Cheated on by My Fiancé, Claimed by the Crown Prince

My fiancé is buried deep inside another woman, fucking her hard and rough.

And that woman is his adoptive younger sister.

His mouth was on her throat while he mocked the family he intended to marry into.

My family.

Me.

And because I had entered his pack disguised as a rogue, neither of them knew the bride they were humiliating stood ten feet away.

I had not expected to find my fiancé, Cassian Blackmoor, Alpha of the Ashfang territory, driving his hips between Seraphine Dusk's thighs against the wall of his room.

The sound of flesh striking flesh turned my stomach. My wolf, Astra, slammed against the cage of my ribs, furious enough to shred the scent-masking spell wrapped around us.

Kill him, she snarled.

I pressed one hand over my mouth and forced myself to breathe through it.

Three months from now, I was supposed to become Cassian's Luna. Our marriage would bind Ashfang to my father's Silverpine Pack, giving Cassian access to our healers, grain routes, and soldiers. Father called it a necessary alliance. Mother called Cassian disciplined and ambitious.

Neither of them had seen him like this.

Seraphine’s hands clawed down his broad, bare back, her breathless gasps mingling with the rough, possessive growls tearing from Cassian’s throat. Every brutal thrust pinned her harder against the cold stone. Her head fell back, exposing a throat flushed dark with arousal and marked by fresh bruises.

"Your little virgin bride will never take you like this," Seraphine whispered.

Cassian laughed against her neck. "Elara Vale is a spoiled little girl. A broodmare wears a crown just fine—she doesn't need to know what a real beast feels like in her bed."

The words hit harder than claws.

Seraphine grasped, curling a hand into his dark hair as she rode the edge of another climax. "And her noble pack?"

"Fucking fools," he snarled, gripping her hips hard. " Rowan Vale thinks kindness makes him strong. Once their gold is filling my vaults, I will show him what strength means."

My nails cut my palms.

I had begged my parents for one month before the wedding to travel alone. They refused, so I had gone to Mara, an old witch who owed my mother a debt. Mara changed the shape of my face, darkened my silver-blond hair to muddy brown, and buried my wildflower scent beneath smoke and wet earth. I entered Ashfang as Nell, a hungry rogue seeking kitchen work.

I wanted to know the people I would rule.

Now I knew the man I would never marry.

A board creaked beneath my boot.

Seraphine's head snapped toward the door. Her eyes flashed gold.

I ran.

I made it through the corridor before someone seized my cloak from behind. I spun and drove my elbow backward, but Seraphine's maid, Veda, was larger than she looked. She slammed me into the stone.

"Spying little rogue," she hissed.

Cassian came out fastening his trousers. Seraphine followed in his shirt, her pale legs bare and her mouth swollen from his kisses. Neither showed shame.

Cassian gripped my jaw. His alpha power rolled over me, hot and heavy, ordering my knees to bend. Astra surged in answer, but I forced her down. If he felt the strength of my wolf, my disguise would be useless.

So I fell.

"What did you hear?" he asked.

"Nothing, Alpha."

Seraphine crouched in front of me. Her sweet amber scent could not cover the smell of sex on her skin. "She is lying."

"I was lost. I clean the west hall."

"Rogues don't get lost near the alpha wing." Cassian squeezed until pain shot through my teeth. "Who sent you?"

I wanted to say, Your future bride.

Instead, I lowered my eyes. "No one."

Seraphine smiled. "Then no one will miss her."

They dragged me beneath the pack house.

The lower cells had no windows, only iron doors and channels cut into the floor for waste. Veda removed my cloak, boots, and the small charm Mara had given me for protection. She searched my clothes while two guards held my arms.

"Pretty enough beneath the dirt," one guard said.

I head-butted him.

He punched me across the mouth. My wolf tried to take control, bones burning under my skin, but shifting would break the scent spell and reveal that I was no ordinary rogue.

Veda laughed. "Keep that temper. We enjoy breaking the lively ones."

They chained one ankle to the wall and left me without food or water.

Hours passed. Maybe more. The stone stole the warmth from my body. My split lip swelled. Every time footsteps approached, I prepared to announce my name, but pride and caution stopped me. Cassian's treachery was larger than an affair. He planned to use Silverpine, and I needed proof my parents could not dismiss as fear before marriage.

When the door finally opened, Veda carried a bucket.

The water hit me like ice.

"Still nothing to say?"

I coughed. "Your mistress has poor taste in men."

Her boot struck my ribs.

Pain burst white across my vision. She kicked me again, then ordered a guard to hang my wrists from a hook until my toes barely touched the floor. They asked who had sent me. I gave them the same answer. My shoulders felt torn from their sockets.

After they left, a voice came from the darkness beyond the bars.

"You should have lied better."

I lifted my head. In the cell opposite mine, a thin young man sat with his back to the wall. His hair was black, but a white streak ran from his temple to his ear, a mark I recognized from royal portraits.

"You should mind your own business," I rasped.

"This is my business. Their screaming keeps me awake."

Despite myself, I almost smiled. "What is your name?"

He hesitated. "Finn."

"Nell."

"That isn't your name."

"Finn probably isn't yours."

A weak grin touched his mouth. "Fair."

The next morning, if it was morning, the guards brought one bowl of gray porridge and slid it between our cells. Veda told us to fight for it.

Finn did not move.

I crawled forward, took the bowl, and pushed half through the narrow drainage gap dividing the corridor. "Eat."

"You need it."

"So do you."

He stared at me before taking it. His hands trembled.

That became our pattern. Ashfang's guards gave us too little food, expecting hunger to turn us against each other. We divided everything. When fever shook me after another bucket of freezing water, he told me ridiculous stories about stealing pies from the royal kitchen.

On the third day, Veda opened his cell and pressed silver against his throat.

"Tell your brother to withdraw from the northern pass," she said.

Finn's jaw tightened. "Tell Cassian to fight his own battles."

She struck him with a silver-laced whip.

I lunged against my chain. "Stop!"

Veda looked delighted. "You care about the hostage?"

Hostage.

After she left, I stared at the white streak in Finn's hair. "You're Prince Finnegan Thorne."

He gave a tired sigh. "I preferred Finn."

Nightcrest and Ashfang had fought over the northern pass for two years. Nightcrest's royal pack was stronger. Everyone knew it. Apparently, Cassian had chosen kidnapping over defeat.

"Your brother is Crown Prince Kael," I said. "If he knew where you were—"

"He would tear this place apart. That is why Cassian sends messages pretending I am held by rogues in the east."

A prince imprisoned across from an alpha's disguised daughter. The Moon Goddess had a cruel sense of humor.

I studied the guards' routine, the rusted hook above my chain, and the drainage channel that ran beneath the doors. Veda had taken Mara's charm, but she had missed the thin iron pin braided into my hair. Iron would not cut silver chains, yet it could open an old lock.

Tomorrow was the Dark Moon. Ashfang's wolves would run the border in patrols, leaving fewer guards below.

I met Finn's gaze. "Can you run?"

"If I have to."

"You have to."

I pulled the pin from my hair and held it up.

For the first time since I had found my fiancé inside another woman, hope moved through me instead of rage.

"Tomorrow," I whispered, "we escape."