Episode4
1245 Words
Sloane's POV
Later that evening, after tucking Toby in bed I stormed over to Sterling's study where I knew he'd be at this time of the day.
He's been trying to reach me through the mindlink, and Scarlett did an excellent job at keeping him out.
But now Toby was stable, and it was high time we addressed the elephant in the room.
Penelope.
That b***h has clearly overstayed her welcome. And trying to harm my child? That was the height of it!
Arriving at his study the door was slightly ajar, which was unusual. But that wasn't of importance right now.
I reached for the door knob and was about to push the door open when I heard Penelope's voice.
“Sterling, I'm tired of sneaking around like this,” she whined, forcing me to peek through, and saw her sitting on Sterling's lap.
I paused. Waiting for the sting of betrayal one is expected to feel, but felt nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
“Scarlett?” I reached out to my wolf, maybe I'm just too numb from everything that happened lately.
But she just rolled her eyes in disgust, and not a hint of pain, or even fury at seeing another woman on your mate's lap. She just stared blankly at them.
“Just a few more weeks babe,” Sterling's voice pulled me out of my thoughts, turning my attention back to them. He was putting his hands under her blouse, and began fondling her breast, making her ache her back towards him as a man escaped her lips. “I have things in motion. Don't worry though, while Sloane was in a coma after the car crash, I severed our mate bond. All that remains is to get rid of her quietly.”
So that's it.
No wonder I felt absolutely nothing at his betrayal.
After the car crash I was in a coma for over three months, that's not a long time to make one's mate go feral, but in cases like this there's a ritual that can be done to severe one's mate bond, and I guess he couldn't wait to jump in on the idea as that was he's one and only chance to finally rid himself of the matebond.
“You keep saying that,” Penelope hissed, pulling me out of my thoughts. “How long is that b***h going to keep raising our son?”
My head was in a whirl. Our son?
What did she mean?
"I wonder how different things would have been if you didn't get me pregnant during your senior year," Penelope mused. A bitter note crept into her voice.
So the rumors were true. Back then in high-school words got around that Sterling had a thing going on with Penelope, the extra and unnecessary detention she always gave him now made sense. It was just a way for them to spend time together.
Jeez! I was so foolish.
"That's all in the past, darling," Sterling interrupted. "What matters is we will finally be together soon."
I slid to the floor, my breath exploding from my lungs, tears flowing down my cheeks.
Toby.
So Toby was Sterling's and Penelope's child. My husband did not love me, not even the mate bond could make him love me. He had just needed a figurehead Luna to handle pack duties and raise his illegitimate son.
For five years I had thought I was infertile.
What if that was all a lie?
Somehow I picked myself off the floor, and headed straight to my room.
Back at my room my thoughts were a jumbled mess, and all I could do was toss and turn around in bed until sleep managed to take me under.
By morning, I took care of Toby's needs–I bathed, fed him and made sure he was well taken care of.
No matter what happens Toby is and would always be my baby. It's not his fault that his birth parents were scumbag.
Disguising myself, I snuck out of the Pack house to a human hospital outside the pack's territory to see Noah, an old friend I had grown up with at the orphanage.
He is a gynecologist now. From him I would learn the truth.
"I want to find out if at all I can have children," I told him.
He stared at me, puzzled perhaps at my puffy eyes but nodded. He took samples of my blood. A nurse took me to be tested.
The next few hours were the longest of my life.
Finally Noah came in holding a bulky folder which he placed in front of me. His normally cheerful face was very grave.
"The results are out," he said. "Your uterus is perfectly healthy, fit enough to carry a child to term-"
"Oh thank the goddess!" I exclaimed.
"But the results of your blood work tells a strange story," he continued, fingers drumming on his desk. He paused. "We found an insanely high amount of contraceptives in your system. Seems you've been taking them for years. I assume... not willingly?"
I managed to shake my head. There was a roaring in my ears. For one long second, I thought I would faint.
Noah pushed a glass of water into my hand. I gulped it all down.
So that was the reason I couldn't take in, and not once did the Pack's doctor mention any of this.
I guess he was just following his Alpha's orders.
"What is going on, Sloane?" Noah asked as I shakily got to my feet.
I shook my head and left the office, thinking. I had to leave Sterling and fast.
My cheating husband was obsessed with the perfect image. If he knew I had found out about his affair, he would kill me. He also would never agree to a divorce.
Halfway home, I stopped walking. My hands were shaking as I dug out a picture of us I always kept in my wallet.
I stared at him. At the handsome face I had adored all these years and realised something.
With our mate bond suppressed all these years, I did not love him.
I crumpled the picture in my fist, scrubbed the tears off my cheeks. I continued on home, an idea forming in my mind.
Sterling's mind was set on the pack's upcoming alliance negotiations, something he had been preparing for a long, long time.
I would leave gifts behind for the scumbag. The kind that would ruin him.
I would steal classified pack secrets, get video evidence on all the shady deals I knew Sterling was involved in and leak them to the public.
The alliance negotiations would not go through.
I felt cold and hard inside. I embraced the feeling. It was the only help that would help me get through the days and weeks ahead.
That night, back at the pack house, I called Celia, the pack lawyer and told her what I wanted.
"Divorce?" she almost screamed over the phone. "But why, Sloane, why?"
I told her all Sterling had done to me.
Celia's voice shook slightly in outrage as after a long pause, she said, "You mean he actually... Oh goddess! That's a sick and twisted thing to do. Drugging you? I'll help you, Sloane. I'll start drafting the divorce papers first thing tomorrow morning."
"And Celia-"
"You don't need to say it," Celia said. "Of course this stays strictly between us. I swear it."
- Writer
