My Mate
726 Words
The world was frozen. Wolves hung mid-lunge, blood suspended like shattered rubies in the air, Gabby locked in the moment just before death. My breath rasped in my throat as I clung to the branch, my body trembling with something far greater than fear.
I had done this. Somehow. My scream had shattered time itself.
And then there was him.
Alpha Azeo.
He wasn’t frozen. He moved deliberately, each step crunching against the leaves, his black eyes fixed on me. Of all the souls on this battlefield, only he still moved. Only he seemed to exist in my strange pocket of reality.
“McKenna,” he said, his voice low and dangerous, yet soft in a way that made my chest ache. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
I shook my head. Words refused me. My mouth was dry, throat tight.
“You’ve stopped time.”
I wanted to laugh, scream, deny it all. But the frozen terror in Gabby’s eyes, the suspended chaos, told me otherwise.
My fingers dug into the bark. “This isn’t possible.”
“Everything is possible with you,” Azeo said. His expression flickered between a smirk and reverence, a mix that unsettled me more than any battle ever could.
---
I shook violently, heart hammering. “I don’t want this. I never wanted any of this.”
“You were never given a choice,” he said, voice carrying that infuriating certainty. “Fate doesn’t wait for your permission.”
Anger flared in me, sharp and hot. “Stop speaking in riddles! If you know something, tell me!”
A slow, dangerous smile curved his lips. “If I told you everything now, you’d run. And I cannot afford for you to run.”
“Afford?” I spat. “What do I even mean to you? You’ve spent years making sure I knew my worthlessness.”
His gaze softened, just for a heartbeat, and it confused me more than anything else. “I don’t hate you, McKenna. I never did.”
I stared at him, speechless.
---
Something strange pulsed beneath my skin, responding to him, reacting to the weight of his words. Fear, defiance, confusion—they bled into me like electricity, but not entirely my own.
I could feel him too. Pulling, pressing, claiming.
It was undeniable.
I am his.
The thought sent heat rushing through me. My body ached with something I didn’t yet understand.
“I don’t trust you,” I whispered, keeping my voice low.
“Good,” he said. “You shouldn’t. Not yet.”
His honesty startled me. No manipulation, no coaxing. Just blunt truth.
“But you will,” he added quietly, stepping closer. “When you realize what you are, you’ll understand why you need me.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “I don’t need anyone.”
His grin returned, sharp, knowing. “We’ll see.”
---
I forced my eyes away from him, scanning the frozen battlefield. Gabby hovered in midair, a rogue’s teeth inches from her throat. I swallowed hard. “If I let this go… she dies.”
“Not if you control it,” he said.
“I don’t even know how! How am I supposed to control something I don’t understand?”
He climbed onto the branch near me, presence overwhelming. “You don’t think. You feel. The same way you stopped it, you can start it again—on your terms. You are not powerless, McKenna. You never were.”
My hands tingled with energy. My chest burned with a certainty I couldn’t name. Maybe… he was right.
---
I glanced at him, war waging in my chest—anger, denial, and something else that frightened me more than the battlefield.
“My little wolf,” he murmured.
I snapped my gaze toward him. “Don’t call me that.”
He only smiled, calm and dangerous, and I felt my pulse betray me.
“You can’t keep playing games with me, Azeo,” I said, fury spiking. “If I’m as powerful as you say, maybe you should be afraid of me.”
“I already am,” he said, slow, measured, honest.
The truth hit harder than any enemy could. Alpha Azeo wasn’t my enemy. Not entirely.
And the worst part?
A part of me didn’t want him to be.
- Writer
