My Cheating Alpha Found Me in His Rival's Shirt

I made it to the top of the stairs before my legs stopped working.

Callum's voice came through the front door, muffled but loud enough.

"She belongs to Silverpine! She's *my* Luna! Open this door, Blackthorn, or I swear to the Moon—"

I gripped the railing. *Go back to the bedroom. Shut the door. Let him scream at the wood.*

I turned.

"Sienna!" he bellowed. "You come out here right now, or when I get you home, I'll punish you as your Alpha. You hear me? In front of the whole pack!"

I stopped.

*In front of the whole pack.*

I remembered kneeling at the council table last spring because I'd spoken out of turn. I remembered eating dinner alone on our anniversary last year while he "handled business." I remembered smiling while his friends joked that I was a decorative Luna.

Three years. I had swallowed all of it.

Ronan stood at the bottom of the stairs. He hadn't touched the lock. His eyes found mine.

"Do you want to see him?"

Nobody had asked me what I wanted in a very long time.

My fingers tightened on the rail. Then I loosened them.

"Yes," I said. "I want to end this."

He opened the door.

---

Callum's face went white when he saw me.

Then it went red. It was a dark, ugly flush that crawled from his collar to his hairline.

I came down the last few steps barefoot, in Ronan's black shirt, the collar slipping off my shoulder. Callum's nostrils flared. He took one long sniff, and his whole body shook.

"Cedar," he spat. "You're soaked in it."

His stare dropped to my neck. I knew what he saw there. It was a faint red line from where I'd slept pressed against Ronan's chest all night.

"You slept with him."

He lunged and caught my upper arm, fingers digging into the bone.

"Is this your game? You crawl into another Alpha's bed to get back at me? To make me jealous?"

"Funny," I said. "You slept with Brielle in our bed. But I wear another man's shirt, and you lose your mind?"

His mouth opened. Nothing came out.

For three full seconds, the great Alpha of Silverpine had no answer.

Then he lifted his chin. "That's different. Men and women are different, Sienna. An Alpha has needs. Instincts. A Luna's job is to stay loyal."

Behind me, the air in the room dropped ten degrees.

I didn't turn around, but I felt Ronan go cold, like a winter storm settling over the doorway. He didn't say a word. He didn't step in to defend me.

He was letting me fight my own battle.

"I didn't sleep with him," I said.

Relief flickered across Callum's face.

"But if I had," I added, "I wouldn't owe you an explanation. Not you. Never you."

The relief turned to rage.

His irises flooded gold. A growl ripped out of his throat, and his voice crashed down on me, heavy as iron.

"*Sienna. Come home. Now.*"

The Alpha command hit my spine like a whip. My knees bent on their own.

Then a broad back filled my vision.

Ronan stood between us, and his power rolled out of him in a wave. It was older and darker and so much heavier than Callum's that the windows rattled in their frames.

"You're standing on Ironfang land," he said quietly. "This isn't Silverpine. Your voice means nothing here."

Callum staggered back a step. Then another. Sweat beaded on his upper lip.

He swallowed hard. When he spoke again, his voice was soft. It was the voice he used when he wanted something.

"Sienna. Baby. Look."

He pulled a photo from his jacket pocket and held it out.

It was us, three years ago, on the white steps of the Moon Goddess temple. I was laughing with flowers in my hair. He was kissing my temple. I looked so happy it hurt to see.

"I made one mistake," he said. "One. Are you really going to burn down our whole future over one night of anger?"

My throat closed.

I had believed in that girl. I had believed she'd grow old with him.

My hand drifted up toward the photo.

Callum's phone lit up in his other hand.

The screen faced me. A picture filled it. Brielle was stretched across white sheets in Callum's blue dress shirt, hair messy, lips pouted.

**Baby, come back. I miss you.**

The fog in my head cleared all at once.

I took the photo from his fingers and tore it straight down the middle. The rip sounded loud in the silent hall.

"In three days," I said, "I'll formally petition to break the bond."

The halves fluttered to the marble.

Callum's lip curled. "You reject me, and you'll never get the Goddess's blessing again. No fated mate. Ever. You'll die alone, Sienna."

I didn't answer him.

I turned toward Ronan, and my knee gave out. The floor rushed up at me.

He caught me before I hit it.

I didn't think. I wrapped both arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. In front of my mate, I held onto another man like he was the only solid thing left in the world.

My heart pounded against him. It was hard and fast and hungry.

And Callum felt every beat through the bond.

"No." His voice cracked. "No, you don't feel that for him. *You don't.*"

He charged forward, reaching to rip me away.

Ronan's hand shot out and locked around his wrist. Bone creaked.

Ronan pushed me gently behind him and leaned in close to Callum's face.

"Touch her again," he said, low and lethal, "and you'll lose more than your mate."

Callum yanked free. He stared at me one last time, his chest heaving.

Then he stormed out. The door slammed hard enough to shake the frame.

---

I made it four breaths before I broke.

The sob tore out of me, ugly and loud. I pressed my fists against my eyes.

"Why?" I choked. "I hate him. I *hate* him. So why does it still hurt when he talks to me like that?"

Ronan pulled me in and wrapped both arms around me.

"Because you loved him for three years," he said into my hair. "That doesn't disappear in one night. It's not supposed to."

I clung to his shirt, the one he was wearing, not the one I was wearing, and slowly the shaking stopped.

I tilted my head back to see him.

A stranger. Until last night, he had been a stranger. And since the moment he put his coat on my shoulders, I hadn't been able to breathe without him close.

"Why does it stop hurting when you touch me?" I whispered.

He didn't answer for a long time. His thumb moved once against my back, then stilled.

"Because my wolf chose you," he said finally. "The second I saw you on that road. He hasn't stopped pacing since."

I stumbled back out of his arms.

"Did you know?" My voice climbed. "Did you know I might be your second chance mate? Is that why you stopped the car?"

"No." He shook his head slowly. "I don't know what you are to me, Sienna. I can't confirm anything. All I know is that when you're near, he goes quiet. For the first time in years, he's quiet."

I didn't know what to do with that. I didn't know where to put it.

He stepped closer and brushed the wet from my cheek with the side of his thumb.

"Can I kiss you?"

His mouth was right there. Close enough that I felt each word he spoke.

*Say no. You're still bonded. Say no.*

I nodded.

He bent his head. His lips touched mine, warm and careful, barely there.

Fire exploded in my chest.

The old mate mark over my heart burned like someone had pressed a hot brand into it. I cried out against his mouth and clutched at my ribs.

And through the bond, miles away, I felt Callum.

He wasn't angry this time.

He was terrified.

It was raw, gut-deep terror. For the first time, he understood that if I fell in love with Ronan Blackthorn, he would lose me forever.