Betrayed by My Alpha Mate

The kitchen was a flurry of activity as I balanced three trays of appetizers, weaving between pack members who didn't bother to step aside. My arms ached from hours of preparation for this gathering—a celebration of Alpha Nathan's 'miraculous recovery' from his silver-inflicted wound. The wound he'd taken for me.

"Careful with those, Luna," Healer Maeve cautioned as I nearly stumbled. The title still felt foreign on my ears. Luna. Nathan's mate. The position I'd accepted out of gratitude and the strange pull I'd felt that night in the forest.

"Sorry," I murmured, steadying myself. "Just a little tired."

Maeve's eyes softened with something that looked suspiciously like pity. "You've been working double shifts for weeks now. The rehabilitation treatments are expensive, but—"

"I don't mind," I cut her off, forcing a smile. "It's the least I can do after what he sacrificed for me."

She pressed her lips together but said nothing more as I pushed through the swinging doors into the main hall. The room sparkled with decorations, pack members in their finest attire mingling beneath crystal chandeliers. I scanned the crowd for Nathan, but couldn't spot his tall frame anywhere.

Lily stirred restlessly within me. *Something feels wrong tonight.*

I silenced her concerns as I had been doing more frequently these days. Nathan was busy with Alpha duties. The mate bond we shared was still new, still forming. His distance was natural, temporary.

After setting down the trays, I slipped back toward the kitchen for the next course. A flash of movement in the far corridor caught my eye—Nathan's broad shoulders disappearing around a corner. Without thinking, I followed, my footsteps silent on the plush carpet.

The corridor led to a small antechamber used for private pack business. I hesitated at the partially open door, then froze as I heard Victoria Sterling's unmistakable voice.

"You're pathetic, kneeling there like a common wolf," she hissed, her tone dripping with contempt.

Curiosity pulled me forward. I crept closer, slipping behind a row of sugar barrels stored in the hallway. Through the crack in the door, I could see Nathan—my mate, my Alpha—on his knees before Victoria.

"Please," he begged, his voice stripped of all Alpha authority. "I've done everything you asked. I took the silver blade. I bound myself to her. I've proven my devotion to you."

My heart stuttered in my chest. Lily whimpered, a low, pained sound that echoed through my mind.

"Your heart has always been mine, not hers," Victoria's voice slithered through the mind-link, so strong I could hear it clearly despite not being part of their connection. "But you're still not worthy. Not yet."

Nathan's head bowed lower. "Tell me what more I can do. The pack respects me now because of my 'sacrifice.' Aria works day and night to pay for treatments I don't even need."

A cold numbness spread through my limbs. The sugar barrel before me blurred as tears filled my eyes.

"Make her suffer," Victoria commanded, her voice like silk over steel. "Humiliate her. Break her. Show me that your loyalty lies only with me."

"Anything," Nathan promised, his voice fervent. "Anything for you."

Lily howled in anguish within me, the sound reverberating through every cell in my body. *He never accepted us. Never wanted us. It was all a lie.*

I pressed my fist against my mouth to stifle a sob. The mate bond I'd cherished, the connection I'd felt that night—had it all been fabricated? A cruel manipulation?

I stumbled backward, knocking against the sugar barrels. They wobbled precariously but didn't fall. Heart racing, I fled down the corridor, slipping back into the kitchen just as the doors to the antechamber opened.

"Aria?" Maeve called, frowning at my tear-streaked face. "What happened?"

I shook my head, unable to form words around the lump in my throat. How could I explain that the mate I'd given everything for—my devotion, my trust, my future—had never truly accepted me? That our entire bond was built on deception?

Shame burned through me, hot and suffocating. I should have known. Should have listened to Lily's doubts. Instead, I'd silenced her, desperate to believe in the mate bond I thought we shared.

"Nothing," I finally managed, wiping my eyes with trembling hands. "I'm fine."

But as Nathan and Victoria emerged from the corridor, his hand briefly brushing against hers when they thought no one was looking, I knew with devastating certainty that nothing would ever be fine again.