Chasing My Alpha’s Mistress

POV: Sienna Adler

The glaring light of my phone screen illuminated the dim, oppressive morning shadows filtering into the dining room. My thumb hovered over the glowing glass, tracing the harsh, unfeeling edges of the text bubbles. The suffocating weight of paranoia had been pressing down on my chest for over a week, fueled by a relentless barrage of anonymous messages systematically destroying my peace of mind. Every chime, every buzz, brought a new claim, a new spike of terror straight into my heart.

*Unknown: Your Alpha mate is cheating on you.*

*Unknown: He will soon break up with you and get another she-wolf pregnant.*

A deep frown carved itself into my forehead as I read the agonizing words again. I slid the device facedown onto the polished mahogany table, desperate to block out the digital venom. I looked across the wide expanse of our dining table, seeking a shred of the affection we once shared during our early months of marriage.

"Honey, do you need anything else?" I asked, my voice carrying a tentative, fragile hope. I pushed a small porcelain plate of freshly made waffles closer to the center of the table.

Kaelen sat across from me, a heavy, impenetrable wall of ice. He was engrossed in his own phone, his broad shoulders tense, looking weary and distant. We had been married for just a few short months, and things had already taken a sharp turn for the worse. Back when I first felt the mate bond snap into place with him, I thought I was the luckiest she-wolf alive, and for a fleeting, beautiful while, I truly was. But then, something deep inside him shifted. Just when I allowed myself to dream that we were ready to start a family, he withdrew into a hardened shell. It had been a full two weeks since he had spared even a passing glance in my direction. Something had definitely changed, and these toxic messages from the unknown source were pushing my anxiety to a boiling point.

The silence in the room stretched, thick and suffocating, broken only by the faint ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway and the soft slide of his finger across his screen. He barely acknowledged my existence.

"Kaelen!" I cleared my throat, the sound sharp in the quiet room. "I'm talking to you."

I curled my fingers into fists under the table, resisting the overwhelming urge to reach across the wood, grab his phone out of his large hands, and see exactly who was occupying his attention to the point that he had so little to say to his own mate.

"Huh?" He raised his thick, black eyebrows, barely shifting his gaze from the glowing screen before getting lost in his cellphone once again. His response was nothing more than a dismissive, guttural grunt.

Alpha King Kaelen Croft crashed into my life when I was just eleven years old, and he was thirteen. We started as innocent friends before discovering years later, under the light of the full moon, that we were true mates. My own wolf was so pathetic, so tragically weak, that all she could manage to do was recognize our mate bond before falling silent in my mind. But Kaelen didn't care back then. He saved me from being kicked out of the pack for not having a proper, functioning wolf. I owed him everything. I loved him with every fiber of my being.

"Sienna! I don't feel like eating anything," he finally said, his voice clipped and flat, acknowledging my presence as if I were a minor inconvenience. He abruptly pushed his chair back. The wooden legs scraped harshly against the floor. "I have some pending work that needs to be taken care of right now."

He grabbed his laptop bag from the floor, his movements rigid. "And don't wait for me tonight; I'll be late."

He snatched up his glass of juice, took a quick, careless sip, and set it down hard. He didn't take a single bite of the food I had spent the morning preparing for him.

"Is there a meeting in the office?" I asked, looking down at my plate, mindlessly nudging a cluster of red berries around the waffles with the tines of my fork.

"Sort of," he answered, his tone giving away nothing. "I'm going to leave; I don't want to be late for the office." His beautiful gray eyes, usually a source of immense comfort to me, were cold and guarded as he adjusted the strap of his bag over his broad shoulder.

"But you didn't even finis—"

The words dried to dust in my mouth as he turned his back on me and walked out the door without a backward glance, leaving me alone in a chilling void of isolation. The front door clicked shut, the sound echoing through the empty mansion.

"This isn't right," I whispered to the empty room, tears welling up, blurring my vision as I stared down at the dark screen of my phone. "He's been acting up so much these days. Could it be that whoever is texting me is telling the truth?"

A rogue tear slipped down my cheek, splashing onto the polished wood. Cheating between true mates rarely happens. The bond is supposed to be sacred, a pull forged by the Moon Goddess herself. But when a mate does stray, the betrayal tears through the soul, hurting like hell.

Unable to sit in the heavy silence any longer, I pushed away from the table and retreated to the safety of my room. The walls felt like they were closing in. I collapsed onto the edge of my bed, burying my face in my hands, letting the suppressed sobs wrack my chest.

"Hey, you're eating breakfast alone? Where's your charming husband?"

I jumped slightly, wiping my face as my best friend, Cleo, stepped through the doorway. She had been living in my quarters for a few months, seeking refuge to heal from the severe trauma of her own mate's brutal rejection.

Cleo was a stunning she-wolf, the daughter of the Alpha King of the Ironwood Pack. She had a strong, capable brother next in line for the alpha position, and she herself held the respected rank of Gamma. It was highly unusual for a high-ranking wolf like her to befriend a lowly, practically wolf-less Omega like me from the Silver Glacier Pack. I was now living in my mate’s territory, the Crimson Thorn Pack, where I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Seeing her familiar face, my fragile defenses crumbled into dust.

"Cleo, I'm beginning to think that the wrong number isn't lying," I confessed, my voice trembling as I poured out the paralyzing fears I had kept bottled up. "Kaelen hasn't spoken a real sentence to me in days. He's always engrossed in his phone. It's been weeks since he even asked me to share a bed with him. His sudden freezing distance... I'm just very scared now."

She gave me a deep, sympathetic glance, her green eyes softening with understanding, before coming over and sitting down beside me on the mattress. Having her living here with me had been my only comfort. Kaelen's mother rarely visited the mansion, but on the rare occasions she did, she made sure to make it crystal clear how much she despised her Alpha King son marrying a weak Omega instead of a strong, chosen Luna.

"I hope it's not because you're sleeping in my room," Cleo pouted sadly, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "I kind of feel guilty for disrupting your early years of marriage."

"Hey, don't blame yourself," I said, forcing a weak smile across my trembling lips to reassure her. "You have terrible nightmares from the rejection, and you need your friend beside you. I'm sure that's not why he's acting up."

It was a small lie to protect her feelings. The timing was undeniable. The moment we got married, Cleo arrived needing help, and I had to spend countless hours with her because whenever she was left alone, severe anxiety attacks would consume her.

Right in the middle of this raw vulnerability, my phone buzzed harsh and loud against the nightstand. The sudden sound made my heart leap into my throat. I reached over, my fingers shaking, and swiped the screen open. The new text was brutally specific.

*Unknown: Your mate is on his way to a luxury suite he booked for his mistress. They're going to spend hours together.*

All the blood drained from my face. My vision swam as the words burned into my retinas.

"Sienna! What's going on? You're making me worried," Cleo said, noticing the sheer panic morphing my features.

For a terrifying second, the world around me seemed to go dead silent. Time froze. The sheer panic of enduring constant, suffocating hatred from his pack members for being a lowly Omega, combined with this concrete, undeniable proof of his betrayal, overloaded my nervous system.

Cleo got up from the bed, moving closer, and snatched the phone directly from my sweaty hands to read the glowing text.

"Oh Goddess! This is serious," she gasped, her eyes widening in horror.

"Cleo! I don't want to catch my mate with someone," I choked out, unable to hold back the floodgates any longer. I broke down crying, panting for air as if I had just run a marathon. "Why is this happening to me? I've put up with his mother's insults and everyone's burning judgment for so long. All for what? So that he can walk out the door and cheat on me?"

"Hey! Please calm down first," Cleo pleaded, placing a warm hand on my back and rubbing it in slow circles.

But her touch offered no comfort. A sudden, sickening wave of nausea hit me like a physical blow. My stomach lurched hard. I shoved past her, rushing blindly to the adjoining bathroom. I dropped to my knees on the cold tile and threw up into the toilet bowl, my stomach contracting with brutal force from the overwhelming, toxic stress of it all. I retched until my throat burned, tears streaming down my face.

"Umm! Are you okay?" Cleo's hesitant voice drifted through the open doorway.

"I'm fine," I rasped, spitting the bitter taste from my mouth. I reached up, flushed the toilet, and turned on the sink. The cold water splashed over my pale skin, washing away the tears. "I've been feeling sick lately, probably because of the stress."

I grabbed a towel, dried my face, and steadied my shaking legs before walking back into the bedroom.

Cleo stood in the center of the room, her expression unreadable. She remained silent for a tense moment, then stepped forward and grabbed both of my hands, forcing my gaze up to meet her intense green eyes.

"You can't let him play you," she said, her voice firm. "That person sent you the hotel's address and the exact room number. You need to go see for yourself what's going on."

Her demand shook me to my core. Catching him red-handed would mean the end of my marriage. It would mean my worst nightmares were real.

"I can't," I hesitated, shaking my head frantically, stepping back. "Why don't you go for me?" The cowardly, miserable part of my soul was taking control.

Cleo sighed, dropping a devastating bombshell that shattered my remaining walls of denial.

"Sienna! I haven't told you this, but I saw him with a girl yesterday. Please wake up and recognize your worth. If he's cheating on you, he needs to face you and be confronted."

Her words knocked the breath straight out of my lungs. I stared at her in horrified, gaping disbelief. My mate. My Kaelen. Seen with another girl.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" I whispered, my voice breaking.

"So, go and catch him," she nodded, ignoring my question, her jaw set.

"Please come with me," I begged, gripping her sleeves.

She shook her head, shrinking back. "I can't. I still have agonizing nightmares from my own confrontation with my mate. If I had to stand there and witness it happening to you, I'd probably lose my mind."

She rubbed my cold hands between her warm ones. "Sienna! Just go before you become the side chick, and the mistress takes over your life."

Drawing on a desperate, fractured reserve of courage, I nodded. I had to know the truth.

I threw on a black empire waist dress, gave the address to our pack driver, and climbed into the back seat of the black SUV. My heart hammered loud against my ribs, a frantic, erratic drumbeat. I couldn't stop fiddling with the hem of my dress. The car ride was agonizingly silent, the trees blurring past the tinted windows as a wave of dread washed over me.

"Shit!" I cursed aloud, reaching deep into my leather purse. My fingers met empty space. I had accidentally left my phone on the nightstand in my rush, cutting off my only proof, my only lifeline to the anonymous sender.

The driver pulled into the expansive, pristine parking lot of the upscale hotel. My stomach churned with a fresh wave of acid. He had brought his mistress here. To a place this luxurious.

I stepped out of the vehicle. Two towering pack guards were stationed at the main glass doors.

"Your highness!" The guard on the left grunted, offering a reluctant, disdainful bow. I could feel their eyes burning into my skin with silent judgment, mocking the weak Omega who couldn't keep her Alpha satisfied.

"Thank you," I replied, clutching my hands tightly in front of my stomach to hide their violent trembling.

I navigated the opulent, quiet corridors, stepping onto the plush, thick carpet that swallowed the sound of my footsteps. I found the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor. Everything around me felt freezing cold and airy, as if I were detached from reality, floating through a nightmare.

I stepped off the elevator. The long hallway stretched before me, lined with golden sconces and dark wooden doors.

"367," I whispered under my breath, my chest rising and falling in quick, shallow gasps. "Please stay faithful, Kaelen."

Even with Cleo's damning confession, a desperate part of my soul prayed to the Moon Goddess that this was all a massive misunderstanding. Kaelen was all I had in this world.

I reached the heavy wooden door of room 367. I reached out, my fingers wrapping around the cool metal handle. It clicked open easily. It was unlocked.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside the grand suite. The scene before me materialized my darkest fears. The floor was a chaotic trail of lust. A pair of sharp, glossy red stilettos lay discarded by the entryway. A few feet away, a silky red dress was thrown carelessly onto the shiny tiles.

Then, my eyes landed on it. Near the threshold of the bedroom, a large, dark masculine coat rested on an armchair. It matched Kaelen's exactly.

"That's his coat," I gasped, slapping both hands over my mouth.

A blinding, uncontrollable anger boiled up from the depths of my stomach, overriding my fear. I stormed toward the bedroom, pushing the heavy door wide open, stepping into the dimly lit space.

A figure lay sprawled out on the massive king-sized bed, fast asleep. He was lying on his stomach, completely exposed, facing away from me. The strange girl was nowhere to be seen, perhaps in the bathroom. The scent in the room was unfamiliar, confusing my weak wolf, but my rage deafened my instincts.

"How could you do this to me?" I screamed, my voice cracking with pure agony.

I lunged forward, grabbed the thick edge of the blanket, and yanked it hard off the bed. The heavy fabric flew to the floor, leaving the sleeping man exposed, his naked bottom bared to the cool air of the suite.

The man jolted awake with a sharp intake of breath. He rolled over and turned his face toward me.

A paralyzing shock froze the blood in my veins. My mind went blank, a white wall of static roaring in my ears.

The man lying in the bed was a total stranger. I had never seen his face before in my life.

Horrified and profoundly confused, I frowned, taking a stumbling step back. "Who are you?" I demanded, my voice shaking.

Instead of showing any fear or embarrassment at his exposed state, a sickening, arrogant smirk spread across his lips.

"What do you mean, 'Who am I?'" he retorted shamelessly, leaning back on his elbows. "We had sex just a few minutes ago, and you already forgot about me?"

Panic seized my throat like a vice. His words made no sense. I must be in the wrong room. This was a trap, a setup, a mortifying mistake.

"I think I'm in the wrong room," I stammered, raising trembling hands to my face, spinning around on my heels, desperate to flee.

But the stranger moved with alarming, predatory speed. He scrambled out of the bed, his naked body on full display, his flaccid penis and bare skin exposed to the cold air of the room, devoid of any shame. He closed the distance before I could take three steps.

He shot his hand out, grabbing my thin wrist with bruising force.

I let out a sharp cry as he yanked me backward, pulling my body hard against his bare chest, his naked flesh pressing through the thin fabric of my dress. I gasped sharply at the gross, inappropriate physical contact, throwing my hands up to shove against his muscular shoulders, desperate to break free from his grip.

But before I could push him away, a sharp, familiar gasp echoed from the doorway behind my back.

I froze, the blood draining from my face.

"You've been cheating on me?"

Kaelen's voice, dark, deep, and dripping with venom, cut through the quiet room like a blade.

I twisted my neck, my breath catching in my throat. Kaelen stood in the doorway, his broad frame filling the space. His beautiful gray eyes were now black with untamed fury, staring directly at me as I stood pressed against an unclothed stranger in a private, dimly lit suite.

In that horrifying split second, looking into the eyes of my mate who believed the absolute worst of me, it felt like my soul had left my body.