He Left Me at the Altar to Save His Childhood Sweetheart

“No! Stop!”

I wished I didn’t recognize that bone-chilling cry, but I’ve heard it enough to have it horribly ingrained in my head.

The vivid scenarios instantly streamed into my mind at that moment, sending me back to the dream that had been bothering me since three nights ago—the dream that showed how the wedding I had longed for four years became a disaster.

Slowly, I turned around, shell-shocked, moving as if my body weren’t my own. It felt like I was watching the same movie all over again, and this was the part where I saw myself at the altar, locking eyes with Axel’s childhood sweetheart as she scandalously objected to our union while the pack’s warriors tried to drag her out of the temple.

“Axel, you promised you won’t marry her. She doesn’t deserve you!” Jena screamed, desperately trying to break free. “No! Get off me!”

Hearing the exact same words from her mouth had me trembling, scared, and confused. I stumbled back, unable to breathe. I told my friends about these dreams I’d been having, and they said it was just the wedding nerves. I kind of felt relieved to think it might just be a silly dream, but what’s this happening in front of me?

I squeezed onto Axel’s arm to steady myself. The world was suddenly spinning in a haze and I couldn’t tell which was real or fake. Nothing made any sense.

Then, I heard Axel cursing under his breath, which never happened in the dream. My head snapped, looking at him, and I saw the embarrassment, annoyance, and concern he was hiding behind his poker face, but his tender gaze at Jena betrayed him. Seeing that cleared my head like waking up from a wicked spell but to another nightmare.

“You just told me you love me last night. Don’t do this to me, Axel. Please,” Jena begged, bawling.

“Enough, Jena. We’ve already been through this. Diana is my mate, and we are swearing our bond to the moon goddess tonight,” Axel said, making me feel a little guilty. I assumed he was looking out for Jena as usual, but was he actually doing it for me?

My heart fluttered thinking he had finally put me before Jena, but she always had a knack for raining on my parade, and I shouldn’t have had my hopes up.

“No! I’d rather just die than see you marry her!” Jena screamed, slipping away from the warriors and pulling a silver dagger to her neck.

Everyone gasped. The Alpha tried to save his daughter from her stupidity but Axel was faster. In a split second, he left my side and took the dagger from Jena before it dug too deep.

She leaned weakly in his arms, cupping his face while looking as if she was about to die from a mere scrape. Then, after whispering how much she loved him, she fainted.

The temple shook with chaos, and I didn’t know what to do. Axel quickly rushed down the aisle, carrying Jena. I called out to him in panic, but what he did rooted me, frozen in tears at the Altar.

“Not now, Diana. I have to get Jena to the hospital,” he coldly said without looking back.

Axel ran out of the temple with everyone following him, and I was left all alone in that cold temple with nowhere else to go but the empty house he and I had been living in for the past four years.

The silence was crushing, and every dark corner reminded me of our few good memories—each one nicking a piece of my heart.

Axel used to make me believe I meant the world to him, but before we were mates, I was nothing to him, and apparently, I still am.

I was fourteen when I first met Axel. Back then, he and Jena had always been glued together. I was only a background character in their little world, which I destroyed when I became Axel’s mate four years later.

It was unexpected and the pull was overwhelming, but the spark between us died out sooner because there were three of us in this relationship. All this time, I thought Jenna kept stealing Alex’s attention from me, but after what happened earlier, it was obvious that I had always been the third wheel. I came in between the two who were clearly into each other because of our damn fate.

I dropped to my knees, defeated, wailing in grief for my broken heart. However, my entire body was suddenly tormented with a different kind of pain. A weird burning sensation exploded in my chest and rapidly coursed through my veins. It felt as if my flesh was being charred with molten lava and was so excruciating I was rolling on the floor screaming until the intense pain knocked me out cold.

I woke up the following day sprawled on the floor, surrounded by rubble and in a tattered ceremonial gown. Darkness was slowly creeping back into the house as the sun set, but even with less light, I could see the kind of mess the house turned into. It looked as if a wild animal stormed in and thrashed everything.

I didn't know what happened after I passed out, but the gaping void in my chest told me everything I needed to know. Axel had bonded with someone else and my wolf went berserk.

Knowing that was devastating, yet I couldn’t even cry about it. I felt so hollow, dead despite being alive.

A loud ring then broke the numbing silence hovering over me. I weakly dug my phone from the rubble and saw Axel calling. He was the least of the people I wanted to talk to right now, so I ignored it, but he got through my head after bombing me with phone calls.

I answered his thirtieth call, putting it on speaker and his blasted voice immediately bounced through the walls, blowing his top off.

“What the heck, Diana? Why did you send Jena that voicemail? Are you throwing a fit because I ignored your calls last night? Jena's already having a hard time! Could you stop being petty and childish for once?”