After My Alpha Slept with His Former Mate

The morning pack run had been tense, the air thick with unspoken resentments. I felt it in the way Hunter's eyes tracked Adriana as she pranced through the forest, her return to the pack still fresh enough to draw every male's attention. My wolf, Luna, had been restless all morning, sensing something I'd been too loyal to acknowledge.

I entered Hunter's private quarters that afternoon with the familiar rhythm of Beta duties guiding my steps. Organize his schedules. Check his messages. Empty the trash. The routines that had kept me close to him for years, even after Adriana's rejection had hollowed him out.

The scent hit me before I saw it.

Floral. Cloying. Adriana's perfume clung to the used condom I'd pulled from the wastebasket, unmistakable in its intimacy. My hands stilled, the plastic bag crinkling softly in my grip. The morning run, the way Hunter had positioned himself near her, the distracted gleam in his eyes—it all crystallized into a single, devastating truth.

He'd spent the night with her.

'Luna,' I whispered to my wolf, 'was any of it ever real?'

She whimpered, the sound echoing in my chest.

I stood frozen, the evidence of Hunter's betrayal dangling from my fingers, when the door swung open. Hunter strode in first, his Alpha presence filling the room with that familiar pressure I'd grown to associate with safety. But it was Adriana who followed, her hand resting possessively on his arm, that made my stomach clench.

'Muffin,' she gasped suddenly, her eyes widening as she spotted the small omega cat curled on Hunter's bed.

The cat I'd given him on a night when he'd stared at nothing for hours, when I didn't know how else to fill the void Adriana had left behind.

'My allergies,' she choked, her voice trembling with practiced distress. 'I can't—I can't breathe. Hunter, please.'

She clutched at her throat, her eyes watering on cue, and I watched Hunter's entire focus shift to her. The man who had once let me sit beside him in silence for hours, who had relied on my steady presence to hold the pack together, didn't even glance my way.

'Jolie,' he said, his voice dropping into that Alpha tone that had always made me shiver. Not with warmth, but with the cold weight of command. 'Remove that useless animal from my quarters. Now. And take yourself with it. I don't want to see either of you again today.'

The Alpha command slammed into me like a physical blow, but it was the dismissal that shattered something fundamental inside my chest. I looked at Hunter—really looked at him—and saw nothing of the man I'd devoted years to. Just the Alpha who had never truly seen me.

'Yes, Alpha,' I said quietly, my voice steady despite the fracture spreading through my heart.

I scooped Muffin from the bed, his warm weight a small comfort against my chest. The cat purred softly, oblivious to the seismic shift occurring around him. I walked to Hunter's desk, my steps measured, and placed my Beta badge down with deliberate care.

'I'll be back for my things,' I said, not looking at either of them. 'After you're... finished. Alpha.'

The formal address felt like ash in my mouth. I left without waiting for a response, Muffin's carrier clutched in one hand, my dignity in the other. By afternoon, I was packed—a duffel bag containing everything I'd accumulated over years of service to the Black Moon Pack. I left my quarters, the pack house, the territory that had been my home, and headed toward the small rental room on the outskirts.

Behind me, I felt the weight of Hunter's gaze, but I didn't turn back. The mate pull that had kept me tethered to him for so long felt stretched thin, ready to snap. Ahead lay uncertainty, but also the first breath of something I hadn't felt in years: freedom.