Claimed by the Enemy

CHAPTER 5:THE BETRAYAL

Serenya’s POV

The words burned worse than the kiss. My stomach flipped, shame and heat tangling until I thought I would choke.

I shoved at his chest with both hands, finally tearing free. The loss of his heat was like ripping flesh from bone, but I staggered back anyway, heart slamming against my ribs.

“Stay away from me,” I spat, voice breaking. My lips still tingled, swollen, proof of my betrayal stamped across my face. “I don’t care what the moon says, you’re not mine.”

His eyes gleamed, dangerous and golden. For one raw moment I thought he would drag me back, pin me again, devour me until I broke completely.

But instead, he bared his teeth in a vicious smile. “Run, little wolf. But don’t forget, you’ll always run back.”

My chest squeezed so tight I could barely breathe. I turned, fleeing into the night, branches tearing at my arms, the ghost of his kiss still burning on my mouth.

And that was when I froze.

At the edge of the clearing, silhouetted in the moonlight, stood my betrothed.

His eyes—once soft, once familiar were black pits of suspicion and rage. His fists were clenched at his sides, his body trembling with the effort not to lunge.

Behind me, I heard the rival Alpha shift back into the trees, retreating without a word.

But the damage was done.

My betrothed’s voice was low, shaking with fury as he stepped toward me. “Tell me I didn’t just see what I think I saw.”

My lungs seized, my body frozen like prey caught in a snare.

He stood there. broad shoulders squared, moonlight catching on his sharp jaw. His eyes, once the safe place I thought I belonged to, were nothing but fury.

“I asked you a question,” he said, each word a whip.

My throat burned, but no sound came out. The truth still clung to my lips—raw, swollen from another man’s kiss. My wolf whimpered in shame, and yet… deep inside, she still howled for the Alpha who had just left.

“I—”

“Don’t lie.” He stepped forward, and the ground itself seemed to shrink. His scent—cedar and smoke should have comforted me. Instead, it felt suffocating, demanding, possessive. “Tell me you weren’t letting him touch you. Tell me you didn’t want it.”

I flinched. That was worse than the kiss. Worse than the betrayal. He could smell it on me—the want.

The silence between us stretched, my breath sharp and shallow.

His jaw flexed. “So it’s true.”

“No!” The word ripped out of me, raw and desperate. “It’s not—it wasn’t—”

He laughed once, low and bitter, the sound curling around me like smoke. “Do you think I’m a fool? You forget who I am, Serenya. I can feel it. I can smell it on your skin.” His gaze dropped to my mouth, to the bruised proof left behind. His fists trembled. “He kissed you.”

Shame scorched me. But anger lit beside it. “You don’t understand—”

“What’s there to understand?” His voice broke, suddenly softer, but in a way that scared me more. “You’re mine.”

The claim slammed into me, heavy and sharp. My wolf bristled, torn between his dominance and the echo of the rival Alpha’s touch still burning in my veins. Two instincts collided inside me, tearing me apart.

“I never asked for this,” I whispered, the truth bleeding out before I could stop it.

His head snapped back like I had struck him.

For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. His chest heaved, his eyes wild and wounded. Then, slowly, dangerously, he stepped closer until the air between us vanished.

“You may not have asked,” he murmured, voice a storm barely on leash, “but you’re mine all the same. And gods help anyone who thinks they can take you from me.”

The words sank into my skin like shackles. His hand brushed my cheek—so tender it broke me, yet so claiming it made me want to fight. My wolf trembled under his touch, caught between yielding and snapping her teeth.

“I…” My breath shook. “I can’t breathe.”

Something flickered in his eyes—hurt, rage, need. He dropped his hand, stepping back like it cost him. “Then go. But don’t think you can run far. I’ll find you. Always.”

And with that, he turned on his heel, leaving me standing in the wreckage of what I had ust destroyed.

The rival Alpha’s kiss still clung to my lips. My betrothed’s claim still thundered in my ears.

And me?

I was already unraveling.

The forest swallowed me whole the second he left.

My chest heaved, every breath scraped raw. My wolf clawed beneath my skin, restless, frantic, furious. She had tasted what she shouldn’t, and now nothing felt enough. Not the trees around me, not the cool air, not the ground under my feet.

Not even him.

The one I was promised to.

Her growl rumbled through me, low and hungry, as if mocking me for the lie I was trying to stitch together inside my chest. You wanted it. You wanted him.

“Shut up,” I hissed, pressing my palms to my temples, stumbling deeper into the shadows.

But the whisper of the rival Alpha’s kiss clung to me like fire on dry leaves. The way his hand had fit against my jaw, the brutal claim of his mouth. I could still feel the tree at my back, the raw shudder that had broken from me when my body betrayed me.

I had never hated myself more.

A twig snapped behind me.

I froze.

The night went still, the silence so sharp it pressed against my bones. My pulse thundered. Was it him? My betrothed, doubling back to catch me in another lie? Or…

No.

No, the air shifted differently.

A heavier presence. Darker. Wilder.

I turned slowly, too slowly and my heart stopped.

From the shadows, eyes glowed. Not brown like my betrothed’s. Not golden like the Alpha I shouldn’t crave.

No. These were red.

A predator’s eyes.

The scent hit me next—feral, metallic, wrong. My wolf recoiled, ears flat, tail tucked, something she never did unless…

“Run.”

The voice was low, guttural, inhuman.

I staggered back a step, my heel catching on the root of the tree I had been pinned against minutes ago. The irony wasn’t lost on me—fate had shoved me into one Alpha’s arms, and now it might shove me into the jaws of something far worse.

The eyes blinked once. And then the shadows moved, fast, too fast and a hand shot out, claws brushing my throat.