Stella’s POV
That night, sleep abandoned me like a fickle ghost, leaving me adrift in a darkness that pulsed with secrets. I lay on the edge of our bed, staring at the shadows on the ceiling, though my wolf painted the truth clearer than sight. The air reeked of betrayal, a sour tang beneath the sandalwood musk of my mate. Alpha Travis’s breathing was steady but shallow, and my wolf caught every tremor of his heartbeat. At midnight, like a predator, he slipped from the bed, the weight of his body lifting, cold emptiness spreading across the sheets.
I kept my eyes closed, breath even, as the door clicked shut. My claws threatened to pierce my palms where I gripped the blanket. Silence pressed in, broken only by the faint thrum of the Stormfang Pack’s heartbeats beyond the walls and, sharper still, his voice tangled with Lorie’s laugh down the corridor. It cut through me like silver.
My hand drifted to my stomach, pressing against the faint swell beneath my nightgown. Life pulsed there, our child. He would never know. He had forfeited that right the moment his loyalty turned elsewhere. A true Alpha protects, claims, and shields his mate. Travis had abandoned me in my own den, crawling to another like a thief.
The night dragged like an open wound, my wolf pacing beneath my skin. The moon hung fat and silver above the horizon, casting pale light through the window. It should have soothed me, but tonight it sharpened my isolation.
When dawn bled gray across the room, Alpha Travis returned wearing a smile unworthy of an Alpha. It was the smile of a traitor who thought his sins invisible. He smelled of her; Lorie’s perfume clung to him like a brand, and my wolf recoiled, snarling inside my chest.
“Stella,” he said carefully, the way a man might approach a sleeping beast, “we need to talk.”
The way his voice curled around those words twisted my gut. “What now?” I asked, my tone sharp as a clawed strike.
He hesitated before clearing his throat. “Lorie… she shouldn’t be cramped in the guest room. She’s pregnant. She needs space and comfort.”
For a moment, the room tilted around me, my wolf’s snarl rising in my chest like thunder. “Comfort?” I repeated the word tasting bitter.
He nodded, oblivious to the storm gathering behind my eyes. “Yes. The master bedroom is bigger and more comfortable. It makes sense for her to have it.”
I released a laugh that was half disbelief, half snarl. “You want me to give up my bedroom… to Lorie?”
His jaw tightened. “It’s not forever. Just until the baby is born.”
I stared at him, fighting the wild urge to rip into his throat. My wolf clawed at my insides, screaming to reveal the truth, that I, too, was pregnant. That my pup deserved protection, not Lorie’s bastard. But my human side kept the secret locked behind my teeth. Alpha Travis didn’t deserve to know. Not yet. Perhaps not ever.
He continued, as though speaking to a subordinate. “Stella, you’ve been enjoying the comfortable room for years. Lorie is pregnant. Shouldn’t she be the one most comfortable now? Don’t you think it’s time you made a little sacrifice for your best friend?”
I pressed my lips together until they bled, my claws digging crescents into my palms. What was the point of arguing? In a day, I would be gone from this cursed house, my scent erased from these halls.
“Okay,” I whispered, my voice shaking like leaves in a storm.
His shoulders relaxed with a sigh of relief. He leaned forward and brushed his lips across my forehead, but the touch felt like ash. The wolf inside me snarled so loudly it echoed in my skull, and I had to resist the urge to flinch.
“Alpha Travis?” Lorie’s voice floated down the hallway, dripping with false sweetness.
He turned to leave immediately.
“Hold on, Alpha Travis,” I said calmly, my voice a silk veil over steel. “I need your signature on something.”
I forced my hands to stay steady as I picked up the folder I had prepared the night before.
“It’s just some minor paperwork,” I said softly, cutting off his impatient protest.
He narrowed his eyes, but Lorie called again, and his resolve cracked. “Fine. Give it here,” he snapped.
He didn’t even glance at the words before scrawling his signature across the page. My heart pounded like a war drum as I accepted the folder back. He had no idea what he had just signed, our severance, our undoing.
“Is that all?” he grunted.
“Yes,” I whispered.
He was gone before I could even inhale again, his scent trailing behind him like a wound.
I dialed my lawyer immediately. “My divorce from Alpha Travis is finalized. Pull out all my support and investment from Stormfang Enterprise.”
For years, I had been his silent benefactor, the unseen she-wolf holding up his fragile empire. Now, all of it would collapse without me. A humorless laugh escaped me as I returned to packing.
Minutes later, Lorie appeared in the doorway, her aura slick with smugness, though her voice was coated in honey. “Stella, let me help,” she cooed.
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes; it never had. I had seen that same smile when she comforted me after Joan’s death, when she whispered lies into my grieving ear.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” I said, forcing a smile.
She glided in anyway, a predator disguised as prey. Her gaze flicked to the dresser where Joan’s things still rested untouched.
“Careful, don’t go there,” I snapped, my wolf’s growl bleeding into my voice.
Her smile widened. She picked up the snow globe, a delicate thing with a tiny ballerina dancing inside, Joan’s favorite. It had soothed me through countless nights of grief, the only thing keeping my wolf’s rage at bay.
“This is pretty,” Lorie said softly, tilting it back and forth. “It belonged to Joan, right?”
My chest ached. “Yes. Put it down.”
Her eyes gleamed with malice. “Oops,” she said, and released it.
The globe shattered on the floor, water spilling like blood, the ballerina broken in two.
“Oh no,” Lorie gasped, pressing a hand to her chest in mock horror. “I’m so sorry, Stella. My fingers are so clumsy these days. Pregnancy brain, you know?”
Her eyes danced with glee as she watched me, waiting for the wolf to surface.
I dropped to my knees, gathering the pieces with shaking hands, shards slicing my skin as tears blurred my vision. “It was her favorite,” I whispered, the words a broken howl.
Lorie crouched beside me, her smile sharp as a fang. “Don’t worry, Stella. You’ll have more children. You’ll move on.”
My chest burned as I lifted my gaze to her. In that moment, the fragile restraint I had clung to all night splintered like the snow globe in my hands. My wolf rose, no longer willing to be caged.
And then, I snapped.
