Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy Chapter 46

ARIA

"You think being in your human form is going to make her love you?" Damon spat. "You think standing on two legs instead of four changes anything? She doesn't love you, Kael. She's settling for you because I rejected her. Because I was an idiot who couldn't see what was right in front of me. But she's mine, and she always will be!"

Kael's response was a snarl that didn't sound entirely human. "She wears my mark. She's my mate, my Luna. Whatever you think you had with her is over, Cross. Accept it and leave before this gets ugly."

"Oh, it's already ugly," Damon said, and then he was shifting, his body contorting as fur rippled across his skin.

Kael moved faster than I would have thought possible for someone who'd only been human again for less than a day. He pushed me toward Nina, his mental voice resonating through our bond with command and fear in equal measure.

*Get her out of here. Now.*

"No," I tried to protest, but Nina's grip on my arm was iron-strong. She was already pulling me backward, away from the platform, away from where Kael and Damon were both completing their shifts.

"We have to go," Nina said urgently. "Aria, you're Luna now. You can't risk yourself in an Alpha challenge. Let the guards handle this."

"But Ivory—" I looked back toward where she'd fallen. Someone was bending over her—Eliza, I realized, the head healer already assessing the damage. "Is she—"

"She's bleeding and unconscious," someone shouted from that direction. "We need to get her to the clinic now!"

Wolves rushed to help, carefully lifting Ivory's limp form and carrying her toward the pack house. I caught a glimpse of her face as they passed—pale, blood-streaked, bruised already forming across her cheek and jaw.

She'd done this for me. For us. And now she was hurt because of it.

Nina pulled me further back as the two Alphas fully completed their shifts. Kael's wolf was massive—easily twice the size of his human form, with midnight black fur and those same golden eyes blazing with fury. But Damon's wolf was no small opponent, brown and scarred and radiating aggression as he circled Kael, looking for an opening.

They crashed together with terrifying force, teeth and claws flashing as they fought. The crowd scattered further, giving them room, while guards formed a protective perimeter around the civilians.

I noticed something then—the guards Ivory had selected for the ceremony were wearing unusual necklaces, simple cord with what looked like small crystals attached. And when Damon's wolves tried to break through their line, tried to reach the vulnerable pack members beyond, those guards stood firm without injury, the crystals seeming to absorb impacts that should have broken bones.

Protection charms. Ivory had given them protection charms. She'd prepared for this possibility, had made sure our guards would be protected, had thought of everything.

The guilt that crashed over me was almost physical. I'd been so jealous of her, so resentful, so convinced she was trying to undermine me. And all along, she'd been working to protect the ceremony, to protect the pack, to make sure Kael and I could complete our bonding safely.

"She planned all of this," I said, more to myself than to Nina. "The two ceremony sites, the protection charms, intercepting Damon personally. She knew he would come. Knew he would try to stop it. And she set herself up as a target to buy us time."

"She's loyal to Kael," Nina said, though her voice was tight with concern as she watched the Alpha fight. "And she clearly recognized that you're what he needs. What the pack needs."

The battle was brutal. Kael and Damon were both experienced fighters, both driven by fury and claim and pride. They tore at each other with savage intensity, blood spattering the ground, growls and snarls filling the air.

But I noticed something as I watched. Kael's wolf was bigger. Stronger. And he fought with a clarity that Damon lacked. Where Damon was all rage and desperation, Kael was controlled, tactical, using his size advantage to force Damon into positions of weakness.

My worry shifted from whether Kael would win to whether he'd be able to shift back afterward. Three years stuck in wolf form, one day human, and now he was fighting in wolf form again. What if the transformation back was too much? What if the curse reasserted itself?

*Focus on the fight,* Kael's voice came through the bond, surprising me. *I can feel your worry. I'll be fine. Trust me.*

I tried to project confidence back to him, though my hands were clenched so tight my nails drew blood from my palms.

Damon's wolves tried to interfere several times, tried to turn the tide in their Alpha's favor. But Ivory's carefully selected guards held the line, their protection charms glowing faintly as they deflected attacks. And the Shadowmere wolves who joined them fought with the coordinated precision of a pack protecting their own.

The tide turned when Kael managed to get his jaws around Damon's throat. Not breaking skin—not yet—but in a position where he could with one decisive bite. The ultimate dominance move, the physical manifestation of one Alpha's superiority over another.

Kael's growl resonated through the clearing, and I felt the pulse of alpha dominance that went with it. Raw power, undeniable command, the weight of authority that made even strong wolves want to bare their throats in submission.

Damon struggled for a moment longer, then went still. His wolf form trembled, then slowly, reluctantly, shifted back to human.

He lay there in the dirt, naked and bleeding, his throat still held in Kael's massive jaws. Beaten. Humiliated. Defeated.

Kael released him but didn't back away, his wolf form looming over Damon's prone body. Through our bond, I felt his fury, his restraint, his desire to end this permanently warring with his responsibility to pack law.