THE SILENT MATE

Yesterday was over and it was another day.

Another day for me to experience a new bout of humiliation.

Pain blooms across my ribs with every breath, a dull throb that mocks me long after the sparring ring has cleared. My knees ache from the fall, my pride aches worse.

The other trainees laugh as they file out, their voices sharp as knives.

“Beta’s daughter? More like Beta’s disgrace.”

“She can’t even stand without wobbling.”

“Maybe she should stick to mixing herbs instead of fighting.”

Each word cuts deeper than the bruises. I bite my tongue until I taste iron, forcing myself not to flinch, not to let them see how their laughter tears me apart.

I will not cry. I’ve shed enough tears in secret.

“Again.”

The instructor’s voice snaps across the yard. Sergei, his silver eyes cold, throws a wooden staff at my feet. It clatters against the dirt.

“I said again, Amanda.”

My fingers tremble as I reach for the staff. My legs shake when I stand. Every bone in my body screams for rest, but I square my shoulders anyway. If I fall now, if I quit, they’ll never let me forget it.

I raise the staff. My grip is wrong. My stance is sloppy. Darius sighs, and disappointment rolls off him like a storm.

“You’re a weakness waiting to be exploited,” he mutters loudly enough for the others to hear. “If this is all you can give, then you’ll be dead the moment a rogue looks at you.”

Heat floods my cheeks, shame burning hotter than the bruises. My wolf stirs inside me, restless, furious, but still caged. I whispered to her silently: Please, Kara. Just once. Help me.

But she doesn’t answer.

The shove comes before I’m ready. One of the older trainees slams into my shoulder as he passes, knocking me back into the dirt. Laughter explodes around me again.

“Oops. Didn’t see the cripple there.”

My staff rolls out of reach. My chest tightens, my breath caught between rage and helplessness. I want to scream, but my throat betrays me—silent, useless, just as it always has.

That’s when I feel it.

A prickle down my spine. A weight heavier than all the mockery.

I turn, and the air shifts.

He’s there.

The Alpha.

Standing at the edge of the training ground, tall and merciless, eyes as sharp as obsidian. His presence silences the yard in an instant. The other trainees drop their smirks and bow their heads.

But his gaze doesn’t leave me.

For a heartbeat, I can’t move. His stare pins me to the earth, my pulse stumbling in my throat. Something ancient coils inside me, something hot and wild, something I can’t name.

And then—low, rough, barely audible—his lips part.

“Mate.”

My breath catches. I don’t hear the word, not really. But my wolf does.

Kara surges inside me, her growl echoing against my skull. Ours.

I stagger, clutching my chest, as if the soundless bond has struck me like lightning.

I don’t understand. I don’t want to understand.

All I know is that the Alpha’s eyes are on me.

Gasps rippled through the training grounds.

“Mate.”

The word fell like thunder from Alpha Lucian’s lips, sharp and absolute, silencing every whisper and snicker that had mocked me moments before. The bullies froze, their eyes wide, their faces drained of color as the weight of his presence pressed down on them.

I stared up at him, my chest heaving, my hands trembling. The bond snapped into place, a fierce tug in my soul that told me this was real. This powerful Alpha—the one everyone feared and revered—was mine.

No.

This couldn’t be.

Not me. Not the broken, voiceless girl everyone treated like a curse.

Lucian’s jaw clenched, his dark eyes scanning me, taking in my bruised arms, the dirt clinging to my skin, the defeat written across me from the sparring match I had just lost. For the briefest moment, something flickered in his gaze—disappointment? Confusion? Pity?

He didn’t reach for me the way mates were supposed to.

Instead, his deep voice cut through the thick silence.

“That’s enough.”

The bullies dropped their gazes instantly, their bravado shriveling under his Alpha command. He didn’t roar or rage; he simply turned his piercing stare on them, and it was enough to make them back away.

Lucian stepped closer to me, his scent—a heady mix of cedar and storm—wrapping around me. Without asking, he took my wrist firmly but not harshly, pulling me away from the eyes of the others.

My heart pounded with every step. I didn’t want this. I couldn’t have this.

When we reached the shadows beyond the training field, where the noise of the others faded, he released me.

“Look at me,” he said, his tone commanding but quieter now.

I did, but my throat burned with words I could never speak. My hands shook as I lifted them, forming the signs I had repeated a thousand times in my head. Reject me.

His brows furrowed. “What are you doing?”

I tried again, more desperate. My hands moved faster, my breath uneven. Reject me. Please.

But he didn’t understand.

His frown deepened, irritation flashing in his eyes.

“Speak!” he said again, this time his Alpha powers seeping into his voice.

I froze. My chest caved, shame pressing down on me like a crushing weight. Didn’t he know? Didn’t anyone tell him?

My lips parted, but no sound came. Just the hollow silence I’d lived with all my life.

Lucian’s eyes widened slightly, the realization dawning on him like a slow, heavy storm. “You… you can’t…” His voice trailed off, rough with disbelief.

Tears stung my eyes as I lowered my hands, unable to meet his gaze.

The great Alpha’s mate wasn’t just weak. She was broken.

And now… he knew.

***

Lucien's POV

The moment I saw her, the bond slammed into me like a storm. Mate.

The word echoed in my skull, powerful, undeniable.

But she was fragile. Limping, small, trembling. Not the fierce warrior queen I had always imagined standing at my side. My wolf snarled in protest, demanding I claim her, shield her, but the sight of her weakness twisted in my chest.

She tried to tell me something, her hands moving in sharp, desperate gestures. At first, I thought it was anger, some strange attempt to ward me off. Then I understood—she wasn’t speaking. She couldn’t.

My mate. Mute.

The realization made my wolf bristle, not with disgust, but with an unexpected wave of protectiveness. She looked at me as if I were her executioner, begging for rejection.

But rejection was impossible.

“Mine,” my wolf whispered inside me, a vow.

I didn’t speak the claim aloud—not yet. The academy wasn’t the place, and she wasn’t ready. But deep inside, I knew one thing. Weak or not, silent or not… she was mine.

And I would burn the world before I let anyone break her again.

I looked towards the trainer. He was someone I knew would not pick on the weak unless there was a need for it. I could not make him give my mate preferential treatment just because she was mine, but I sure as hell wouldn't watch others treat her like she was a gum under their shoes to be trampled on.

So, he said nothing and just helped her up and took her hand in mine, walking away from the training ground with eyes that never dared to look at me and murmurs that never dared to be more than a whisper. I released my Alpha powers and made them all bow at my feet.

Immediately I got to my chambers, I turned towards my mate and said in the most soothing voice I didn't know I could muster.

"You are mine,"