"You can disappear all night, but I can’t?" My voice was cold, void of the warmth I had once offered him so freely.
Benedict flinched. I had never spoken to him like this before. We had been together for years, and in all that time, I had never once raised my voice at him. But now? I wanted to rip him apart.
I saw the shift in his expression, the flicker of guilt.
"You know, don’t you?"
His voice was too calm, too resigned. As if he had expected this moment to come.
Something inside me snapped. I swung my bag at him, my hands trembling with fury.
"How could you?!" My voice cracked as the words tore from my throat. "If you didn’t love me anymore, you could have let me go! But instead, you betrayed me!"
The image of him with her with another she-wolf tangled in his arms; their scents intertwined—flashed before my eyes. It shattered everything I thought I knew. Everything I thought we had.
Benedict caught my wrist, pulling me toward him. "Felicia, I’m sorry."
I wrenched away, tears burning down my cheeks. "Don’t touch me with your filthy hands!"
He clenched his jaw. "It was a mistake."
"A mistake?" I laughed bitterly. "Then tell me, Benedict—if I did the same thing, if I let another man touch me and called it an accident, would you forgive me?"
His eyes darkened. A dangerous glint replaced the guilt.
"If you did, I’d kill him."
A chill ran down my spine.
He knew. He knew betrayal was unforgivable, yet he still betrayed me.
I took a deep breath and steadied myself. "Do you remember what I told you when you first claimed me?"
Benedict’s expression faltered. "Felicia—"
"I told you if you ever betrayed me, I wouldn’t fight for you. I would walk away."
Panic flashed in his eyes. "I won’t let you go."
I wiped my tears away and met his gaze with nothing but loathing. "It doesn’t matter what you want. I’ve already made my decision. We’re done."
I turned and walked away, ignoring the sound of his sharp intake of breath.
Upstairs, I locked the door behind me and collapsed onto the bed, exhaustion sinking deep into my bones.
The scent of last night still clung to my skin. My stomach churned.
Stripping out of my clothes, I stepped into the shower and scrubbed until my skin burned, until I could no longer feel the remnants of that night clinging to me.