Harlow’s eyes softened with sympathy.
She gently stroked my hair. “You talk so tough, but look at the state you’re in.”
“I lost control for a moment,” I admitted with a tired smile. “In just two more weeks, they could strip naked and have sex right in front of me, and I swear I wouldn’t even blink.”
“Aren’t you afraid your eyes would rot from the sight?” she teased, trying to lighten the mood.
“Watching beasts mate would make me nauseous at worst.”
“That would still upset your stomach,” she countered with a smirk.
Harlow stayed with me for a while longer. Once she saw I was more stable, she went out to the pharmacy to buy medicated patches for my back.
–
Xavien
The memory of how roughly I had yanked Celina away from Cira-and the look in her eyes when I did-hit me like a punch to the gut.
I sprang up from the couch, ignoring Cira’s breathless sobs beside me.
“Xavien?” she gasped, clutching my sleeve. “Where are you going? Don’t leave me like this…”
I didn’t answer. My fingers were already dialing on my phone.
“Henric,” I said sharply, voice low and tense. “Find Celina. Now. She might be hurt-I pulled her too hard earlier. Get her to the hospital. I want a full check-up. Head to toe.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line-too long.
“Alpha…” Beta Henric’s voice was tight with worry. “Luna Celina is gone. She left the penthouse over an hour ago. Alone. No guards.”
My chest tightened painfully. “You lost her?”
“We’re searching the area now. I’ll update you as soon as I find anything.”
Click.
Behind me, Cira whimpered, her voice breaking like fragile glass. “You’re leaving me? After everything?”
I didn’t look back. “You’ll survive.”
And then I was gone-out the door, heart pounding, guilt clawing at my throat like a second skin.
Night had already fallen.
I searched nearly every place she might have gone, called all her friends, even went to her parents’ house. But she was nowhere to be found.
Harlow was the first person I contacted. She claimed she didn’t know where Celina was.
By the tenth call, I was nearly frantic. Finally, Harlow answered, and her first words hit me like a heavy blow: “Xavien, isn’t it better if you just disappear? No one’s bothering you or that mistress now. Isn’t that great?”
Her words confirmed my worst suspicion-they were together. My voice cracked with desperation. “Let me talk to her.”
Harlow’s tone dripped with irony. “Maybe she jumped into the sea with sorrow? Do you want to go fishing for her in the ocean?”
Then she hung up.
My expression darkened. When I dialed again, a different voice answered.
“Stop harassing Harlow,” Celina’s calm voice said. “I’ll come back when I’m ready.”
I was speechless for a moment, only able to hear my own heavy breathing. When I finally spoke, my voice was cautious, almost unfamiliar to myself: “Where are you? I’ll come get you now! Does your back still hurt?”
“Ha…” she sneered. “Xavien, put away your hypocritical concern. You’re giving me goosebumps.”
Celina
On the other end of the phone, an oppressive silence stretched between us like a thick fog.
“It was just the heat of the moment,” Xavien finally murmured, his voice softening into that coaxing tone he always used when trying to sway me. “I never meant to hurt you.”
I despised that fake veneer of affection he wore so effortlessly-a hypocritical mask that made my skin crawl.
“Don’t bother,” I interrupted sharply, each word he uttered twisting my stomach into knots. “Intentions don’t erase the fact that you physically hurt me. The Alpha who vowed to protect me became the one who inflicted pain.”
“Fine, fine, it’s my fault. All of it,” he growled, his alpha nature breaking through the thin veil of remorse. “Just tell me where you are! I need to know-right now!”
“I already told you-I’ll come back.”
“You will be home tonight,” his voice dropped to that dangerous, commanding tone that made even the fiercest pack members shrink back. “Or I swear, I’ll tear this city apart until I find you.”
I could feel the storm of his anger rising, his control slipping like sand through his fingers. My muscles tensed instinctively, remembering all too well the overwhelming presence of an enraged Alpha filling a room.
After a long, heavy silence, I finally gave in, agreeing to return within the hour.
When Xavien got like this-territorial, frantic-there was no telling what he might do. I couldn’t risk him discovering my new apartment; it was to be my refuge once the divorce was finalized.
Harlow gripped the steering wheel so tightly on the drive back to what used to be my home that her knuckles turned ward.
“This asshole keeps betraying you and still acts like he owns you,” she fumed, her voice low and fierce. “That temper, that terrifying need to control everything… Celina, if he finds out you tricked him into signing those divorce papers, I’m scared he might actually kill you.”
I stared out at the city lights twinkling softly in the distance, a strange numbness settling over me. “Maybe I should keep some wolfsbane handy,” I joked bitterly. “Poison him before he gets the chance to strangle me.”
The moment I stepped inside, Xavien came at me like a tempest, his face a tangled mix of concern and barely restrained fury. The scent of his anxiety hung thickly in the air.
I shot him a cold glance and brushed past him to change my shoes, determined to keep my distance.
As I bent down, a sharp stab of pain shot through my injured back, forcing a visible wince.
Xavien instinctively reached out to steady me, his protective instincts flaring.
“Don’t touch me!” I hissed, recoiling as if his hands burned. I’d rather suffer the pain than feel his touch again-the very hands that had been all over Cira earlier today.
A flicker of something-hurt, maybe guilt-passed through Xavien’s eyes. Good. Let him feel a fraction of the torment I carried.
He withdrew his hand and followed me into the living room, pulling out his phone as we walked.
“I installed security cameras in the office,” he said, holding up the screen for me to see. “You can check the feed whenever you want. What happened today won’t happen again.”
His words caught me off guard. I expected him to downplay everything, as he always did when caught in his lies.
I studied the screen with a skeptical look. “Afraid I might catch you in another one of your ‘intimate moments’ with your little candy girl? Worried about embarrassing her again?”
Xavien’s jaw clenched. “There’s nothing between us.”
Raising an eyebrow, I pressed on. His voice grew more insistent. “Fine. I admit I find her fun and cute, but she’s like a little sister to me. She’s at the company because her father asked me to mentor her.”
He ran a hand through his hair-a gesture I once found charming but now seemed calculated. “We’re signing the contract with Shadow Pack next week. The Whites made this small request-how could I refuse?”
How convenient. He painted her as nothing more than a sister figure, a business obligation. Nothing that would justify him letting her disrespect his mate, indulging her every whim at my expense.
When did he become so utterly false? This wasn’t the man whose bond I had accepted years ago.
Our eyes locked-steady, unflinching. After a moment, I donned a mask of sudden understanding. “Oh, I see. Just a sister, huh? But didn’t she mention all those nights you spent together? A brother sleeping with his sister-isn’t that called incest in human terms?”
“I told you, she’s just an impulsive child who says whatever pops into her head.”
“A child whose impulsiveness you find so fun and cute,” I countered sharply.
Xavien sighed deeply, recognizing he was going nowhere. “Look, there’s nothing between us. In a few days, you can take that trip we discussed. When you return, we’ll try for a pup. After that, you can settle comfortably into your role as Luna of Blood Moon Pack. I promise, that position will always belong to you.”
I stared at him, a slow, bitter smile curling on my lips as the truth sank coldly into my veins.
Now I understood.
The Luna title would always be mine, so I was expected to ignore his increasingly reckless heart and its desires. Why should I accommodate him? He’d betrayed me with Cira-taking vacations, sharing beds, watching sunrises together. He’d shredded my heart to pieces, and now he expected me to cradle those bloody fragments while bearing his children and growing old at his side?
How cruel and selfish he had become.
“I love you,” Xavien said, mistaking my smile for forgiveness. He pulled me into his arms before I could resist, holding me tightly with a desperate intensity, as if terrified to lose me.
But my heart remained cold and distant-a frozen wasteland where his warmth could no longer reach.
With every secret I uncovered about him, my determination to leave only grew stronger.
Xavien helped me upstairs and called the pack doctor to examine my back. Only after confirming there was no bone damage did his tension visibly ease.
When I entered the bathroom, he lingered in the doorway. “Let me help you,” he offered quietly.
“No need,” I replied sharply.
If he dared touch me with those same hands that had caressed another woman, I might actually consider slipping wolfsbane into his morning coffee.
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