Grace POV

The pain rips through me like claws tearing my chest open from the inside.

I gasp, clutching the sheets, my body curling inward as another wave crashes over me. The mate bond screams, howls, shreds itself apart with every thrust I can still feel echoing through the connection between us.

'He's still fucking her.'

A whole night. He spent the entire night with her.

I force myself upright, every muscle protesting. My hands shake as I push the hair from my face. The bond pulses again—pleasure on his end, agony on mine. I bite down on my lip hard enough to taste copper.

'Enough.'

I'm done letting him do this to me.

The hallway stretches endlessly before me, and I force my feet forward.

"...heard she stood there and watched..."

"...probably deserves it, what kind of Luna can't even shift..."

The whispers follow me like shadows. Pack members duck their heads as I pass, some with pity softening their features, others with something uglier—contempt, satisfaction.

I keep my chin up. Keep walking.

I've lived with these looks for five years. Ever since the night everything fell apart.

My eighteenth birthday was supposed to be a celebration—the night I'd awaken my wolf, claim my birthright as Aurorawisp Pack's heir.

Instead, my father collapsed at the ceremony, dead before he hit the ground. And my wolf? She never came.

Hour after hour I waited, my body burning with the change that never arrived, while the pack descended into chaos around me.

No Alpha. No heir with a wolf to lead them. Just me, broken and powerless, drowning in their disappointment and my own crushing grief.

Damien found me that night. He held me while I shattered. Helped me piece the pack back together when I had nothing left. Made me believe being wolfless didn't mean the end.

I fell for him completely, desperately, and at twenty I bound myself to him forever.

'What a fucking joke.'

The memory tastes bitter now. That darkest night of my life has been replaced by a new one—last night, watching my mate betray everything we were supposed to be.

Damien's quarters loom ahead. My heart hammers against my ribs, each beat another stab of pain from the bond that's slowly killing me.

Then I see her.

Lilith stands just outside Damien's door, barely dressed in a pink slip that leaves nothing to imagination. Her dark hair tumbles perfectly over her shoulders, and even from here I can smell sex and satisfaction rolling off her in waves.

Beta Luka shifts uncomfortably beside her.

"Did you do as I asked?" Lilith's voice carries down the hallway, sweet as poison.

"Yes, Luna Lilith." Luka's response makes my stomach turn. "The omega delivered your message exactly as instructed."

"Good." Lilith's laugh is soft, triumphant. "I wanted to make sure our dear Grace knew exactly where to find us. Would've been such a shame if she'd missed the show."

Rage explodes through me, white-hot and consuming.

She planned this. She fucking planned for me to see them together.

My feet move before my brain catches up. "You bitch!"

Lilith spins, her eyes widening in perfectly performed surprise. Luka steps forward, hand raised. "Luna Grace, you shouldn't—"

I shove past him. My hands connect with Lilith's shoulders, and I push—hard.

She stumbles backward through Damien's doorway, her ankle twisting as she falls. Her cry of pain sounds theatrical even to my raging ears as she crumples to the floor.

"Grace!" Damien's voice cracks through the room like thunder. "What the fuck are you doing?"

He appears from the bathroom, still shirtless, hair damp from a shower. The scent of Lilith clings to him, and it makes me want to vomit.

He doesn't even look at me. Just rushes past, dropping to his knees beside Lilith where she's collapsed against the bed frame.

"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" His hands hover over her, gentle, concerned, everything he used to be with me before I became broken and disappointing.

"I'm fine," Lilith whimpers, tears already streaming down her perfect face. She clutches her ankle, wincing. "It was an accident. Grace didn't mean—"

"The hell I didn't," I snarl.

Damien's head snaps toward me, and the look in his eyes freezes my blood. Pure fury. Disgust.

"What is wrong with you?" He pulls Lilith into his arms, cradling her against his chest. "She's a widow. She's been through enough without you attacking her like some rabid—"

"Attacking her?" The words rip out of me. "I saw you! Last night, I saw everything!"

Damien stands, still protecting her from me. "You saw me with another woman and you decided to assault her? When did you become so fucking vicious, Grace?"

The betrayal in his voice would be funny if it didn't hurt so much.

"It wasn't like that," Lilith says softly, pressing her face against Damien's chest. "I'm sure she just... she was upset. It's my fault for being here. I should go—"

"You're not going anywhere." Damien's arm tightens around her. "Not until we make sure you're not injured."

I laugh. The sound comes out jagged and wrong.

"What do you want me to say?" He shifts Lilith more securely in his arms. "That I'm sorry? That I'll never do it again? Even when I did nothing wrong."

"You're always right." My voice sounds distant, cold. "It was my mistake. As the daughter of the Alpha, the heir to the Pack, I handed the pack over to a scumbag like you and even helped you manage its affairs!"

Damien's eyes flash gold—his wolf rising.

"Watch yourself," he growls.

"I've given you everything!" He sets Lilith gently on the bed before rounding on me. "A home. Status. Protection. Your pathetic little pack wouldn't even exist without me. And this is how you repay me? By disrespecting me? By attacking the woman I—"

He cuts himself off, but the damage is done.

"The woman you what?" My hands tremble at my sides. "Love? Is that the word you can't say?"

Silence stretches between us, heavy and suffocating.

I look at my mate—this man I sacrificed everything for, who I bound myself to when I had nothing left—and something inside me finally breaks clean through.

"Tell me why." My voice cracks. "After everything we've been through. After everything I gave up for you. Why, Damien? Why did you betray me?"