BETRAYED BY HOCKEY STAR: LOVED BY ALPHA KING

Chapter 2: Betrayal

Elara's POV

“You know I love you, Kyle. Don’t mind that I’ve been with Elara for a while now. It’s all part of the bet I was forced to fulfill by my friends.”

My legs moved on their own, dragging me forward into the house I knew so well, disbelief carved deep into every part of me. My ears refused to accept what I had just heard, yet the sharp sting of truth cut through me mercilessly. I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t bring myself to accept that I was the Elara being mocked in such a cruel confession.

“Maddox?” My voice broke the silence where I stood, trembling and unable to keep quiet as I had intended.

And just as I had guessed, he tore himself from the woman’s embrace, whipping his head toward me in shock. But not guilt, never guilt. There wasn’t a flicker of remorse in his eyes. Only disbelief.

Shock that I had caught him this early. Shock that I had uncovered his secret, rhat every kiss, every word, every promise, every moment he’d spent with me had been nothing but a calculated lie.

“Elara…” he breathed, soft and broken, like a child calling out for his mother.

Once upon a time, I would have believed him. I would have been fooled into thinking there was love behind his voice. But not now. Not after hearing the words that shattered everything.

It’s been three long years since I was banished from my pack, three years of scraping by, trying to stitch myself together in a world I never truly belonged to. I had stumbled into the human world after days of wandering, fleeing the wilderness with nothing but pain in my heart.

Among strangers, I had found a kind of refuge, though it came at a cost. Silence. Invisibility. Living in the shadows so Jack’s parents would never discover me. They might have banished me, but I never believed they had truly let me go. Not with the way they hated me. Not with the way the Luna’s eyes burned with blame, swearing I had killed her son.

So I endured. I worked countless part-time jobs, scraped together coins for food and shelter, clawed my way into university with a scholarship. Tuition was covered, but every other burden ranting from rent to meals and survival was mine to bear. Yet somehow, I managed.

Then came Maddox. A year ago, he slipped into my life, promising light where I only had shadows. Today was supposed to be our one-year anniversary. Instead, I walked into this house, his house and found him holding another girl as if she was his entire world.

My chest tightened, a storm raging inside me as I looked at him.

“You know,” I began, my voice sharp and shaking, “when you told me not to come over today, I thought it was for a reason. I thought maybe you were planning something for us. For our anniversary.”

I paused, forcing myself to take in the living room, the decorations strung across the walls, the confetti scattered on the floor, the flicker of candles casting shadows, the music softly humming in the background, the table already heavy with food and drink, waiting for guests. And then my eyes froze.

A banner stretched wide across the wall: Happy Birthday Kyle.

My heart clenched violently. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

How could he do this to me?

I had swallowed my emotions, kept them buried even when I saw a post online from one of Kyle’s friends, flaunting the party being held at Maddox’s place today. I had been confused and shocked. Kyle—the school’s adored cheerleader, the same girl Maddox had always sworn he despised. He would sneer whenever her name came up, spitting venom about how she disgusted him, how she was beneath him, how she threw herself at men without dignity.

And yet here she was.

The girl in his arms.

The girl he chose over me.

The girl who had always been his truth, while I—I was only the bet.

Isn’t it ironic? My so-called boyfriend threw a birthday party for her in his home on the very day of our anniversary, after telling me to stay in my dorm. Oh, boyfriend? No. I don’t think so. Not anymore. Not after hearing with my own ears that I had been nothing more than a bet he made with his hockey friends.

“It’s not what you think, Elara. Kyle was just—”

“It’s exactly what I think it is,” I snapped, cutting him off before he could spew out another excuse. I wasn’t about to sit there and listen to whatever bullshit story he had prepared this time. He always had one. Always twisting the truth. Always finding ways to manipulate me whenever he got caught doing something that demanded accountability.

You’re overreacting. You think too much. You don’t give me peace. Those were his favorite lines. His weapons. His way of silencing me. I remembered one time I had seen him out in public with his friends, his fellow hockey players, and I had been excited, stupidly eager and went to greet him. But he looked through me. Ignored me as if I was a stranger, as if we had never touched, never laughed, never kissed. And the worst part? He had a girl clinging to his arm that entire day.

When I asked him about her the next morning, desperate for an explanation, what did he say? That I was overthinking. That I was insecure. That of course she was hotter than me, but it didn’t mean anything. He never once apologized. He never once considered how much it hurt.

Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing me break down, I walked calmly to the nearest table, grabbed a glass of wine and without hesitation, poured it over him. I placed the empty glass back with steady hands, though my insides were burning.

“It’s over between us, Maddox,” I declared, forcing the words out with all the strength I had left. Then I turned, ready to leave this nightmare behind me.

“Just who does she think she is?” Kyle’s voice cut through the room, sharp and venomous, her disdain so thick it scraped against my skin.

“You shouldn’t have tolerated trash like her for this long, Maddox. How could you have dated someone so far beneath you?” she purred, her tone dripping with arrogance.

“Right,” Maddox’s voice followed immediately after, casual and cruel. “I shouldn’t have. Perhaps I made a mistake giving her the attention most poor scholarship students at this academy could only dream of. Getting into my bed should have been enough to satisfy her. But gold diggers always want more.”

His words sliced deeper than any blade, but I didn’t stop walking. I couldn’t. If I stayed, I would shatter.

Still, the venom lingered in my chest. A gold digger? A social climber? That was what he thought of me? That was what he dared to call me after everything?

Gods, it was a lie. Since we began dating, I had never once taken anything from him. Not his money. Not his gifts. It's not as if he ever gave any to me to begin with. If anything, I had been the one helping him. Covering bills with money from my part-time jobs. Cooking for him. Cleaning for him. Helping him with schoolwork. I gave him everything I had, hoping to build something real, something lasting, something that would prove I wasn’t cursed to walk through life unloved.

When I was banished from my pack, the Luna had spat a curse at me—that I would never find love, never have anyone to call my own. I had fought that curse every single day. I had clung to Maddox, desperate to prove it wrong. And yet…

This was how he repaid me.

A lie. A bet. A game between boys who thought breaking me would be entertainment. I wasn’t a girlfriend. I wasn’t even a person in his eyes. I was just an object—a prize to be won, a body to conquer, a joke to share among his teammates.

And the cruelest truth of all?

I had loved him.

*****

Weeks have passed since my breakup with Maddox and I have been lonelier than ever. Before, while our fake relationship was still ongoing, I used to comfort myself with thoughts of him. I would daydream about our future together, our little family, our shared home, our happiness.

But now? It’s unbelievable how fast time changes.

“Isn’t she the slut who was throwing herself at Maddox? The audacity of that basic girl,” I heard a girl sneer behind me as I walked out of the university gates, heading to my workplace.

“I heard she’s been with all the boys on Maddox’s hockey team before he dumped her. Even though he wanted it private, she went ranting at his house and threatened to destroy his things,” another voice added, dripping with scorn.

“Emotionally manipulative, social-climbing w***e,” yet another chimed in.

I tried to shut my ears, tried to drown out their words, but no matter how much I willed myself not to listen, their voices pierced through. Each sneer, each insult.

All of it because of Maddox.

After our breakup, I only wanted peace. I wanted to slip back into my quiet lifesilent and invisible. I wanted nothing to do with him again. I had already cried myself to sleep night after night, reeling from the sting of his betrayal, hollowed out by his lies.

But in the end? Maddox didn’t just smear my name to my face, he smeared it before the entire school. He made sure everyone saw me the way he wanted. He released a video, his voice calm and practiced, where he complained about how “overbearing” I was, how he “had to” break up with me. He painted me as a desperate social climber who clung to him only for the prospects his hockey career promised. A w***e, he called me, one who threw herself at his friends. A toxic, manipulative girl who wouldn’t stop blowing up his phone.

And just like that, the victim became the villain.

Me.

My life flipped upside down in a moment. I was already struggling—hadn’t I been kidnapped by strange men weeks ago, only to be mysteriously released and dumped back at my dorm, terrified and shaken? I was still piecing myself together from that nightmare and now this?

Why was my life so cursed?

I walked slowly down the road until I found a quiet spot under a tree, my chest aching, my eyes stinging. I wanted to break down, to cry my heart out where no one would see me.

Why was life so unfair to me? Was it because I was an omega? Was it the Luna’s curse still shadowing me, binding me to misery? Or was there something I had done, something unforgivable, that condemned me to this endless pain?

The questions spilled through me, over and over. But there was no one to answer. And I knew there was no one to.