My Alpha Betrayed Me for the Lycan King’s Daughter

I didn't leave the Luna's quarters for two weeks.

That's not entirely true. I left to handle pack business—approving patrol schedules, mediating disputes between the Delta warriors, signing off on supply orders. I showed up. I performed. I kept my face blank and my voice steady and my hands from shaking.

But the moment those meetings ended, I came back here. To these rooms. To the space Asher and I had shared for six years.

He hadn't come back.

Not once.

The pack house felt different now. Quieter in some ways, louder in others. Whispers followed me down hallways. Eyes tracked my movements. Everyone knew. Of course they knew. Half the warrior unit had been there when I pulled the trigger on that candle. When I said the words.

When Asher didn't say them back.

Beta Marcus tried to talk to me on day four. Knocked on my door with that careful, diplomatic tone he uses when he's trying to manage a crisis.

"Luna, the Alpha asked me to tell you—"

"I don't care what he asked you to tell me."

Marcus paused. I heard him shift his weight outside the door. "He's still at the cabin. He says he needs time to handle the situation with the Lycan territories before—"

"Get away from my door, Marcus."

He left.

I spent those two weeks doing small, stupid things to keep myself from breaking. I reorganized the bookshelves. I deep-cleaned the bathroom. I went through Asher's closet and pulled out every shirt that still smelled like him and shoved them into garbage bags that I couldn't bring myself to actually throw away.

I touched the locket around my neck so often that the metal grew warm against my skin.

The pack rumors started on day six.

I heard them in fragments. The Alpha's new companion. A young she-wolf. Very beautiful. Staying at the mountain cabin. Some kind of political arrangement with the Lycan King.

That last part almost made me laugh.

Political.

As if politics required him to fuck her.

On day twelve, Elena came to check on me. Our pack healer. The woman who had delivered my pup's stillborn body and held my hand while I bled and screamed and broke into pieces on a medical table.

She didn't knock. She just walked in, set a tray of food on the table, and looked at me with those sad, knowing eyes.

"You need to eat."

"I'm fine."

"Scarlet."

I met her gaze. "I said I'm fine."

She stayed for twenty minutes, sitting in the chair across from me in silence. When she finally left, the food was still untouched.

I lasted fourteen days before I convinced myself I was handling this. That I was strong. That I could endure the silence and the rumors and the empty space beside me in bed every night.

Then the letter came.

Gamma Damien brought it himself. I was in the study, reviewing territory maps, when he knocked. His expression told me everything I needed to know before he even opened his mouth.

"This was delivered to the gate an hour ago." He held out a cream-colored envelope. Expensive paper. No return address. "It's addressed to you personally."

I took it.

Damien hesitated. "Luna, if you want me to—"

"Leave."

He did.

I sat there for five full minutes, staring at that envelope. My name written across the front in unfamiliar handwriting. Neat. Feminine. Deliberate.

I opened it.

The ultrasound image slipped out first. Black and white. Grainy. The unmistakable shape of a growing pup, maybe eight or nine weeks along. A tiny bean of life with a flickering heartbeat visible in the frozen frame.

My hands started shaking.

There was a note underneath. Short. Handwritten on matching cream paper.

*Dear Scarlet,*

*I thought you should know. Asher and I are expecting. He's been so attentive—visiting every day, making sure I'm comfortable, talking about names. He says he's always wanted to be a father.*

*I hope this doesn't upset you too much. I know you tried once.*

*Best wishes,*

*Nadia Brown*

I read it three times.

Then I stood up, walked to the window, and stared out at the territory I had bled to protect. The forests Asher and I had run through as wolves. The borders we had defended together.

I touched my locket.

I thought about the pup I had lost. The one I had traded for Asher's life. The one we were supposed to honor together every year at that shrine.

The shrine where he was now praying for a different child. With a different woman.

Something inside me went very, very cold.

I turned away from the window and walked to my desk. I picked up my phone and called Damien.

He answered on the first ring. "Luna?"

"I need you to gather your most loyal warriors. The ones who won't question orders."

A pause. "How many?"

"Four. Maybe five. Wolves who can move fast and stay quiet."

"What are we doing?"

I looked down at the ultrasound image on my desk. At that tiny, flickering heartbeat.

"We're going hunting."