After My Wolf Died to Save Him, He Betrayed Me

The terracotta tiles were freezing against my palms, but the cold was nothing compared to the ice in Elena’s eyes. Her perfectly manicured fingers dug into my jaw, demanding my submission. I stared back at her, feeling only a hollow, echoing emptiness.

Then, a small body violently slammed into mine.

Elena’s grip broke. I collapsed onto the floor, gasping as the crushing weight of the Alpha aura was suddenly buffered. Smelling of lavender soap and sheer terror, Spring threw herself over me. My fiercely loyal friend wrapped her arms around my head, using her own fragile Omega body as a human shield.

“Leave her alone!” Spring cried out, her voice trembling but defiant.

Elena stood up, smoothing the front of her crimson coat with a look of absolute revulsion. “Filthy creatures. You breed like rats and forget your place just as quickly.” She flicked her wrist toward the massive Betas standing by the door. “Teach the servant a lesson. Make sure this one watches.”

“No!” I choked out, trying to roll over, to push Spring away.

But the Betas were too fast. One of them grabbed Spring by her braided hair, tearing her off me. I lunged forward, but the second Beta slammed his boot into my shoulder, pinning me to the floor with a suffocating wave of aura. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe.

The heavy crack of a leather belt echoed through the kitchen.

Spring screamed. It was a raw, agonizing sound that tore straight through my chest. The leather cracked again, and again. Blood began to bloom across the back of Spring’s thin cotton shirt, dark and wet. I thrashed under the Beta’s boot, biting my lip until I tasted copper, but I was utterly powerless. Every strike against my friend’s back felt like a nail being driven into my own coffin.

When they finally left, leaving us in a crumpled, bleeding heap on the floor, the last shred of my hesitation vanished. As I held Spring’s shaking, sobbing body against my chest, wiping the tears from her pale face, a cold and absolute desperation settled deep into my bones. My presence in this pack wasn't just a tragedy for me anymore. It was a curse to anyone who showed me kindness. I had to escape. I had to vanish.

Hours later, after I had carefully bandaged Spring’s ruined back and tucked her into my narrow attic bed, I walked down to the main quarters. I was numb. My heart felt like a stone sitting quietly in my chest.

As I pushed open the heavy oak door to Adrian’s private living space, a suffocating scent assaulted my nose. It wasn't his usual crisp aroma of pine and rain. It was the cloying, overwhelming stench of cheap jasmine perfume and raw lust.

A beautiful rogue she-wolf was lounging on the plush leather sofa. Her long, bare legs were draped casually across Adrian’s lap, her fingers tracing the line of his jaw. She was vibrant, fully connected to her inner wolf, and wearing barely enough fabric to be considered clothed.

Adrian’s eyes locked onto mine the second I walked in. They were sharp, calculating, and burning with a dark challenge. He was waiting for it. The tears. The screaming. The agonizing fated mate jealousy that was supposed to rip my soul apart. He was furious at my silence after Elena’s visit, furious that I had withdrawn into myself. He had brought this woman here specifically to drag a reaction out of me, to force me to fight for him.

I didn't blink. I walked over to the mahogany bookshelf, picked up my dusting cloth, and quietly began to wipe down the wood.

The silence in the room grew suffocatingly tense. Adrian’s jaw clenched, his posture stiffening beneath the rogue’s touch.

Mistaking his rigidness for desire, the rogue giggled, trailing her manicured nails down his chest. She glanced over her shoulder at me, her lips curling into a cruel, mocking smirk.

“Is this the broken little toy you keep around, Alpha?” she purred, her voice dripping with venom. She slid off Adrian’s lap and sauntered over to where I stood.

I kept dusting the shelf.

“You smell like dirt,” she sneered, stepping into my personal space. “A wolfless, pathetic Omega. I don't know why he hasn't thrown you out into the snow yet.” She leaned in close, her eyes flashing a vibrant gold. “Pack your bags, sweetie. I’ll be warming his bed tonight. You’ve been replaced.”

I slowly turned my head to look at her. I felt no anger, no jealousy. Just a profound, exhausting pity.

“Take him,” I whispered, my voice completely dead.

The words barely left my lips before the room exploded.

A monstrous, guttural roar shattered the glass of the windowpanes. The rogue didn't even have time to scream. Adrian moved with a violent, lethal speed that defied reality. In a fraction of a second, his massive hand wrapped around her throat, lifting her entirely off the ground.

His eyes were no longer human. They had bled into a terrifying, luminous crimson. The shadows in the room seemed to warp and twist around him as his inner Lycan beast violently clawed its way to the surface.

“Replace her?” Adrian snarled. His voice was a demonic, vibrating double-tone that made my ears ring and my stomach violently heave. “You think a filthy stray like you could ever replace what is mine?”

The rogue clawed frantically at his iron grip, her legs kicking in the air as her face turned a mottled purple. She was suffocating. He was going to kill her. He had brought her here to make me jealous, but his twisted, terrifyingly possessive obsession couldn't tolerate anyone disrespecting what he considered his ultimate property.

I stood perfectly still, clutching the dusting cloth in my hands. I watched the Lycan Prince crush the life out of a woman simply for speaking to me. I wasn't looking at my fated mate. I was looking at a bloodthirsty monster. And as the rogue’s eyes rolled back in her head, I knew with absolute certainty that I would rather die in the wilderness than spend one more day trapped inside his cage.