The Alpha Betrayed Mate

Silvercrest Territory, Canopy of Betrayal The night was too quiet. It even looked like the wind was too afraid to breathe. Zanny padded softly through the corridors of her Alpha’s mansion, her bare feet brushing against the floor. Clay had been gone for three days for another “strategic meeting” with the neighbouring pack, he’d said. But his scent lingered faintly, sharp and fresh, as though he’d returned just hours ago. Her wolf instinct stirred uneasily inside her chest. Something was wrong. She followed the scent. It led to the west wing, to the room Clay had forbidden her from entering. The door was slightly ajar, and from within came a low, muffled sound, a soft moan, followed by the deep, guttural growl she knew too well. Her breath caught. No… it couldn’t be. Pushing the door open, she froze. The moonlight spilt across the bed, illuminating the tangle of bodies on white sheets. Clay’s broad back moved with violent rhythm, his hand gripping another woman’s hair, Selene! The Beta’s widow. Their scents filled the air, hot and undeniable, the pheromones of mating flooding her senses like poison. For a moment, Zanny couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. The world around her blurred into silence. Her heart didn’t just break; it fractured. Clay turned then, his grey eyes dark and wild. For the briefest second, she saw something flicker in them, guilt, maybe, or regret, but it was gone as fast as it came. “Zanny,” he said, voice rough, like she was the one intruding. She stepped back, her throat tight. “After everything… after I—” her voice cracked. “I almost died carrying your child, Clay.” Selene smirked behind him, her lips swollen and glistening. “Maybe if you’d been enough, he wouldn’t need someone else.” Zanny’s wolf snarled inside her, but no sound came out. The strength she’d used to hold her family together drained away, leaving her hollow. She ran. Out of the mansion, out of the pack’s walls, into the cold forest where the moon burned red above the treetops. She collapsed beneath it, the air heavy with her tears and the echo of her shattered bond. And in that silence, a deep, familiar voice emerged from the shadows, rough, dark, and full of restrained fury. “Zanny.” She lifted her head. Krager stepped into the moonlight, crimson eyes glinting. The scent of the Dark Breed surrounded him like danger and fire. “I told you he’d break you,” he said quietly. “Now let me be the one to help you stand.” The moon blazed brighter, as if bearing witness. And that was the night Zanny’s love died — and something far more powerful took its place. Zanny could not understand why Krager was still within the territory of the werewolves; he could be caught and killed. “You know I could get you killed for trespassing; no dark breed should be seen around these walls,” Zanny said, trying to keep her face straight and serious. Krager smiled, though it was dark; you could hear it in his voice. “I am not the one who needs saving. You do. Your heart and emotions are faltering everywhere.” In one swift move, Zanny was onto him with her short knife firmly at his throat. “I am sure you do want to die.” For the first time, Zanny could feel his muscles close to her. She had not made love in a long time, and this firm, well-structured, muscled Dark Breed before her has everything she needs in a man. “I do not think that the queen of Silvercrest Pack needs a short knife to end my life. She could do it in one swing of her claws,” Krager said, finding it a little difficult to breathe. “I would not waste that energy on you,” she replied. “You are hurting, your bed is taken by another, yet your man yearns to have you, but can’t have you. Let me help you,” Krager said. “Stop speaking in riddles, you know nothing about me,” she said. Their lips joined unintentionally, and they kissed. First, it was slow and hesitant, but then they wanted each other as their desires gave way to the abomination they were about to commit. They kissed, and Zanny’s knife slowly withdrew from its position as Krager’s firm hand began to move everywhere on her body and finally clutched her firm breast as he tugged her n*****s. Zanny suddenly heard her name from a distance, carried on the wind, low and unmistakable. “Zanny.” Her heart jolted. It was Alpha Clay. She pulled away from Krager at once, the warmth of his hands leaving her skin far too suddenly. With hurried fingers, she adjusted her clothing, drawing the fabric back into place to cover her chest, steadying her breath even as her pulse raced. The night air felt colder now, as if it sensed the shift before she did. Krager’s presence lingered for a heartbeat longer, his eyes dark, unreadable. Then he was gone, vanishing into the shadows as silently as he had come, leaving only the faint trace of his scent behind. Clay emerged from between the trees moments later, his steps measured, his gaze sharp. The moonlight caught the tension in his posture, the unspoken questions flickering behind his eyes. He scanned the clearing, clearly aware that he had interrupted something, though there was no one else in sight. Zanny straightened, forcing calm into her expression. She met his gaze without flinching, but inside, her emotions were anything but steady. Krager’s kiss still burned on her lips, a reminder of the closeness she hadn’t yet learned how to deny but was denied by her man. She did not feel any form of guilt, but a calm resolve. Clay stopped a few paces away, studying her as though she were a stranger he no longer understood. And perhaps she was. The silence between them stretched, heavy with things neither dared to say. Zanny lifted her chin, grounding herself in the present. Whatever had passed with Krager belonged to her now, just as the future did. And Clay, standing before her beneath the moon that once bound them, could feel it too. Something had changed. From nowhere, Selene appeared with the guards. “Tell her, Clay, tell her you no longer love her. Tell her it is me you love. Tell her I have come to stay!” Alpha Clay looked at both women and sharply turned to Selene. “You can never be Luna.” Selene shouted, “I don’t want your damn Luna. I don’t want to be your godforsaken queen. All I ever wanted was you!” Zanny shook her head. “I trusted you, you are my best friend, why would you do this to me after all I did for you and took you in as a sister?” “I am not your sister! Selene clapped back. “Selene!” Zanny shouted in her wolf voice. “I, Zanara Valour, on this day vow to hunt your clan, till you beg for mercy and cry to me to stop.” Selene only smiled. “Your royalty exceeds you, spoilt brat. You are just a Luna whom Clay married out of pity and relevance and not a warrior, my dear.”