When My Mate Chose Her

The notes scattered across the floor like fallen leaves, each one a testament to Sterling's betrayal. My hands shook as I gathered them, the foreign scent of jasmine and cedar choking the air between us. 'Why?' The word escaped my throat, raw and broken. 'Why her?'

Sterling's jaw tightened, his Alpha aura flaring in the dim moonlight. 'You wouldn't understand, Maren. You've never understood what it means to have a connection that goes beyond duty. Fernanda sees me—the real me. Not just the Alpha, not just the mate.'

His words cut deeper than any physical wound. I pressed my thumb against the mate mark on my neck, a nervous habit I'd developed over the months of his emotional absence. The mark that should have bound us together now felt like a brand of ownership rather than love.

'Duty?' I repeated, my voice gaining strength. 'You speak of duty while pouring your soul into another woman? While I carry your child and bear your mark and try to hold this pack together?' My voice rose, the quiet Luna I'd been for so long cracking apart. 'These notes, Sterling. Five hundred and twenty-one of them. Did you count them? Did you savor each one as you wrote them?'

His face flushed with anger, not guilt. 'You're being dramatic. They're just words. They mean nothing.'

'Nothing?' I laughed, a hollow sound that echoed in the office. 'Nothing means you mind-linked her just now. Nothing means you're racing to see her before her Mate Ceremony. Nothing means you left your daughter crying while you ran to another woman.'

Sterling stepped closer, his Alpha presence looming over me. 'You're suffocating me, Maren. Your neediness, your depression, your constant demands for attention. I'm still here, aren't I? My wolf comes home every night.'

'Your wolf,' I spat. 'Not you. Never you.'

Something dark flashed in his eyes. Without warning, he closed his eyes and I felt the unmistakable ripple of a mind-link forming. My stomach dropped as I realized who he was reaching for—right in front of me, as if I weren't even there.

'Fernanda,' he whispered, his voice softening in a way I hadn't heard in years. 'I need to see you. One last time. Please.'

The casual cruelty of it stole my breath. He turned away from me, already moving toward the door. 'I can't do this right now, Maren. Your instability is exhausting.'

'My instability?' I whispered, but he was already gone, his footsteps heavy down the hallway.

I heard him pause at the nursery, heard Ophelia's soft cries as he looked in on her. For a moment, I thought he might stay. But then the front door slammed open, and I rushed to the window in time to see him strip off his clothes and shift.

His wolf was magnificent—silver-gray fur gleaming in the moonlight, powerful muscles rippling as he shook out his coat. He was the fastest wolf in our pack, a fact he'd always been proud of. Now, he was using that speed to abandon us.

He didn't look back as he leaped into the darkness, racing toward the Silverfang territory with single-minded purpose. The mate bond between us stretched thin, gossamer threads unraveling one by one as he disappeared into the night.

I collapsed to the floor, surrounded by his betrayal, the notes crushed beneath my palms. From the nursery came Ophelia's cries, calling for a mother who was falling apart and a father who had just chosen another woman over his own family.

The silence that followed was deafening.