CHAPTER 2: REJECTION AND HUMILIATION

SORAYA'S POV

"D-Dorian, w-what is the meaning of this?" My voice trembled, yet I forced the words out.

He wouldn't even look at me.

Could it be... was he regretting this? Was he ashamed?

After four years of being married to him?

I turned to Elara, my best friend-at least, that was what I had believed until this moment. My voice cracked as I whispered, "Elara... w-what are you doing?"

She tilted her head, feigning innocence, but beneath that act, I saw the truth-triumph.

"Doing what I should have done a long time ago. Claiming what is rightfully mine."

Claim what was rightfully hers?

What the hell did she mean by that?

A sickening realization sank in.

They had been cheating behind my back all this time.

A chuckle escaped my lips-broken, hollow, filled with pain.

She wasn't surprised.

This wasn't a mistake.

This wasn't an accident.

This was betrayal.

Wait...

"I-Is she the reason you've been pretending to be busy?" My voice rose, anger creeping in, seeping through the cracks of my heartbreak. "The reason you always said you couldn't come home to the mansion? Because of work?"

The words burned as they left my lips.

I had spent so many lonely nights, believing that my husband-my mate-was busy handling rogue attacks at the borders. But now...

Now, I saw the truth.

And Dorian's silence only confirmed it.

He was avoiding my gaze.

He didn't even have the decency to lie his way out of this.

But Elara... that bitch had the nerve to smirk.

And then she said something that made my whole world explode.

"Sorry, love, but Alpha Dorian has been sleeping with me for over a year."

A dagger to the chest.

A twist of the blade in my soul.

I snapped.

"You slut! You whore!"

I didn't even remember how I reached her, but suddenly my hands were in her hair, twisting, pulling, yanking with all the strength I had.

She shrieked, crying in pain, but I didn't care.

"I should have known! I should have known when you kept giving me bad advice! Telling me not to be clingy! Telling me to let my husband 'focus on the pack'-"

"Enough of this!"

The growl echoed through the room, making my body freeze.

Dorian.

Before I could react, he was pulling me away from Elara, tearing me off her as if I was the one at fault.

But my eyes-my disgusted, heartbroken eyes-caught something I wished I had never seen.

He was still inside her.

Still inside her.

And yet, there he was, covering her up as if she was some fragile thing that needed protection.

Like I was the villain.

The bitch was still crying, but I saw through it.

Fake.

Just like everything else.

Dorian turned to me, his robe now covering his nakedness. There was no guilt in his eyes. No shame. No remorse.

Just... indifference.

And then he said it.

"I am done with you."

Silence.

For a moment, I thought I had misheard him.

Done?

"What the hell do you mean, Dorian?" My voice wavered, but I refused to let the weakness show.

Deep down, my heart was trembling.

But wait-wasn't I done with him too?

Then why did it hurt so much hearing him say it first?

"You heard me."

He moved toward the bedside table, retrieved an envelope, and handed it to me.

My fingers felt numb as I took it.

"Here," he said coldly. "Sign the divorce papers. I am done with you."

Everything inside me shattered. So he had even prepared divorce papers?

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

Not now.

Not in front of them.

Slowly, I turned to Elara.

She was smiling.

Sly.

Satisfied.

A snake who had finally devoured her prey.

"You're divorcing me for her after four fucking years?" My voice was raw, bitter.

I barely recognized myself.

Dorian sighed, running a hand through his hair. "She's pregnant for me, Soraya."

Silence.

The words didn't register at first.

And then-

"W-WHAT?!"

I heard my own scream before I realized I had spoken.

Elara gasped, covering her ears dramatically, as if my pain was some kind of nuisance.

She was enjoying this.

She wanted this.

And she won.

Four years. Four years of marriage, and not once had I gotten pregnant.

Even if our intimate moments were rare, it didn't matter.

Because she had succeeded where I had failed.

"You've been together for a long time, I suppose," I whispered, the words barely leaving my lips.

"For a year now."

The answer didn't come from Dorian.

It came from Elara.

My head snapped toward her, my vision blurring with rage and heartbreak.

Dorian wouldn't even meet my gaze.

He was cowardly.

He was a liar.

He was... never mine.

"It is real, Soraya," he said, breaking me even more "I have found what I wanted in Elara. I can't continue being your husband."

A part of me wanted to break. To rip the papers apart, to scream, to cry.

But I didn't.

Instead, I stared at the man I had once loved.

There was no guilt in his eyes. No hesitation.

Just... finality.

"You should have told me months ago," I whispered.

Dorian's eyes widened slightly, caught off guard by my response.

And then, before my body could betray me, I grabbed the pen from his hand and signed the papers, my heart throbbing in my chest that I was sure Dorian could hear of, after all, his senses were heightened as he was an Alpha.

My fingers shook.

But I did it anyway.

I let him go.

Dorian's lips parted in shock. He hadn't expected me to accept it so easily.

I threw the papers at him.

"Done."

He caught them, but his eyes remained frozen in disbelief.

I turned to leave.

I needed to get out of there.

I needed to breathe.

I needed-

"Not so fast, Soraya."

Elara.

I spun around, and there she was, standing behind me in my robe.

Without thinking, I shoved her so hard she nearly hit the floor.

Gasps filled the room.

One thing about me? I was strong.

Stronger than Dorian and Elara knew.

"H-How did you do that?" she stammered.

I ignored her.

Instead, I turned my unique amber eyes to Dorian, meeting his gaze.

"What else?" I asked. "What other surprises do you have for me?"

Silence.

All this time, even my wolf Latina had gone mute again.

Then, Dorian clenched his fists.

"I never rejected you, meaning I can't mark Elara."

So that was why they had stopped me?

"Reject her. She doesn't deserve you, Dorian!" she cried. "Don't hesitate! Remember, she was just an Omega! You married her even though you never loved her!"

I stilled.

I turned to Dorian.

"What is she talking about?" My voice barely held together.

Dorian exhaled.

"I-I only married you because it was my father's wish, I never loved you Soraya" Dorian muttered and just like that, the last piece of my heart, shuttered. His voice was sharp with emphasis on father. Not stepfather.

His real father-the former Alpha of the Redcland Pack-had passed away, and his mother had later found a chosen mate: Alpha-King Sterling. But their union was brief. She died not long after, and many whispered it was because a chosen mate could never replace a fated one.

Besides, Sterling had his own reputation.

Rumors painted him as a man who couldn't resist any woman who caught his eye, his charm as dangerous as it was irresistible. Some even said he had never truly cared for Dorian's mother, that he had only chosen her out of spite-revenge against Dorian's father for something buried in the past.

But those were just stories.

I had never laid eyes on the Alpha-King myself. Dorian despised him, and the feeling seemed mutual-Sterling never once returned after Dorian's mother died. The most shocking part? He didn't even bury her.

Her lifeless body had been sent back here like an afterthought.

All those years.

All those lies.

"I only married you because of my father's wish."

It didn't matter anymore.

Because of his next words,

"I, Dorian Vincent, Alpha of the Redcland Pack, reject you, Soraya Beatrice, as my mate and Luna."

The words sliced through me like a blade, and before I could process them, a searing pain erupted in my stomach. My body folded forward, my arms clutching at the agony tearing through me. A broken heart was one thing-but this? This was something far worse.

The pain of rejection.

A strangled gasp escaped my lips as my lower body convulsed, bones cracking under the weight of his words. I couldn't stop the tears anymore. They poured freely, hot and bitter, as if my soul itself was weeping. I had fought for so long, endured so much, but this... this was my breaking point.

Maybe it was time to move on.

But where would I go? The Redcland Pack was the only home I had ever known. I had no family, no place to belong. My mother, Omega Beatrice, had died giving birth to me. And despite my status as an orphaned Omega, Dorian's father had taken me in, raising me as if I were his own.

I never understood why he cared for me more than he did his own wife or the rest of the pack, but he did. Perhaps that was why he had ensured his son married me-his dying wish, an order Dorian had now chosen to break.

A thought struck me then as a new found strength seeped in.

I didn't glance back at the two betrayers standing before me. They weren't worth it. Instead, I turned on shaking legs and limped away.

One day, I would make them pay.

I didn't know how.

But I would.