#1
977 Words
Selena.
The white dress felt heavier with every step I took.
I walked down the aisle with my chin high and my hands steady around the bouquet of white roses, just like we had practiced a hundred times.
The pack hall was full. Every seat was taken. Every pair of eyes on me.
Soft music played from the corner where the pack musicians sat, and the moon's reflection poured through the high windows.
Faelen was supposed to be waiting for me at the end of that aisle.
He wasn’t.
I kept walking anyway, because stopping would have made the silence louder.
My father stood near the front with a tight smile.
My mother kept glancing toward the side doors.
Jesse, my stepsister and maid of honor, was nowhere in sight either.
I told myself it was fine. People ran late. Alphas had last-minute pack business. Maybe he had stepped out to the bathroom. Maybe his tie needed fixing.
I knew deep down that something was wrong, something I did not want to admit to.
I reached the altar and turned to face the crowd, still alone.
Ten minutes passed.
The music looped for the second time. Whispers started like soft wind through the rows.
I kept my eyes on the double doors at the back of the hall, waiting for them to open. My fingers tightened around the roses until a thorn pricked my skin. A small bead of blood welled up, bright against the white petals.
Twenty minutes.
My father’s smile had disappeared. Someone in the third row laughed under their breath and was quickly hushed.
Heat crawled up my neck.
I could feel every stare like a physical weight. The same people who had congratulated me for months, who had called me the future Luna, were now watching me stand there like a forgotten decoration.
I cleared my throat and looked at the Beta standing near the front.
“Has anyone seen Faelen?” My voice came out steady. I was proud of that.
He shifted uncomfortably. “He was here earlier, Luna— I mean, Selena. He said he needed a moment.”
A moment.
I nodded as if that made perfect sense. Then I carefully placed the bouquet on the small table beside the altar and walked back down the aisle.
Every step echoed. No one stopped me. No one offered to go look for him. My parents couldn't care less, They just watched.
The hallway outside the main hall was cooler.
The thick carpet swallowed the sound of my heels. I turned left, toward the smaller rooms we had used for getting ready.
My heart was beating too fast, but I kept telling myself the same things.
He was nervous. He needed air. He would laugh when I found him and kiss my forehead and say he was sorry for making me wait.
I was almost at the end of the corridor when I heard their sounds.
A low, rhythmic sound. Skin against skin.
A soft, breathless moan that I recognized instantly.
I stopped walking.
The door to the storage room on the right was not fully closed. A thin line of light spilled into the hallway. The sounds were clearer now.
I already knew who it was, yet I still walked towards the door to confirm it with my own eyes.
My hand rose on its own and pushed the door open wider.
Faelen had Jesse bent over a stack of chairs. Her maid-of-honor dress was shoved up around her waist.
His formal pants were open, his hands gripping her hips as he thrust into her hard enough to make the chairs scrape against the floor.
Her head was thrown back, lips parted, eyes half-lidded with pleasure.
The same man who had told me for two years that he wanted to wait until our wedding night.
The same man who had gently removed my hands every time I tried to touch him, saying he respected me too much.
The same man who had promised me forever in front of the moon.
They both looked up at the same time and our eyes met.
Faelen didn’t stop.
He didn’t pull out either. He didn’t even look ashamed.
Jesse’s mouth curved into a slow, vicious smile.
She reached back, grabbed his forearm, and pulled him deeper into her while staring straight at me. A soft, mocking laugh slipped from her throat between broken moans.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, loud enough for me to hear.
Something inside my chest cracked so loudly I was surprised the whole building didn’t hear it.
I stood there in my wedding dress, bouquet long abandoned, blood from the thorn still drying on my finger, and watched the man I was supposed to marry f**k my stepsister without missing a single thrust.
He kept his eyes on mine the entire time.
Like he wanted me to see...Like he wanted me to understand exactly how little I had ever meant.
My legs felt disconnected from the rest of my body.
The hallway behind me was still empty, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Any second someone would come looking. Any second the entire pack would know.
I should have screamed. I should have lunged at them, I should have demanded answers.
Instead I just stared, frozen, while Jesse’s laughter mixed with the wet sound of their bodies and the distant music still playing in the hall where everyone was still waiting for a wedding that would never happen.
Faelen’s lips parted. For a moment I thought he might finally speak. Maybe he would say my name. Maybe he would tell me it was a mistake.
He didn’t.
He only groaned, low and satisfied, and drove into her harder while he watched my face.
That was the last thing I saw before the tears finally blurred everything.
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