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The False Mate - FULL | DramaReel
#shortdrama
#heartstringshub
#shortdrama
#heartstringshub
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Short filmTranscript
00:02I look almost exactly like their first love, Sarah.
00:05Who made her fall in love with him first?
00:07The loser. Give up Sarah.
00:10They made a bet.
00:11Whoever could win my true heart first would be the one to mate Sarah.
00:16Evelyn, will you marry me?
00:18The Alpha King lavished me with every luxury the world had to offer.
00:23Zane, the aloof and distant Gamma Zane will grant all my wishes.
00:27Do you need me to do anything?
00:31Evelyn, please love me more.
00:36I won't let you down.
00:38They all begged for my love. They vowed they would never fail me.
00:43I never expected that the second I agreed to marry Zane...
00:47You made me lose. Look how ugly you are. Never dream of marrying me.
00:56You were just a dirty secret.
00:59Caden had his men strip me of my clothes and throw me into the deep forest.
01:06Then I reborn.
01:07The famously powerful Alpha King and Gamma actually enjoyed sharing women.
01:11It is well known that they were infatuated with a witch named Sarah.
01:15They toyed with her daily, possessing her madly.
01:18Until Sarah couldn't take it anymore and ran away forever.
01:20When they first met me, I was being bullied by several rogue wolves, barely clothed.
01:26Let's see who dares touch her.
01:28Their fragrance wafted towards me.
01:30They were my mates. I had two mates.
01:35That night, they knelt beside my bed, gently caring for me and marking me.
01:42Evelyn, marry me.
01:44Evelyn, you should have married me.
01:45They were all whispering possessively in my ear.
01:53But beautiful things never last long.
01:57Three months later, I passed by the pack house.
02:00She's just a substitute.
02:02Don't take it seriously.
02:04Hey! Sarah's coming back!
02:06But we're already sharing Evelyn now.
02:08Forget about that poor Omega.
02:11Have you forgotten how painful it was for us when we lost Sarah?
02:15Evelyn was just a bet.
02:17Fine.
02:18Anyway, I'm the one who won the bet.
02:22According to the agreement, the winner gets Sarah all to himself.
02:27So, they were pursuing me relentlessly, begging me to marry them.
02:31It was just a bet.
02:33Whoever wins my heart can mate Sarah Zayn.
02:36Zayn happily left to prepare for the mate pairing ceremony.
02:41I managed to sob.
02:45Kayden overheard and turned.
02:51Now.
02:53I am back.
02:58I want revenge.
03:00I am not reconciled.
03:03Still here?
03:05You heard all?
03:06He didn't even bother to explain.
03:08He looked at me like I was a trash.
03:11Whatever happens, I will never hurt you.
03:14I will protect you.
03:15I will keep you close forever.
03:18I didn't have much to say either.
03:21I swallowed the sting and turned to leave.
03:23A pack omega stopped me at the door.
03:26Miss Evelyn.
03:28Nights my chinged guns on the vladders.
03:31Nothing from Alpha King's pack house leaves with you.
03:33I closed my eyes, I closed my eyes, reached up and started taking it all off, piece by piece, until
03:40I was standing in nothing but a plain white undershirt.
03:43The coat, the pins, the jewelry.
03:48Enough.
03:49What do you think, yourself?
03:53Do you think that the things we gave you in the past was for free?
03:57Never.
04:00I think you need to pay me for oral sex right now.
04:08You promised me one thing.
04:11Does that still stand?
04:13I once had taken an attack for him.
04:15He had made his promise in front of the whole pack.
04:18Whatever I asked for, as long as it was in his power, he would give it.
04:28Zane doesn't want you.
04:30Neither do I.
04:32Don't think any of this was real.
04:35My mate will be Sarah.
04:37No one else comes close.
04:39I only ask one thing.
04:41Let me walk out of here in what I'm wearing.
04:43I just wanted to leave with my dignity intact.
04:45That was all.
04:46That's all you want?
04:48Nothing else?
04:50He had expected screaming, threats,
04:53a scene he could use to justify getting rid of me for good.
04:56He didn't know I had lived this before.
04:58I stopped wanting anything.
05:00Get out.
05:00He waved his hand.
05:02I stood and pulled open the door without looking back.
05:05It was just after December.
05:07The snow was still heavy.
05:09The cold swallowed me the second I stepped outside.
05:12I walked barefoot into it.
05:14My feet went numb fast.
05:16My face went white.
05:17I didn't make a sound.
05:19I just moved toward the pack gate.
05:21One step at a time.
05:23By the time I reached the gates,
05:25my feet were red and aching.
05:28I crouched down and wrapped my hands around my ankles,
05:31trying to get some warmth back.
05:33A convoy of vehicles rolled past.
05:35Sarah only came back half a month ago,
05:37and already the Beta is sending her the rarest gifts to court her.
05:40He really never stopped.
05:41Didn't the Beta and the Alpha King both treat that Omega sexoy differently?
05:45Like they actually cared?
05:46Hmph, that's old news.
05:47Everyone always knew she was just something they used to pass the time.
05:50If Sarah hadn't come back,
05:52they never would have bothered finishing the game.
05:53The voices faded.
05:55I felt nothing.
05:56Just numb.
05:58So everyone had known all along.
06:00They both loved Sarah.
06:02Only I had been stupid enough to believe it was real.
06:05I didn't find out until I was already dying.
06:08I don't know how long I crouched there.
06:11Then I stood,
06:12wrapped my arms around myself,
06:14and walked out past the gates.
06:16Outside, the wind was worse.
06:18My hands and feet had gone completely rigid.
06:21At some point, my legs gave out,
06:23and I went down in the snow,
06:25darkness flooding in at the edges.
06:27But I made it back to my own family house,
06:30same as last time.
06:32One extra layer of clothing.
06:34Same stairs.
06:35I walked through it without looking at anyone,
06:38and knocked on the door.
06:39No one answered.
06:41My eyes burned.
06:43I let out a short, bitter sound,
06:45and knocked harder.
06:46The Omega servant inside finally spoke,
06:49low and reluctant.
06:50Miss Evelyn,
06:52the family can't take you in.
06:55Please go.
06:55My hand froze in the air.
06:58It felt like something small and dense
07:00was pressing through my ribs.
07:03Spreading out slow.
07:04I pulled my hand back.
07:06The tears came without permission.
07:08In my last life,
07:10the moment my family found out
07:11the Alpha King had passed me off,
07:13they shut the door on me.
07:15They were afraid of what my presence would cost them.
07:18Afraid of what people would say.
07:20So they put me in a vehicle,
07:22and drove me to a border outpost to be forgotten.
07:25They had me poisoned.
07:26I died somewhere.
07:28No one would find me.
07:29But I still remember.
07:31Before I was chosen by Alpha King,
07:33my grandmother and my father
07:34held my hands with tears in their eyes.
07:37Evelyn,
07:38if the Alpha King is ever cruel to you,
07:41come home.
07:43We'll always be here.
07:44They said that.
07:46And then they locked the door.
07:47I could have gone somewhere else,
07:49but I knew they wouldn't let me disappear quietly.
07:52The only way to be free was to disappear completely.
07:55So I came back.
07:57The door opened.
07:58My father stared at me with his jaw set
08:01and contempt in every line of his face.
08:03Do you have any idea what you've done to this family?
08:08Why didn't you just go?
08:10You got thrown out.
08:11Why come back and drag your sisters into this?
08:15Behind him,
08:16my half-sister's eyes were full of something vicious.
08:19My grandmother stepped forward
08:21and took my hand with practiced tenderness.
08:24Evelyn,
08:25this isn't your fault
08:26that the family can't have a daughter like you.
08:29Let grandmother send you to the border outpost.
08:33We'll tell everyone you passed away.
08:35The past stays buried.
08:37Doesn't that sound better?
08:39Her voice was gentle,
08:41but her eyes held something sharp and ruthless.
08:44And underneath it,
08:45a sliver of guilt too faint to name.
08:48So it wasn't only Caden and Zane who wanted me dead.
08:51It was my family too.
08:53In the end,
08:54I got into the vehicle.
08:56I kept my hand wrapped around a small pin the whole way.
08:59I didn't let go.
09:01Same as last time.
09:03The estate manager at the outpost had his orders,
09:05and he followed them without hesitation.
09:08He locked me in a storage room.
09:11Now he stood over me.
09:12You really thought you'd survive this?
09:14You humiliated the Alpha King and the Beta.
09:19The family can't keep something like you alive.
09:22Samey words as last time.
09:24I stared down at the floor
09:26and tightened my grip on the pin.
09:28He moved toward me with a small bottle.
09:31I raised my hand without thinking.
09:33The pin aimed at his throat.
09:35Then the door exploded inward.
09:38The estate manager went sideways
09:39as a shape moved through the room.
09:41A figure in white caught my arm
09:43and pulled me upright.
09:45Voice calm and even.
09:46I heard you make good osmangra cake.
09:50Want to come work in my kitchen?
09:51She lifted her veil as she said it.
09:54The face underneath matched the portrait
09:56Caden kept locked in his private office.
09:59Stunning.
10:00Unmistakable.
10:01One look and I knew.
10:02This was Sarah.
10:03The fated mate.
10:05Both Zane and Caden
10:06had built their whole obsession around.
10:09In my last life,
10:10the poison went down and the body burned.
10:12No one came.
10:14I had planned to take the estate manager out myself,
10:17start a fire,
10:18and let the world think I was dead.
10:21But this changed everything.
10:23She must have seen something in my face
10:25because her expression softened.
10:27And before I could speak,
10:28she draped her outer coat over my shoulders.
10:31It's cold.
10:33Don't get sick.
10:35Most girls from high-ranked families
10:37smelled like powder and perfume.
10:39She smelled like green wood and clean air.
10:42I was still processing it
10:44when Zane appeared in the doorway behind her,
10:46dropping his black coat over her shoulders
10:49before she could shiver.
10:50You matter more than anything.
10:52He looked at her with a warmth
10:54I had never seen aimed at me.
10:56Not once.
10:57Everyone said the beta was cold.
10:59That the softness he showed me
11:01had only ever been strategy.
11:04Looking at him now,
11:05I could see it.
11:07Whatever was in his eyes
11:08when he looked at Sarah
11:09was something else entirely.
11:11He seemed to feel my stare.
11:14He turned.
11:15His voice was flat.
11:17Sarah wants your baking.
11:19So you'll go to her estate.
11:21You were sent here to die.
11:23Which means you were guilty of something.
11:26Be grateful you're still breathing.
11:28And don't reach for anything more.
11:30The warmth he had shown
11:32was completely gone.
11:33This was the beta
11:34I had never been allowed to see.
11:36The boy I thought I knew
11:38dissolved out of memory
11:39and left a dull ache behind.
11:41So my real feelings
11:43had been a death sentence to him.
11:45I pulled the corners of my mouth up slightly.
11:48I'm grateful Sarah saved my life.
11:50I'll serve her well.
11:51And I won't reach for anything else.
11:53I moved to follow Sarah to the vehicle.
11:56Someone caught my wrist.
11:58I looked back into Zane's warning stare.
12:01I pulled my wrist free.
12:02Voice flat.
12:03You don't have to worry.
12:04I won't say anything to Sarah
12:06about what happened between us.
12:08Everything before this,
12:10I'm burying it.
12:11As far as I'm concerned,
12:13we never met.
12:14He didn't speak after that.
12:16He just got into the vehicle ahead of me.
12:18At Sarah's estate,
12:19I followed them inside
12:21and watched the two of them
12:22walk side by side
12:23through the entrance hall.
12:24My chest stayed quiet.
12:26After Zane left,
12:27he looked back at me once.
12:29Something unreadable
12:30moving across his face.
12:31I didn't look up,
12:32then arms came around me from behind.
12:34You're okay.
12:35Thank God.
12:36Sarah held onto me.
12:38And despite everything,
12:40despite the softness of her face
12:41and the slender look of her,
12:43she was taller than I expected.
12:45Close to Zane's height,
12:46her arms were solid.
12:48Her voice was lower than I remembered, too.
12:51I pushed her back gently,
12:52keeping my voice even.
12:54Thank you for coming for me.
12:56She kept her eyes on me.
12:57I'm sorry.
12:59You got used to it because of me.
13:02That wasn't fair to you.
13:03I thought she was drawing a line,
13:05a warning dressed up as an apology.
13:07But then she said,
13:09I'm not going to bond with either of them.
13:12I don't want either of them.
13:13I didn't understand what she meant.
13:15I didn't try to.
13:16I just let her set me up in a room and stayed.
13:20My family had shut the door.
13:22Right now I had no leverage and no choices.
13:25I wasn't in a position to say no.
13:28Sarah seemed to mean what she said.
13:30She never made things hard for me.
13:32And whenever Zane or Caden sent gifts,
13:34she turned them away immediately.
13:36And then came to find me and explained quietly,
13:39I'm not keeping them.
13:40I didn't understand why she kept doing that.
13:43I just sent her a portion of fresh Osmanthus cake every day.
13:48Zane and Caden showed up at the estate together.
13:51In the side kitchen,
13:53Zane had his hand around my throat
13:55and his eyes were pure dark fury.
13:57What did you say to her?
13:59She just pulled out her brother's copy of the late Alpha's standing order
14:03to dissolve the bonding agreement.
14:05Caden watched from a few steps back and laughed, low and sharp.
14:09Should have finished it properly.
14:11Evelyn, I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance.
14:14I hadn't done anything.
14:16The pressure on my throat made my vision blur.
14:19My back hit the wall, hard and cold.
14:22It wasn't me.
14:24Something in my expression made Zane's grip loosen slightly.
14:28I used it.
14:29I swung my open hand and caught him across the face hard enough to snap his head to the side.
14:35He felt the heat in his cheek.
14:37His eyes went dark.
14:39Evelyn.
14:40I pressed my hand to my chest and pulled in long, slow breaths.
14:45Whatever Zane said after that, I let it pass through me.
14:49He yanked me back up by the arm.
14:51Go tell Sarah there's nothing between us anymore.
14:54Whatever trick you pulled is done.
14:56If you don't, I will take apart everything you've built.
15:00And your family goes down with you.
15:03Caden hadn't spoken yet, but the intent in his eyes was already building.
15:08Two men who use someone else's feelings as a bet chip.
15:12And you think you get to accuse me of playing games.
15:15I drove the pin into Zane's wrist.
15:18He pulled back with a hiss.
15:19Caden moved toward me, jaw tight.
15:22For a second, I was ready to take them both down with me if that is what it came to.
15:26Then Sarah stepped between us.
15:29Same as the outpost.
15:30Caden stopped.
15:32His face went complicated.
15:33Sarah, don't listen to her.
15:35Whatever you decide, whether you bond or with me, you'll be protected.
15:41You'll have everything.
15:42He pushed hard, but Sarah just let out a slow breath.
15:46I really can't bond with either of you.
15:48Then she reached up and started undoing her coat.
15:51Zane had brought guards.
15:53I stepped in front of her and grabbed her arms.
15:55Even if you don't want them.
15:56Don't ruin your own reputation doing it like this.
15:59I got my arms around her waist to stop her.
16:02And then I felt it.
16:03No softness.
16:04Solid muscle, flat and warm and very clearly.
16:07Not what I had been expecting.
16:09Sarah wrapped me in close and murmured into my hair.
16:12Easy.
16:14Stop touching.
16:15My brain went completely blank.
16:17Sarah was a man.
16:19He looked up at the two stunned alphas in front of him with total calm.
16:24Still want to claim me now?
16:25Both of them stood frozen.
16:27The fury drained and something ugly took its place.
16:34Warrior Asher.
16:36Why are you impersonating your own sister?
16:38They had seen the near identical faces and assumed it was some kind of prank.
16:43There has never been a daughter in my family.
16:46Anyone who looked would have found that out.
16:50Wearing women's clothing is just a preference of mine.
16:53I hope neither of you are telling me you've developed a thing for men.
16:57Zane's fist tightened slowly.
16:59He thought back over the last few days and it sat in his gut like something rotten.
17:04Caden's expression stayed perfectly still.
17:07He turned and walked out.
17:09He didn't want to stay in the room another second.
17:12The moment they were both gone Asher looked down at me, amused.
17:16Done yet?
17:17Or did you need more time?
17:19I realized my fingers were still curled against him.
17:23I'm sorry.
17:24I didn't know you addressed.
17:25I made my exit fast.
17:27I wanted to leave the estate.
17:28Leave the whole city.
17:29But Asher caught my hand.
17:31And his voice when he spoke was easy and direct.
17:34I've been stuck out of the border for years.
17:35Which means I've aged out of the easy options.
17:38What do you think about staying on as a warrior's mate?
17:41We had known each other for less than a week.
17:43Where was this coming from?
17:44I didn't get the chance to answer.
17:46The kitchen door exploded open again.
17:48Both men were back.
17:49Faces dark.
17:50Caden's eyes locked on me.
17:51Cold and direct.
17:52She's not bonding with him.
17:56Evelyn.
17:58Come here.
17:59Zane said nothing.
18:00His bandaged wrist said it for him.
18:03Same as inside the stronghold.
18:05Come when called.
18:06Go when dismissed.
18:07A wolf they could use and discard whenever the mood shifted.
18:10What exactly are you two doing right now?
18:14Are you telling me a warrior of this pack can't choose his own mate?
18:19Evelyn.
18:20Come back with me.
18:22I'll make you a ranked mate inside the stronghold.
18:26Our agreement still stands.
18:28I'll bond with you.
18:29Their fated mate had turned out to be a man.
18:31So now they reversed course.
18:33And tried to pull me back into the same fire they had thrown me into before.
18:37Both of them looked at me now with that warmth I used to fall for.
18:40For a second the image wavered.
18:42Before everything happened.
18:44Two men who had seemed so sure about me.
18:46But I knew there was nothing real in any of it.
18:49I was just the new prize in a new round of the same game.
18:52My voice came out steady and empty.
18:55I believe the Alpha King and the Beta both told me not to reach for anything beyond my place.
19:00I haven't forgotten.
19:02Both of them went still.
19:03The silence stretched between them.
19:05And somewhere inside it.
19:07Guilt surfaced.
19:08They had assumed I would always orbit them.
19:10Always react to them.
19:11Years of shared history had a weight to it.
19:14And they had just started to feel it.
19:16I'm sorry.
19:16He finally understood.
19:17I was not going to trust him again.
19:19Not by one degree.
19:21Zane moved in close.
19:22Please don't.
19:23Evelyn.
19:24Come with me.
19:26Everything I promised you it still counts.
19:28I was still working out how to make them leave when Asher's voice cut through the room.
19:32Five years ago you two were ambushed at Silvermore Lodge.
19:35A girl saved you.
19:36And you've held on to that.
19:37Has it occurred to you that the girl might not have been me?
19:41You mean the girl who covered our escape wasn't you?
19:43If it had been Asher, protecting the pack's leadership would have been part of his duty.
19:47But if it wasn't him, then neither of them had been unknowingly fixated on a man for years.
19:54The brief flicker of something like hope showed before they could stop it.
19:57Asher confirmed it.
19:59Neither of them looked at me again.
20:01They exchanged one glance and walked out together.
20:04I had seen that look before.
20:07Stakes.
20:08A score to settle.
20:09They didn't know the first thing about caring for someone.
20:12They only knew how to compete.
20:14How to manipulate.
20:15How to turn everything into a game.
20:17Thinking that the weight I had carried in my chest since my last life finally broke apart.
20:23These two weren't worth the grief.
20:25When I turned to say goodbye to Asher.
20:27Remember, five years ago.
20:29Were you the boy whose father forced him into a dress to perform?
20:33I can't believe you still remembered.
20:35The person in front of me slowly matched the memory.
20:38A rail-thin boy covered in marks being forced into a costume.
20:43Backstage at Silver Moon Lodge.
20:45I stepped in.
20:47Blocked the knife.
20:48When I get out of this, I'm going to find you and claim you.
20:51Put on the dress.
20:53And went out onto that stage.
20:54You're a ranked warrior now.
20:56That means you got out.
20:57So why keep wearing the dress?
21:01The old man's gone.
21:03He asked me before he died to be his mate's reflection a few more days.
21:08His ghost wanted to see.
21:09He told me.
21:10His mother had died in labor because of him.
21:13His father couldn't kill him but couldn't forgive him either.
21:15The face was too much like hers.
21:17So from the time he was small, he was dressed and trained as the family's daughter.
21:22Forced to learn performance, music, painting.
21:24Same as five years ago, I pressed my hand lightly to his forehead.
21:28Asher, I told you then and I'll tell you now.
21:31You are a good person.
21:33You have never, not once, been anything else.
21:36In my last life, he made warrior rank and never came back.
21:40Thank you for choosing to come back for me.
21:43One sentence and he understood.
21:46How could I let my moonlight disappear from this world?
21:50His voice was barely above a whisper.
21:52You were mine too.
21:53But I heard it and I smiled.
21:54What I said before about claiming you, I was being stupid.
22:00Wherever you end up, bonded or not, just stay safe.
22:03Asher didn't try to hide how much he didn't want me to go.
22:06I was one step too slow.
22:09Zane came in fast on horseback and pulled me into his arms.
22:14Where are you going?
22:18The ground tilted.
22:19When I got my bearings back, Caden was there too.
22:23Both of them looking at me with that heat I recognized and wanted nothing to do with.
22:28I felt Zane's hand at my waist and drove my knife into his arm without pausing.
22:32He had been stabbed by me enough times now that he released me on instinct.
22:36Asher stepped between us and pulled me behind him, voice like ice.
22:40What are you doing here at this hour?
22:41I'm here for my mate.
22:43Evelyn already agreed to bond with me.
22:45What I did was wrong.
22:47I know that.
22:48But if I had known from the start that you were the one at Silvermoon Lodge, I never would have
22:53hurt you.
22:53You want to be angry at me?
22:55Fine, yell at me.
22:56Hit me.
22:56Just come back.
22:58I went too far before.
23:00I shouldn't have made you leave in almost nothing.
23:02Come back to the stronghold with me.
23:04We can go back to the way things were.
23:06Voice full of the kind of sincerity he was very good at.
23:09I think the Alpha King and the Beta are confused.
23:12I'm a mid-rank wolf's daughter.
23:14Five years ago I would have pulled anyone out of that situation, including a stray.
23:20If that's the reason you're both standing here, you can let it go.
23:23It really doesn't matter to me.
23:24I understood them now.
23:26They were unpredictable.
23:28Performative.
23:29Asher had his hand at my back and was moving me toward the estate entrance.
23:33The door shut behind us.
23:36Solid.
23:37And final.
23:38From the upper floor I could see Zane and Caden still standing in the snow.
23:42Letting it fall on them.
23:43Asher came to stand beside me.
23:45I'll find a way to get you out of the city.
23:48A few days.
23:49In the meantime I'll teach you some defense techniques.
23:52Sound good?
23:52But he knew me well enough to understand that wasn't what I needed to hear.
23:56And I said yes without hesitating.
23:58Every woman I had ever known had been told to be soft and steady and careful.
24:03No one had ever asked what I actually wanted.
24:05I had read about fighters and wide open borderlands my whole life.
24:09And never been allowed to reach for any of them.
24:12I wanted to be strong enough to protect myself.
24:15To never be at someone else's mercy again.
24:17In the days that followed, Caden and Zane seemed to understand they had lost the right to force anything.
24:23They didn't come at me directly.
24:24But every day they showed up and ran through the same performance they had used before.
24:29Rare items kept arriving at the estate.
24:31Then they finally ran out of patience and sent my family.
24:34My half-sister showed up at the gate crying.
24:36Half-sister, the things that happened at the outpost, that was father making a terrible mistake.
24:42Grandmother found out.
24:44She's been sick ever since and she only wants to see you.
24:46The tears were convincing.
24:48The calculation in her eyes wasn't.
24:51I didn't refuse.
24:52I smiled.
24:57Alright.
24:58Let's go see Grandmother.
25:00The snow had stopped.
25:02But the streets got unfamiliar fast.
25:04And my smile went thin.
25:06Asking me to come back.
25:07Asking me to think of the family name.
25:09But the splinter was already in.
25:11It wasn't coming out easily.
25:13I had known since my last life exactly what my family was.
25:16They could accept me when I brought them something to gain.
25:19They could also leave me to die when I stopped being useful.
25:22I stopped being easy to manage.
25:24So they sent the half-sister who looked most like me.
25:27I watched the streets get worse and jumped out of the moving vehicle.
25:32My half-sister came after me with a knife.
25:35Before, she might have succeeded.
25:37Now I had her wrist and my other hand at her throat.
25:40Grip tightening slowly.
25:43It was father's idea.
25:44He said if you wouldn't cooperate, he'd replace you.
25:46I just didn't want to be invisible anymore.
25:48She was going for sympathy.
25:50Someone else got there first.
25:51Caden looked down at her from a few feet away.
25:54Expression flat.
25:55I asked your family to speak on my behalf.
25:57Is this what they call helping?
25:58She went pale and started shaking her head.
26:01But Caden didn't want to hear it.
26:02He had her removed.
26:04Then his attention came back to me.
26:06Evelyn.
26:07Stop making this hard.
26:09Are you really done caring about your family?
26:11I moved back before he could.
26:14I am.
26:15And the Alpha King doesn't wipe out whole families without reason, does he?
26:20I turned and walked away.
26:22Everything has consequences.
26:23I didn't owe my family anything.
26:26Zane had been stationed outside the estate every day, making sure I couldn't leave quietly.
26:30But now, following Caden's lead, he was gone.
26:33I looked at the broken down buildings along the road and headed straight for the city's outer boundary.
26:39I had already told Asher I wouldn't let any exit go to waste.
26:43We didn't need to draw this out.
26:44Time to go.
26:45Everything moved smoothly.
26:47I found a vehicle heading for the coast.
26:49But something sat wrong in my stomach.
26:51We need to move fast.
26:53The city's shifting.
26:54Asher's estate just got raided.
26:56The ruling family doesn't care.
26:58Use people up and throw them away.
26:59That's what tyrants do.
27:00Three years of watching Caden.
27:02I knew how much he cared about how the pack saw him.
27:05He had never done anything this openly reckless before.
27:08I closed my eyes.
27:10Then I turned my horse around and rode back.
27:14I am very happy with him.
27:17I cannot lose him.
27:20I will find you and claim you.
27:23Evelyn, ready to come home now?
27:26Release, Ashel.
27:28Done.
27:29I went back into the stronghold.
27:32This time Caden outdid everything from those three years.
27:36He cleared out the stronghold.
27:37He overruled every council member.
27:41And announced he would make me his official mate.
27:45A permanent bond.
27:47Just the two of us.
27:49He stayed close every day.
27:52Warm and obsessive and relentless.
27:55Every Omega who had watched me be humiliated was reassigned.
27:58When he found out what my family had tried to do at the outpost, he acted on it immediately.
28:03A new attendant helped me prepare one morning and shook her head in admiration.
28:08My lady, the Alpha King loves you so much.
28:10Everyone in the whole territory knows it now.
28:13He has a chosen one.
28:14Her name is Evelyn.
28:15One bond, one mate, forever.
28:17People are saying it everywhere.
28:18Through them I found out what I needed to know.
28:21Asher was being held in the pack dungeon.
28:24Zane had been confined to his estate.
28:26Caden was loudly performing his devotion to the whole kingdom.
28:30But I had not forgotten what he looked like when he told me I was nothing but a bet.
28:34A plaything.
28:36Not worth the air between us.
28:37Every moment of my last life was still in me.
28:40So I helped Zane get out.
28:42At the bonding ceremony, he came in with a blade raised.
28:46His eyes were burning.
28:47Aiden dropped every pretense of being a patient older brother.
28:51Brother, Evelyn belongs with me.
28:53They tore the masks off for the first time and showed each other the actual hatred underneath.
28:58Everyone said they were close.
29:00That the bond between them ran deep.
29:02No one knew they had always despised each other.
29:05So they competed for the same things.
29:07Wanted the same people just to settle the score.
29:11While the stronghold descended into chaos, I stepped behind a dividing screen.
29:16Dropped a fire starter.
29:17And ran.
29:18I already had a mount ready.
29:20I had Caden's seal.
29:22And I used it to open the dungeon.
29:24I came to the dungeon to rescue Asher.
29:37Caden was unconscious for two weeks.
29:39By the time he came back and gave the order, there was no trace of me or Asher left anywhere
29:45in the kingdom.
29:45In a village no one had heard of, Asher and I stayed.
29:49The people there were mostly fighters he had mustered out from the border.
29:52They had helped pull him free.
29:54He had shed the dress for good.
29:56Dark clothing.
29:57Straight-backed, easy in his own skin.
29:59The village women could not stop talking about how handsome he was.
30:04And they kept looking between us and nudging each other.
30:07Little Evelyn, you two even have the same eyes.
30:10Made for each other.
30:12The way that boy watches you, his eyes are practically stuck.
30:16Why aren't you together yet?
30:17It had been because of the resemblance to Asher that I had become Caden and Zane's target in the first
30:22place.
30:23Now that all of it was finally behind me, I wanted peace.
30:27Morning training with Asher.
30:29And eventually to get out and see the borderlands I had read about my whole life.
30:34After saying goodbye to the woman, I turned toward the house and walked straight into Asher's face.
30:40My cheeks went hot.
30:41Before I could speak, he said,
30:43Don't listen to her.
30:44She talks too much.
30:46I don't have feelings for you.
30:48You're my sister.
30:49There's conflict at the border.
30:51I'm going.
30:52Take care of yourself.
30:53And then he was gone.
30:55Voice cold like it had never been warm.
30:57Like the tenderness I had seen in him was something I had imagined.
31:00I didn't stop him.
31:01I just watched him go.
31:02And something hollow opened in my chest without warning.
31:05I thought about what the woman had said.
31:07I let out a quiet, slightly sad sound.
31:11Six months passed.
31:12I had no news from outside.
31:14Then I went into town for medicine and found out everything had changed.
31:18Six months ago, the Alpha King had turned tyrant.
31:21Asher had gone back to the capital voluntarily to end the conflict.
31:25Caden had chained him to the outer wall of the stronghold for three days in the open before exiling him
31:30to the border.
31:31These last six months, rogue forces had grown stronger than they had been in years.
31:36But Caden spent his days in a rage, locked Zane in the estate, and sent people across the whole territory
31:43looking for a girl with Evelyn's face.
31:45For reasons no one fully understood, Caden's hatred for Asher had become personal.
31:49He cut the border supplies.
31:51People were talking on every corner.
31:53The rogues are closing in.
31:55The Alpha King has lost his mind.
31:57And the pack is falling.
31:59I sent back the medicine and rode for the border.
32:02The fighters who had been with Asher saw me ride in.
32:05And the relief in their faces shifted to grief fast.
32:08Evelyn, you should say goodbye to him while you can.
32:11I gripped my reins, got off the horse, and walked into the command tent one step at a time.
32:18Asher was laid out there, barely breathing.
32:22He was worse.
32:24He's basically invincible in a fight.
32:26How did this happen?
32:29Since about six months ago, he's been coughing blood.
32:33Getting weaker.
32:35The healers couldn't explain it.
32:37He kept going out to fight anyway.
32:39Last time he had an episode mid-battle and took a blade directly to a vital point.
32:44The healer said there wasn't much time left.
32:46But he kept saying your name.
32:48We were just writing the message when you showed up.
32:53Asher.
32:55I'm here.
32:58You said you needed a mate.
33:00How are you allowed to go down like this?
33:04Asher has been through worse than this since he was small.
33:07Even what his father put him through didn't break him.
33:11The coughing blood.
33:13The weakness.
33:14That's because he went to the Eclipse Pack and paid with his lifetime for something.
33:18I asked him what he got.
33:20He wouldn't say.
33:22But that same day he left the border for the first time and went straight to an outpost at the
33:27edge of the territory.
33:30Word was, you almost died there.
33:33I stood very still.
33:34Everyone knew about the Eclipse Pack.
33:36A reclusive wolf clan who could reverse fate and bend time.
33:40The cost was always the same in your life.
33:42Now I knew why I had come back.
33:44At some point the fighter left.
33:46My tears came down and my vision blurred.
33:49Asher.
33:50You absolute idiot.
33:55In my last life I loved the wrong people.
33:58And I paid for it the way I deserved.
34:00This life I felt everything fully.
34:02And I didn't regret a single choice I made.
34:05But now I regretted stepping in that night at Silvermoon Lodge.
34:09If we had never crossed paths.
34:10He would have been fine.
34:12He would have made warrior rank without owing anything to anyone.
34:15He would have had a full, clean life.
34:18Instead, because of me, all of it changed.
34:21Another tear fell and fingers caught it.
34:24Asher's lip curved slightly.
34:26What are you crying for if not for you?
34:29I would have died back then.
34:33I don't regret it.
34:37I just...
34:39He stopped.
34:39I really wanted to claim you.
34:42I wanted to take you to the border and show you everything.
34:47All of it.
34:52I guess I can't anymore.
34:55His voice was rough and full of want.
34:57But he still managed to smile.
34:59When you find someone, be smart about it.
35:01He needs to at least...
35:04He needs to love you more than I did.
35:06That's the only way he deserves you.
35:09Another wave hit and I couldn't hold it.
35:11Tell me where they are.
35:13Please.
35:14What happened to him was my fault.
35:16He shouldn't have to carry it.
35:18He closed his mouth and kept it shut.
35:21No matter how many ways I asked.
35:23I asked every fighter close to him.
35:26No one told me anything useful.
35:28In the end, I found red ceremonial clothing and I brought it back.
35:32We held the bonding ritual right there.
35:35Asher.
35:37Asher.
35:37I'm yours.
35:38Asher.
35:39Even now, with no time left, the tent was filled with red.
35:43Asher leaned against the frame and the light in his eyes was scattered and bright like something
35:48broken and beautiful at the same time.
35:51Evelyn.
35:53I'm so glad.
35:54He laughed.
35:55And blood ran down his cheek.
35:57I reached up.
35:59Don't talk.
36:01He went quiet.
36:02And then his lips pressed against mine.
36:05It lasted a long time.
36:07When I finally opened my eyes, all the tears had gone.
36:12Asher wasn't breathing anymore.
36:14But the smile was still on his face.
36:17I held his hand and I didn't let go.
36:20Sometime later, the rogue forces attacked again.
36:23The fighters who had nothing left stood in their gear.
36:26Quiet and certain.
36:27Ready to fight one last time for the pack they belonged to.
36:30The fighter who had told me everything offered to take me and Asher somewhere safe.
36:35I shook my head.
36:36I want to stay at the border with him.
36:38That day I put on Asher's battle armor.
36:41And picked up his sword and used everything he had taught me to go out onto that field.
36:46The first kill.
36:47Blood everywhere.
36:48I didn't freeze.
36:50Because I knew he was right there beside me.
36:52I could protect myself.
36:54And I could protect everything he had cared about.
36:56I wore Asher's helmet with the mask down and they thought I was him.
37:00The legend of a warrior who couldn't be killed unnerved them and they wanted out.
37:04I wore that mask and signed my helmet.
37:07After the battle.
37:08Caden tried to pin the charge of betrayal on Asher's name.
37:11He had the fighters who had been with Asher hunted down and destroyed.
37:15His rule got darker by the week.
37:17For half a year we scattered and moved.
37:19Caden unable to find me or Asher grew more brutal.
37:23He taxed and squeezed the pack into misery.
37:26Using the search as an excuse for everything.
37:28The fighters who had followed Asher found me eventually.
37:31They looked exhausted.
37:32And they looked like they were asking for something they weren't sure I could give.
37:36My lady.
37:37Every wolf in this territory knows what kind of man Asher was.
37:41Caden is not fit to lead.
37:43We're asking you to put on the mask.
37:45Use his name.
37:46Call the fighters together and take the stronghold.
37:48I put my hand over the pendant at my chest.
37:51I put on the mask.
37:53This time.
37:54Under his name.
37:56The people lined both sides of the road.
37:59Caden stood on the stronghold wall.
38:01Fury and something else tangled together in his face.
38:04Asher.
38:05You stole my mate.
38:07And now you have the nerve to on my territory.
38:10Our eyes met from a distance.
38:12He could always read me in a way that other people couldn't.
38:16Evelyn.
38:17You came back.
38:18Get in here.
38:18We'll finish the ceremony.
38:19You'll be my only mate forever.
38:21Please.
38:21I was wrong before.
38:24Can you forgive me?
38:25His expression went strange.
38:27Open the gates.
38:29Let Evelyn in.
38:30He came down fast and moved toward me.
38:33I raised my bow and put an arrow through his chest.
38:35A tyrant falls to the people he failed.
38:42Caden looked down at the blood on his hand.
38:45Completely at a loss.
38:46Evelyn.
38:47I had already walked past him and taken the fighters inside.
38:51The arrow hadn't killed him.
38:54I found a member of the ruling bloodline with a clean record and helped him take the seat.
38:59Under Asher's name I became the pack's commander.
39:02If Asher had lived it would have been his.
39:04Now it was his regardless.
39:07He had earned it.
39:08The new alpha was declared in front of the whole pack.
39:11The old one was dealt with in the open.
39:13Giving the pack somewhere to put its grief and anger.
39:16Zane had been let out of confinement.
39:19Not long after the new alpha took power.
39:21He walked out of the capital and was never found again.
39:24I applied to the station at the border permanently.
39:27And left the capital with the fighters who had been Asher's family.
39:31Time passed.
39:32I rode across open grassland with the pendant at my chest catching the light.
39:37Asher appeared in front of me.
39:39So.
39:39What does it feel like.
39:41Being a warrior.
39:43I laughed and rode toward him.
39:45He drifted the way things drifted in the wind.
39:48The neighbor lady was right you know.
39:50We really did look like we were meant for each other.
39:53Next life.
39:55We do it right.
39:56Deal.
39:57I closed my eyes.
39:59One tear disappeared into my hair.
40:01Deal.
40:02Deal.
40:02Deal.
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