Chapter 5: The Sheath and the Sword

Ryder woke up with Milana sleeping on his chest. He smiled, admiring her angelic beauty. She was stunning, kind, and sweet, going above and beyond just to please her Alpha—from preparing his tea and massaging his feet to mind-blowing sex. Milana never said no to him for anything; she looked up to him as if he were a God in the flesh.

Zoriana had always been different. She was strong, often challenging him, disagreeing, and refusing to be the obedient sweet mate he wanted. Thinking about his wife, he realised it was the third night they had spent apart. Zoriana must be really pissed with him.

“She’ll come around; she always does,” Ryder whispered to himself. He figured he just needed to buy her some expensive jewels or perhaps take her on a romantic getaway before she started training Milana for her Luna duties.

He slid out of bed quietly, showered, and headed to the master bedroom to dress. The scent of Milana was gone from his skin; he would tell Zoriana he had worked late in his study. But when he opened the door, the room was cold. The bed was made and Zoriana’s scent was fading in the room like she had not slept there.

On the nightstand sat her wedding band. He smirked. She was playing hard to get, trying to punish him. He decided he would level up the apology—maybe a small yacht or a new car sent to her father’s estate, where he assumed she was skulking like a beaten pup.

He tried to mind-link her, but the channel was a dead end. He dialled her number. No response. Growing irritated, he called Alpha Clayton.

“Good morning, Alpha Clayton,” Ryder said, trying to sound composed. “Is Zoriana awake? I need to talk to her.”

A soft, muffled moan sounded in the background before Clayton barked, “My daughter is not here, Ryder. Pull your head out of your ass and fix the mess you created with your new toy. Or you can wave goodbye to my pack and my support.” The line went dead.

Ryder huffed. Empty threats. Clayton had no other heirs but Zoriana and he was her husband. The Black Rose would be rightfully his.

He went to his study, but by 9:00 AM, his breakfast still hadn't arrived. “Matteo,” he snapped through the mind-link to his Beta. “Where is my food?”

“Alpha, Luna Zoriana usually prepared your breakfast personally. I’ll instruct the Omegas now.”

“Fine. And bring me the third-quarter financial reports, the promotion lists, and the pack roster immediately.”

There was a long silence. “Alpha... I don’t have those. The Luna handled all the reports, the scheduling, and the business strategy. Luna, she-”

“Enough!” Ryder roared, "Find out when Luna Zoriana left". He felt like a fool in his own house. When the Omega finally brought his tray, the eggs were bland and the coffee was bitter—nothing like the perfect cup Zoriana brewed to start his day.

Beta Matteo arrived, looking pale. “Alpha, her car is in the garage, but she’s not in the pack territory.”

“So, she magically disappeared?” Ryder yelled, slamming his fists on his desk.

The Beta just cast his eyes down quietly.

“Fine. You’d better get to work. I need those reports, so start doing them,” Ryder gritted through his teeth.

“Alpha, I do not have the passwords to the system. Only Luna Zoriana—”

“I do not want to hear her bloody name anymore!” he roared angrily, pushing the food tray off the desk violently. “I do not care how—just do it. Make Scott do it if you can’t handle a simple task, and I’ll make him my Beta instead, since you’re so useless.”

“Gamma Scott won’t help you, Alpha,” Milana cooed, entering the study in a flowing pink silk gown. She looked like an angel, but her eyes held a strange glint as she set a manila envelope on the desk. “I didn’t want to upset you, but you need to know the truth about your Luna.”

She spilt the photos across his desk. Zoriana and Scott are laughing. Scott is holding her in the hospital. The two of them shared wine at sunset.

“The Omegas told me they were intimate for months,” Milana whispered, stroking Ryder’s back. “She didn't just leave. She ran away with her lover.”

Ryder’s vision blurred with red. The betrayal tasted like ash. Before he could roar, a white-hot agony ripped through his chest. He fell to his knees, gasping for air. It felt as if his heart was clawed out of his chest.

The mate bond was gone. Zoriana had severed it.

“Alpha!” Matteo gasped, clutching his own head as the pack link flickered. “Elite Warriors quarters... they’re empty. Gamma, Head Warrior and one hundred and fifty of our elite warriors just went rogue. They’re gone.”

The pain was unbearable—physical, emotional. Zoriana, his childhood friend and wife, hadn't just left him; but had stolen the sheath, leaving him raw, betrayed, and realising too late that his greatest enemy had been his own mate.

Ryder gripped the edge of the desk, his knuckles white and eyes glowing with a feral, vengeful light.

“I will find you, Zoriana,” he hissed through the pain. “And I will make you pay for what you’ve done.”

Milana rushed to his side, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. She draped her arms around his shaking shoulders, whispering soothing words into his ear. “I’m here, my Alpha. I’m your mate. I’ll help you rebuild everything she destroyed. I’m so sorry she was so cruel.”

She looked the picture of a heartbroken, supportive mate—the perfect contrast to the traitor Zoriana. After a few moments of comforting him, she kissed his forehead softly. “Rest for a moment, Alpha. I’ll go to the kitchen and prepare some calming tea for your nerves.”

She exited the study, her expression remaining sombre until the doors closed behind her.

The moment she was alone in the hallway, the mask shattered. The tears vanished, and a sharp, triumphant grin spread across her face. Before heading for the kitchen, she walked to the tall window at the end of the corridor that overlooked the dense treeline of the pack borders.

A shadow shifted in the bushes below—a man dressed in dark tactical gear, barely visible to the naked eye. Milana raised a hand, opening and closing her fist three times.

The shadow nodded once and vanished into the woods.

Everything was going exactly according to the plan. Ryder was broken, Zoriana was branded as a traitor and Milana’s influence on Ryder was growing. The game had only just begun.