Mated to Her Alpha Instructor Chapter 142

Nina

The hoofbeats were getting closer.

I didn't run. Running would have been the logical choice—the forest was thick enough to lose them, the morning mist dense enough to hide in. But my legs had locked in place the moment I'd heard them, some traitorous part of me refusing to move even as my mind screamed *go, flee, disappear before this gets worse*.

Too late for that now.

They came around the bend: Adrian on his black stallion in the lead, Regis and Eileen flanking him on matched grays. The mist curled around the horses' legs like reaching fingers, and the early sun turned everything the color of old gold.

Adrian saw me first. His whole body went rigid in the saddle, and even from twenty feet away I could see the way his hands tightened on the reins hard enough to make his knuckles white.

*Cedar and rain.* The scent hit me like a physical blow, and I had to bite down on the inside of my cheek to keep from swaying.

"Nina." His voice was carefully neutral. He swung down from his horse with fluid grace. "Please. Just give me a chance to talk. That's all I'm asking."

Not a command. A request. The Alpha authority that could have forced me to stay was conspicuously absent.

Which somehow made it worse.

"There's nothing to talk about," I said, and was proud of how steady my voice came out. Clinical. Detached. "I understand the situation. You don't owe me explanations."

"I think I do." He took a step closer. Behind him, Regis and Eileen stayed mounted, giving us space. "My wolf recognized you last night. The moment you walked into the dining hall, it was roaring at me. Claiming you were ours."

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. Hearing it said out loud made it real in a way I'd been desperately trying to avoid.

*Mate bond.* The thing I'd denied existed.

"I know," I heard myself say. "I know what happened. And I know you've already made your choice. So this doesn't matter."

"It matters." Adrian's eyes—deep gray, not amber—held mine. "Because you deserve better than this. Better than finding your fated mate at his chosen mate's ceremony."

"You're not responsible for fate's timing."

"No. But I'm responsible for what I do about it." He took another step. "I love Morgan. Tomorrow I'll complete the ceremony with her. But before that happens..." His voice softened. "My wolf, Seth, sensed something. About yours."

I took half a step back. "That's not—"

"Seth can feel her. She's lonely. Trapped somewhere deep inside you. Like she's been locked away for a very long time."

My hands clenched into fists. "I'm handling it fine. You don't need to—"

"Nina." His voice was gentle, but it cut through my defenses anyway. "I can see you're in pain. Not just from the bond. Something deeper."

My hands started shaking. I shoved them behind my back.

"I know we can't be together," Adrian continued quietly. "I know this bond will break and we'll become strangers. But right now, in this moment... I don't want to see you suffering like this."

"Why?" The word came out sharper than I intended. "You don't owe me anything. We don't even know each other."

"Maybe that's exactly why the Moon Goddess arranged this." There was something almost wondering in his voice. "Maybe she didn't bring us together to be mates. Maybe she wanted us to... help each other heal. Even if it's just for a moment."

My eyes started burning. I blinked hard, refusing to let the tears fall.

"Seth told me something," Adrian said, his voice dropping lower. "About what your wolf wants. She doesn't want the bond. Doesn't want to claim anything. She just wants to be acknowledged."

He paused, and when he spoke again his words were barely above a whisper.

"She wants someone to see her—not as a burden or a curse, but as part of you. Real and worthy of love."

The tears came anyway. Not mine. *Hers.* My wolf, crying through my eyes.

"She wants to reconcile with you, Nina. And Seth... wants to help. It wants her to know that someone sees her. Someone acknowledges she's real and precious."

A broken sound escaped my throat—something between a gasp and a sob that I'd been holding back for decades.

"She's wonderful. It hopes you can see that too." Adrian's voice was so gentle now it hurt.

The words hit me like a physical blow. *Wonderful.* Not a monster. Not a curse. Not the contaminated blood of rapists.

*Wonderful.*

"It wants you to reconcile," he continued softly. "You and her. You belong together."

My knees gave out.

I dropped to the ground, hands covering my face as my shoulders shook with sobs I couldn't control anymore. Decades of denial, of self-hatred, of pretending she didn't exist—it all came crashing down at once.

I felt her then. Really *felt* her. Not as an enemy or a curse, but as another wounded soul that had been waiting—*waiting*—for me to turn around and see her.

"I'm sorry," I gasped. "I'm so sorry—"

I didn't know who I was apologizing to anymore.

Behind me, I heard movement—Eileen wanting to come closer, Regis's quiet murmur holding her back. They were giving me this moment. This breaking open that I'd needed for so long.

Adrian stayed where he was, patient and still.

When I finally looked up, my vision blurred with tears, he was watching me with an expression I couldn't name. Not pity. Something gentler than that.

"Seth wants to meet her," he said quietly. "Your wolf. Not to claim. Just to... acknowledge her. To let her know she's been seen."

I stared at him, my breath hitching. "I haven't—it's been so long since I—"

"I know." His voice was steady. Kind. "But maybe that's why this matters."

Something in my chest—something that had been locked tight for decades—shifted.

"Would you let them meet?" Adrian asked. "Just once. Let them talk."

My wolf stirred. Not with the fear and revulsion I'd trained into her, but with something I barely recognized.

*Longing.*

She wanted this. And maybe—maybe I could give her that much.

"Okay," I whispered.

Adrian's expression softened. He stepped back, giving me space, and gestured toward the tree line. "Take your time. We'll be here."

I stood on shaking legs and walked toward the trees, feeling three pairs of eyes on my back. Behind the thick trunk of an old oak, I stripped off my travel clothes with numb fingers.

The morning air kissed my bare skin. I closed my eyes.

*I'm sorry,* I told her silently. *I'm so sorry I kept you locked away.*

And for the first time in my life, I didn't fight when she rose to answer.

The shift began, and I surrendered to it.