THE ALPHA'S SILENT BETRAYAL

Devlin's POV Four years. For four long years, I had stood beside Alpha Jason Heath as his loyal Luna, pouring every ounce of myself into the Red Moon Pack. I managed pack welfare, cared for injured warriors, helped struggling families, settled disputes between pack members, and answered my mate's every call to the council. I knew which families needed support after losing someone. I knew the names of pack members who couldn't afford their medication, and I quietly made sure they received the help they needed. I had spent four years making this pack my home, and yet, to many of them, I was still a Luna they found difficult to respect. My wolf had never come. Not at eighteen, not during the moonlit awakenings, not ever.In a world where power was dictated by fangs and claws, I was wolfless. I learned early that being a Luna without a wolf came with its own kind of judgment. Some bowed because Jason was their Alpha, not because they believed I deserved their loyalty. I endured all of it because Jason had once made me believe none of it mattered. He had assured me that being wolfless did not change my worth or my abilities as his mate. Tonight, carrying a tray of honeyed tea toward his private study, I wasn't thinking about any of that.I was thinking about my mate. He had been distant lately, constantly busy with border patrols, pack emergencies, and council meetings. I just wanted to remind him that I was there for him. That whatever was weighing on him, he didn't have to carry it alone. Maybe he was tired. Maybe the pressure of being an Alpha was becoming too much. Maybe I had simply been imagining the growing distance between us. I wanted to believe that.I wanted to believe my mate still looked at me the way he had when we first met. The corridor was dead silent as I approached his study. I pushed the door open and stopped dead in my tracks. Jason wasn't alone. Chloe, my stepsister, stood draped over his desk. Her perfectly manicured fingers were buried in the collar of his shirt, lazily tugging him closer. Jason didn't move to remove her hands,he didn't pull away. His eyes were fixed on her with a raw, agonizing tenderness he hadn't shown me in years. For a few seconds, my body refused to move. I just stood there, staring at them, trying to make sense of what my eyes were seeing. Immediately my fingers went numb, causing the tray to slip from my hands and crash onto the floor, the cups shattered as hot tea spilled across the floor. The noise finally broke whatever moment had existed between them, causing Jason's head to snap toward me.Chloe turned too. The scent of her perfume suddenly felt suffocating. I was shocked beyond words because Chloe is the last person I was expecting to see here,let alone with her hands all over Jason.My eyes moved from her hands to Jason's face.I waited for a reaction, anything, something to prove me wrong but it never came. There was no confusion or guilt in his expression,all I saw was only irritation,anger that I had walked in on them. "Jason?" My voice came out small. They both stared at me. Chloe didn't look startled. If anything, the triumphant smirk playing at her lips told me she was almost pleased I'd seen them. "Devlin," Jason said. His voice was cold. "What is she doing here?" I looked at Chloe, my hands curling into fists. "Get your hands off my mate!" "Watch your tone," Jason snapped instantly, stepping in front of her like a shield. The movement hurt more than I expected..He was taking her side against me. "We were discussing high-level pack matters." "At midnight?" I stepped forward, my voice shaking despite my attempt to control it. "With her touching you everywhere?" Chloe let out a soft, mocking sigh as she stepped out from behind Jason. "Devlin, calm down. Your mate is under immense pressure leading a large pack." She tilted her head, her smile barely hiding the insult in her voice. "But anyway, I don't expect you to understand the demands of being an Alpha's woman." The deliberate condescension hit like a slap.Every word felt like another reminder that she had never believed I belonged beside Jason,she had always known exactly where to hurt me. Chloe's resentment toward me hadn't started with Jason. It had been there since we were children. She hated how much attention my father gave me when we were growing up, especially when she felt I was getting things she wanted. I was always aware of the way she watched whenever he praised me or gave me something she wished was hers.When Jason chose me as his mate, whatever jealousy she had carried for years only grew worse.She smiled throughout our mating ceremony, hugged me when everyone was watching, and acted as though she was happy for us. But I saw the darkness in her eyes,I never forgot it. "Move aside, Chloe," I snapped. "That's enough, Devlin!" Jason's voice resonated with Alpha authority, causing the air in the room to tense.I almost collapsed under its weight. For four years, I had been his Luna,his mate,and Jason rarely used his Alpha aura except in extreme situations that demanded it. And yet, in that moment, he wasn't standing up for me. How could he let her humiliate me like this? My heart broke a million times over. "Chloe is here at my invitation. You are making a scene over nothing. Leave the tea and go to bed." I stared at him, feeling the sharp sting of his rejection. The silence that followed was unbearable. I wanted him to take it back. I wanted him to look at me and realize what he had just done. Instead, his attention drifted back toward Chloe. "Get the maids to clean up the mess you made in my office and lock the balcony door before you sleep," he added coldly, turning his back on me to look at Chloe again. I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned away. I refused to cry.I swore I would never shed a tear in front of them.Not tonight. I walked down the corridor with my shoulders straight, even though every step felt heavier than the last. As I reached the staircase, the hushed voices of Jason's parents reached me from the sitting room. They were speaking in fluent French, their favorite tool for exclusion. I had spent several years ignoring it, but tonight, I listened closely. "Incapable..." Isabelle's sharp voice sneered. "Une Luna inutile..." "Jason va la remplacer bientôt," Charles replied coldly. "La meute a besoin d'une vraie lignée, pas d'une errante sans loup." I didn't understand every word, but I understood enough. You know that raw feeling you get when someone makes a bad remark about you in a different language,but somehow you know they're talking about you? That was it,and my instincts never lied. From her tone, my name, the contempt in her voice. And one word I recognized from hearing it too many times: "inutile." Useless. I knew they were referring to me. My fingers tightened around the railing. They were openly discussing my replacement inside my own home, hiding behind a language they thought I was too stupid to understand. They had mocked me, assuming I could never understand what they were saying. Perhaps that had been my mistake. In that moment, I decided it was enough. I rushed upstairs to our bedroom, grabbed my phone, and downloaded French for Beginners. I put in my earbuds and clicked on the first lesson while the screen glowed in the darkness as the lesson loaded. I repeated the words silently, forcing myself to memorize them. I didn't understand everything yet. But I was determined to learn. They thought French was their impenetrable shield,but I promise them this:I was going to make that language my weapon.And when the time came, they would no longer be able to hide behind whispered conversations and elegant smiles. I didn't know exactly what they were planning yet,but I would find out. They had crossed a line by treating me this way, and I wasn't going to sit quietly while they decided what happened in my home. An hour later, Jason entered the room. He didn't look at me. He headed straight for the bathroom without acknowledging my presence. As the shower ran, a deep warmth suddenly blossomed in my chest causing me to freeze for a moment. It felt ancient and alive. The sensation spread through my veins, sending shivers across my body and making me gasp for breath. It wasn't painful, but it was intense, almost as if something buried deep inside me had suddenly awakened. I thought I heard something,it wasn't a voice or a sound, just a presence filling the air around me. Something very old,vast and awakened. "What was that?" I placed my palm against my chest, feeling the warmth slowly subside beneath my skin looking down at the spot, my brows drawn together in confusion. I had no idea what had just happened to me.But as I sat there with my hand pressed against my chest, one thought refused to leave my mind. Jason's betrayal had stirred something inside me that I never understood.