Chapter 2
1423 Words
Lily
I didn't pause to wipe the tears. I folded the damning report, shoved it into my pocket, and stood on shaking legs.
I had to tell Rowan the truth.
The sheer weight of the lie—and the agonizing confession I had to make—was suffocating me. Rowan once held me through the devastation of my infertility, whispering that our love was enough. And now I carried another man's child. I, the chosen Luna of the Duskmoon pack…the Luna who took an oath to serve this pack and my Alpha till my last breath.
And I failed. Terribly.
I moved through the outer halls, consumed by shame. I needed to find him, to rip off the bandage of this betrayal before I lost my nerve. As I rounded the corner near the main staircase, I was stopped by Alec, Rowan’s Beta.
He was waiting by the foot of the stairs, looking strained. Wasn’t he supposed to be running Rowan's duties while the Alpha was in his urgent meeting? What was he doing here?
Alec quickly straightened as he spotted me, his wolf probably instinctively recognizing the stress radiating off me.
“Luna,” he murmured, his voice low. “Are you alright?”
I gave him a brief, practiced nod. “Yes, Alec, thank you. Just a long day.” I tried to sound steady. “Is the Alpha finished with his meeting? I need to speak with him immediately.”
I had asked Rowan to accompany me to the routine check-up, but he had dismissed me, claiming an urgent pack meeting required his full attention. I hadn't pressed, used to prioritizing his duties over mine. Alec lowered his head instantly. He did not meet my gaze, staring instead at the polished floorboards. He offered a strained, almost guilty nod instead.
“Yes, Luna. He should be upstairs now.”
His discomfort was palpable, and I found it strange. Alec was usually rock-steady. But I had far too much real trouble crashing down on me to dwell on the Beta’s odd behavior. I forced a small smile and continued my ascent up the stairs, rehearsing the cold, devastating words of my confession with every step.
I am pregnant. The child is not yours. I slept with someone else when I attended the ball last month.
By the time I reached our bedroom, my legs were about to give up. The silence around was thick and heavy, broken only by the frantic, panicked drumming of my own heart. I took a final, shaky breath, steadying myself for the end of my life as I knew it.
My hand felt cold and damp as I raised my fist toward the heavy oak door. I was about to knock when a sound sliced through the oppressive silence.
It wasn't a word or a cough. It was a soft, breathy moan.
I froze, my knuckles hovering inches from the wood. Every muscle in my body locked, and the blood rushing to my ears turned to ice.
A moment later, another gasp followed, higher, trembling, and unmistakably intimate. Then came a deeper sound, a low, breathless groan that could only belong to a man in the throes of pleasure.
No. It couldn't be. My mind furiously rejected the implication, yet my body already knew the truth.
I leaned closer, unable to stop myself from confirming the disaster.
A painfully familiar female voice spilled through the crack in the door—moaning and groaning as she chanted my husband’s name. I knew that voice. It belonged to Kara, my she-wolf and an Omega servant.
“Please… don’t push me away again. Don’t make me hide… I can’t anymore…”
My stomach dropped with a sickening finality. Rowan was not in a meeting. He was here.
Fucking my she-wolf...in my bed.
“I’m not pushing you away… gods, you know I can’t… You’re my mate. My fated mate,” Rowan answered her, his voice thick with desire and strained.
Kara whimpered again, the bed groaning under their combined weight. “Then why does she get everything? Why do I have to stay hidden? Why does she get to be Luna when I’m the one you love?”
Rowan’s response was a harsh, strained exhale. The heavy sound of skin slapping skin followed, sickeningly close.
“Stop,” he growled, his voice thick and rough with desire, but laced with impatience. “Stop talking about the Luna. You know the truth, you’re my mate.”
A soft, desperate moan escaped Kara, followed by the wet sound of a hurried kiss. The bed springs screamed in protest beneath their shifted weight.
“She is just a costume, Kara,” he continued between each thrust. “A necessity. You know what my father demanded. He forced me to marry that woman for politics, to keep the lineage ‘pure.’ Lily was just convenient. She was just packaging—respectable, obedient, easily controlled.”
He let out a sharp, guttural groan of passion, the sound loud enough to make me flinch.
“If she meant anything to me, why would I go to all the lengths I did?” he hissed in that strained voice. More kissing sounds followed.
“She was never going to threaten us with a child because I made damn sure of it! That old infertility test? Fake. The tonic she drinks every morning? That’s contraceptives, so she could never conceive. And the stupid woman is raising our son...Owen. She is a fool, and that’s that. You are the only one I claim. You are my love…how else do I explain?”
The words hung in the air as I staggered back from the door, my entire body numb with shock. The crushing pressure in my chest—my guilt for a one-night stand—was instantly replaced by the scale of his calculated evil.
He planned all of it.
He had been using me to maintain his position while loving and claiming her in secret.
I wasn't a partner; I was a shield. I was a quiet nursemaid, raising his real son while he methodically poisoned me to ensure I remained barren. My marriage had never existed. It had been a performance, built entirely on his meticulous, cruel lies.
My vision cleared, the hot haze of shame replaced by a cold, consuming fury. I hadn't betrayed him. He had stolen years of my life. My guilt vanished, instantly replaced by a cold, burning rage as I stormed inside.
They scrambled apart, Kara shrieking and clutching the sheets while Rowan's eyes widened in brief, satisfying shock. But his surprise lasted only a heartbeat before his face hardened into the familiar mask of Alpha arrogance.
Rowan did not even bother to deny the scene–the crumpled bed sheet, the disgusting scent of s*x, or the brutal words I must have heard. Instead, his jaw flexed with pure, entitled irritation.
"Lily," he began, trying for a tone of weary patience. "Let's not do this here. Let's talk later. I can explain... just... please, just wait outside, and we will talk somewhere else." He was trying to command me out of the room, to smooth over the wreckage with his Alpha dominance.
I ignored his plea.
"I want a divorce," I stated flatly, my voice steady and quiet.
Rowan exploded, the sheet falling away slightly. His face was thunderous, not with remorse, but with pure outrage that I dared challenge his authority.
"A divorce?" he snarled, taking a threatening step toward me. "Are you kidding me? You want to throw away everything I gave you? You are the Luna! You are bound to your pack duties and to me! You will not ruin my image for some childish outburst!"
"Your image is already ruined," I countered, the words tasting like ash. "And my duty to you is over."
His entitlement, his complete lack of remorse, severed the last remaining thread of my obligation to him. He was nothing but a manipulative motherfucker. I didn't wait for him to retaliate or try to stop me. I turned my back on the room, on the chaos, and on seven years of lies.
I walked away, tears blurring my vision, carrying the report in my pocket as my life depended on it. The shame that had nearly destroyed me moments ago was gone. My fear of the pregnancy was annihilated by the greater truth.
The child I carried was no longer a burden of guilt. It was my secret weapon.
It was freedom.
- Writer
