My Mate Betrayed Me with My Best Friend

I paced my office, the emerald-green handbag sitting on my desk like a poisonous snake. Two bags. Two identical purchases. The evidence was right in front of me, but I needed more. I needed to be certain before I acted.

My wolf, Luna, stirred restlessly inside me. *We should confront them now*, she urged.

"No," I whispered, pressing my fingers to my temples. "We need proof they can't deny."

I checked the time. Sebastian would be leading the warriors' training session for another hour. Perfect timing.

Moving with deliberate calmness that belied the storm raging inside me, I made my way to his private Alpha office. The hallway was mercifully empty—most pack members were either at their posts or watching the training session.

I slipped inside, closing the door silently behind me. The scent of Sebastian's pine and cedar cologne hung in the air, mixed with something else—a faint trace of floral perfume that didn't belong to me.

"Where would you hide something, Sebastian?" I murmured, scanning his immaculate desk.

I started methodically, checking drawers and cabinets. Nothing. Then I remembered how Sebastian had always been proud of his clever hiding spots in college.

"He loved hiding things in plain sight," I whispered to myself.

My eyes fell on his desk drawers again. This time, I pulled them out completely, examining the underside. Nothing on the first two. But when I removed the third drawer—the deepest one—something tapped against the wood as it swung free.

A phone. Small, black, and completely different from his regular Alpha phone that was always visible on his desk.

My hands trembled as I reached for it. It was taped to the underside of the drawer with strong adhesive. I carefully peeled it off, noting the protective case—plain black, nondescript.

"Let's see what secrets you're hiding," I said, turning on the device.

A passcode screen appeared. Four digits. I tried our anniversary date. Nothing. His birthday. Nothing.

Then I remembered—his old college anniversary. The day we first scented each other before we officially became mates.

The screen unlocked.

*You're pathetic*, Luna growled inside me. *Using your special day as a password for his affair*.

I swallowed hard and opened his messages. There it was—a fake social media account created exclusively for communication with one person: Azaria.

My finger hovered over the icon before tapping it. Part of me wanted to stop, to preserve whatever innocence I had left. But I couldn't afford that luxury anymore.

The messages loaded, months of conversations revealing themselves in chronological order.

"Miss you already," read one from three weeks ago. "Can't wait until tonight."

"I love how you make me feel," Azaria had replied. "So much better than when I'm around her."

Her. Me.

I scrolled further, my vision blurring with unshed tears.

"She's so naive," Sebastian had written. "Thinks I'm working late again. You're so much more... everything than she'll ever be."

"And she still doesn't suspect anything?" Azaria's message read.

"Not a clue. Camila trusts everyone too easily. It's actually kind of boring how predictable she is."

I forced myself to keep reading, each message more sickening than the last. They mocked my trust, planned their meetings while I was occupied with pack duties, discussed their future together.

Then I saw it—a message from today.

"Meet you at the Regal Cinema at 2. That new action movie starts at 2:15. We'll have plenty of time before anyone notices we're gone."

I checked the time. 12:30. The movie theater was a thirty-minute drive away.

Without hesitation, I grabbed my keys and headed for my car.

---

The Regal Cinema sat on the outskirts of the neighboring human town. I parked across the street, positioning myself where I could see the main entrance but remain unnoticed.

My heart pounded as I waited, watching people enter and exit the theater. What if I was wrong? What if this was all some misunderstanding?

But deep down, I knew better.

At 4:17, the movie ended. Groups of people began filing out of the lobby, laughing and chatting.

Then I saw them.

Sebastian emerged first, his tall frame easy to spot even in the crowd. He looked relaxed, happy—a version of him I rarely saw lately.

Then Azaria appeared beside him, her hand sliding effortlessly into his as if they'd done this a thousand times before.

They walked out together, still holding hands, their heads tilted toward each other in intimate conversation.

I inhaled sharply, and their intertwined scents hit me like a physical blow—Sebastian's pine mixing with Azaria's floral perfume, creating a sickening new scent that made my stomach churn.

Luna snarled inside me, her rage matching my own.

*Kill them both*, she urged.

"Not yet," I whispered, my hands gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. "First, we plan. Then, we strike."

As I watched them walk to Sebastian's car, laughing together as if they hadn't just destroyed everything I believed in, a cold fury settled over me.

They thought I was naive. Predictable. Trusting.

They were about to learn how wrong they were.