The Scent of Betrayal

Exhausted but radiantly happy from grinding on the dance floor until the soles of their feet practically throbbed, Kaelie dragged her heavy limbs into the vast palace dining room late the next morning. The bright morning sun streamed through the massive windows, making her squint. She sank into a comfortable chair at the long mahogany table, slowly sipping a steaming mug of black coffee after adding a generous splash of cream and sugar. A soft smile played on her lips as she took slow bites from her plate and mindlessly scrolled through her phone. She watched a series of hilarious, shaky video clips documenting their drunken, wild antics from the night before. There was Thatcher, somehow winning a ridiculous dance battle against strangers. Another clip showed Cal dancing recklessly in the middle of the street while Tamsin screamed from the curb for him to get back. The final video showed the boys finally wrangling Cal's wasted body into the trunk of the Escalade while everyone laughed and took pictures.

Soon, the rest of the Apex Circle began to trickle into the room, groaning in misery as they took their seats around the table piled high with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and muffins. The group immediately burst into unapologetic laughter at the sight of Cal. He was incredibly pale and profoundly hungover, clutching his head.

"Coffee. Now," Cal croaked, looking utterly desperate.

Hadley rolled her eyes and practically forced him to swallow two aspirin with a large glass of water. "Blue pill, big A. Drink it."

Pushing her phone aside, Kaelie looked around the table. "So, weather permitting, what is the plan for tonight?"

Evander’s eyes instantly lit up. His exhaustion was suddenly replaced by a massive peak of frantic excitement. "Excellent question!" he announced, slamming his hands loudly flat on the table, making Cal flinch. "My older brother, King Cyrus, is officially scheduled to return to the palace tonight. That means this very day is my absolute last window of freedom before he comes home and I am utterly crushed under the inescapable weight of royal duties again. I want to listen to live music. Let’s find a concert and go lose our minds one last time."

"That doesn’t sound terrible. Let's do it!" Kieran agreed readily and loudly.

The group spent a remarkably relaxing, sun-soaked afternoon lounging lazily by the royal pool. They gathered their energy, swimming and tanning, before finally packing themselves tightly into Evander's massive Escalade.

They drove out to the city and threw themselves into an ear-splitting, exhausting, but utterly incredible rock concert. For hours, they stood in the packed crowd, screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs alongside thousands of sweaty bodies, their phone flashlights swaying high in the dark air. The boys stuck to beer, and the adrenaline rush was purely electric.

Following the concert, starving and buzzing with lingering energy, they found a twenty-four-hour restaurant and completely gorged themselves on greasy burgers and massive piles of fries at the fluorescent-lit diner.

"When is everyone heading out tomorrow?" Evander asked over his food. "I want to make sure I see you all off."

"We'll probably leave mid-morning, I guess," Cal confirmed, sucking down his milkshake.

"Yeah, same for us," Kieran agreed.

"Good. My meetings aren't until the afternoon, so that works out," Evander responded.

Satisfied, they piled back into the Escalade and returned to the quiet palace. They tip-toed into the massive royal kitchen, ruthlessly raiding the high-end pantries for midnight snacks before finally deciding to go their separate ways.

As they walked up the grand staircase, Evander led Kaelie and Kieran down a separate, echoing corridor. He glanced back with a wide smirk. "I specifically made sure our guest rooms were situated on the complete opposite side of the sprawling palace as the mated love birds of our group."

Kieran barked out a laugh. "Thank the Goddess. My extremely sensitive werewolf ears would literally bleed if I were forced to listen to Cal and Hadley loudly mating through the walls."

Kaelie giggled at the joke. Bidding each other a warm goodnight, Evander and Kieran turned and headed down the long hall to their respective, opulent bedrooms.

Kaelie did not immediately enter her room to change for bed. Instead, she paused and lingered entirely alone by the towering glass window across from the stairs, silently watching heavy raindrops begin to streak down the glass as a storm rolled in.

The sheer perfection of the great weekend filled her with an unexpected sense of peace, making her genuinely look forward to the upcoming Leadership training. After all, the training grounds were the exact place her own parents had first locked eyes. Her mother had been walking out to the field when she smelled her mate, and they had instantly, magically recognized each other as fated mates.

She let out a long, heavy sigh against the cold glass, wondering if she would ever be lucky enough to get a deeply romantic, sweeping love story of her own. She desperately craved a partner who would love her unconditionally and completely, treating her like a precious gem.

As she finally turned away from the glass to walk toward her bed, it happened.

A sudden, unbearably sweet, irresistibly intoxicating scent violently hit her senses.

Kaelie stopped dead in her tracks, her body freezing entirely in place. The scent was so overpowering, so uniquely perfect, that it immediately drove her inner wolf frantic with a clawing, desperate anxiety. It was the unmistakable, undeniable scent of her mate.

Her heart hammered violently against her ribs. The invisible trail hung in the air, faint but distinct, clearly belonging to someone who had walked through this very hallway hours ago. Driven by pure, uncontrollable instinct, she practically ran out of her room, desperately following the invisible, sweet ribbon of scent down the winding, shadowy corridors of the palace.

She followed it until she came to a dead, abrupt stop.

She was standing dead center in the King’s Quarters.

The massive, ornate wooden door looming directly in front of her belonged specifically to the King’s private bedchamber. Only the royal family and highest-ranking guards were ever permitted in this restricted wing.

Kaelie was utterly stunned by the crushing realization. Her hand trembled wildly as she slowly hovered her fingers just millimeters over the cold metal doorknob.

Her fated mate was the returning King Cyrus.

Her mind raced at a million miles an hour. What was she supposed to say? *Sorry to wake you, but I am your mate? I was walking around the halls and caught your scent?*

Just as her fingers brushed the metal, a distinct sound violently pierced through the thick, carved wood of the door, causing her stomach to violently lurch into her throat.

Her chest exploded with a sharp, agonizingly physical pain as low, unmistakable moans drifted clearly from the other side of the bedroom door. Her enhanced hearing picked up the undeniable, wet slapping of bare skin repeatedly slamming against skin. She heard the deep, heavy grunts of a man exerting himself, accompanied by the explicit, raw sound of a hard dick violently thrusting deep into a woman's pussy.

"Fuck, yes," the woman moaned loudly, her voice dripping with sexual ecstasy.

The low, guttural growl of the King vibrated through the wood as he ruthlessly pounded his cock into her.

Tears instantly spilled over Kaelie's lower lashes, tracking hot and fast down her cheeks. Completely unable to breathe, her mind short-circuiting in pure panic, Kaelie turned on her heel and ran.

She fled blindly, her vision completely blurred by a thick veil of tears, sprinting desperately through the endless, maze-like halls and bursting out the heavy back doors into the sprawling royal gardens.

She ran without looking, her foot catching hard on a raised decorative stone, sending her violently crashing down into the wet, unforgiving dirt.

Thunder rolled angrily overhead, and the torrential, freezing rain instantly soaked her clothes down to the bone, but she didn't care about the raging storm. She didn't care that she lay in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Clutching both hands tightly over her violently aching chest, Kaelie lay there in the freezing mud and sobbed hysterically. Her body shook with violent tremors, left absolutely, completely devastated by the horrifying reality that her one true, destined mate was currently sweating in his bed, deeply entangled with another woman, his cock buried deep inside her.