Chapter 3
886 Words
Darius drew me into his arms. "Don't let your imagination run wild. I'll fetch your coat, wait here for me."
I smiled and fell silent.
Darius was meticulous about order and cleanliness. Even fallen leaves from the estate were cleared away the moment they touched the ground. On the many occasions I had asked to see fireworks, he had always taken us far out to the clan's borderlands, never here; he would never permit smoke and ash to settle over his grounds.
Which made his behavior tonight all the more out of character, and my suspicions deepened.
Once he had wrapped my coat around me, he withdrew to his studies to attend to official business.
After a long moment of quiet thought, I made up my mind. I would hire an investigator to look into his movements last week.
Later, bathed and lying alone in bed, I reflected on his habits. Once he entered that study, no one was permitted to disturb him, not even to step near the corridor outside; he claimed even the faintest sound broke his focus. More times than I can count, he had locked himself away there through the entire night. It had become routine for me to sleep alone.
Just before I turned in, my feed refreshed. There was a post from Addison.
Marriage has made him impossibly clingy lately.
The photograph was taken inside a hotel room. A male werewolf sat wrapped in a towel, his powerful torso exposed. Peeking out just above the towel's edge, dark and distinct against his skin, was a tattoo: a single black rose.
Identical to the one I had seen on Darius's lower back. When I'd asked him about it, he'd told me he'd had it done because he knew how much I loved roses.
But I had planted an entire garden of roses… because Addison loved them first.
My blood turned to ice, and my hands began to shake as I stared at the screen. Every breath felt like a knife in my chest. I swung my legs over the bed and hurried toward the study.
A servant saw me rushing and hurried to catch up. "Luna, is something amiss? What do you require—"
I said nothing. I kept walking straight toward the study door.
The servant stepped quickly in front of me, voice tight with alarm. "The Alpha is working. No one is permitted to disturb him—"
One look from me, and she stepped aside. I opened the door.
The room was empty. Silent. Everything was exactly as I had left it that afternoon.
Not a single document on his desk had been shifted or opened. He had never come here at all.
I already knew the truth. Yet knowing did nothing to ease the pain tearing through me.
"When did the Alpha leave?" I asked.
The servant's voice trembled. She hesitated, then answered in a low voice. "While you were watching the fireworks, My Lady."
I breathed in slowly, fighting to steady myself, but my voice shook regardless. I thought suddenly of what Addison had said. There were so many fireworks left over from our ceremony…
My blood turned cold, inch by inch.
I forced myself to speak calmly. "Where were the fireworks brought from?"
"They… they were shipped all the way from Garcia Island."
My heart gave a violent, shuddering lurch. Tears spilled over before I could stop them.
Addison had been staying on Garcia Island exactly one week ago.
Even this… even his show of remorse, his gentleness, his guilt—it was all nothing more than leftover affection, scraps of a performance he had already given her.
And at that moment, I understood everything: why he had never been willing to form a mate bond with me.
I pressed my hand hard over my mouth to muffle the sound of my sobbing. Tears seeped through my fingers, blurring everything.
Addison had been with her Alpha for three years. Darius and I had been married… for exactly three years.
I had never questioned his movements. I had never knocked on the study door when he worked through the night. I had trusted him. I had never imagined… that all that time, he had been with her. Everything I had chosen not to see now lay exposed before my eyes.
Darius claimed he disliked Addison, yet whenever rogue werewolves harassed her, he had been the one to call out his guards to hunt them down and leave them broken and bloodied for daring to touch her.
Addison claimed she disliked Darius. Yet every time we dined together, every dish she ordered… was one Darius loved most.
I gripped my hands until my knuckles turned white.
I thought back to that evening. The way Darius had snatched Addison's photos from my phone and deleted them.
Not because he feared I would be led astray, but because he was jealous.
The way he had always warned me to keep my distance from her. Not because he despised her, but because he was terrified that one day… I would find out the truth.
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