Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the King

I stumbled backward from the doorway, my legs threatening to give out beneath me. The image of Nathaniel and Anahi burned behind my eyelids—his hands tangled in her dark hair, her soft moans echoing in the room that had once been our sanctuary. My sanctuary.

Somehow, I made it to my private study on unsteady feet, closing the door behind me with trembling fingers. The familiar space, lined with pack records and territorial maps, felt foreign now. Everything felt foreign.

*Dana,* Celeste whispered urgently in my mind. *The baby. We need to focus on the baby.*

I pressed both hands against my stomach, feeling for that flutter of life I'd been so excited to share just moments ago. It was still there—fragile, precious, completely unaware that its world had just imploded.

*Are you certain?* I asked my wolf, needing confirmation even though I already knew the truth.

*Yes,* she replied softly. *Our enhanced senses don't lie. The life grows within us—has been for weeks. But Dana... his scent. It's been carrying traces of her for just as long.*

The realization hit me like a physical blow. All those times I'd caught unfamiliar floral notes clinging to Nathaniel's clothes, his skin. I'd dismissed them as pack interactions, Luna duties, anything except the truth that now stared me in the face.

While I'd been conducting territorial inspections, fulfilling my duties as Luna, dreaming of the family we'd finally create—he'd been with her. In our bed. In our home.

I sank into my desk chair, my body shaking with a combination of shock and rage that threatened to overwhelm my carefully maintained Luna composure. The pregnancy hormones only amplified every emotion, making the betrayal feel like molten metal in my veins.

Hours passed in a haze. I couldn't eat the breakfast I'd planned to make for Nathaniel. Couldn't sleep in the guest room where I'd taken refuge. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them together—intimate, passionate, completely oblivious to the mate bond they were destroying.

By midday, I knew I couldn't handle this alone. My fingers found my phone with mechanical precision, opening the secure mind-link channel I shared with my closest friend.

*Erin,* I called out through our Beta-Luna connection. *I need you. Privately.*

Her response came immediately, tinged with concern. *Dana? You're back early. Is everything alright?*

*No,* I replied, my mental voice barely steady. *Everything is very much not alright. Can you come to my study? And Erin... this stays between us.*

Twenty minutes later, Beta Erin Patterson knocked softly on my door. When she entered, her sharp brown eyes immediately assessed my appearance—the rumpled clothes I'd slept in, the dark circles under my eyes, the way I held myself like I might shatter at any moment.

"Luna," she said carefully, closing the door behind her. "What happened?"

The words came out in a rush, tumbling over each other as I told her everything. The early return, the scents, the devastating scene I'd witnessed. Erin's expression grew darker with each detail, her Beta instincts shifting into protective mode.

"That bastard," she breathed when I finished. "Dana, I'm so sorry. But we need to know how deep this goes."

I nodded, grateful for her practical approach even as my heart continued to break. "I need you to investigate. Discretely. Find out how long this has been going on, what else I might have missed."

"Consider it done," Erin said firmly. "I'll use the pack's intelligence network, review security footage, track their movements. If there's evidence to find, I'll find it."

The next few days were torture. I maintained my Luna duties with mechanical precision, greeting pack members with the same warm smile, attending meetings with the same focused attention. But inside, I was dying a little more with each forced interaction.

Erin worked with ruthless efficiency. Her first report came through our private mind-link three days later, and it was worse than I'd imagined.

*Dana, you need to see this,* she said, her mental voice tight with anger. *I've been reviewing the pack house security footage from your inspection trips. Nathaniel has been hosting private dinners for Anahi in the formal dining room. Candlelit meals, expensive wine, treating her like... like an honored guest. Like a Luna.*

My hands clenched into fists. The formal dining room was reserved for important pack business and special occasions. The thought of him entertaining his mistress there while I was away fulfilling my duties made bile rise in my throat.

*There's more,* Erin continued grimly. *I found a locked drawer in his study. The contents... Dana, there are photographs. Intimate ones. And gifts—expensive jewelry, silk scarves, things that should have been given to a mate.*

I closed my eyes, feeling the last of my illusions crumble. This wasn't a momentary lapse in judgment or a single night of weakness. This was a full relationship, complete with romantic gestures and precious memories—all built on the foundation of our sacred mate bond's destruction.

*How long?* I asked, though I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

*Based on the timestamps on the photos and the security footage... at least three months. Maybe longer.*

Three months. While I'd been planning surprises for him, while I'd been hoping and praying for the child that now grew within me, he'd been building an entire secret life with another woman.

Celeste whimpered softly in my mind, her pain echoing my own. The mate bond that had once felt like a warm, constant presence now felt like a chain around my soul—binding me to someone who had already severed every tie that mattered.

I touched my stomach again, feeling that flutter of life that should have been our greatest joy. Instead, it would be born into a world where its father had already chosen someone else, where the sacred bond that created it had been poisoned beyond repair.

But as I sat there in my study, surrounded by the evidence of my mate's betrayal, something cold and hard began to crystallize in my chest. Pain was transforming into something else—something sharper, more focused.

Nathaniel had made his choice. Now it was time for me to make mine.