A Stranger Wearing Her Eyes

ISABELLA’S POV

“Bella, you disgust me.”

Zane’s voice cut through the room, sharp enough to silence the confusion in my head. I stood beside our bed, staring at my husband as though the man before me had been replaced by someone I had never known. His eyes were fixed on the stranger lying among our tangled sheets, and the disgust on his face was unlike anything I had ever seen directed at me.

“What is this?” he demanded, pointing at the man. “You were in our matrimonial bed with some nobody, and you expect me to stand here and pretend I haven’t seen it?” His gaze shifted to me, his jaw tightening. “Or am I the nobody, huh, Bella?”

I looked from him to the stranger, searching for something that might explain why an unfamiliar man was in our bed. The stranger was still asleep, his face turned slightly away from me, and I had no memory of seeing him before that morning. I could barely make sense of the room, much less understand how I had ended up in this situation.

“Zane, I.....”

“Don’t.” He raised a hand, stopping me before I could finish. “Think very carefully before you open your mouth, Isabella. Whatever excuse you give me now will not change what I’m looking at.”

My dress from the previous evening lay crumpled near the foot of the bed, and my head still felt heavy from whatever had happened the night before. I tried to gather the scattered pieces of my memory, reaching for the celebration that had filled the packhouse with music and laughter.

I remembered the crowded hall, the music, and the drinks being passed around. Someone had approached me with a fresh drink, smiling as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world, and I remembered accepting it before everything became blurred. After that, there was nothing. No journey back to my room, no stranger, no explanation for waking up beside a man whose name I didn’t even know.

“I remember the celebration,” I said, focusing on the details I could still recall. “Someone gave me a drink. After that, I can’t remember anything else until I woke up here this morning.”

Zane stared at me before his mouth twisted with contempt. “So someone gave you a drink, and that is supposed to explain why you woke up in bed with another man?” He stepped closer, his voice lowering. “You want me to believe you have no idea how he got here, how your clothes ended up on the floor, or why I found the two of you together?”

“I’m telling you what I remember.”

“And I’m telling you what I saw.”

He turned toward the bed and ordered the guards waiting outside to take the stranger to the dungeons. They rushed in, but before either man could reach the bed, the stranger stirred at the sound of their voices. He shifted beneath the sheets, rubbed his eyes, and turned toward me with the sleepy ease of someone waking beside a familiar companion.

“Good morning, Isabella,” he murmured.

Before I could react, he leaned toward me, apparently intending to kiss me. I scrambled out of bed, stumbling over the sheets as I put distance between us. My hand caught the edge of the bedside table, keeping me upright while I stared at the stranger in disbelief.

He sat up, his sleepy expression giving way to confusion as he looked from me to Zane. Zane stood motionless beside the bed, his gaze fixed on the stranger.

“You seem very comfortable here,” Zane said, his voice dangerously quiet.

The stranger glanced around the room, then looked at me again. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”

“You woke up in my bed and tried to kiss my wife, and you’re asking me what’s going on?” Zane moved toward him. “You have a few minutes to explain yourself before I decide you are not worth keeping alive.”

“Zane, he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” I said, although I had no idea why the man had greeted me as if we knew each other. “I have never seen him before this morning.”

Zane turned on me. “He knows your name, Isabella. He wakes up beside you and tries to kiss you, yet you expect me to believe this is all some misunderstanding?”

“I don’t know him.”

“Enough!”

His shout silenced the room. The stranger started to speak, but Zane pointed at the guards. “Take him to the dungeons. I want him questioned the moment he is ready to answer. Find out who he is, how he entered my private chambers, and what happened here last night.”

The guards seized the man by the arms. He protested as they pulled him from the bed, insisting he did not understand why they were treating him like a criminal, but Zane showed no interest in hearing another word. As they dragged the stranger through the doorway, he looked back at me, searching my face for an explanation I could not give him.

Once the guards disappeared, I turned to Zane. “Zane, I would never betray you.”

He turned away, and I reached for his arm, desperate to stop him from walking out with his mind made up. He shoved my hand away before I could touch him.

“Do not touch me.”

I lowered my hand. The man I had married used to reach for me without thinking, even when we disagreed. Now he could barely stand to have me near him.

The door opened, and Monica hurried inside. “Zane!” She stopped beside him, her attention moving from his furious face to the disturbed bed. “Goddess, is it true?”

He did not answer her. She glanced at me, then at the doorway through which the guards had taken the stranger, pressing a hand to her chest as though the sight had left her shaken.

“I can’t believe this has happened,” she said softly.

Monica moved closer to him. “I know you have every reason to be angry, but you need to think carefully about what happens next. The servants will talk, and if the story reaches the pack before you have answers, everyone will be questioning your authority.”

“Let them talk,” Zane snapped.

“But you have a pack to protect.” Her voice remained gentle. “You cannot allow a scandal like this to weaken your position. Whatever happened between you and Isabella, the consequences could reach far beyond your marriage.”

“Stop talking about my marriage as though you have any say in it,” Zane warned her.

Monica lowered her eyes. “I’m only concerned about you.”

She said nothing more, but her words had shifted the focus from what had happened in our bedroom to what the pack might think of Zane. She had made no direct accusation against me, yet she had given him another reason to see the situation as a threat to his authority.

Zane looked toward the doorway. “I want answers about that man, and I want to know how he got past the guards. Until I understand what happened last night, no one is to interfere with the investigation.”

Monica nodded. “Of course. That is the right thing to do.”

He turned to me, his expression hardening again. “As for you, Isabella, you will remain in this palace. Do not leave the grounds, and do not attempt to go anywhere without my permission.”

“This is not a discussion.” He held my gaze. “Stay in the palace, Isabella. I will find out what happened, and until I have the answers I need, you are not going anywhere.”

I stared at the man I had loved long before I became his Luna, searching his face for even a trace of the trust we had once shared.

Zane had promised that no one would ever come between us. I had believed him because I had never imagined I would need to defend myself against his doubts.

Now, he looked at me as though the woman standing before him was someone he had never truly known.

“I understand, my Alpha,” I whispered, lowering my eyes before he could see how deeply his distrust had wounded me.