No stranger spoke those words. It was Alpha Alaric, my mate, my Alpha, the one the Goddess had bound to me. And yet he spoke of another. My vision blurred as I peered through the narrow crack in the door, the scent of betrayal coiling through me as surely as if it were blood spilled on the snow.
Alpha Alaric sat on the plush gray couch, his posture relaxed, predatory even, while opposite him lounged Ram, his Beta and closest confidant. Ram’s expression was tight with disbelief, his aura heavy with disapproval, but my eyes clung to Alpha Alaric, drinking in every detail of the man I thought I knew.
“If you give away Silverfang Holdings,” Ram said, exasperated, “you’ll strip yourself of rank. You’ll just be an ordinary wolf among Alphas. And what about your mate? What about Kaia? She’s the eldest daughter of the Blackthorn family. Are you planning to drag her into hardship?”
Alpha Alaric leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his face calm but unwavering. “Back then, Nyra didn’t choose me. I couldn’t take her as my mate, couldn’t give her my mark. But I can still prove that I’ve never abandoned her. Giving her Silverfang Holdings is the least I can do.”
The air seemed to vanish from my lungs.
“And your Luna?” Ram pressed, his voice low, almost pleading. “What about Kaia? She gave you everything.”
Alpha Alaric’s lips curved, cruel in their softness. “She told me she loves me. She said she’d endure anything with me. A weaker life, even the loss of her title. She won’t complain.”
The words cut deeper than claws. My knees trembled, and I gripped the frame of the door as if it were the only thing holding me up. My wolf whimpered in the back of my mind, wounded, betrayed.
Ram’s gaze darkened. “Alpha Alaric, if Kaia learns the truth, that you never marked her out of love, but only to keep her away from Ronan Stormclaw and Nyra, she’ll be destroyed.”
Destroyed.
The word echoed in my skull, rattling against the walls of my heart.
My vision blurred, my breath shallow as I fought the urge to storm inside and rip the lies from his throat. But my body betrayed me, frozen, trembling in the storm of revelation.
Then, Ram’s eyes flickered to the doorway. He stilled. His expression shifted from anger to dread as his gaze locked on me.
“L-Luna…” he stammered, rising to his feet. Alpha Alaric turned. “You’re back?”