Chapter 1 Betrayal Of My Mate

• Aria’s POV
• The sky was this sickly gray-white, so heavy it felt like you couldn’t catch a breath—just like the fog that always hung over the Blackwood Pack.
• I gripped the parchment scroll tight in my hand, my knuckles going white from the pressure.
• It was the diagnosis report I’d just gotten from the witch doctor—finally, the Moon Goddess had smiled on me.
• (Silver poison cleared. Uterine tissue fully regenerated. Chances of conception: extremely high.)
• For five years, I’d carried the shame of being “barren,” endured the tribe’s scornful stares, and even Lucas’s growing coldness.
• But now, a miracle had happened.
• I could give him a strong heir!
• That didn’t just mean I wouldn’t be treated like an outcast anymore—it meant I finally had the right to stand by his side for real.
• Heart pounding with joy, I strode down the tribe’s gloomy hallway toward the Alpha’s office. The patrolling guards shot me sneers, but I didn’t give a damn.
• Then, just as I was about to push open the heavy oak door, a sickeningly sweet smell hit my nose like a punch.
• It was Lucas’s scent, but mixed with the cloying smell of a female werewolf.
• My feet froze, and my heart felt like a cold hand was squeezing it tight.
• The door wasn’t shut all the way. Through the narrow crack, I caught a sweet, lazy, mocking female voice:
• “Lucas, do you think that ‘useless bitch’ would go crazy if she knew what we’re doing?” The voice was Selina’s—my so-called “good sister” and the tribe’s top contender for Luna, if Lucas hadn’t suddenly declared me his mate.
• “Go crazy?” Lucas’s voice was low and cold, cruel in a way I’d never heard before. “What right does she have to go crazy? Aria’s nothing but a useless waste without a wolf soul.”
• “Useless waste?” Hearing those words, my shattered heart twisted with bitter irony.
• The “Sky Shield” defense system that kept him safe and sitting pretty in that chair was built by the very “waste” he spat on. He enjoyed the absolute security I gave him, yet used the cruelest words to stomp on my dignity.
• It was... fucking ridiculous.
• “Then why are you still keeping her around? I’m about to lose my patience...” Selina whined, sounding all sweet and spoiled.
• ```
• “Hold on, Selina.” Lucas’s voice softened—this was the kind of gentleness he only ever showed me, but now it was aimed at another woman. “You know about that ‘accident’ five years ago. If it weren’t to protect you, to keep you from being thrown into that death trap of a ‘prison,’ why the hell would I let that loser be my mate?”
• Boom—!
• It felt like a thunderclap exploded in my head.
• Five years ago, I was attacked by a pack of Rogues. Not only did I lose my wolf spirit, but I was also branded a traitor, accused of colluding with the enemy. Lucas stood up for me, fought off everyone’s doubts, and even claimed I was his destined mate.
• I thought that was salvation. I thought it was love.
• Turns out… the truth was something else entirely.
• “That loser took the fall for you, carrying that shit on his back for five years. Just wait one more month, until the heat dies down completely.” Lucas chuckled, a cold, calculating sound dripping with scheming. “By then, she’ll be kicked out of the pack, left to die in the wild. And you? You’ll be the Luna of the Blackwood Pack.”
• “Lucas, you’re so damn cruel, but I love it…”
• The teasing laughter inside and that sickly sweet scent churned my stomach like a storm.
• I leaned against the cold wall, crushing the parchment scroll in my hand until it crumbled to bits.
• So all that warmth, all that kindness—it was a lie.
• The salvation I clung to like my life was just a carefully crafted con to protect the woman he truly loved.
• I was a scapegoat, a tool, trash he could toss aside anytime. But never his mate.
• My body trembled—not from fear, but from a rage so fierce it burned through me.
• Right then, the faint power that had just started to stir inside me surged wildly, fueled by this emotional storm, throwing my heartbeat off balance.
• The teasing laughter inside cut off abruptly.
• The next second, a terrifying Alpha presence slammed through the crack under the door like a tidal wave, crushing everything in its path. My knees buckled, and I nearly choked.
• “Who’s out there?!”
• Lucas’s furious, icy roar shattered the silence, followed by the harsh scrape of a chair being shoved back violently. He was here.
• ```