Fated mates.

Such a naive wish.

I watched him on his knees, scrambling for broken rocks. Pathetic. So pathetic it was almost funny.

For ten years, I stood by his side and he never gave me a second glance. Now he was getting sentimental over a few broken rocks?

"What... What is this?"

Gianna's shrill voice cut through the silence.

She had clearly seen the words on the stone, and her beautiful face twisted into an ugly sneer. "Aiden! Did Rhea carve this? Is she trying to curse our Mating?"

Aiden didn't speak.

He just kept staring at that stone.

"Throw it away!" Gianna shrieked, lunging for the stone. Her nails raked across the back of his hand. "Get rid of it! How can you do this to me, for her—"

"Shut up."

Aiden looked up.

The cold fury in his eyes silenced Gianna instantly.

He slowly stood, gathering the stones one by one and placing them carefully inside his suit jacket pocket.

He handled them as if they were precious jewels, as if he wasn't the one who had just banished me.

"I'm tired."

He turned and walked away, leaving his future mate and all his guests standing there in stunned silence.

...

Late that night, candles flickered in the dining room of the pack house.

Gianna was smart, I'll give her that. No more scenes. Instead, she slipped into a whisper of silk that passed for a nightgown and served him a steak dinner.

With a subtle flick of her silk slipper, she "accidentally" kicked the offensive wishing stone into the shadows.

"Aiden, try this," she said sweetly, cutting a piece of steak and holding it to his lips. "Don't think about unpleasant things. Rhea was probably just confused when she said she wanted to leave the pack... We still have each other, don't we?"

Aiden opened his mouth mechanically, his eyes unfocused.

He was still thinking about the stones.

He was thinking about why I had so many wishes, but had never told him a single one.

He was wondering why he never knew the strong, unshakeable warrior he saw had such a soft, vulnerable side.

"Oh, and I made dessert."

Gianna presented a small silver platter like she was revealing a grand prize.

On it were several perfectly golden-brown cookies. A sweet, familiar scent filled the air.

Maple cookies.

Aiden's vacant stare snapped into focus the moment he saw them.

It was his favorite flavor.

The only sweet thing that could ever make the stoic Alpha smile.

"I know you like them," Gianna said, her smile gentle and wifely. She handed one to him. "I learned how to make them just for you. I want you to know I'm willing to do anything for you."

Aiden took the cookie.

The familiar shape, the familiar color, even the slightly browned edges were exactly as he remembered.

His hand trembled slightly.

He took a bite.

The crisp texture exploded on his tongue, and the rich maple flavor filled his mouth.

But... something was missing.

The texture was right. The sweetness was there. But the soul of it... the soul was gone. It was an echo, a ghost on his tongue.

"What's wrong?" Gianna watched his face, her own expression tense. "Is it not good?"

Aiden put the cookie down. His gaze drifted past her, out the window into the dark night.

There was nothing out there but an empty void.

Just like his heart at that moment.

"It's nothing," he said flatly, his voice hollow with a strange exhaustion. "I was just remembering something."

Something.

I floated above the table, watching the ghost of a bite mark on the cookie. A phantom ache echoed through my soul.

Of course it was wrong.

That wasn't the taste of a princess. It was the taste of my burnt fingers and secret smiles.

How could a pampered princess like Gianna ever replicate that?

She'd probably just bribed one of my omegas for the recipe and had the pack chefs make them.

But even with a recipe, some things can't be stolen.

Like love.

He stared at the plate, but he wasn't seeing cookies. He was seeing a memory.

"Maybe..." he murmured, so low I could barely hear.

"Maybe it's her I miss."

"Miss who?"

The gentle mask on Gianna's face finally cracked.

She slammed her fork down with a clatter.

"Aiden, what is wrong with you tonight?"

She stood up, walked around the table, and slid onto his lap. She cupped his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her.

"Look at me, Aiden. I'm your Gianna. The woman you swore to love for the rest of your life. Your chosen mate."

Her tears came on command, perfectly pitiful.

"The Mating Ceremony is almost here. I'm so excited for our life together."

She lowered her head, pressing a kiss to the column of his throat. Her hand slid under his shirt, seeking the warmth of his skin. A blatant, desperate seduction.

But Aiden grabbed her hand and pulled her off his lap. The movement was almost rough.

"Stop," he said, his voice quiet but laced with steel. "Not yet. Our first time should be sacred, under the full moon."

Gianna froze.

"Why?" Her voice trembled, her eyes filled with suspicion. "Is it really about the ceremony? Or is it because... you don't actually love me?"

Aiden sighed.

He seemed truly exhausted, too tired to even argue properly.

"Don't be ridiculous." He reached out to smooth her hair, his eyes glazing over as he drifted into a memory.

"Bella, do you know why I chose you? Why it had to be you?"

Gianna blinked. "Because... I'm the princess of the Creek Valley Pack?"

"No." Aiden shook his head. "It was because of the candy."

The candy?

My ghostly form jolted.

"That snowy night, after my first shift," Aiden's voice grew low and distant. "The Luna had poisoned me with wolfsbane, and I was left for dead in the manor's garden. I was burning up, so delirious I couldn't even see who you were."

"Just when I thought I was going to die, someone pushed a piece of candy into my mouth."

His eyes softened with a reverence I had never seen before—a look reserved only for the memory of his savior.

"It was a piece of candy. Lemon. So sour it made my eyes water, but it cut right through the fever. It saved me."

He looked at Gianna, his voice thick with emotion. "When I woke up, the only thing I had was a handkerchief with your family's crest on it. From that moment, I swore I would spend my life repaying the girl who saved me in the snow."

Gianna's expression froze.

It was a complex mask of guilt, panic, and then a flicker of triumphant relief.

But I felt the spirit blood in my veins turn to ice.

Eight years ago, on that snow-swept night, I had knelt at the old Alpha's door for three days, begging for the antidote.

My knees were numb with cold, my forehead was raw and bleeding from kowtowing.

The old Alpha still refused.

In despair, I went back to the mountainside and found Aiden, barely breathing.

I had no medicine. No water.

All I had was a single piece of candy a witch had given me out of pity.

I held him in the snow all night, forcing my own warmth into his freezing body, whispering his name like a prayer.

Only after the fever broke did I realize the witch's 'pity' had been a dose of the antidote.

As for the handkerchief...

Gianna had walked by, disgusted by the sight of us. She had dropped it after using it to cover her nose from the "stench of poverty" she claimed we had!

So that was it.

That was the truth behind his love for her.

It wasn't love. It wasn't destiny.

It was a lie. A decade-long lie built on a single, stolen piece of candy.

A silent scream tore through my soul. I wanted to claw at his face, to howl the truth until it made his ears bleed.

IT WAS ME! IT WAS ALWAYS ME!

But I couldn't.

I was a ghost.

"Aiden..." Gianna had clearly recovered.

Her eyes darted around for a split second—a flicker of panic—before they filled with manufactured tears. "Aiden," she breathed, her voice thick with emotion. "You remembered."

She threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest to hide the cunning in her eyes.

"I just couldn't bear to see you suffering... I never thought you'd remember it for so long."

"Even without a fated mate bond, I love you, Gianna."

I started to laugh, a hollow, rattling sound only I could hear.

Oh, Aiden. You absolute fool. You gave your heart to a thief.

Three days later. The full moon.

Aiden stood on the highest platform of the Silver Moon altar.

He should have been smiling, waiting for his Luna, but his eyes were glued to the main gates of the headquarters.

They were empty.

He didn't know what he was looking for. He just knew someone was missing.

The one person who always had his back. His warrior.

Even though he had banished her, even though he knew she would never return.

He was waiting for a miracle.

Or maybe just a reason to finally let go.

"Alpha?" an Elder prompted from behind him. "The Luna is waiting."

Aiden snapped back to reality. He glanced at Gianna, dressed in her ceremonial robes, looking at him anxiously.

He took her hand, ready to turn back to the altar.

Just then, a roar of an engine shattered the peace of the ceremony.

A moment later, a war-battered truck, caked in mud and grime, smashed through the main gates. Guards scattered like bowling pins.

"The ceremony is under attack!"

Guards yelled in panic as the crowd descended into chaos.

Gianna screamed and hid behind Aiden.

But Aiden didn't move.

He stood on the high platform, his pupils shrinking as he stared at the familiar vehicle.

It was my truck.

The truck screeched to a halt at the foot of the altar.

The door opened.

It wasn't an assassin who stepped out. It was my second-in-command, Liam.

He had fought by my side through hell and back. Now his face was unshaven and streaked with tears.

He ignored the weapons aimed at him. He ignored Aiden's shocked expression.

He turned to the truck, and with a reverence that silenced the chaos, he lifted a figure from the passenger seat.

Not a person. A body.

It was wrapped tightly in a black body bag, the face hidden.

But from the limp, dangling arm, the dried bloodstains, the fingers still clenched into a fist even in death...

Everyone knew who it was.

The entire pack fell silent.

Liam held me in his arms and walked up the steps, one by one. Each footstep was a heavy thud that echoed in the silence.

He stopped before the altar. He didn't bow to the Alpha. He didn't even glance at the woman who was about to become Luna.

He gently laid my body down on the sacred altar.

"Liam! Are you insane?!" Gianna shrieked, snapping out of her shock. "This is my mating ceremony! How dare you bring a corpse—"

"Shut up!"

Liam spun around. His gaze locked on Aiden, the hatred in his eyes burning free.

"You wanted Gianna," he spat. "Rhea paid for her with her life."

He took one step back and dropped to one knee.

And then, one by one, the warriors I had saved, the pack members whose lives I had touched… they all dropped to their knees, bowing their heads.

A single, mournful howl of grief echoed across the plaza.

Aiden's face was chalk white. He stared at the still form on the altar.

And then he felt it. An invisible hand wrapped around his heart, squeezed, and ripped.

A strangled cry of agony tore from his throat. His body began to shake violently. He clutched his chest and collapsed to one knee.

A raw power he had never known exploded inside him.

His wolf.

The wolf that had been sealed away since his puphood by the former Luna's poison and witchcraft. The soul that should have grown with him was now breaking its chains in the most brutal way imaginable.

"Aiden!" Gianna screamed in terror.

But Aiden couldn't hear her. His world had collapsed into nothing but pure, searing pain.

His wolf was howling.

In the first second of its awakening, it reached out for its other half—its fated mate—and found only the cold, silent void of a dead soul.

All those days of restlessness, the sleepless nights, the tightness in his chest… it was never anger.

It was his wolf, crying for the mate it was about to lose forever.

The fated bond hadn't just broken.

The moment he finally felt it, it was already a pile of cold ash.

Aiden lifted his head. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the body wrapped in black cloth, his entire frame threatening to shatter.

He reached out a trembling hand, his voice a raw, shredded whisper.

"No… impossible… Uncover her…"

Tears streamed down Liam's face as he reached forward and slowly pulled back a corner of the shroud.

Her familiar face. Lifeless.

Aiden's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

A silent, soul-shattering scream erupted from his wolf.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Huge, scalding tears fell from the cold Alpha's eyes.

He finally understood.

"Rhea," he choked out, "She's my… fated mate…"

He forced the last, impossible question from his ruined throat.

"How… how could she be dead?!"