Returned Ex

Elara’s POV

The vibrant atmosphere of the Full Lune festival buzzed around us, a symphony of clinking glasses, roaring laughter, and the upbeat rhythm of traditional pack drums. Garlands of silver lights illuminated the grand banquet hall of the Pyrewood Enclave, casting a warm glow over our esteemed guests. But my entire world came to a sudden, agonizing halt.

“I’m so glad you are here tonight, Lilith. I love you.”

The words murmured from my husband’s lips struck me like a physical blow to the chest. I froze in my tracks, the festive music fading into a dull, distant ringing in my ears. Conrad, the fierce and respected Alpha of our pack, stood mere feet away from me. He was shamelessly holding his high school sweetheart, Lilith, in his strong arms, planting a soft, lingering kiss on her forehead.

He had brought her here. To our most important pack gathering of the year, completely ignoring my existence.

All around me, the mocking whispers and cruel jeers of our esteemed guests began to slither through the crowd. I stood utterly alone, feeling the weight of their gloating stares burning into my skin. We were meant to be destined mates, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. But our once-solid marriage had slowly, painfully fractured under the crushing weight of my tragic miscarriage. The loss of our baby had torn a hole in my soul, one that I had desperately tried to patch. To heal the massive rift between us, we had adopted a sweet, innocent little boy named Ronin. I had poured every single ounce of my maternal love into that child, staying up through feverish nights, kissing his scraped knees, and loving him as my own flesh and blood.

But now, the ghost of Conrad's past had returned in the flesh, wrapped securely in his embrace.

Forcing my trembling hands to still, I drew in a ragged breath. I suppressed the rising tide of panic threatening to suffocate me, squared my shoulders, and strode purposefully toward them. I was the Luna of this pack, and I refused to cower.

“Lilith, you should leave,” I demanded, projecting every ounce of Luna's dignity I could physically muster into my voice. “And stay away from my husband.”

Lilith didn't flinch. She didn't look ashamed or embarrassed. Instead, she turned to Conrad, her big eyes wide and sickeningly innocent.

“Love, shall we tell her?” she whispered softly, her fingers gently grazing his chest.

My stomach plummeted into an endless, dark abyss as Conrad shifted his gaze from her to me. I searched his face for a flicker of remorse, a hint of hesitation, but there was no guilt in his eyes. There was only a chilling, absolute indifference that made my blood run completely cold.

“Lilith will stay here from now on,” he declared flatly, his voice echoing with undeniable authority.

“Stay here? As what? Are you out of your mind?!” I snapped, my carefully constructed composure shattering in an instant.

Instantly, thick tears welled in Lilith's eyes, spilling perfectly over her flushed cheeks. She clasped her hands together in front of her chest, frantically shaking her head as if I were the villain.

“I know you hate me, Elara, but please don't yell at him! I won't threaten your rightful position, I promise,” she cried, her voice trembling with fake sincerity. “You can still be Luna. All I want is to stay with Conrad… and my child.”

The solid ground seemed to violently slip from beneath my feet, sending me into a dizzying tailspin. My breath hitched in my throat.

“Child? What child?” I asked, my words hissing through tightly clenched teeth.

Conrad and Lilith exchanged a heavy, loaded look. It was an intimate, secretive glance that screamed of shared histories and hidden betrayals. Finally, Conrad exhaled a harsh breath, offering the confession that would entirely destroy my life.

“It’s probably time to tell you the truth,” Conrad said, his jaw tightening. “Ronin is Lilith and my kid.”

The words didn't make sense. They scrambled in my brain, refusing to align. “But you said… you adopted him from an orphanage! He didn't have parents!”

Conrad stood tall, aggressively defending his horrific deception without a shred of shame. “If I hadn't said that, would you have accepted Ronin and raised him as your own? Lilith couldn't raise the boy when he was born. So I brought him back to the pack under the guise of an orphaned child. It was nothing more than a harmless white lie.”

A harmless white lie?

The realization hit me with nauseating force, violently punching the air out of my lungs. Every memory I had of Ronin calling me 'Mommy', every late-night lullaby, every moment of pure joy I felt watching him grow—it was all tainted. I had spent years pouring my entire heart and soul into raising the biological child of the very woman who had fucked my husband behind my back. They had used me. I wasn't a mother to them; I was an unpaid, clueless nanny. And now, she was standing right in front of me, ready to take both my husband and the son I called my own.

“No,” I gritted out, desperately fighting back the burning tears that threatened to spill over. “This is unacceptable. Send her away please… I am asking as your wife and Luna!”

“She stays. End of discussion!” Conrad growled, his Alpha aura flaring aggressively, pushing heavily against the air in the room.

Trembling from head to toe, my chest heaving with a mix of fury and devastation, I stared right into his cold eyes. “If you keep your mistress under our roof, you are driving me away forever.”

Before Conrad could even respond to my ultimatum, Lilith dramatically burst into loud, theatrical sobs.

“Don't push him! I refuse to be the third woman in your broken marriage… I should just go!” she wailed, covering her face. Turning on her heel, she sprinted out of the grand banquet hall, her blonde hair flying behind her.

Conrad immediately snapped his head toward me, shooting me a vicious, hateful glare. “Now are you happy?” he snapped furiously.

Without a second backward glance, he stormed out past me, his massive frame shoving through the heavy double doors to chase after his weeping mistress.

I was left completely alone. The silence that followed was deafening, soon replaced by the renewed, malicious whispers of the pack. I was profoundly humiliated, pointedly ignored by the gloating, gossiping crowd who clearly favored the Alpha's pure-blooded high school sweetheart over a discarded wife. I couldn't breathe. I staggered blindly away from the festival, my vision blurring with hot tears, rushing through the winding corridors of the pack house until I finally reached my room.

I slammed the door shut, locked it, and collapsed onto the floor. I spent hours sobbing until my throat was raw, my voice entirely gone, and my eyes were swollen shut. The cold darkness of the room pressed in on me, but eventually, a desperate, pathetic hope clawed its way into my chest. We were mates. We had a bond. Surely, we could talk this through. I could swallow my pride and find a way to make our marriage work.

I steeled my resolve, wiping the crusty tears from my face, and walked with heavy, leaden steps to Conrad's private quarters. I just needed to see him. I needed to fix this nightmare.

But as I rounded the corner to his suite, I was met by the cold, unyielding wall of his elite soldiers. They stepped forward in perfect unison, firmly blocking my path.

“I need to speak with my husband,” I rasped.

“The Alpha is busy,” the lead guard stated coldly, his eyes completely devoid of respect. “He gave strict, direct orders not to be disturbed by anyone. Especially you.”

Busy? He was busy?

Just as a blinding flash of pure anger ignited in my chest, a sharp, tearing agony violently coursed through my entire body. I gasped, my knees buckling as I slammed a hand against the wall to keep from falling. It wasn't just heartbreak; it was the undeniable, unbearable physical pain of a mate's profound betrayal. In the werewolf world, when your destined mate cheats on you, the severed bond punishes you.

The mate bond connecting us forced horrific, vividly explicit images directly into my mind, burning them into my retinas.

I saw them. They were completely naked, their slick, sweaty bodies thrashing together on our sacred wedding bed, the very sheets I had slept in. I could feel the phantom heat of their disgusting union. Conrad was hovering over her, his hips snapping forward with brutal force, driving his thick cock deep inside her wet pussy.

“Oh… oh my god, harder, harder!” Lilith shrieked directly in my mind, her voice dripping with pure, filthy ecstasy as her legs wrapped tightly around his waist.

I saw his large hands brutally grabbing her bouncing boob, his fingers digging into her soft flesh, squeezing and kneading as he thrust deeply and relentlessly into her. The slapping sound of their skin colliding echoed sickeningly in my head.

“You are amazing… fuck… I love you,” he growled, a deep, primal sound vibrating from his chest—a sound he had once reserved only for me.

A vile, sick feeling surged violently up my throat, choking off my air. The pain in my chest felt like my heart was being ripped in two. I clutched my stomach, struggling to take a few agonizing steps forward to get away from the guards. But my body completely gave out. I collapsed against the stone wall, gagging uncontrollably, and violently threw up my stomach's contents onto the cold floor.