Chapter 2
834 Words
I tapped open Sofia's profile.
The most recent post was a selfie from a suite at The Velvet Orchid. In the background, a man's shirt lay tossed across the bed. It was the one Liam had been wearing that day. A huge bouquet of purple irises sat on the nightstand, in full bloom, my favorite flower. The tissue box bore the hotel's logo, which I recognized at once. Liam had mentioned The Velvet Orchid to me only days ago and said he wanted to take me there.
All of it told me the same thing. That suite had been meant for me. It had become the setting for their romantic reunion instead.
This kind of thing had happened so often over the past few years that I was far calmer than I expected. I even tapped a like on the photo.
Liam's call came in instantly, his voice cutting. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Congratulations on getting back together."
"You pushed me into this. Don't come crying for me to take you back."
His tone slid into the familiar lazy carelessness, as if he had decided I was throwing another jealous fit. He hung up.
Expressionless, I swallowed a handful of suppressants.
Liam had cheated with Sofia again, just as before, and strangely the certainty settled the suspicion that had been gnawing at me. A clean verdict was easier to bear than endless guessing.
The pills began to work, and my body slowly eased. When I lifted my head, I saw our wedding portrait on the wall, and the past came rushing back.
I met Liam when we were both 18. We were each other's fated mate, and one look was enough. We fell into a relationship almost overnight. People muttered behind my back that an ordinary werewolf like me was unworthy of him, but Liam held my hand all the tighter and beat down anyone who dared say it aloud.
I thought we would always be that happy.
Until one day, after we were married, I discovered he was sleeping with Sofia.
The chime of an incoming message pulled me back. It was from Dr. Elias Hawthorne. The doctor said wolfsbane had spread through my whole body. I had a month left at most.
In the brief week that followed, Liam made me the laughingstock of the pack. At the pack feast for Crescent Night, Sofia sat beside him the entire evening. He even held a mating ceremony with her, and the invitation arrived in my hands.
I only accepted it quietly. There was no more screaming, no more falling apart the way I once had.
Liam's face grew darker by the day.
Sofia: You crazy b***h, what does remarrying you matter? His heart and his body still belong to me.
I glanced at Sofia's message and tore the invitation to pieces, then walked into the bedroom.
I pulled open the drawer. At the very bottom lay a single photograph. It was my mother.
The wolfsbane surged up through my blood, and a thin line of red traced down from the corner of my mouth. With trembling hands I lifted the photo. Its edges had begun to fray. At the end of my life, I wanted to look at her face one more time.
And then I would go to her.
*****
At Liam's birthday banquet, Sofia clung to his arm and greeted the guests as though she were the Luna of the Stoneshire Pack herself. Mocking eyes settled on me from every direction.
Sofia walked toward me and lifted her hand with deliberate triumph. The diamond on her ring finger flashed. For a moment the brilliance of it stung my eyes.
I knew that design too well. When Liam and I had married, I had designed our silver band myself. Now the same design sat on the hand of the woman who had broken us apart. Only her stone was far larger and far more expensive than the one I had once worn. Just as she stood there radiant while I looked sallow and gaunt.
"Mia, how did you let yourself end up looking like this?" Her voice was light, edged with contempt. "When Liam had your mating mark severed, I told him not to be so cruel. I said he should at least give you a little money. But look at you. Even after remarrying him, you're still this pitiful. I have to wonder if you're so far gone that you've started selling yourself on the street."
Liam let her say every word of it. He was waiting for me to beg him.
I took one step forward, grabbed a fistful of Sofia's hair, and slapped her across the face hard enough to send her to the floor.
"Mia!" Liam's expression broke in an instant. With a furious roar he hauled me toward an inner room of the hall.
I thrashed against him, then froze.
A circuit somewhere caught fire, and every light in the banquet hall went out.
- Writer
