Addison’s POV
The taste of bitterness clung to my tongue as I climbed the stairs, each step heavier than the last. Upstairs, in what was once supposed to be our home, I needed to gather the last of my belongings.
The house that carried my name alongside his. The house that was supposed to be filled with laughter, pups, and the bond of mates.
When I opened the bedroom door, the stench hit me before my eyes could take in the room.
My wolf recoiled instantly. The thick, pungent scent of musk and sweat, laced with the unmistakable trace of release. After sex. My heart stopped in my chest, then lurched painfully, as if claws raked it from the inside.
No.
I stepped further in, my eyes scanning. And there it was—carelessly discarded on the edge of the bed. A woman’s underwear.
I gripped the doorframe, my nails biting into the wood until it splintered. My wolf snarled, her hackles raised. So they made it that far.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Goddess, how cruel can you be? This was the room I had decorated, the sheets I had chosen, the space where I imagined Cole and I would begin our life as Luna and Alpha. Instead, it reeked of betrayal, desecrated by the omega who had slithered her way into his arms.
Downstairs, laughter floated up—his and hers, light and warm, as if mocking the storm raging in my chest. I bit my lip so hard I tasted iron. My wolf whimpered low, humiliated and aching.
I couldn’t stop the memories from flooding in.
From the very moment Athena entered his life, Cole had bent himself to her every whim. Always with the same excuse: gratitude, debt.
I remembered the dragon fruit. She had been craving it, whining about how rare it was. Cole turned to me, his fiancée, his supposed Luna-to-be, and asked me to fetch it.
“Addison,” he had said, tone commanding though his smile was soft, “Athena really wants dragon fruit. You can go to the market in the next town, right?”
It was a long ride, but I went. For him. For us. Because I thought helping her would ease the burden of his debt and bring him back to me sooner.
I came back exhausted, arms full of the fruit she begged for. Athena wrinkled her nose and pouted.
“It’s not fresh enough,” she said, tossing one aside. “I want it straight from the farm. Not from a market.”
My jaw clenched. I waited for Cole to scold her, to defend me. Instead, he chuckled.
“Alright. We’ll go to the farm.” He looked at me, expectant. “Come on, Addison. Let’s make the trip together.”
The drive there had been the bitterest I’d ever endured. I sat in the back seat, silent and seething, while Athena occupied the passenger side, giggling at his words, basking in his attention. I should have been the one seated there. I was his mate, his fiancée. But she sat where I belonged, as if already Luna.
And then fate decided to cut deeper. Rogues ambushed us on the forest road. Snarling, vicious, hungry for blood.
Cole’s first instinct wasn’t to shield me. It wasn’t to protect his fiancée, the woman who had stood by him since childhood. No. His arms wrapped around Athena, shielding her as if she were his most precious treasure.
I had been left to fend for myself.
My wolf fought savagely, claws tearing, fangs rending, while Cole roared for backup and Athena screamed in his arms. By the time reinforcements arrived, I was bleeding heavily, my body torn.
I spent a month in the infirmary, wrapped in bandages, my wolf straining to heal me. And not once—not once—did Cole come to see me.
Instead, Athena visited with her fake soft smiles. “Cole’s busy taking care of me,” she told me. “You understand, right?”
Understand? She had no visible wounds. A scratch on her arm, maybe. I bore deep gashes across my body. Yet Cole had chosen to tend to her.
That was the day something inside me withered. Even on the edge of death, I was not his priority.
The memory stung now more than ever as I stood in that room, staring at the evidence of what he and Athena had done on the bed meant for us.
My chest heaved. My vision blurred with tears, hot trails burning my cheeks. My wolf howled inside, raw and broken, but there was no point fighting anymore.
I bent down, grabbed my luggage, and stuffed my things inside with shaking hands. I didn’t want to breathe this air any longer. Every corner of the room screamed of betrayal. Every item reminded me of how foolish I had been to believe in promises.
I whispered to myself, a vow this time not for him, but for me. “I will never cross your path again, Alpha Cole Windsor. You’ve lost me for good.”
