My Alpha Left Me on the Operating Table for Her

Cora's POV: The surgeon stopped what he was doing. Hugo Gray stripped off his surgical gown, tossed it into the bin by the door, and hurried away to pick up Renee Caldwell without once looking back. I stared at the still-swinging door until the anesthesiologist leaned over and blocked it from view. "Cora Gray, look at me," she said softly. "Don't be afraid. We're all here with you." I forced myself to nod through the fear, but the tears wouldn't stop. "Please continue." I was undergoing liver surgery. I had been given anesthesia but was still conscious, and the medical team had allowed my mate to stay beside me. Hugo's cedar scent had always calmed me. Now that it was fading, the alarms seemed to grow louder, and my vision gradually blurred. When I opened my eyes again, I was being wheeled out of the operating room. Dad gripped my hand, his eyes bloodshot from staying up all night. "Does it still hurt?" Before I could answer, he turned anxiously to the surgeon. "How did the surgery go? Is she all right?" "She's out of immediate danger." The surgeon nodded. Only then did some of the tension leave Dad's shoulders, but when he looked down the empty hallway, his expression darkened again. "He's the Alpha of the Silverpine Pack. On patrol, he won't give up on a missing stranger from the pack. How could he abandon his own wife?" I looked at the gray in Dad's hair, my voice trembling. "Dad, he's fallen in love with someone else. I want to dissolve our mate bond." Dad's lips parted. His eyes ached with concern, but he asked no more questions. He bent down and gently wiped the sweat from my forehead, as if afraid even the slightest touch might hurt me. "Then come home. I'll pick you up the day you're discharged." At those words, the last of my composure broke. I clutched his sleeve and sobbed so hard that even my incision began to ache. That night, after I returned to my room, Dad found the application for me. I signed it, took a picture, and sent it to the Pack Registry Office. My phone remained silent. I stared at Hugo's number and remembered a time when he could hardly bear to hang up on me. Hugo and I had known each other for 12 years, dated for eight, and been married for four. When we were 19, he gave up attending college on the far coast and stayed in Silverpine. Holding me in his arms, he said, "I don't want to be more than 2,000 miles away, where I can hear you cry but can't hold you." Only a few hours ago, I had been lying right in front of him, yet he had refused to stay even one minute longer. The truth was, I should have left when I saw that photo two months ago. Hugo was in charge of the Silverpine Pack's defenses and also trained young pack members at the academy. Renee was one of his trainees. In the photo, she leaned over the training-field fence. Her caption read: Yours is the only opinion that matters to me. Hugo had replied with a red heart. Once, before all this, I went to pick him up from the academy. All the other trainees had left, but Renee remained beside him, clutching her training manual. "They say an Omega can't become a patrol officer. If you're willing to train me, that means I can stay, right?" She gazed up at him, eyes shining with expectation. Hugo took the manual and spent another 30 minutes training with her. I waited in the car until dark. After that, he often stayed awake with his phone in his hand. When I reminded him how late it was, he said, "It's academy business." But as I walked behind him, I saw the message he had sent Renee. Hugo: Why didn't you message me today? He had never sent hearts like that before. The day I found the photo, I stood in the doorway of his study holding his phone. The instant he saw the screen, discomfort flickered across his face. Then he looked up and explained, "She just left home. She doesn't feel safe yet." "So you stay up talking to her until the early hours every day?" He lowered his head, tears falling onto the desk. "I do have feelings for her. But we never slept together, Cora. I'm not lying to you." I sat on the balcony until dawn. Only then did he push his laptop toward me. "I've asked to have someone else mentor her." When I saw the sent confirmation, I couldn't bear to abandon all those years together. In the end, I took my clothes from the suitcase and put them back into the closet one piece at a time. He wrapped his arms around me and said, "Cora, I choose you." ***** The afternoon after my surgery, I finally heard familiar footsteps outside my room. I lifted my head, but the first thing I smelled wasn't cedar. It was the cloying scent of peach perfume. Through the glass wall, I saw Renee wearing Hugo's coat, her fingers curled around his sleeve. The guard on duty was about to ask her name, but once he caught the Alpha scent on the collar, he set down the register and stepped aside. She buried her face in the collar and pressed even closer to Hugo. "Wait here for me," Hugo told her quietly before walking to my bedside alone. Weariness lined his face as he reached for my hand. "Did the surgery go well? What did the doctor say? Could the cancer come back?" Renee's pink hair tie was still wrapped around his wrist. I stared at it, then caught sight of the bag holding my ruined hospital gown by his feet—Dad had packed it up before I woke. The gown had been cut open during the emergency the night before, and its collar was stained with blood. He hadn't even glanced at the bag. Hurt and fury surged through me, and I couldn't listen to another word. "Cora?" I ripped my hand away and slapped him across the face. The motion sent a bolt of agony through my abdomen, but I gritted my teeth and swallowed a cry of pain. "Take her and get out."