Chapter 5 The Wrong Fated Mate
REID POV
Adeline turns, and Sverre immediately loses his fucking mind.“Mate. Go to her. Go!”
I fucking know. Her scent has followed me around the arena all night, white tea and winter pear, faint at first beneath the cold air and sweat and a hundred other wolves packed around the rink. Now that she’s standing only a few feet away, it hits me hard enough that every instinct I have seems to pull in her direction.
Adeline just stands there holding the Crown Stick against her chest, looking at me like she has no idea what she’s supposed to do either.
I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do with this.
I already knew she’d grown up. I saw that clearly enough from across the rink.
Standing this close to her is different. She’s grown a lot but somehow she’s still small next to me. The top of her head reaches just below my chin.
“Pretty mate,” Sverre says with enormous satisfaction.
Jesus Christ.
“Go closer! Go kiss our mate!” Sverre snarls, couldn’t care less about social situations.
Can you shut the fuck up for five seconds? I’m processing!
Adeline looks up at me again. Her eyes are red around the edges. Not tired-red. Crying-red. Something in my chest twists so sharply that for a second it feels like I took a hit straight into the boards.
“Were you crying?”
Adeline shakes her head. Her jaw is set. “No, and I’m not avoiding you.”
She absolutely is.
I watched her all night. She looked happier than I’ve ever seen her. Now she looks miserable, and somehow standing in front of me makes it worse.
“Then why did you keep shutting me out?” I ask. “I want to talk about the fact that you’re my mate.”
Adeline doesn’t react. She already knows.
“But how did this happen?” she says quietly. “Your mate should be Sloanne.”
Why does hearing Adeline say it piss me off this much?
“Sverre didn’t react to her.” I step closer. “He reacted to you—”
“Then reject me.” Adeline immediately steps back.
I stop.
I’m not even sure I heard her correctly.
Sverre howls in protest. “NO.” His howl tears through my head so loudly I almost wince.
Calm down.
“SHE SAID REJECT.”
“What?” My voice comes out rougher than I mean it to.
“Reject me.” Adeline lifts her chin like saying it again somehow makes the words easier. “You’re the future Alpha. You need a mate with a miracle. That’s not me.”
I’ve barely had time to understand that Adeline Monroe is my fated mate. Now she wants me to reject her.
"She doesn't mean it," Sverre growls.
"The Moon Goddess chose you,” I say. “Not Sloanne. You."
"I'm the girl without a miracle." She swallows. "I won't drag you down with me."
What the fuck? She just pulled the Crown Stick from the moonstone and half the arena couldn’t stop staring at her.
Who the hell taught her to think about herself like that?
"Adeline—"
"Please." The word cracks. She’s looking at me like she needs this. "Just do it."
I don’t understand why becoming my mate seems to scare her. Hell, suddenly I feel like a fucking creep.
“No.” Sverre’s voice has dropped into something low and dangerous, “She stays. Mate!”
My jaw tightens. Every instinct in me agrees with him more than I want to admit. The scent of her is everywhere this close, pulling at something primitive under my skin.
But then I look at Adeline. She’s waiting. Tense. Miserable.
Fuck.
“Fine.”
Sverre goes berserk. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
Pain spears through the back of my skull as he slams against me, furious enough that my vision blurs for half a second.
I hold Adeline’s gaze. “We’ll reject it.”
“DON’T YOU DARE! SHE’S OUR MATE!” Sverre erupts.
Her shoulders loosen slightly. I hate that they do.
I take a breath. “But it’s going to hurt. A lot. Are you sure?”
She nods. I wish she would hesitate. Fuck.
“Okay.” I force myself to breathe. “I, Reid Callahan, reject you, Adeline Monroe—”
Sverre throws himself against me. Pain tears through my chest. I clench my teeth and keep going. “I reject you as my—”
Something invisible tightens around my throat. Not Sverre.
I know what his resistance feels like now—hot, violent, clawing at the inside of me.
This is different.
The bond pulls.
“I reject you as my—”
Pain snaps through my chest so sharply that I suck in a breath.
“What the hell…” I mutter.
Adeline stares at me. “What happened?”
I swallow.
My throat feels perfectly fine now. “I can’t say it.”
And the worst part, I'm not sure I want to.
Her face crumples. “I’ll try. I, Adeline Monroe, reject you, Reid—”
Her hand flies to her throat. “Rime.”
Resistance pulses through the bond. She tries again, harder, but her knees buckle. I catch her before she hits the ground.
Her hands grab my jacket, mine settling around her waist. Sverre goes completely still. Holding her feels… right. Far too right.
Adeline lifts her face. Our eyes meet. I can see the faint freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks.
“Kiss our mate!” Sverre growls.
Fuck.
I’ve barely had one real conversation with her after years, and my shameless wolf already wants me to kiss her.
“I can’t,” she gasps. “Why can’t I—”
I forget we were just trying to reject each other.
I steady her. “Our wolves won’t let us.”
“That’s not how it works.” She pulls away, breathing hard. “I have to reject this bond. I can’t be your fated mate.” She shakes her head.
She talks like being chosen by me would cost me something. Like losing her wouldn’t cost me too.
“You’re not nineteen yet. You can’t fully scent me. Maybe the bond isn’t complete.”
She stares at me. “So what do we do?”
“We wait until Saturday. Until you turn nineteen and can scent me properly then try again.” I pause. “If you still want to.”
Adeline’s jaw tightens. “Fine. See you on Saturday. Don’t tell anyone about the bond.”
I frown. “Why?”
Her gaze flicks away. “Just don’t.”
I don’t like it, but I nod. “Fine. Do you—”
She turns and walks away before I can finish.
I was going to offer to walk her home.
“Our mate!” Sverre snaps. “Don’t let her go.”
What do you want me to do, drag her back like a fucking criminal? She already wants to reject us.
Sverre growls. “I want to scent our mate.”
I ignore him.
My dad’s waiting for me when I get home.
“Did you scent your mate?” Dad watches me for a moment. “I hope it’s Sloanne.”
Sverre growls. “No. She isn’t our mate.”
Dad leans back in his chair. “You’ll be Alpha after me. She’d make a good Luna. You don’t need someone weak you’ll have to protect all the time. Especially someone without a miracle.”
Sverre bares his teeth inside me. “Our mate isn’t weak.”
Dad stands. “The results will be out soon. Enjoy hockey while you can, Reid. Just don’t forget what comes after it.”
My jaw tightens. “You mean becoming Alpha.”
“I mean responsibility.” He walks past me and heads upstairs.
Sverre’s still pissed.
Kellan’s voice cuts through our group link. “Results come out Saturday. Think Adeline’s actually going to show up?”
“Sloanne’s going to lose her shit,” Asher answers.
“Saturday?” I ask. “Are you sure?”
Beckett laughs. “Yeah. Why? You got plans on Saturday?”
I don’t answer.
***
ADELINE POV
“Why did you ask him to reject us?” Rime asks.
“I won’t drag us into trouble.”
“Reid isn’t trouble. And you felt it too.”
She’s right. I can still feel him.
The house is cold when I get home.
I go straight to the bathroom. Bruises spread over my hip and forearm. My palms are blistered.
“You need to rest,” Rime says.
“I can’t. They’ll be home soon. I still have chores to finish.”
I clean the cuts, wrap my palm, then head downstairs. I wash the dishes, wipe the counters, sweep, take out the trash, before gathering the laundry everyone left behind. Dad’s clothes. My stepmother’s. Sloanne’s. Mine.
By the time I load the last of my family’s clothes into the washing machine, my palm is throbbing beneath the bandage again.
I barely get under the blanket before my bedroom door flies open.
Sloanne walks in without knocking.
“Where is it?” Her eyes snap to mine. “The Crown Stick.”
My stomach tightens. “Don’t break—”
“Where is the stick, Adeline? Do you really want me to go find Elara again to make it worse?” She crosses the room and yanks open my wardrobe. Clothes hit the floor as she tears through the shelves. “Where did you hide it?”
“Ah. There it is.” Sloanne reaches behind my winter coats and pulls out the Crown Stick. “I warned you not to come tonight.”
She slams the stick against my desk, but the crack comes from the wood.
Sloanne stares at it. “What the hell is this thing made of?”
She hits it against the floor three times, but nothing happens.
“Fuck!” She throws it aside.
She crosses the room and grabs me by the throat. My back hits the wall.
“Listen to me.” Her fingers tighten. “You got everyone looking at you tonight. The Crown Stick. The scoreboard. Even the prince. Don’t ever make everyone look at you like that again. And Reid, he’s my mate.” Her nails dig deeper. “You already know what happens to things you take from me.”
She lets go. I choke on my first breath and grab my throat.
Sloanne watches me for a second like she’s satisfied with what she sees. “Know your place.”
SLOANNE POV
I storm out of Adeline’s room. Reid isn’t my mate, but I won’t let Adeline have him either.
“Sloanne.”
I stop. My mother stands at the end of the hallway.
“You don’t need to worry about Saturday anymore.” My mother smiles. “Adeline Monroe won’t be on Saturday’s list.”
