He Regretted it When I Refused to Continue Loving Him

I could never have imagined that my best friend of ten years was the woman my alpha mate had been secretly sleeping with.

"Ralph did WHAT to you?!" Tina's voice had been full of outrage when I first confided my suspicions about Ralph’s cheating.

“Don’t worry, Lyka. I’ll help you expose that snake he's messing with!" Her words had seemed so sincere.

I almost believed her.

Returning early from a work assignment in a neighboring pack, I planned to surprise Ralph for his birthday. But as I got closer to our house, something was off. The unsettling feeling settled deep in my gut.

The front door was unlocked. Inside, clothes were strewn in a careless line leading to our bedroom—his polo, a flowered dress... Tina’s dress.

My chest constricted, every nerve igniting as I edged closer. The air was thick, suffused with the unmistakable scent of sex—her pheromones, a sweet honeydew, tangled with the sharp warmth of fresh cinnamon, his scent. From the doorway, the sounds reached me—moans, the raw slap of skin on skin, her voice breathless as she moaned Ralph’s name.

I saw them—Tina and Ralph, my best friend and my mate, tangled in each other.

I left without a word, the image of them burned into my mind. My heart felt like it was shattering with each step. They didn’t deserve to see the damage they'd done.

That night, I rented an apartment, barely able to sleep as my mind replayed the betrayal. My tears had long dried, but my rage was still fresh.

Ralph. Tina. You’d pay for what you had done.

***

Ralph: [Lyka, you’re returning to Wolfheim today, right? Can you find a cab home?]

[Can’t pick you up. There’s an important project I needed to discuss with the alpha prince.]

His message, sent hours ago at 2:45 AM, greeted me as I woke up in the unfamiliar apartment I rented last night. The reality hit me—this would be my new living space from now on.

I groaned, wishing I could forget everything, like in one of those novels where the heroine wakes up with no memory of the pain before sleep. But the cruel sting of reality wouldn’t fade that easily.

I glanced at Ralph’s message again, a fresh wave of bitterness washing over me. Remembering my promise to make him pay, I forced myself to respond, mimicking the cheerful tone I used to have around him.

Lyka: [Alright! Wishing you success with the negotiations!]

The moment I hit [send], I felt drained. All the energy I hoped to muster for the day vanished, leaving me hollow. I wanted to crawl back into bed and shut the world out, but the betrayal echoed in my mind.

I had invested so much time and effort into winning Ralph’s affection, and just when I thought he was finally showing real interest, Tina—my best friend, the one I trusted with everything—was the one to shatter my heart the most.

“Why the hell did you do this to me, Tina?” I muttered out loud for the first time, breaking the silence of the empty apartment.

Tina and I had met in kindergarten, but we didn’t really become friends until junior high. Back then, I was the stocky kid everyone picked on. Tina was the one who stood up for me, her mere presence scaring off the bullies. Even as a teen, she had that power—the confidence and command that came from being the "it girl."

Maybe it was because she was popular, or maybe it was because she was part of that elite group with Ralph and Nickle, the two S-Class alphas at our school, aside from the alpha prince himself. Tina was the one who introduced me to Ralph and Nickle, and from that point, my school life felt a little less lonely.

I was indebted to her. I trusted her. I told her everything—my interests, my secret sketches, even the time I got dragged into one of Nickle’s wild escapades.

Tina was always there, supportive and understanding. She was the first person I told when Ralph confessed his feelings to me, and she was ecstatic when we officially became a couple.

“About time!” she had said back then, practically bursting with pride.

I trusted her with my world... almost all of it.

I dragged myself off the bed and slumped into the chair at my desk, opening my laptop. There was one thing Tina never knew about me—my secret life as the infamous celebrity gossip leaker, SigmaLeaks.

It was cringe, I know. I came up with the name back in elementary school during my borderline-obsessive phase with The Four Lycans and the celebrities who somehow got close to them.

At first, people laughed at the name. But as the scandals rolled out, the mockery stopped. No one laughed anymore when I started dropping bombshells—exposing dirt I’d pieced together after hours of digging through clues and whispers.

With each scandal I exposed, my following swelled. Before long, I had a loyal audience hanging on every post. Some even started calling me the “God of Wolfheim’s Conspiracy”—whatever that was supposed to mean. The nickname stuck after my channel’s segment on celebrity secrets took off, especially after that one post—JUST ONE, mind you—got a little too close to the political side.

But eventually, it felt wrong. I had crossed lines—dragging innocent family members into the mess just because they were related to my targets. When I finally left SigmaLeaks behind, it felt like the right choice.

Now, though... it almost felt necessary. The thought of ‘SigmaLeaks’ coming back for one last act lingered, tempting me. This time, the targets wouldn’t be distant celebrities—they were personal:

They thought they could betray me and keep it quiet. But I had secrets of my own.

And yet... was I really ready to cross that line again?

“Ah, why is this so complicated though?” I let out an exasperated sigh before shaking my head to bring me back to reality.

I told myself I needed more than just my own heartache to go through with it. More information. Something solid, something real. Maybe then I'd know what to do.