The Unbound Mate

The break up

"Well, fuck you too, Danny!" I screamed at my phone, throwing it onto the bed. My boyfriend of a year had dumped me—for Camilla Blake. Perfect, blonde, and the daughter of our Beta. If they had been true mates, I would have accepted it. But she wasn’t. She was just convenient. A quick distraction.

The phone screen cracked as it hit the corner of my bed frame. It didn’t matter. It felt good to destroy something, just for a moment. To feel some semblance of control. The anger pulsed in my veins, a hot, furious tide threatening to consume me.

My bloodline had always been the lowest of the low. Barely even considered a wolf at this point. My mother had slept with a human, a mistake she reminded me of daily—until I turned eighteen and she disappeared, leaving the pack altogether. That was five years ago.

I hadn’t seen her since.

I couldn’t even shift. The only one who understood was Shane, but his situation was different. His inability to transform was accepted—his wolf had severed their bond after watching his mate die in the war. The trauma had broken him. Mine? Mine had just been… dead from the start.

It was days like this that my mother never failed to remind me of how much I had failed her. How the moon goddess had punished her with a worthless daughter, a constant reminder of her betrayal, for forsaking her divine mate and giving herself to a human instead.

I can still remember the sting of the beer bottle that struck my face when I was seven. It left a jagged scar on my cheek and lip, a permanent reminder of her anger. She had screamed at me, telling me how much she regretted ever having me—how she wished she'd left me to die in the woods as a newborn or drowned me in the lake. Her words still echo in my mind, even after all these years. I never quite shook the feeling of being unwanted. Unlovable.

The thought of her still churned my stomach. The woman who had birthed me only to abandon me. The woman who could never see past her own bitterness to love the daughter she’d given birth to.

The door creaked open, breaking me from my spiraling thoughts.

"Hey, I heard you screaming. You good?" Shane’s voice cut through the haze of my emotions, his presence steady and calming. He peeked his head into the room, and I saw the concern in his eyes.

"Danny broke up with me for Camilla," I muttered, sinking onto the bed. "I'm so stupid. I should have known."

I didn't know why I was crying—maybe it was just the weight of everything crashing down at once. Maybe it was the idea that I was so easily replaced, so utterly disposable in Danny’s eyes. His betrayal stung worse than my mother’s cold indifference.

Shane stepped inside, his large frame taking up most of the doorway. His presence was solid, like a shield between me and the world. He was the only person who had never treated me like I was less than. The only person who saw me, for me.

"Listen," he said, moving to sit beside me, his gaze heavy with understanding, "someday you’ll be happy. You’ll find your mate, and when you do, he’ll be your world." He took my hands in his, warm and steady, like he was holding all my broken pieces together.

I swallowed hard, looking away to fight back the tears. "I really hope I find him," I whispered, my voice thick with unshed emotions. "But with my condition, it’s doubtful. Who would want a hybrid? Let alone a hybrid who can’t even shift." The words felt hollow, but I couldn’t stop them from spilling out.

Shane’s grip tightened on my hands, his eyes softening. "Oh, Asta, you have no idea. You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met. Any mate would be lucky to have you." His words hung in the air, comforting yet somehow distant, like he was trying to convince both of us.