashed forest-wrapped around me. The rhythm of his heart seemed to echo in my own chest. And a current, potent and undeniable, crackled in the space between us.

"Mate-" The word was a breath, a realization, torn from my lips before I could stop it.

He moved like lightning. In a blur, he was before me, his hand locking like a vice around my wrist. He dragged me into the shadowed alcove away from prying eyes before anyone in the crowd could even notice.

"Don't dare say that word!" he snarled, his voice low and venomous.

The raw hatred burning in his eyes was a final, brutal blow.

The boy I'd loved for life was killing my heart again.