Broken and Betrayed

Valerie's POV

"Celia is pregnant."

The unapologetic, brutal confession hit my chest like a physical sledgehammer. For a second, I thought the sheer stress of running this pack had finally cracked my mind. I blinked slowly, staring at the steady, unashamed expression settling on his face. Kaelen was not playing a sick joke. He stood there in his rumpled suit, smelling of her jasmine perfume and his own climax, delivering the news that shattered my life. He had blatantly brought his former lover back into our territory, flaunted her existence to my face, and successfully given her the exact thing I spent grueling, painful years trying to conceive.

An heir.

The phantom aches burning on my mark over the past few weeks slammed into me. It crystallized into a horrifying reality. The sudden weakness during pack meetings, the scorching pain on my neck that left me gasping in the dark. It all made perfect, sickening sense now. Every single time he buried his cock inside Celia, every time he drove his dick deep into her flesh, my body paid the devastating price of the betrayal. The mate bond punished me for his sins. While I bled my soul dry running his logistics and securing his borders, my mate was busy filling another woman's womb.

"You bastard!" The scream ripped past my throat before logic could stop it.

I swung a desperate fist right at his jaw. He caught my wrist effortlessly in mid-air. His grip was cold iron. His sharp claws slid out from his fingertips, pricking my skin just enough to draw a bead of blood. A silent, deadly threat.

"Valerie," he said, his voice carrying a controlled calm that made my stomach churn. "Do not do something you will regret."

My wolf snarled, fighting against the crushing weight of his dominance. "Let go of me!"

His grip tightened, cutting off my circulation. "If you challenge my Alpha authority again, I will remind you who rules this pack."

He cemented the grim reality right in my face. This pack, the empire we built side by side from the ground up, belonged solely to him in his mind.

I swallowed the metallic taste of blood and bile rising in my throat. "Are you naming her Luna?"

"No." His answer was immediate. He did not even blink. "You are still the Luna of Eclipse Moon."

A hollow, broken laugh escaped my lips. "You claim you want me as your mate, yet you knock up your mistress."

His jaw tightened. "I didn't plan it."

"That makes it worse."

"Valerie, listen to me." His eyes darkened, stripping away any pretense of remorse. "The pack needs an heir. You couldn't give me one."

The words struck deeper than his actual infidelity. He weaponized my body's silence. He framed my barrenness as a complete failure on my part, equal to his betrayal.

"You could have talked to me," my voice shook, betraying the crack in my armor.

"I did try," he snapped. "For years. The council is pressuring us. Our allies are watching our every move. I can't risk Eclipse Moon crumbling because you refuse to step down."

"Step down?" I asked, my blood turning to ice.

"From your role as my mate. Not Luna. I need both. My political power, and my lineage."

The twisted reality set in. "You want the title wife and the womb mistress," I whispered. "Two women, one throne."

"Stop being dramatic. She is just carrying the heir."

"Reject me, then," I demanded, yanking my wrist against his hold. "Formally reject me. I won't stand beside a man who humiliate me this way."

His fingers clamped down harder, bruising my skin. "No. There will be no rejection. Ever."

"Why?"

He stared down at me, admitting the dark, political truth. "Because the moment I reject the daughter of the Frost Pack, half the military force becomes loyal to you. They will rebel against me. I will not risk my throne for your pride."

A soft knock interrupted our volatile confrontation. The office door pushed open before I could hurl another curse at him.

Celia drifted into the room. She was draped in sheer white silk, the fabric deliberately cut to cling to the slight rounding of her stomach. Her hair fell in soft, styled waves. She looked glowing and rested, hiding any trace of exhaustion from her early pregnancy.

"Kaelen," she murmured, stepping inside. "I was worried. You left so suddenly."

Her gaze flicked to me. She feigned a sweet, performative concern. "Oh, Luna Valerie, you look pale. I didn't mean to disturb you two. I know you've tried for so long, and I'm sure it must be painful for you to see this." She rested a hand on her belly, offering me backhanded, condescending pity.

I refused to break under her gloating gaze. I straightened my spine and smiled back with a sharpness that could cut glass.

"Painful? No. What is painful is that you do not understand your place."

Her perfect mask faltered.

"You are a surrogate, Celia," I said, my voice cutting through the room like a blade. "Nothing more. Your child belongs to the pack, and to me as Luna. You will never be anything but the Alpha's hidden, dirty lover."

Genuine fear cracked her expression. She gasped dramatically, clutching her belly as if my words were physical blows. "Kaelen—my stomach—"

He rushed to her side instantly. His eyes flashed with raw rage as he glared back at me. "Watch your venomous words, Valerie. She is carrying my heir."

He wrapped a protective arm around Celia's waist, treating her like fragile glass. As he led her toward the door, he muttered loud enough for me to hear, "Do not listen to her, Celia. You deserve far more love than my cold, barren Luna."

I swallowed the raw fury burning in my throat. I forced my chin high, squaring my shoulders as I walked out of my office and headed downstairs. Pack members lingered in the grand hall. I felt their eyes crawling over my skin, heavy with judgment. Terrible, echoing whispers trailed behind me like venomous snakes.

"I heard the Luna couldn't conceive."

"Our pack needs an heir. Good thing Celia was there to provide one."

"I pity our Luna."

I clenched my fists, digging my nails into my palms until they bled. I desperately wanted to scream at them. I wanted to tell them my heats had been systematically sabotaged by the relentless stress of building his empire. I wanted to reveal the truth of my failing body, but no one would believe a barren Luna now. Kaelen paraded his pregnant lover like a trophy. To them, I was just defective.

I turned back, retreating to the secure silence of my office. I locked the heavy oak door and grabbed my phone. I dialed the Wolf King. It rang until it hit voicemail. I left frantic, desperate messages for my loyal lieutenants. Every single call went unanswered. The silence was deafening. I was abandoned on all fronts.

Finally, I scrolled down to a familiar name. Alpha Vance. The regional elder.

I hit dial. He picked up on the third ring.

"Kaelen cheated," I stated, my voice devoid of emotion. "Celia is pregnant. He plans to keep her here and raise the pup without rejecting me."

Vance sighed. The heavy sound echoed through the speaker. "Valerie… I am sorry."

"I do not need your pity, Vance. I need council intervention. Help me stop this."

His answer was grim and bureaucratic. "You know we cannot interfere with internal pack affairs. Pack laws will not intervene for mere infidelity. Not unless there is physical abuse that threatens your life."

"So he can fuck his mistress in my territory, give her a child, and keep me chained to him for political power, and the law protects him?" I asked, a bitter laugh escaping my lips.

"Legally, yes."

"What about my rights? Do I lose everything if I leave?"

"Yes," he admitted. "If you walk away without a formal rejection, you forfeit your wealth, your people, and your title. You become a rogue."

"Then I want to challenge him. I want to become a recognized Alpha myself."

Vance let out a dry, humorless sound. "You know the male-dominated council fiercely blocks that. They will never allow a female Alpha to take power. It threatens their patriarchal structure. The bill stands no chance."

I collapsed into the leather chair, staring at the ceiling. The system was rigged. It was built to protect men who casually destroyed the women bleeding for them.

"Unless…" Vance hesitated, his voice dropping low. "If you secured the explicit backing from the strongest, most feared Alpha in the entire region, others might be forced to follow his lead."

My breath hitched. "The Hemlock Alpha. Darius."

"Be careful, Valerie. Once you move toward him, there is no going back."

The line went dead. I dropped the phone onto the mahogany desk.

Deep inside my consciousness, my wolf, Zira, let out a pathetic whimper. She curled in on herself, retreating into a deafening, terrifying silence. The toxic weight of our mate's broken bond had utterly crushed her spirit.

"Zira," I called out, pressing a trembling hand to my chest. "Stay with me. We have to fight this."

I got nothing in return. She was gone, buried under the agony of Kaelen's betrayal.

I closed my eyes, took a deep, shuddering breath, and steadied myself. If my wolf could not fight this war, my human half would.

I moved to the filing cabinets against the far wall. I ripped open the drawers, pulling out stacks of old treaties, archaic pack laws, and dense council regulations. I dumped the dusty documents onto my desk. I scoured the pages with furious, icy clarity. I grabbed a pen, circling loopholes and highlighting clauses. I looked for asset division, border control rights, and military splits. I searched for any weapons disguised as legal jargon.

Kaelen thought he owned me. He thought he could keep me trapped as his political shield while he played house with his fertile mistress. If he wanted ultimate power and absolute control, I would shatter his foundation piece by piece. I would tear down the empire I helped build.

I stared at the regional map pinned to my wall. My eyes locked onto the northern territory. The Hemlock Pack.

I just needed to contact the one man powerful enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me. Evelina's terrifying brother.