After abandoned by my fated Alpha 100 times

The sacred embers on the altar died out, leaving nothing behind but gray ash and silence.

I stood on the stone platform in my heavy white ceremonial gown, facing three hundred members of the Silvercrest Pack. Every single one of them was staring at the empty space to my right.

The Alpha’s dais. Empty.

Elder Jonathan stepped up the stone stairs, his white brows furrowing as he looked at me. "Luna Quinn, the sun has set. The moon reaches its peak. We cannot wait any longer. Where is Alpha Oscar?"

I tightened my fingers around the ceremonial dagger, feeling the cold steel bite into my palm.

"Oscar had pack business to attend to," I said. My voice was calm, projecting clearly over the gathered wolves. "I will conduct the ancestral blessing alone."

"Alone?" Elder Jonathan asked, frowning. "An Alpha and Luna must pour the offering together. It has been our law for three centuries. Has he truly abandoned the sacred rites?"

"He has not abandoned anything," I lied, keeping my chin lifted high. "Pour the wine, Elder."

Murmurs rippled through the crowd like wind through dry grass. I knew what they were whispering. They all knew the truth. Oscar hadn't missed the festival because of rogue incursions or border skirmishes.

He was with Ruby. Again.

It took another hour to complete the chants, bless the newborn pups, and light the seasonal pyre. By the time I stepped down from the dais, my shoulders ached from carrying the mantle of two rulers.

"Luna Quinn," Beta Thomas murmured as I reached the courtyard. His face was tense. "Let me escort you back."

"Where is he, Thomas?" I asked quietly.

Thomas looked down at his boots. "He was at the southern boundary earlier. Miss Ruby had a nightmare. Her wolf panicked, and she collapsed near the woods. Oscar went to secure her."

"A nightmare," I repeated. A dry sound slipped from my throat. "And that required six hours?"

"You know how delicate she is since she returned," Thomas said carefully. "He only meant to settle her."

"I know exactly what she is," I said, turning away. "Go join the feast, Thomas. That's an order."

I walked across the courtyard alone, leaving the torchlight and music behind. The Pack House loomed ahead in the dark, grand and imposing. Five years ago, when Oscar and I mated, this place was cold stone. I had spent half a decade choosing every curtain, every rug, and every piece of timber to turn his ancestral house into our home.

I climbed the winding staircase to the third floor, heading toward our private quarters. My head pounded. I wanted to hear his explanation. I wanted him to look me in the eye and give me one plausible excuse for humiliating me in front of the elders.

The double doors to our master bedroom were pushed slightly inward.

A low, familiar gasp came from the other side.

"Oscar... please..."

I froze on the threshold.

"Hold on to me," Oscar's deep voice answered, thick with heat. "I've got you."

The sound of rustling sheets and skin slapping against skin sliced through the quiet corridor.

My breath caught in my throat for half a second before pure, freezing adrenaline flooded my veins. I didn't hesitate. I shoved the heavy oak door open with both hands.

The door banged hard against the wall.

On the king-sized bed—the mattress I bought in the capital, beneath the heavy emerald duvet I had washed and folded with my own hands—two bodies froze.

Ruby was sprawled beneath him, her pale legs hooked around Oscar's waist. Her cheeks were flushed pink, her nightgown pushed up around her ribs.

Oscar turned his head sharply. Sweat glistened on his broad back and corded shoulders. He was completely bare, his hips still pinned between her thighs.

For three seconds, nobody spoke. The room smelled of sweat and heavy mating musk.

Oscar pulled out of her, dragging the sheet up to cover Ruby. He stepped off the bed, grabbing his dark linen trousers from the floor and sliding them on. There was no panic on his face. No shame. Only a flicker of irritation in his gray eyes.

He stepped directly between the bed and me, blocking my view of her.

"Quinn," Oscar said, his tone flat and level. "She just needed me."

A bubble of incredulity rose in my chest. I looked at the man I had loved for five years, standing half-naked in front of his childhood friend.

"She needed you?" I asked. My voice didn't shake. To my own shock, a sharp, humorless laugh burst out of my mouth. "She needed you like this?"

"Lower your voice," Oscar snapped, glancing back toward the bed. "Her wolf was on the verge of madness. The moon cycle triggered her trauma from the rogue camps. You know her inner beast is fractured. She needed Alpha pheromones to stabilize her core."

"So you gave her your cock?"

"Watch your tongue!" Oscar's aura flared, a warning Alpha growl vibrating in his chest. "I did what was necessary to save a member of this pack. You're the Luna. You are supposed to show compassion, not stand there throwing accusations."

"Compassion?" I stepped into the room, closing the door behind me with a quiet click. "I just stood in front of three hundred wolves alone. I lied for you. I told the elders you were guarding our borders while you were in our bed, fucking another woman."

"Don't flatter yourself with martyrdom," Oscar said coldly. "The ritual is a formality. Ruby's life isn't."

From behind the pillows, Ruby pulled the sheet up to her bare collarbone. Her eyes were watery, wide, and full of sorrow.

"Quinn, please don't be angry with him," Ruby sobbed, her voice trembling. "It's all my fault. I woke up screaming, and I couldn't breathe. I called him because I was terrified. He was just trying to soothe my wolf... things just got out of hand. If someone has to be punished, banish me. Don't blame Oscar."

"Shut up, Ruby," I said without looking at her.

"Don't speak to her like that," Oscar stepped closer, his jaw tight. "She was traumatized for three years while you lived comfortably here as Luna. Show some decency."

"Decency?" My eyes swept past his shoulder, landing directly on Ruby's neck.

My stomach plummeted.

Resting against the hollow of Ruby's pale throat was a silver pendant shaped like a crescent moon, encrusted with blue sapphires.

The Luna necklace.

Passed down from Alpha mother to Alpha bride for four generations. The sacred heirloom Oscar had taken off my dressing table two weeks ago, claiming he had sent it to the jewelers in the city for cleaning.

"Where did you get that?" I whispered, pointing a finger at Ruby.

Ruby instinctively touched the pendant, shrinking back against the headboard. "Oscar gave it to me... he said the lunar stone helps suppress anxiety..."

"Take it off," I said.

"Quinn, that's enough," Oscar commanded, his Alpha voice rumbling through the room, heavy and oppressive. "It's a piece of jewelry. If it keeps her wolf from collapsing, she wears it. You have dozens of necklaces."

"It is the Luna's badge," I said, meeting his hard gaze. "It belongs to the mistress of this pack. Not to a guest in my bed."

"I am the Alpha," Oscar said, his voice dropping into a dangerous register. "I decide what belongs to whom. You rule by my side because I allow it. Remember your place."

I stared at him. The man whose wounds I had stitched. The man whose bed I had warmed through bitter winters. The man I defended against his own council when they doubted his youth.

"I remember my place," I said softly.

I pulled the white ceremonial sash from my waist and tossed it onto the floor. It landed right beside his discarded boots.

"Where are you going?" Oscar demanded as I turned toward the door. "We aren't finished talking about this."

"I am," I said, resting my hand on the doorknob.

"You're making a scene out of nothing," he called after me, his tone impatient. "Sleep in the guest room tonight. Clear your head. We'll speak in the morning when you're reasonable."

I pulled the door open and stepped into the dim hallway.

Before the heavy wood clicked shut behind me, Ruby’s soft, fragile murmur floated through the crack.

"Oscar... what if she hates me? What if she leaves?"

A brief pause hung in the air.

Then came Ruby's small, knowing voice: "She won't really leave you, will she?"

Inside the room, Oscar didn't answer.

Three seconds passed. Five seconds.

Only dead silence answered her question. He didn't say yes. He didn't say no. He just stood there, letting the silence settle like lead.

Standing in the cold corridor, listening to the man who took five years of my life say nothing at all, a quiet realization struck me.

He was entirely certain I would stay.

I turned my back on the master bedroom and walked down the stairs, leaving the silence behind.

Down in the pack archives, the binding records lay open on the stone table, awaiting the Alpha’s seal for the seasonal registry.

I looked at the quill sitting in the inkpot, my hand perfectly steady.

If he believed I would never walk away, tonight was the perfect time to prove him wrong.