Mated To The Rival Alpha

Betrayal

Lyra's P.O.V.

"I will finally get my mate today."

Those words echoed in my mind, an equal mantra of desperation and hope. My heart felt light-a flutter of joy I hadn't felt for what had seemed like forever. Was this confidence or a lie to whisper to myself, to paper over the cracks in my soul? It didn't matter. The Voidclaw pack mate bonding ceremony was my last chance at my only chance to find the one meant for me.

Years of the ache, and all my dreams of a mate-other who could heal in me what I couldn't heal myself. I had prayed and wished and waited until I was sixteen. Until eighteen, I was still very much alone. No bond, no destiny-just that ache that refused to relent.

And then came Kael.

Kael wasn't my mate, but he was close enough to make me believe in something again. For a year, he was my world. Piercing blue eyes, strong jawline, that effortless charm-he was everything I thought I deserved, and more. I loved him. Truly, deeply loved him.

Until he broke me.

"Lyra," he said, his voice flat and emotionless. "I found my mate. It's over.

It had felt like no different now, a fresh wound-the twist of a blade deep in my chest. I'd cried, screamed, begged the Moon Goddess to take the pain away, and nothing worked. The loss of Kael had been crushing.

Then I found out who his mate was.

Zara.

My best friend, sister in all but blood.

It was a betrayal deeper than any that could have been perpetrated by Kael. Zara-she in whom I had reposed more trust than anybody else, had taken him away from me. Or had she? The truth was mired, yet the signs spoke loud.

I had always idolized Kael: would gush about his looks, his strength, his everything. "You're so lucky he likes you," she'd say in this voice that sounded like honey laced with something I would only later come to recognize. Jealousy? Envy? It didn't matter then. I ignored it because I trusted her.

But it's funny how, looking back now, the pieces fall into place almost too well: her sudden coldness, the way she would avoid my eyes whenever Kael's name cropped up, catching her smiling at him as if she knew I wasn't looking-all make sense now.

It finally clicked in on a quiet afternoon when we sat by the riverbank, our favorite place. She had been withdrawn of late, but I had hoped this would bring things back to their natural texture.

"So, how are things with Kael?" I attempted to sound nonchalant.

She shrugged and twirled her lips around, and for a while, I felt she said it all that was in her mind. Then, a shrug, "Fine, I guess, why don't you go ask him?

Her words cut the silence like a whiplash. I blinked and was at loss for words. Then her phone buzzed. She peered at the screen and smiled-a small, self-satisfied smile.

"Pack business," she said, rising without warning. "I have to go."

That was the last time I saw her before the truth came out.

I see them together a week later. Kael and Zara, laughing like nothing else mattered. She laid her hand on his arm in an easy, possessive gesture. He didn't pull away. My heart breaks into pieces all over again. When Zara's gaze met mine, she didn't bat an eyelash. She smiled, actually-a smug, victorious smile that made my blood run cold.

It haunted me even now, while preparing for the bonding ceremony of mates. And I was determined not to let that cloud my vision. Tonight didn't relate to Kael or Zara but to myself.

I stared back at the mirror, beckoning my inner self to be strong. The necklace at my neck, my mother's last gift to me, seemed a burden that fastened me with the strings of the past. But tonight, it would snap.

"This is your moment," I whispered to myself. "Do not let them take that away from you."

The ceremony was set in a grove of trees that outlined the edges of our pack territory, with the hum of energies hanging palpable above and tension arcing through the air. I strode to the heart of it with my heart running away inside me. Would he show his face today-my mate?

I scanned the room for something, anything, that actually seemed like fate.

But there was nothing, no spark, no pull to indicate that my mate was in range. I tried forcing the sinking feeling to gnaw its way across my chest. Maybe my mate is a way off yet, I thought; the Moon Goddess works on her time. Forcing my feet to keep me moving, I still told myself that the Moon Goddess worked on her time. While rummaging for the unmistakable connection through this sea of faces in desperation, the only thing that could be found was silence.

Energy vibrated across the meadow: residents mingling, whooping wolves with enthusiastic laughter echoing across the night. Heavier sweetness of pine and earth aromas carried with them a tang of metallic hint as some of them began their shift. The full moon cast its silvery hue in shades of gray on everything, permeating that unreality to glow in the ceremonial proceeding.

Around me, couples clung tight, their mates found. It was happiness, I thought, like it should be real flesh, bright with an inner heating element, visible and denied to me. The soft background music through which some moved into others, others leaned forward with conversation in a manner pressed onto their fellows that seemed to speak as though they could say "It.".

I just wouldn't be conquered by bitter feelings, but, man, this was one tall order.

How it burned to stand amidst so much love, alone, the pain inside my chest almost unbearable, ghosting through a celebration in which I could never join.

I wouldn't show them the pain, the hurt. I won't give them this pleasure, this pleasure at watching me breakdown, least of all Zara. So I held my head high, my eyes cool as they scanned the clearing.

Maybe he'd find me, I thought-my mate. Maybe all this was a game fate played to amuse itself as it whiled away the time until it presented us to each other that one instant in time.

It was at this point, right now, that my hope stirred again, and my eyes fell upon a familiar scene.

And time stopped in my universe.

There they were.

Kael and Zara.

They were on the other side of the entrance, close enough that I could see the way they leaned into one another. Kael's arm wrapped tightly around her waist, his fingers spread possessively on her hip. Zara's hand was buried in his chest, the head thrown back in her laughter.

They looked so… perfect.

So intimate.

So wrong.

Instant pain, sharp as whiplash, sucking the air right from my lungs. I dug my nails deep into my palms and fought for a steady breath. They shouldn't be here. This was my time to heal, my chance to move on, and then seeing that-intertwined and happy-was like a wrench back onto a wound that had just barely begun to scab over.

And yet, it wasn't even the worst: Kael's arm around Zara, the way they smiled into each other, that unshakeable depth of happiness.

I was hurting, emotionally shattered I must say, but I did not pay them any heed. Tender display of Kael and Zara was another twist of the knife in my heart, so I made myself focus on other things. My mission tonight was finding my mate, nothing else.

And that was without the blatant agony shredding my chest-apart-my lover in the arms of my best friend. I looked out across the crowds once more, hopeful and fervently praying the 'pull' of magic would tell me my mate was here. I tried so hard; and there was nothing.

It is on that that it comes: What was the use of that stay here? Shall I wait and hope, or go and take that for an answer that it wasn't my night from luck? My heart pleaded to stay, yet the legs were heavy, felt full, as if to make a turn at any time and run me off. And then it happened.

A howl tore the night, sharp as any I'd ever heard, and from farther away. The party froze; in one second, the air snapped from revelry to worry. My wolf stirred inside, warning of danger, and I froze, still. That howl didn't come from our pack. It was something. different.

Then bedlam broke out.

In an instant burst, a wall of flame exploded into the clearing, arrows of fire raining from above and slicing through the night in lethal streaks of light. Screams filled the air as wolves scattered-some shifting into their forms, others darting for cover. Burning wood and scorched earth mixed with the metallic tang of blood.

Hunters.

I ducked and weaved instinctively into the panicked crowd. One thing was for sure: the location of this most sacred of events had been compromised-there could be no other explanation. A traitor was among our number.

I flung myself against the trunk of a tree, forcing my breathing to steady as chaos reigned. My wolf wanted to fight, but first I had to survive. I scanned the low to the ground, searching for a way to safety when something hitched my vision and ran my blood cold.

Zara.

She lay in the dirt, her face pale and dead, her skin normally luminous matted. A dagger was deep in her stomach, its hilt glinting with firelight. Blood spilled beneath her, soaking into the earth.

My heart shut. No matter how appallingly she had let me down-her deceit, her lying-I could not just avert my eyes while she lay like this. I wavered, then moved forward as my instincts wrestled to the fore, compelling me to go to her aid.

"Zara," I whispered, dropping down beside her.

She lay completely still; her chest no longer rose and fell. The dagger's blade seemed to mock me, its placement too sure to be some kind of accident.

I reached for the hilt, my hands shaking. If I could only remove it, maybe-

Footfalls pounds behind before I can even pull the dagger free. I spun in time, seeing Mael emerge from behind trees. As usual, beta of our pack, with his golden eyes locked to me. Wide, rounding on as he took in the sight.

"You… "The whiplashing edge cut off. "You killed her!"

"No!" I shouted, scrounging to my feet. "I didn't-

"You're one of the enemies!" he thundered out, cutting me off in mid-sentence. A snarl that seemed to echo with a deafening sound around the clearing sent wolves running for alarm around.

There was heavyweight in his voice-a blow. An enemy? My heart started running in a frantic run as my head furiously shook in denial.

"No! That is not true! I found her like this, I swear!"