My True Mate: Book 4

By Bella Lore

On the night of her first shift, Sarah, 18, expects everything to change—and a lifetime with the Alpha. But one thing happens that she doesn’t expect.

She fails to shift.

In an instant, Sarah loses everything: her pack, her mate, and her future. An outcast in the woods, Sarah wonders about the mysterious rogue who haunts the den’s perimeters. But she is just a human now.

Sarah struggles to balance her allegiance between her former pack and her new existence as a human.

In the fourth and final book of the series, Sarah might just find the answers she’s been searching for.

Can she enter into a forbidden romance with a wolf?

And who, in the end, is her true mate?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bella Lore
• Release date: Jan 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781094393520

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M Y   T R U E   M A T E

(Book 4)

B e l l a   L o r e

Bella Lore

Debut author Bella Lore is the paranormal romance author of the MY TRUE MATE series, comprising four books.

Bella loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit bellaloreauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.

Copyright © 2022 by Bella Lore. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright Photographee.eu, used under license from Shutterstock.com.

BOOKS BY BELLA LORE

MY TRUE MATE

MY TRUE MATE (Book #1)

MY TRUE MATE (Book #2)

MY TRUE MATE (Book #3)

MY TRUE MATE (Book #4)

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

CHAPTER FORTY THREE

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

CHAPTER FORTY SIX

CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

CHAPTER FORTY NINE

CHAPTER FIFTY

CHAPTER ONE

SHERRY

I wake up to the smell of smoke and the sound of screams.

The screams of my people.

As awareness infiltrates me, along with this numbing dazedness, I feel an overwhelming sense of suffocation. It’s almost as if there is a heavy pressure on my chest.

The sweet release of darkness has never been more inviting.

It might be the cowards way out but right now, it seems the easiest way.

But just as I am slipping into the void, I hear a familiar voice cry out, Mama! No, don’t hurt my mama!

It’s a plaintive cry, the voice of a child who has till now been filled with laughter and joy. Ignoring my own pain, I look around and see the raging fires, along with the little girl screaming. There are other people crying out too, shouting, crying, screaming, but it is three year old’s voice that forces me to assess my situation.

The reason for my suffocation is pretty easy to narrow down. Here is a huge slab of metal resting on my chest. The memory comes back in a sharp wave, followed by a stab of heartbreak as my eyes wander over to where a still figure is laying a few feet from me.

One heart beat.

Two.

I know my mate is dead.

I can feel it.

It would be so easy to give up but I don’t. Fueled by the cries of a child who should not know pain and fear, I push the metal slab off my body with inhuman strength. Struggling to get to my feet, I look around, my heart aching at the severe loss I have been dealt.

I stagger as I see my people being hunted down like animals and slaughtered. Before my eyes, I see two of the black-robed attackers subdue a woman before putting a steel collar around her neck. She lets out a scream of agony as she begins to struggle even more and then her body goes stiff with pain before she collapses.

Tag her.

Tag her?

She’s not an animal.

But as I look around, I see that quite a few of my people, especially younger men and women all have collars around their necks, collars that have left them immobilized.

As my blood boils, I see the little child in question and I see her mother, a gentle submissive maternal female, fighting against one of the enemy. There are wounds all over her arms and I can see that she’s  being pushed back.

I can feel something sticking out of my leg as I rush forward, transforming in a shimmer of light and viciously tearing out the throat of her attacker.

But we have been fighting for hours and my stamina has hit the bottom.

I see the female scramble to reclaim her child and hold her, desperately looking around for her mate before she looks at me, tears in her eyes, Where do we? Sherry, what do we do?

We are being defeated as I look around and I am on the verge of giving up. My body is shutting down and even if I fight back, I know I can no longer protect my people. These monsters – they’re taking captives. Then den and the surrounding area which still has lights strung up everywhere because of the feast that had been going on, is now a battlefield.

Hide, I say, my voice rough after I transform back. Take Viola and any child you find, and hide.

I can see the despair in the female shifter’s eyes but I can’t do anything. I have never felt more useless than in this moment.

Taking a deep breath, I shift again, donning on my animal skin and jump into the thick of the battle.

I don’t know how much time passes but I see my strongest generals fall one by one, slain in an attempt to protect the weak and by heart breaks, even as it grieves for the man who had stood by me for fifty years, his body growing cold somewhere here.

We are losing.

Only a miracle can save us now.

I see two of the attackers signal towards someone and hen a third person begin dragging a teenage boy who has the collar around his neck. He grabs another one and I jump into action, darting forward and killing the man before his accomplices can stop me. My anger is a fierce thing, born of hatred and pain.

Kill the Alpha! Comes the order and I tense.

I won’t make it easy for them though.

As they rush towards me, I ready myself for the fight of my life, tired as I am.

And then I see the arrow.

It comes flying out nowhere, striking into the man closest to me.

I freeze.

And then, a moment later, it seems that the sky has turned dark for a second as arrows begin flying out of the woods.

Ominous as they seem, not one of them strikes my people who are still standing or the ones who have fallen.

My eyes dart towards the woods and something like painful relief strikes me as I see people rushing out, armed to the teeth.

Help has arrived.

**** ***

A scant few hours later, I stand in the middle of the ruins of our  home, my mate gone, most of my people dead,  children orphaned, their wails reaching the sky.

And under my heavy grief, there is a burning fury, a desire for revenge.

Hearing a twig breaking in the distance, I quickly whip my head around.

Are they back?

But it’s someone else. It’s one of the women who had been fighting alongside me.

She is pretty in a tired way, her gaze hardened and yet holding sympathy.

You saved us, I say, flatly.

She’s human.

The woman gives me a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes, You’re not the first pack we’ve saved. I wish we had arrived sooner.

I study her, the echoes of the screams of my pack mates still ringing in my ears. They almost deafen me.

When I just stare at her, she holds out her hand,  sharp loo in her eyes, My name is Samantha.

When I take her hand, she meets my eyes, "I’m the leader of the Hunter’s Association. I think we should talk."

CHAPTER TWO

LUCAS

The setting is familiar.

It’s a village.

A village I never I want to return to.

It’s the place where I lost everything.

Every corner of it haunts me.

As I love closer, inside, drawn by some invisible force, I stand in front of a motel. I recognise it. How could I not?

But it’s empty.

However, my eyes linger on a door and I remember forced touches, the screaming in my head, the desperation to escape and yet the inability to do so. My heart begins begins beating wildly and I start looking around for my salvation, for the one person who can soothe me.

But the motel is empty and that door that was my personal hell is growing bigger and bigger.

My hands are shaking as I try to move back but the door looms closer and closer. It’s getting difficult to breathe as that familiar feeling of disgust and horror overwhelm me.

And then my eyes fly open.

For a moment, my breathing is hard, my heartbeat unsteady, as I try to take stock of my surroundings.

I’m in our bedroom - no, my bedroom.

It’s taken me one year to realise that Sarah is never coming back.

That she’s never going to forgive me for what I did to her.

And now, after twelve months, I have to deliberately remind myself of the fact.

However, even as I lay in bed, the bed that used to be ours, I can’t stop myself from searching for her inside of me.

But I’ve not felt her presence in months.

It doesn’t hurt any less.

Sitting up, slowly, I let the covers pool around my waist, trying to breathe past the pain. My t shirt is a source of comfort for me. After what happened last year, I can no longer bear to be unclothed.

Rubbing my hands over my face, I get to my feet.

One look at the wall clock tells me that it is still shy of four in the morning.

I’ve only managed to catch three hours of sleep.

Again.

The lack of sleep has begun to now show on my face and I catch a glimpse of a man with a thin face, russet coloured hair, golden eyes that now hold a hollow look in them after this past year, and dark circles under them.

I don’t recognise him anymore.

He’s no longer Sarah’s mate, Lucas.

He is just Lucas.

Lucas who couldn’t fight hard enough to escape the control of a half breed witch.

Lucas who had betrayed his true mate.

Lucas who had hurt the woman he loved.

Lucas who was now alone again.

I throw the water on my face and carefully make my bed. I have learnt that the small things keep me sane. I need that sanity, any bit of it that I can get.

Making my way to the common room, I see a few of the night patrol soldiers making their way to their rooms. I know that the next soldiers have already left to replace them.

A few of them nod to me in sleepy greetings and I nod back.

Ever since Sarah left the pack and I was forced to become Alpha in her stead, the weight and stress of her work that had used to leave her tired, is now opening my eyes. She had been so young when the weight of this responsibility had been placed on her delicate shoulders.

She had once accused me of being resentful. I had denied it but considering how easily I had been controlled, a part of me still wonders if I had resented her position even though I had been the one to suggest it.

Had I been jealous of my mate for being the Alpha?

I don’t know anymore.

I just miss her.

I miss her presence with every breath in me. The sound of her laughter, the way she would crawl into my lap when exhausted. I miss all of that. I miss her when she was grumpy and hungry and sleepy, and every single one of her moods.

But I haven’t forgotten what I had done to her.

I had touch starved my pregnant mate.

I had driven her to near madness.

I had made her watch me go into the arms of another woman.

I had shredded her heart into pieces and she had still saved me.

I had watched her transform from a serious but happy woman into a bitter, quiet, heartbroken creature whose eyes were empty of emotions.

And she had killed her wolf to save me from pain.

I don’t deserve her forgiveness.

The common room is not empty when I enter it.

Clara, one of the maternal females, is sitting there, looking into the distance.

I nod to her before pouring myself a cup of coffee from the pot and sitting down across from her at the kitchen counter.

Clara watches me, Are you packed?

I stare down at my coffee, Not much to pack. I’m just going for a few days.

Lucas-

My voice is tired, Don’t ask me to talk to her, Clara. She never comes to see me. This time will be no different.

Clara is silent and then murmurs, Then maybe you should consider something else.

I sip the bitter liquid in my cup, uncaring of how it burns my throat, What?

Clara’s voice is hesitant, You are a single man who is an Alpha.

Your point? I mutter, even as her words flay my skin alive as the truth slices at me.

She pauses and as she begins speaking, I can tell from her tone of voice that she is not happy, Some of the Elders have been talking. Without an Alpha pair, there is a a lack of stability in the pack.

I told you, I say, irritably now. Sarah isn’t going to come back with-

She’s not your mate any longer, Clara says, harshly, and I hear the pain in her voice even as my own festering wound pulses.

I hear her take a shaky intake of air, They think it’s best you take another mate.

CHAPTER THREE

My anger is fierce at her words.

What? I set the coffee cup on the counter with a loud clang. Have they lost their minds?!

Clara sighs, If it makes you feel any better, I was also against the whole idea but Lucas, she looks up to meet my gaze, Sarah isn’t coming back. It’s been a year. The pack is fracturing without an Alpha pair.

Then I’ll step down-

You know you can’t do that, Clara rubs her temple, looking just as tired as I feel inside. You’re the strongest member of the pack. And you’re the only who knew what Sarah was planning for the pack. You’re keeping everything going.

But I hate it.

I hate stepping into a role that belongs to Sarah.

She should be here. This is her home. Her place.

Even a year as Alpha of the Stone Wolves and I still feel like a fraud.

Clara seems to  catch my wave of thinking and she murmurs, "Truth be told, Sarah was the catalyst of change int his pack. She brought us into a more advanced age. She had plans for the future. I’m not saying you’re not doing a

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