Alpha's Regret: His Deceased Wife Was the Lost Love He'd Sought

Sera's POV

My mother died, and my father said she died of an infectious disease. It rained the day I buried her.

I stood at the grave and forced down my grief while the mourners came and went, one after another, until the sky darkened and something inside me went cold along with it. My father, the Alpha of Blackthorn pack, never even showed his face.

I didn't cry at the funeral. Now that everyone was gone, the tears finally came, and I couldn't hold them back.

I cried until there were no tears left. Then I pushed open the doors of the Blackthorn manor in a daze, hoping to find something of hers still left behind, and the sight inside cut straight through me.

No white flowers. No mourning music. The whole hall had been strung with decorations, banners congratulating Catherine on becoming the new Luna and wishing Princess Hailey a happy birthday.

The doors of the room that had belonged to my mother stood wide open, pink balloons crowding the ceiling.

Hailey stood before an enormous birthday cake, wearing the gown my mother had designed for me, the one reserved for the pack's princess, her hands clasped together.

I had always known my father was having an affair. What I had never imagined was that the woman was Catherine, his secretary, who had always been so kind to me, or that Hailey, my husband's sister-in-law, was their illegitimate daughter!

My mother's body was barely cold, and not only had he rushed his mistress onto the throne the very first day, he was throwing his bastard daughter a birthday party, in the open, in the room my mother had lived in!

My legs felt like they'd been poured full of lead. I was about to storm in and demand answers when I saw the man standing beside Hailey, and I stopped dead.

I could hardly believe my eyes.

Because he was my husband. Cassian, the Alpha of Night Fire pack!

He wore a black suit cut close to his tall, hard-muscled frame, leaning toward her, watching her with a tenderness I had never once seen turned on me.

I swallowed hard, yesterday I had begged him to come with me to see my mother off on her last journey, and he'd refused me coldly, pack business to handle. So this was the business he meant.

"Cassian, thank you for spending my birthday with me." Hailey blew out the candles and leaned into him, her eyes rimmed red. "Ever since Kyle died, I thought no one would ever be this kind to me again. Today is the funeral of Sera's mother. I was sure you'd stay away, just to keep people from talking."

"Don't think like that." Cassian's low voice came through the gap in the door and dragged across my heart like a dull blade. "I promised I'd make it up to you. With me, you never have to mind anyone."

Catherine stood to one side, watching Cassian with a gaze that bordered on fawning. "Alpha, I knew you cared for my daughter. If Elder Eleanor hadn't backed you into a corner by threatening her own life, the Luna of Night Fire would have been my daughter. Sera is nothing but a stand-in keeping the seat warm "

"That's enough. The past doesn't need repeating." Cassian's voice was quiet, but it carried a finality that allowed no argument.

Catherine had the good sense to shut her mouth, and busied herself calling everyone to cut the cake.

I stood in the shadow outside the door, shaking from head to foot as I watched that happy little family. So that was how it was.

Cassian and I had been married five years. He had given me everything a Luna could ask for: comfort, security, the authority that came with the title. Everything except his heart. We lived under the same roof, and yet I could feel it every day: he was somewhere I couldn't reach.

It wasn't that the thought of someone else in his heart had never crossed my mind, but he had, at the very least, given me his fidelity.

I told myself it was simply his nature, that if I were only sweet enough and obedient enough, one day I'd find my way into his heart. And he had softened a little, started leaving gifts on our anniversaries.

Then one month ago his older brother Kyle died in an accident and left behind his mate, Hailey. After that, what little time Cassian had ever spared for our home went almost entirely to caring for her.

I'd told myself it was nothing more than a brother's duty to his dead brother's widow. Only now did I understand the truth that shamed me: my husband did carry someone else in his heart, and that someone was his own sister-in-law, my half-sister!

Under the cover of that family tie, he had long since given her every scrap of his love and tenderness.

The tears dried up in my eyes before they could fall. I didn't storm in and scream at him. I knew it would change nothing, that Cassian would only call me hysterical and tell me to stop making a scene.

I turned and walked into the dark, one step at a time. And I thought of the night five years ago, when he accepted me as his Luna and refused to mark me, the night I prepared a five-year contract. if, after five years, the Alpha still could not love Sera, the marriage would dissolve on its own.

In five days, that contract would come to term.

I was getting a divorce.

The next morning, in the study of the Night Fire pack house, Cassian sat behind the broad desk, frowning at his screen. I walked in and set a thick stack of papers down in front of him.

He didn't even look up. "Report."

"Last month's financials from the pack hospital, and a few budget approvals that need your signature today." My voice came out strangely even.

What he didn't know was this: tucked into the second-to-last page was the addendum to that five-year contract.

Once we had both signed, it would take effect in four days, on the day the contract came to term.

I even found myself wondering what his face would look like when he saw it. We had been husband and wife for five years, after all. Would my leaving make him angry? Reluctant to let go? Or would it simply be... relief?

But he signed without reading a single word, his pen scrawling through page after page. He hadn't even glanced at what was on the second-to-last page when the study door flew open.

Cassian's Beta, Derek, said in a low voice, "Alpha, Miss Hailey burned herself badly making your breakfast. She's already on her way to the hospital."

Cassian dropped the expensive pen and shot to his feet, knocking the coffee cup over, tension he couldn't hide flaring in his eyes. "What happened? Get the car!"

He was out the door the moment the words left him, as if one second's delay might cost Hailey something. I let out a soft, bitter laugh.

The unloved don't rate so much as a glance, not even for their divorce papers.

The coffee spread across the desk. I stepped up calmly, drew the signed contract out of the pile, folded it with care, and slid it into the pocket against my chest.

It didn't matter. The contract came to term in four days. I would deliver it to him myself.