Sage found herself in a crowded coffee shop, watching the man she loved—the man she was supposed to marry—tell her it was over. Ben didn’t meet her eyes when he said he was sorry, and she wanted to scream that his apology meant nothing. She wanted him to love her again, but his gaze had already moved on, waiting for the human girl he’d met less than a week ago. A girl named Phoebe who turned out to be his true, fated mate.
Years of friendship, love, courtship, and trust had been thrown away for a bond he’d barely understood. Sage couldn’t breathe. She’d been so sure. They were going to be mated.
The dress was hanging in her closet, and in two weeks, she was supposed to be his. She had been branded by his touch, practically claimed. Now, she was just the woman he was leaving behind. “You said you loved me,” she whispered, her voice hollow.
“I did,” Ben replied, then quickly shut his mouth. Past tense. The bond was real, he insisted. He couldn’t explain it, but the pull toward Phoebe was undeniable, something fate had ordained.
He knew it was hard for Sage to understand, and he was sorry. But sorry wasn’t enough. When she asked him if he’d told his older brother, the pack Alpha, yet, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it so hard she flinched. “You will refer to him as Alpha now,” Ben warned, his gaze darting around to see if anyone had heard her casual slip.
“That’s just how it has to be. ”
Sage’s heart turned to stone. She wasn’t part of the family anymore. She never really had been.
Before she could storm off, Ben stopped her. He had one last thing to ask. His expression was hopeful, gentle, as if he hadn’t just shattered her world. He wanted her to help him.
Him and Phoebe. He wanted her to convince his brother Noah, the Alpha who couldn’t stand the sight of Sage, to accept the human girl into the pack. Noah listened to her, apparently. It was the only thing Ben could think of.
Sage laughed, a bitter, wounded sound. Noah didn’t listen to anyone, least of all her. He hated her guts. It didn’t matter that she had once convinced him to accept her as Ben’s mate.
That was different. That was because Noah loved his brother. But Phoebe was a human. The pack would hate her.
And if their father invoked the Forsaken Claim, all of them would be in trouble. Back at her parents’ house, Olivia banged on her bedroom door. Sage ignored her. The only person she ever talked to when she was hurting was Ben, and he was the one who had caused this pain.
Her stepmother wouldn’t let it go, though. She barged in, scandalized and furious about the news. “This is why I told you to keep your virtue intact,” Olivia snapped, her voice dripping with disgust. “Ben’s scent is imprinted all over you now.
No one else will have you. ”
Sage didn’t care. She swore she would never take another mate. It didn’t matter.
She was already pregnant with Ben’s child. A week later, Sage found herself at the Alpha’s birthday party, stuffed into an overly elaborate dress at Olivia’s insistence. They were on a mission: she had to find a mate tonight, or else Olivia would tell Ben the truth about the pregnancy and ruin his happiness. Sage was trapped.
She couldn’t leave the pack now that she was going to be a mother. Her baby would need protection. The grand ballroom was suffocating. Every pair of eyes in the pack seemed to be staring at her, judging her.
Then Noah walked in. He was the Alpha, her mate’s brother. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with piercing eyes and a smirk that never seemed to reach them. He was infuriating and magnetic, and Sage hated how her body reacted to his mere presence.
He scanned the room, and when his gaze landed on her, it was like being pinned by lightning. However, it wasn’t Sage he searched for. His attention shifted to Ben and the small, plain human girl by his side. Phoebe.
With her strawberry-blonde hair and light blue eyes, she looked fragile and lost. Ben brought her directly to Sage, asking her to watch over her, introduce her to people. To show her around. Sage felt the heat of his hand on her back as he left, and a part of her died.
As Sage stood with the girl who had taken her life, Phoebe nervously asked about shifters. Sage tried to explain the order of things until the room fell suddenly, dangerously silent. Then he was there. Noah stood before her, his eyes dark as night, and she knew, deep in her bones, that her night was about to get so much worse.
“Sage,” he said, not as a greeting. “Come. ”
He led her to his office and, without preamble, asked if she was desperate enough to accept a list of suitors he would compile for her. Desperate.
The word felt like a slap. She was desperate. She told him she wanted a partner, not a lover. Someone who didn’t care about love, because she would never love anyone but Ben.
Noah stepped closer, his towering form blocking out the light. He could smell Ben on her; she was as good as claimed. It would be hard for anyone to want her. Sage, feeling cornered and out of options, blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Well, what about you? ”
The silence in the room was cold enough to freeze her blood. Noah stared at her, utterly affronted. She was desperate; he was her mate; they could have a transactional union where she didn’t mind his affairs.
She was just rambling, and she knew it. She said she was sorry, that it was a stupid idea, and tried to flee. But Noah was right behind her. “You’re really that desperate?
” he asked, his voice dripping with mockery. She felt humiliated beyond words. She spun on her heel and practically ran out of the room, desperate to forget she had ever uttered his name in such a foolish way. She rejoined the party, intending to escape through the back garden.
She should have known her relief would be short-lived. Olivia found her, dragging her back inside, her voice buzzing with excitement. “Our Alpha just announced that he would be taking a mate! ” she hissed.
“Did you hear? He said he’s going to take a mate tonight! ”
Inside the ballroom, the atmosphere was electric. Noah stood under the light, holding his pack’s gaze with a wolfish grin.
“It’s high time I take a mate,” he declared, bringing a sudden, breathless hush over the crowd. He turned to the priest, beckoning him forward. “Roy, will you do the honors? ”
The stunned priest stuttered, “Who’s the lucky lady?
”
Noah’s gaze swept the room. Sage’s heart pounded in her ears as his eyes stopped, holding her captive from across the ballroom. He pointed directly at her. “Sage.
”
The name echoed in the dead silence. She blinked, her feet frozen to the ground. She had to have misheard. But he was beckoning her, his expression deadly serious.
His gaze held hers, unyielding, commanding. “Sage, come here. ”
She forced her legs to move, one step at a time, each footfall feeling like lead. Then he was there, looming over her, the entire pack watching.
He ignored her and waved Ben over. “You’ll be my witness. ”
A cruel smile played on his lips as the priest began the ceremony. They hadn’t been courting.
They’d never even been together. Yet Noah produced a ring from nowhere, and she didn’t have one to give back. It was a farce. But Sage was pregnant.
She needed a mate, and her baby needed protection. So she let the ceremony happen. “As you wish, darling,” he whispered to her when she agreed. She loathed and needed him in equal measure.
Later, in the newly prepared bedroom, Sage sat on the edge of the bed, her stomach churning. Olivia and Ben were there, but Noah dismissed them all with a growl. When they were alone, he told her he wouldn’t be claiming her tonight. She demanded to know why—why he had orchestrated this whole thing only to humiliate her.
Noah stepped forward, his fingers brushing her neck. “I just don’t plan on rushing this,” he murmured. Then his lips brushed her ear. “Beg.
” The word slithered through her. “I rather enjoyed your little pleading session earlier. Why don’t you try it again? ”
Cruelty flashed in his eyes.
Sage lashed out, asking why he hated her so much. A short, bitter laugh escaped him. “You were Ben’s. You were never supposed to be mine,” he said, his face suddenly pale and shut off, before he walked out, leaving her alone on their mating night.
Their marriage was a sham. Weeks passed. They lived under the same roof, but he was distant, always away. His scent haunted her every step.
Then, one morning, he stumbled into the kitchen, obviously drunk. He’d made her feel something, and she told him off. He escalated it, pressing her against the counter, kissing her like he was drowning. It was animalistic and hungry, full of a fury and want that Sage had never experienced before—not even with Ben.
But then he pulled away abruptly, looking at her with self-loathing, and apologized. “I shouldn’t have. ”
He left her trembling, confused, wanting more. Olivia was relentless.
She told Sage to seduce him, to make their bond so physical and real that he wouldn’t be able to let her go. But Sage didn’t know how. She was too terrified of being rejected. One night she followed her instincts to a bar, driven by an odd, unshakeable pull.
She found him there, but he was with Jess, a stunning pack member and his ex. A cold wave of jealousy slammed into her. She caught the eye of a strange, gaunt man with unsettling eyes sitting at the bar, watching her. She felt an inexplicable sense of dread, but Noah appeared and pulled her away from it, asking her what she was doing there.
She felt ensnared by his presence, by the way his gaze clung to her. Their exchanges were electric, charged with unspoken tension. Noah confessed he wasn’t avoiding her, only giving her space. She found him charming when he wasn’t being a jerk.
She gave him a ring she’d bought, trying to match the one he’d given her. His smile when he saw it was genuine, beautiful. “I love it. ”
On the night of Ben’s engagement party, they kissed again.
It was a desperate, consuming kiss on the couch, a storm of feelings that felt like a revelation. But then Noah pulled away, his face pale and tight. He looked at her as if she had wounded him, accused her of not even wanting to go to the party, and told her he couldn’t do this. He left her, once again, alone in the dark.
That night, her body ached. A primal dread swelled in her chest until she could barely breathe. Then she heard a car pull up. Relief flooded her until she heard the high, feminine voice he was with.
It was Jess. Bitter jealousy had her following them upstairs, storming into the room only to find Noah passed out cold from whiskey, his shirt stained with vomit. Jess wasn’t his lover. She was his crutch, looking after him when he drank himself into oblivion.
Sage helped him out of his clothes, blushing furiously. He woke just enough to reach for her. “Don’t go,” he slurred. She climbed into bed beside him, holding his hand.
He murmured in his sleep, “Are you mine? ” She didn’t answer aloud, but whispered into the dark, “Yes. ”
From then on, Noah was different. He was sober, soft, and attentive.
He cooked for her, doted on her, and ached to be near her. She learned the real him: passionate, protective, and quick to laugh. They were a real couple. But her secret was still a ticking bomb.
At a solemn engagement dinner for Ben and Phoebe, the bomb finally detonated. Ben announced a special celebratory dish for the couples: raw venison from a deer he’d hunted. Sage felt her world shrink as the plate was placed in front of her. She couldn’t eat it.
She was pregnant. Under the weight of her stepmother’s sharp eyes and Noah’s questioning gaze, she froze. She looked at Noah, her heart pounding, and finally confessed what she’d been hiding all along. “I can’t.
Because I’m pregnant. ”
For a second, silence. Then pure, radiant joy exploded across Noah’s face. He pulled her into his arms, his smile blinding.
“We’re going to be parents! ” He believed the baby was his. His joy was so pure and overwhelming that Sage was swept up in it. Maybe it didn’t matter who the father was.
Maybe Noah would be the father. But Ben’s eyes across the table said otherwise. He knew. He knew the baby was his.
Later, he slipped a note into Sage’s hand. “Meet me at our spot late at midnight. We need to talk. ”
In the old treehouse, she waited for him for over an hour under the moonless sky.
He never came. Worried, she snuck back into the mansion and found Ben in his room, sitting on the edge of the bed, his eyes glassy and unfocused, mumbling nonsense. He wasn’t responding to her. Then, Phoebe appeared from the bathroom, begging Sage to be quiet, to not call anyone.
Her panic was palpable. “He’s fine! Please, don’t say anything,” Phoebe pleaded. Sage realized with dawning horror that Phoebe didn’t seem alarmed by Ben’s condition.
She seemed terrified of Sage raising an alarm. Sage lunged for her, but she slammed into an invisible force field surrounding Phoebe and was thrown back across the room, her head cracking against the wall. The world went black. When she came to, she was in an old, dusty bookstore.
Phoebe stood before her. She wasn’t a shifter. She was a human named Iris. She told Sage that Ben wasn’t her real mate.
He’d been enchanted. A wish had been granted by a magician, an opening spell that made Ben believe he’d found his true mate. It was temporary, set to last only three months. Sage’s world shattered.
She stormed out, desperate to get back home, to her husband. Her husband who was waiting for her. She flew home and charged at Noah, demanding the truth. He knew.
He saw her face and knew everything. He confessed that he hadn’t known about Phoebe’s truth, but he knew Sage was his fated mate. He had always known. He’d realized the bond when he turned eighteen, but she was too young.
When she started dating Ben, he thought she chose his brother over him, and he never said a word. He was terrified of losing her. He said he could feel her emotions, and he’d tried to stay away. Sage’s mind went blank.
The betrayal was biting, sharp. She accused him of making the impossible wish to separate her and Ben. Noah was frantic in his denials—but she saw the guilt in his eyes about keeping the secret, and his desperation only drove her away. Hours later, Jess appeared at her door.
Her hair was wet from the rain, her expression cold. “It was me,” she said. “I made the wish. ”
Jess explained that she had loved Noah for years, but his heart was always Sage’s.
He wasn’t coping, and she couldn’t bear watching him spiral. So she’d been willing to do anything—even break Ben and Sage apart—to give Noah his chance. She had chosen Iris for the spell because she wanted to protect everyone. When Sage heard the full truth, she was still furious with Noah.
He had lied. He had kept her from her son’s father. But Jess’s story painted a new picture of a man who had been watching her from the very beginning with a love so patient it had marred his entire life. Sage returned to her parents’ house, but everything felt hollow.
Her bond with Noah felt like a wound. Then he was there, in her family’s garden, standing behind her. She could feel the pull. He demanded she approve the separation.
He’d been drinking again. Seeing him like that—seeing his pain, his raw break—it tore her apart. He pressed her against the rail, his scent overwhelming her, his mouth trying to claim hers. He said things meant to hurt—that she was using Ben as a crutch, that she didn’t really love him, that he knew she was scared.
Desperate to escape, to end the ache of hearing the truth, she slapped him. “I know you love me! ” he yelled, holding her face. “I can feel your emotions through our bond.
I know you love me, and I know you’re scared. ”
Sage choked. She couldn’t stand the touch of the bond anymore. She ran, following the old stairs down the cliff to the docks.
Noah’s voice was a booming, broken plea behind her, but it was drowned out by the roar of the sea and her mother’s ghost—the final, most devastating memory. She scrambled into a small boat and shoved off into the water. She had to get away from him, from the pain, from her own past. Her mother, who had drowned herself years ago in this very sea, was closing in on her.
She felt her mother’s arms wrap around her, not comforting but pulling her down into the abyss. Her mother’s voice, so soft and soothing: “Don’t be afraid. ”
In the middle of the raging storm, Noah found her. He jumped into her boat, sopping wet.
“Sage, I’ve got you! ” But his voice was too late. A blinding bolt of lightning, a monstrous wave, and they were both thrown overboard into the freezing, black water. Sage came up gasping for air as Noah was sucked under.
She saw his limp body swirling in the darkness below her, blood swirling around his head. Her heart seized. He couldn’t leave her. He couldn’t leave her like her mother did.
A feeling of pure desperation filled her, and she dove into the cold water, swimming, clawing, reaching for him. She pulled him up, hauling him onto a piece of the boat’s wreckage. On the shore of the cliff, she laid him down. His face was pale, his lips blue.
He wasn’t breathing. Sage pressed her hands on his chest, working in a frenzy, tears mixing with the rain. “Noah, please, don’t leave me,” she sobbed, pressing down again and again. “I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, please, God, please,” she begged, as if her grief and guilt alone could bring him back. She spoke to his still form, confessing everything: her mother’s suicide, how it felt to be abandoned, how she pushed everyone away—even him. She pressed her lips to his, trying to breathe life back into his lungs.
“I love you, Noah,” she wept, her forehead resting against his chest. “Please forgive me. ”
For a long moment, there was nothing. Then, a sputter.
Noah coughed, water spilling from his lips, and his arms weakened, wrapping around her as he pulled her close. “I love you too,” he murmured hoarsely, his voice cracking against the wind. She went limp in his arms, a sob of relief tearing from her throat. Behind them, the sun was breaking through the storm clouds.
Weeks later, Sage stepped into the dusty old bookstore with Ben by her side. The magician was drunk, rambling about how he was forced to grant wishes. Sage just wanted to leave, but her mate was waiting for her at home. She needed to feel him, even if everything else was chaos.
Back in their living room, Noah was carrying their daughter, Phoebe, smiling. He turned as she walked in, a smug, satisfied grin on his face. “She smiled at me,” he said proudly. Sage threw herself into his arms, her face buried in his neck, nuzzling his claiming mark.
She finally felt the calm contentment of a real bond—the one she’d denied for so long. Her arms tightened around him, and she smiled against his shoulder. “Yes,” she whispered into his skin. “Yes, I am yours.
”
