Chapter Two - Betrayal

Lyra's POV

The familiar scents of pine and wildflowers enveloped me as I made my way down the winding paths of the Silvermoon Pack's territory.

My heart swelled with anticipation and pure joy. I couldn't wait to find Damien and share the incredible news - after so many cycles of heartbreak, I was finally pregnant with our pup.

Ria, my wolf, thrummed with excitement within me. "He'll be at the training grounds, I can smell his scent trail," she murmured.

Quickening my pace, I followed Ria's instincts toward the training hollow where I knew my mate would be. But as I neared, a familiar jeering voice made my steps falter.

"If it isn't the barren little omega Bitch herself," Gamma Jared sneered as he swaggered into view. His lips curled in a cruel smirk. "Off to find your big strong 'Protector' are you?"

I fought back the urge to cringe at his scathing words. Straightening my spine, I met his taunting glare. "I'm looking for Damien," I replied, proud that my voice remained steady.

Jared laughed, a biting cackle that grated on my nerves. "Well you're fresh out of luck, sweetheart. Your precious Damien cleared out early this morning. Guess even he gets tired of you whining and pining all the time."

"Nobody said he's tired," I shouted back. "Damien is not like all of you." I retorted.

"Yes! He's not…" I scoffed… "because he's worse." He mocked.

My cheeks burned red, angry at his claim, but before I could respond, Beta Marcus's gruff tone cut through the tension. "That's enough, Jared." The pack trainer warned.  "There'll be no fighting or harassment on these grounds, understood?" Turning to me, his eyes softened slightly. "You're welcome here, same as any other pack member, Lyra."

Deflated, Jared skulked off, throwing one last hateful glare over his shoulder that promised payback for the humiliation. I offered Marcus a tight smile of gratitude before hurrying away, my previous elation dampened.  

"That fool knows nothing, how can he accuse Damien of being worse?" Ria seethed within me. "We don't need his worthless opinion. Our status and future has changed with this new life growing inside you,I can't wait to see their faces when they know I'm not barren.."

She was right, of course. I couldn't let a bully like Jared ruin this moment. Shoving aside his hurtful taunts, I focused on finding my Savior - the man who had promised to be my mate when everyone rejected me, the father of my unborn pup.

Concern flickered in my heart as I pondered why he left training early without telling me. Is he sick?

He had seemed perfectly fine that morning before I left to get my results From the doctor in the human world. In fact, his silvery eyes had sparkled with adoration and excitement when he kissed me goodbye, wishing me luck in hushed, reverent tones.

Something wasn't adding up. An uneasy prickle worked its way down my spine as Ria and I quickened our pace toward Damien's den.

The winding pathways leading to the alpha quarters stretched endlessly ahead. But I pressed on, fueled by growing unease and the need to see my love, to share our joyous news and chase away any shadows looming over this momentous day.

At last, I reached the secluded alcove tucked beneath a canopy of ancient pines that me and Damien prefer instead of his room. Taking a fortifying breath, I pushed open the door, the words already spilling from my lips in a rush of excitement and nervous anticipation.

"Babe, you'll never guess what the doctor just told - "

But the words died in my throat as the scene before me crystallized into horrifying clarity.

There, tangled in a shameless lover's embrace on the wide bed, were Damien and Seraphina Bloodmoon. The daughter of my father's Beta. My number one bully.

"What..?"

His bare muscular back covered her lithe form as she writhed shamelessly beneath him. Their bodies moved in a sequence, skin flushed and glistening with sweat, released just moments away.  

The world spins around me, seeing the sight in front of me….

The beautiful dream I had been clinging to is now shattered, is this what Jared was talking about?

When he said he was worse than them?

An anguished howl reverberated in the depths of my soul as Ria's pain and fury detonated within me like a nuclear blast.

Seraphina was the first to notice my presence. Her feline features contorted into a derisive smirk of malicious triumph as she drank in my devastated expression.

"Well, well," she purred with mocking pity. "If it isn't the sad, barren little omega bitch come to watch the fun?"

Damien's head whipped around at the sound of her voice. For a suspended moment, his silvery eyes widened with shock and something darker I couldn't identify.

"What's going on…" I stammered.

Then his face went carefully blank as he extricated himself from Seraphina's embrace, straightening his clothes with casual indifference that twisted the knife of his betrayal deeper into my shattered heart.

"Lyra..." He began, his tone devoid of the warmth and tenderness I had grown accustomed to hearing whenever he said my name. "This...this isn't what it looks like."

A hysterical bubble of laughter nearly burst from my chest at the utter absurdity of his denial. My eyes burned with unshed tears as I struggled to find my voice past the crushing weight on my chest.

"Right, so you're not...you weren't just...?" The stammered words choked off as a new wave of agony washed over me.

Ria's howls of anguished fury raged through my body, her betrayal cutting even deeper than my own.

"After everything? After all our patience and devotion, this is how he repays our love?"

What did this even mean any more? We had waited so long for this moment, only to have it desecrated so callously, so cruelly.

I had given Damien everything - my heart, my soul, my future. And he had always sworn I was his only one. His love. His luna. His mate.

The word triggered a fresh tsunami of anguish that finally punched past the clawing knot of shock and disbelief tangling my words. "Mate? Y-you said I was...that we were..."

But Seraphina cut me off with a jeering scoff. "Oh sweetie, we all knew our Damien would never mate with something as pathetic and sad as you." Her dagger-tipped fingers traced patterns across his sculpted chest in a blatant claim of possession. "Me and Damien are mates, fated mates. So run along home to whatever den your father begrudgingly allows you, and leave the soon to be  alpha to his real mate."

"Sera..." Damien growled a warning, but the damage had already been done.  

"She's your Mate?" I was able to say.

"Lyra…let me explain…" he tried calming me.

"Just answer me!" I shouted.

The agony became a living creature consuming me from the inside out.

"Yes, we've been mates for two years now..." He uttered.

With that I feel the world trembling as I didn't have any more words left, just a gnawing hollow where my heart and future used to be.

So I walked away, I ran as hot tears streamed down my cheeks. I didn't know where my legs were taking me, the only thing I knew was to get far away from them.

Away from Damien's betrayal.

Away from the cruel death of all my hopes and dreams for our life together. Away from the obliterating grief of losing my mate, my future, and the family we would never have.

I can't, I can't take it anymore….