Luna Rejects Cheating Alpha

The phone felt cold in my trembling hands as I scrolled through image after image. Each one was worse than the last—Lara Fox, the young intern who'd joined our pack three months ago, posing in ways that left nothing to imagination. Her messages accompanied each photo, words that made my stomach churn.

"Missing you, Alpha. Can't wait until you're done with pack business."

"These are just for you. No one else gets to see."

"I dream about you every night..."

My wolf whimpered inside me, clawing at my chest as if trying to escape. Eight years. Eight years I'd been mated to Calvin Richards, Alpha of the Silvercrest Pack. Eight years of painful fertility treatments, of being blamed for our inability to produce an heir, of enduring his mother's Luna aura crushing me into submission whenever I dared question anything.

And all along, he'd been collecting these.

I found them by accident—or maybe fate. Calvin had forgotten his phone when he rushed off to an emergency pack meeting. He never left it unattended. Never. But tonight, he had, and when a notification flashed across the screen—"Lara: Miss you already"—something inside me snapped.

The folder was hidden deep in his photo gallery, named innocuously "Pack Business." Inside were dozens of images. My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the phone.

"He wouldn't," I whispered to my wolf, who growled in response.

But he had.

I didn't hear the door open. Didn't sense his presence until his shadow fell across me.

"What are you doing with my phone?" Calvin's voice was deceptively calm, but I could smell his anger—sharp and acrid.

I turned slowly, holding up the evidence of his betrayal. "Who is she?"

His eyes narrowed, flickering to the phone and back to me. "You went through my private messages?"

"You saved her pictures, Calvin. Dozens of them." My voice cracked. "You've been... you've been..."

He crossed the room in three strides and snatched the phone from my hand. "You had no right."

"No right?" The words exploded from me. "I'm your Luna! Your mate!"

"And I'm your Alpha!" he roared, his Alpha tone vibrating through the room, pressing down on me like a physical weight. "You will not question me this way!"

I felt my knees weaken, but I forced myself to stay standing. "Those photos—"

"Are nothing." He dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "All male wolves have needs, Mallory. Needs that go beyond their mates."

The casual cruelty of his words stole my breath. "Needs? You mean you're sleeping with her?"

"I mean you're overreacting." He pocketed his phone, towering over me. "This is exactly why I didn't tell you. You're being hysterical over nothing."

"Nothing?" My wolf howled inside me. "You're cheating on me and it's nothing?"

"Lower your voice," he warned, his Alpha tone intensifying. "You're making a scene over normal male behavior."

I stared at him, this stranger wearing my mate's face. "Normal? There's nothing normal about this!"

"This conversation is over." He turned toward our bedroom. "Get yourself under control before you join me."

The door burst open before I could respond. Calvin's mother swept in like a storm cloud, her Luna aura blazing around her like a corona of power.

"What is going on here?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing as she took in the scene. "I could hear shouting all the way down the hall."

"Mother, this doesn't concern you," Calvin said, but there was respect in his tone that he'd never shown me.

"It concerns me when my son's mate is causing a disturbance." Her gaze fell on me, cold and calculating. "What have you done now, Mallory?"

"Nothing," I said quietly.

"She's being irrational," Calvin added. "Overreacting to something pack-related."

His mother's lips thinned. "I see."

Before I could react, she moved with supernatural speed, her hand connecting with my cheek in a slap that sent me stumbling backward. The force of her Luna aura crashed into me like a physical blow.

"You will show respect to your Alpha," she hissed. "Bare your neck and apologize for this disgraceful behavior."

"Mother," Calvin began, but she silenced him with a look.

"Now, Mallory."

I felt it—the command in her Luna voice, the pressure to submit. But something inside me—my wolf—refused.

"Never," I whispered.

Calvin's eyes widened. "What did you say?"

My wolf surged forward, lending me strength I hadn't felt in years. "I said never."

I turned and ran. Past them both, out of our quarters, through the pack house. My feet carried me to my car, keys clutched in my shaking hand. As I pulled away from Silvercrest territory, I felt something inside me tearing loose—not breaking, but freeing.

I drove until I reached neutral territory, my wolf howling in both pain and triumph. For the first time in eight years, I'd stood up to them both.

But as I checked into a small hotel on the edge of pack lands, I wondered what would happen next. Because one thing was certain—this wasn't over.