Denied by Destiny: Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond

Alora POV

Kaia was talking about a Than I didn't recognise, a Than I didn't know.

Or so I thought.

Her words are like bullets attacking at the ears and making their way to my chest. I wanted her to stop but this is what I have come for isn't it, to hear her side of events.

Hearing of their time at college together made me feel sick, how he said he loved her...her claiming it was all a ruse. But you can't outwit the mate bond, I'm living proof of that. So he must have felt something for her, he married her.

How he got her pregnant...I feel sick just thinking of the possibility. I've never touched another, but he slept with her...as his wife.

I was standing up, holding my hands to my ears not that it would stop me hearing her words. My eyes flicker to her stomach, if she was carrying Than's child this would change everything.

"I escaped, knowing the only pack I needed was the notorious Dark Phantom pack, the alpha that was Than's enemy. If I could gain safe sanctuary there whilst looking for Father, I could breathe long enough to think of my next step. No pack can storm the borders of the Dark Phantom lands.

Hector accepted me, sheltered me but when I found out that he was also your mate, I knew I couldn't remain, that I couldn't be safe. I knew he would trade me and the baby in for you. But he made me believe he wasn't like that, and like a fool I believed him. He was very manipulative, in some ways more damaging to me than Than. The mate bond always weaving its webs of lies.

When I found out he loved you, that you were mates...I miscarried."

"You miscarried?" I gasp, I wouldn't wish that on any woman and I can see in her eyes, the horror she still bears from what she has been through. No matter what, an innocent has been lost.

I sit back down in front of her, as much as it pains me I need to hear everything, I need to hear more. If she was my sister, my twin, I needed to know what she had been through because of me, because of them.

"I'm sorry Kaia, I didn't know you were pregnant. It's clear to me now that I don't know the whole truth." But what I don't get is why finding out Hector was my mate and that he loved me would cause her so much pain it would result in her miscarrying. Unless...she said the mate bond and its web of lies. Was she....

"Wait...are you and Hector mates also?"

"am mates with both, as are you. Hector can't feel the bond, I presume, because Than rejected me. But you haven't rejected Hector, so like me, he is stuck in limbo, in the shadows. The mate bond still humming until both parties reject one another. Worse in fact, because I know differently now, I've moved on."

""Why didn't you reject Than?"

"It's hard to believe even now, but, I loved him. I hoped the Than I knew at college was still there somewhere. That he would come back to me. I left when you reawoke and I just assumed he would mark you, that the mate bond between us would be severed by you becoming his. Now I can see he hasn't marked you..."

"We were meant to have a ceremony..." I mutter quietly, ashamed of what my actions of a stupid 16 year old has come to.

"But Hector stopped it... That's when I left. I knew I could never win."

I sit quietly thinking everything over, trying to asbsorb all this information she has given me. If Than was wanting her organs to save me, is that why he hasn't marked me. Was he relying on the mate bond with her to track her down. To try and manipulate her back. I don't know this man...he's not the kind loving boy I grew up with. 1 "Then we are twins!" I blurt out, trying to find some positivity in this dire situation.

"No Alora, we aren't."

"Think about it Kaia, why else would we have these mate bonds entwined between us. Us being Sisters... Them being Brothers..."

"Brothers?"

"Yes Than and Hector are half brothers, did you not know?" Now it was Kaia's turn to have all colourContentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

drained from out of her face.

She was a stronger woman than me, in mind and body. She was beautiful, the sun having only sunkissed her skin for the better. I could feel the full strength of her wolf waiting just beneath the skin's surface.. waiting....watching.

Whereas mine was struggling to even come close to the surface. I was running out of time and that didn't

matter anymore.

All that mattered was this...was her.

"Hector was raised by a human mother.."

"He's human?"

"Half human, yes. He didn't join the pack until he was 8 years old. He was meant to be the Alpha, being the first born and then something changed. Than started training as the Alpha heir. Hector went away for a long time, returning for Than's 18th birthday...well a few days before. That's when the nightmare began.

Hector claimed I was his mate, but Than refused to believe him. He wanted a few more days until he turned 18, until we knew for certain.

I was torn, I was only 16. I couldn't cope. I had lost both my parents within 6 months of each other, then I moved in with the Alpha and Luna. They became my family.

I have loved Than for as long as I can remember but I knew whoever I picked I would be breaking up a family. A family that was already only holding on by a thread." I close my eyes, letting my back rest into the chair for the first time since arriving here. you took the wolfsbane?"

"So I took the wolfsbane.."