My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 121: Before The Storm

Violet

The cup I had just finished drinking from floated in lazy circles above my palm, rotating slowly as I guided it.

It was almost too easy now, just like breathing. The syzygy—or whatever it was now, responded to the smallest impulse, flowing through me as naturally as blood through veins.

Before, it had felt like a force I had to push into submission, but now...

Now it was just... mine.

My body had assimilated it completely.

I dropped my hand and the cup fell. I caught it before it could shatter against the balcony floor, my fingers closing around the ceramic with perhaps more force than necessary. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Ari was dead.

The thought hit me again, as it had been hitting me repeatedly over the past few days, with the same dull, aching force. Each time I thought I’d processed it, accepted it, and moved on, it would surge back and steal the air from my lungs all over again.

She had died the same day I had told Kael about them.

If I had woken up earlier. If I had prioritized finding them the moment I had regained consciousness instead of...

I pressed the cup against my forehead, trying to control myself.

The little girl had been sick for weeks before I had even met them. Respiratory illness that had progressed too far, damaged too much. Even if I had remembered immediately, even if Kael had acted the instant I had told him, it would not have made a difference.

My heart stung.

But at least Aster was safe now.

Kael had acted immediately once I told him everything. He’d used his authority to extract Aster from his family’s custody and send him directly to Ila’s orphanage.

It should have felt like a victory. And in a way, it was. Aster was alive, safe, fed, no longer locked in a separate building or forced to navigate predatory wolves in marketplaces.

But he had lost his sister.

And the family... they were still there. Still in that house. Barely even fazed by the loss of their daughter just because she was an Omega?!

The political complexity. The cultural norms. The fact that this had never been classified as an issue before because everyone just... accepted it. Omegas were different. Weaker. It was natural that they’d be treated differently, kept separate, given fewer resources.

Natural.

The word made me want to scream.

I was grateful for what Kael had done, but even though I felt it wasn’t enough, changing an entire nation’s cultural attitudes wasn’t something that could be done overnight with a single decree. There were political considerations, diplomatic relationships, deeply ingrained beliefs that would take years to shift.

Understanding didn’t make it hurt less.

I set the cup down on the small table beside my chair and leaned back, staring up at the sky. The sun was beginning its descent toward evening.

Kael was busy. Constantly. The summit preparation consumed every moment of his time, leaving him rushing between meetings and consultations and many other small crises that required his attention.

I had barely seen him in days.

And it made me uncomfortable for some reason.

Part of me understood. He was about to host the most important political event of the year. Other Supreme Alphas and their delegates would be arriving in just over a week, and everything had to be perfect.

But another part of me, the part I was less proud of, felt abandoned. Again.

At times, I would find myself thinking about him at odd moments that made no sense at all. And not the usual perverted thoughts...

The way his hand had felt in mine. The warmth of his embrace. The safety... and the physical closeness that made everything else fade away for a while.

Or maybe it was because I would have to leave soon... and I wouldn’t see him again until after a while.

That thought, too, kept circling back. How would he react when I told him I needed to go? He would most likely refuse. He would hate it.

But I needed this.

As for the summit.

The actual meeting wouldn’t start immediately. First came the arrival period next week. Then there would be about two weeks of preliminary meetings, diplomatic dinners, and other things.

And somewhere in all of that, Damon would arrive.

My stomach clenched at the thought.

My former mate. The alpha who had rejected me, humiliated me, used me when it was convenient and discarded me when it wasn’t.

I would have to see him again and probably interact with him.

The thought made my skin crawl.

I wondered if he would bring Elena. I wouldn’t put it past him to do that.

Knowing Damon, he would bring her specifically to make a point.

The old me would have been devastated. Would have felt that familiar shame and inadequacy burning through my chest at the mere thought of facing them together.

But now...

I lifted my hand and watched silver-white light pulse faintly beneath my skin.

There was nothing he could possibly do to me now.

[ - ]

I sat at the edge of my bed, staring at the wall that separated my room from his. He moved about. The rustle of papers and the hurried, quiet scratches of a pen.

Just minutes ago, he, along with Tow and two other wolves had been in here to turn my room into a strategy session.

They had discussed what I would face at the summit during my trial. The accusations that would be thrown at me. The questions about my nature, my power, my place in Kael’s territory. All the rebuttals for each scenario had been prepared, along with responses that oddly shook me. Smart ones I couldn’t have come up with on my own.

At some point, one of the wolves, a gruff older man, had suggested they rush my integration into Kael’s pack. Make it official before the summit began, so there would be no question about my standing.

Kael and Tow had dismissed the idea immediately. It was complicated with me being a Lycan, and there was no time to quickly do that regardless.

But Kael’s next words had sent a strange humming sensation through my chest that was both pleasant, and made me panic.

If all else failed, he would announce I was his mate in front of everyone.