Moonfire: Betrayed By The Alpha

NOVA

I tightened my coat around myself and watched my breath turn to mist in the cold November air. The packhouse entrance glowed behind me, warm light spilling onto the stone steps where I stood. I didn’t want to go back inside. Not yet.

Nova, you’re shaking, Kia’s voice echoed in my mind, warm with concern. Let’s go inside where it’s warm, to keep the babies safe.

Not yet, I told my wolf. He’ll be here any moment.

Marcus’s voice echoed in my mind from the link he’d sent moments ago. Luna, the Alpha’s vehicle just passed the outer perimeter. Two minutes out.

Two minutes until Caden came home. I pressed my hand against the coat pocket, checking for the hundredth time that the pregnancy test was still there. The plastic case dug into my palm through the fabric.

Five months. He’d been gone for five months, and I’d spent every single day of his absence planning this moment. The house staff had transformed the dining room into something special. Candles lined every surface. His favorite meal waited in the kitchen, kept warm. I’d even worn the blue dress he’d once said complemented my eyes, though I couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually looked at me long enough to notice what I wore.

The November wind picked up and cut through the layers I’d wrapped around myself. I pulled the coat tighter and stepped down one stone step, then another, positioning myself where he’d see me first when he drove through the gates. Maybe tonight would be different.

Maybe the news about the twins would change something between us. Maybe he’d smile at me the way he used to smile at—

I stopped that thought before it could finish. No point in torturing myself with memories of a time when Caden had actually been capable of warmth.

He’ll be happy about the pups, Kia said, her voice firm with conviction. Our mate will see what we mean to him when he learns about them.

I wanted to believe her, but four years had taught me better.

The iron gates at the entrance of the circular driveway groaned as they swung open. I straightened my spine and arranged my face into what I hoped passed for a welcoming smile. My hands trembled, but I shoved them deeper into my pockets. The left one brushed against the pregnancy test again.

Headlights cut through the darkness and swept across the driveway. The black SUV rolled through the gates with the smooth precision Caden brought to everything he did. I took a breath and stepped forward, ready to greet my husband and mate after months of separation.

The vehicle came to a stop directly in front of the entrance to our home. The engine went quiet. I waited, watching the driver’s side door, rehearsing in my mind what I’d say first. Something casual. Something that wouldn’t reveal how desperately I’d counted every day of his absence.

The door opened and Caden stepped out.

Four years of marriage and the sight of him still made my breath hitch in awareness. He wore a dark suit that was perfectly tailored to fit his large, muscular frame. He moved with the controlled grace of an alpha who’d trained for combat since childhood. The outdoor lights caught the sharp angles of his face, the handsome features that made him one of the most sought after men on the continent.

And he’s ours. Kia said and I didn’t miss the satisfaction in her tone.

Ours. Was he truly mine?

I took another step forward, my prepared greeting ready on my lips.

Caden’s gaze passed right over me.

He turned away from where I stood and walked around the front of the SUV to the passenger side.

I hesitated on the steps, confusion replacing the nervous anticipation that had been building in my stomach. Maybe he hadn’t seen me. Maybe the headlights had ruined his vision. Maybe—

He opened the passenger door with careful attention, and held out a hand to assist the person step out.

A pale, slender hand gently landed on his and seconds later, a woman stepped out.

The world tilted sideways when I caught sight of her. My knees buckled and I grabbed the stone railing beside me to keep from collapsing entirely. The cold stone bit into my palm, the only solid thing in a reality that had suddenly turned fluid and wrong. Blonde hair fell in perfect waves around a face I’d hoped never to see in person and she wore designer clothes that looked completely impractical for the November cold—a cream-colored coat that probably cost more than I’d spent on clothes in the past year, heels that clicked against the driveway pavement with sharp, deliberate sounds that seemed to echo in my skull.

She looked exactly as I remembered from the photographs Caden kept locked in his desk drawer, the ones he thought I didn’t know about. The ones I’d found two years ago during a moment of weakness when the loneliness had become unbearable and I’d needed to understand what she had that I didn’t.

Lila Manson. I’d never met her in person, but I’d seen those pictures enough times to have her face burned into my memory. Caden’s ex-fiancée. The woman he’d been supposed to marry before she left him. The ghost that had haunted our marriage from the very first night.

No. Kia’s snarl reverberated through my skull, sharp and furious, so loud it made my head throb. That woman has no right to be here. Let me out, Nova. Let me deal with her.

Wait, I told her, though my own shock mirrored hers. My voice in my own mind sounded distant, disconnected, like it belonged to someone else. Just wait. There has to be an explanation.

But even as I thought it, I knew. Deep in the marrow of my bones, in the hollow place where our mate bond should have been warm and alive, I knew there was no explanation that would make this right. No words that could justify what I was seeing.

I stood on the steps and watched Caden’s first love smile up at him. Watched his usually stern expression, the expression that greeted me every morning with cold indifference, soften as he looked down at her. The transformation was devastating. This was the Caden from my fantasies, the one I’d imagined might exist beneath all that frosty layers.

Just not for me. Never for me.

My heart plummeted, like a stone dropping into an endless abyss, taking with it every pathetic hope I’d clung to over four years of a marriage that had been dead before it began.

Caden moved to the rear door of the SUV while Lila waited beside him, her hand never leaving his arm.

He opened the door and reached inside with the same careful attention he’d given her. When he straightened, he held a car seat.

A baby carrier.