Caspian's POV
I punch the wall so hard my knuckles split open.
The pain doesn't help. Nothing helps. My wolf is still howling, still raging, still demanding I go back to her room and claim what's ours.
"She's pregnant!" I roar at the empty room. "With another man's baby! And she's our STEPSISTER!"
My wolf doesn't care. Doesn't care about the pregnancy, doesn't care about pack law, doesn't care that claiming her would destroy everything. All he knows is MATE. OURS. PROTECT.
I punch the wall again. And again. Until blood runs down my arm and the plaster cracks.
My phone rings. I almost ignore it, but Thaddeus's name flashes on the screen. My best friend. My Beta. The only person who might understand this nightmare.
"What?" I answer, breathing hard.
"Dude, are you okay? I can feel your rage from my house." Thaddeus sounds worried. "What happened? Did the human stepsister arrive?"
"Yeah. She arrived." I sink onto my bed, head in my hands. "Tad, I'm so screwed."
"That bad?"
"Worse." I take a shaky breath. "She's my mate."
Silence. Then: "I'm sorry, WHAT?"
"Linnea. My new stepsister. She's my fated mate." The words taste like poison. "The Moon Goddess picked her for me. The girl who's about to become my family. My seventeen-year-old HUMAN stepsister."
Thaddeus whistles low. "Holy shit, Cas. That's... wow. That's really bad."
"You think?" I laugh but it sounds broken. "And it gets better. She's pregnant. Showed up carrying some human ex-boyfriend's baby."
"Are you kidding me?"
"I wish I was." I stand up and pace. "She fainted earlier. Lost some blood. The whole pack knows now. Dad knows. Her mom knows. Everyone knows she's pregnant and everyone knows she's my new stepsister and nobody knows she's my MATE except me and Dad."
"Does she know? About the mate bond?"
"No. How am I supposed to tell her? 'Hey, welcome to the family, by the way, you're destined to be mine forever'? She already hates me."
"Why does she hate you?"
I wince. "I might have been kind of harsh when we met. Told her she was a problem. That she brought shame to the family."
"Cas, what the hell?"
"I was panicking!" I defend. "She walks in smelling like heaven, my wolf goes insane, and she's pregnant with another guy's baby. What was I supposed to do? Sweep her into my arms and declare my undying love?"
Thaddeus sighs. "Okay, fair. This is a mess. What are you going to do?"
"Reject the bond." The decision feels like swallowing glass. "It's the only option."
"Rejection could kill you both—"
"I don't care!" My voice rises. "Tad, she's SEVENTEEN. She's carrying another man's child. She's about to become my legal stepsister tomorrow at the wedding. There is no universe where this works out."
"The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes—"
"Well she made one this time!" I slam my fist on the dresser. "This bond is impossible. Wrong. It violates pack law. If I claim her, Dad loses his Alpha position for allowing it. The pack tears itself apart. And that's IF she survives the mating transformation—which she probably won't because she's human and PREGNANT."
Silence again. When Thaddeus speaks, his voice is quiet. "What if you wait? Don't reject, don't claim. Just... wait. See what happens."
"Wait for what? For her to have another man's baby while I slowly go insane from the mate bond? For her to look at me like her brother while every instinct I have screams that she's my mate? No. I'm ending this now before it destroys us both."
"Cas—"
"I have to go." I hang up before he can argue more.
My wolf snarls in fury. NO. NOT REJECTING MATE. OURS. NEED HER.
"She's not ours," I say out loud. "She belongs to someone else. She's having someone else's baby. We lost her before we ever had her."
The wolf howls in grief.
I walk to my window and look out at the forest. In the distance, I can see Linnea's window. The light is on. She's awake.
Every part of me wants to go to her. Wants to climb through that window, pull her into my arms, tell her everything will be okay. That I'll protect her and her baby. That we'll figure this out together.
But I can't. Because she's not mine to protect. She's not mine to hold. She's nothing to me except the biggest mistake the Moon Goddess ever made.
My phone buzzes with a text from Sloane: I told her.
Ice floods my veins. I call her immediately.
"What did you do?" I demand when she answers.
"I told Linnea about the mate bond," Sloane says calmly. "She deserves to know."
"You had no right—"
"She felt it, Caspian. The pull. The connection. She asked me what it meant. Was I supposed to lie to her?"
"Yes!" I roar. "You were supposed to stay out of it!"
"She's my friend now. And she's scared and confused and you treating her like trash isn't helping." Sloane's voice goes hard. "You can reject the bond if you want. But she deserves to know why you're acting like a psycho."
She hangs up.
I throw my phone across the room. It smashes against the wall.
Linnea knows. She knows about the mate bond. She knows I'm her fated mate. She knows everything.
My door bursts open. Dad stands there, eyes blazing gold.
"Did you know Sloane told Linnea about the mate bond?" he growls.
"I just found out."
"This is bad, Caspian. Really bad. If Linnea tells her mother—"
"She won't." I don't know why I'm so sure, but I am. "She's smart. She knows what this information could do."
"We need damage control. Now." Dad runs his hand through his hair. "The wedding is tomorrow. Roslyn can't find out about this. If she knows you and Linnea are fated mates, she'll cancel everything. This alliance, this marriage—it all falls apart."
"Alliance?" I stare at him. "What alliance?"
Dad's jaw tightens. "Roslyn's family bloodline isn't just dormant wolf genes. Her great-grandfather was Alpha of the Thorne pack—one of the strongest packs in North America before they were wiped out by hunters. Marrying her ties our pack to that legacy. Gives us claim to Thorne territory."
Understanding crashes over me like ice water. "You married her for power. For land."
"I married her for the pack's future. Our survival." His eyes flash. "And if the pack finds out my son is fated to my wife's daughter, they'll see it as the Moon Goddess's approval of this union. They'll demand you claim her. Force the bond. And when she dies in the mating transformation—because she WILL die, she's human and pregnant—they'll blame me for allowing it."
"So what do you want me to do?" My voice is hollow.
"Reject the bond. Tonight. Before the wedding tomorrow. Make it clean. Final." He grips my shoulder. "I know it's hard. But it's the only way to protect everyone. Including her."
He leaves me alone with the impossible choice.
Reject the bond and live with the pain forever. Or keep it and watch her die.
A knock on my door makes me turn. I expect Dad again, but it's Linnea standing there in pajamas, arms wrapped around herself, eyes red from crying.
"We need to talk," she says quietly.
My wolf surges forward. MATE. HERE. OURS.
"This isn't a good time—"
"I don't care." She steps into my room and closes the door behind her. "Sloane told me everything. About fated mates. About the bond. About what it means."
"Linnea—"
"Is it true?" Her voice breaks. "Are we really... mates?"
I want to lie. Should lie. But I can't. Not to her.
"Yes," I whisper. "You're my fated mate."
A tear rolls down her cheek. "I'm pregnant with another man's baby."
"I know."
"And we're about to become stepsiblings."
"I know."
"This is impossible." She wipes her eyes. "We can't—this can't work—"
"It won't work." I force the words out. "That's why I'm rejecting the bond. Tonight. Before the wedding."
Her face goes pale. "Rejecting it? But Sloane said that could kill us both—"
"Better than the alternative."
"What alternative?"
I move closer without meaning to, drawn by the mate bond like gravity. "The alternative is I claim you. We complete the bond. And you die screaming during the mating transformation because your human body can't handle it. Especially while pregnant."
She takes a shaky breath. "There has to be another way—"
"There isn't." I'm so close now I can feel her warmth. Smell her scent. See the gold flecks in her brown eyes. "I'm sorry, Linnea. I'm sorry the Moon Goddess did this to us. But I won't be the reason you die."
"Caspian—"
The door slams open again. This time it's Thaddeus, breathing hard, eyes wild.
"We have a problem," he gasps. "A big one."
"What now?" I snap.
"Jericho. Linnea's ex-boyfriend. He's here. At the pack border. Demanding to see her."
Linnea goes white. "What? How did he find me?"
"I don't know, but he's not alone." Thaddeus looks at me grimly. "He brought hunters with him, Cas. Armed hunters. And they're demanding we hand over the pregnant girl with wolf blood."
My wolf explodes with rage.
Someone just declared war on my mate.