The wife he gave away

Chapter 5

The words hit like ice water.
 Luna said that?
 And he agreed?

My limbs went cold. I stared at the man I had built a life with, the father of my child, and felt something inside me crack wide open.
 Dominic realized he’d gone too far. His face shifted. “Seraphina, I’m sorry… I didn’t mea…”
 “I’m going to make dinner,” I said quietly, voice like ice. “You calm down.”

In the kitchen, the moment I was alone, the tears broke free. They spilled hot down my cheeks as I chopped vegetables and stirred sauce, each motion mechanical while my chest ached. I cooked through the pain, plating everything neatly before carrying the food to the table.
 The living room stayed empty.

A long while later, the front door opened. Dominic walked in with our son. The boy pouted, eyes on the floor.
 “Sorry, Mommy,” he muttered.

I sighed and crouched down to his level. “It’s okay. I’m not mad. Let’s eat, okay? But next time, if there’s something you really want, can you tell Mommy first? You want to go to the amusement park? We can go on the weekend…”

He blinked up at me. “So… I can’t go out with Auntie Luna anymore?”
 I answered calmly but firmly. “That’s right. You can’t.”
 His little face soured instantly, but he didn’t argue. Dominic looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut.

Then I remembered the package still sitting on the counter. I fetched it and handed it over.
 The boy’s eyes lit up like stars. He tore into the wrapping with eager fingers and pulled out a glittering crystal-and-gem crown. It sparkled under the kitchen light, expensive, extravagant, far too much for a child.

I blinked. Was this gift even appropriate?
 But my son didn’t care. He placed the crown on his head, twirled in delight, and grinned from ear to ear. “This is way better than anything Mommy’s ever given me!”
 His joyful laugh filled the room.

I watched him spin, my own smile faltering at the edges.
 The crown caught the light, throwing tiny rainbows across the walls… beautiful, cold, and completely foreign.
 Just like everything else Luna kept bringing into our lives.

Dominic lingered in the doorway after dinner, his voice softer now, trying to patch the cracks he’d made. “Seraphina, maybe your tone was a little too forceful tonight. That’s probably why he’s starting to rebel.” He reached for me, fingers brushing my arm, sliding toward my waist with clear intent… hoping for the kind of closeness that used to fix everything.

I turned away coldly, stepping out of his reach. “Don’t.”
 He stood there awkwardly for a second, then cleared his throat. “Fine. I’ve got a night shift anyway.” The door clicked shut behind him, leaving the house too quiet.

Sleep refused to come. I tossed and turned until I gave up, pulling out the old photo album from the bottom shelf. The pages felt heavy in my lap as I flipped through them under the dim lamp light.

There we were, my son as a chubby toddler, grinning with cake smeared on his cheeks. Me, exhausted but smiling, balancing him on my hip while cooking dinner. The years had drained me. Every ounce of energy, every spare minute, every abandoned dream, I had poured it all into this family. Three meals a day, changing seasons of clothes, early education, midnight fevers when he burned up and cried for me. I had handled it alone while Dominic worked. All of it. For them.

And still, the man closest to me thought I wasn’t good enough.
 “You’re not even fit to be his mother…”
 The sentence looped in my head like poison. Tears welled up, blurring the happy snapshots: the three of us in the park, blowing out birthday candles, laughing under summer sun. A real family.

My hand froze on one particular photo.

My son’s first birthday. We’d picnicked on a grassy field just outside the city… blanket spread, simple sandwiches, golden afternoon light. Warm. Peaceful.
 But in the far corner, barely noticeable in the scattered crowd behind us… a shadow. A woman.

I leaned closer, heart kicking into a gallop. That outfit. That delicate necklace with its moonstone pendant.
 It was exactly what Luna had worn today.

Hands shaking, I flipped faster through the album. Page after page. There, another gathering two years ago, her silhouette blurred at the edge of the frame. Again at the pack festival when my son was four, posture unmistakable, that same pendant catching faint light. Always in the background. Always watching.

No wonder she’d felt familiar. Not because she looked like the first Luna. Because she had already been here. In my life. In my family’s life. For years.

The realization sank in like ice. This woman had infiltrated us long before she married the Alpha. Targeting my family? My son? What exactly had happened back then?

I couldn’t sit with it anymore. I had to talk to Dominic. Right now.
 I reached through our mate bond, following the invisible thread that connected us. His location pulled me toward the western edge of pack territory, an old wooded area near the border he had never once mentioned.

Confusion sharpened into dread as I slipped out of the house and drove, then walked the final stretch on foot. The night air was cool and heavy with pine. “What could my husband, my mate be doing there?”

Voices drifted through the trees.

Luna’s voice, low and sulky. “…I’m so tired of sneaking around like this…”
 I froze, ducking behind a thick bush, heart slamming against my ribs.

Then Dominic answered, tense and urgent. “What do you expect me to do? You wanna die? If Alpha finds out, we’re both dead.”

Blood drained from my face. Through the leaves I could just make out their silhouettes. Dominic had Luna in his arms, his hands resting too familiarly on her waist. The way he looked at her… intimate, hungry, nothing like the distant husband I’d known.

Luna pouted up at him. “But I’m really fed up. Alpha married me but never even touches me…”

What came next were crude, flirtatious whispers, promises of stolen nights, bodies pressed together, things that made my stomach churn violently. I wanted to burst out, scream, slap them both, tear them apart. But my legs wouldn’t move. Shock pinned me in place.

Luna sighed softly. “I can wait. But I feel bad for the boy. It’s too hard for him to lie. Ever since he found out I’m his real mom, he keeps asking me when I’m taking him home…”

The world collapsed.
 A loud ringing exploded in my ears. The ground tilted violently beneath me. My son… my baby thought Luna was his real mother?

I staggered backward. My foot landed on a dry branch.
 Snap.

Dominic’s head whipped around, eyes glowing with sudden wolf light. In the blink of an eye, he shifted, bones cracking, fur ripping through skin… into a massive, snarling wolf ready to attack.

Panic surged. I spun to run, but there was nowhere to go.

Suddenly, a strong hand shot out from the darkness beside me and yanked me backward into deeper shadows. A broad palm clamped firmly over my mouth, cutting off any sound.

A low, commanding voice whispered hot against my ear,
 “Don’t make a sound.”

Every muscle in my body went rigid…

It was Alpha Alaric.