ONE

DAISY’S POV

It was six words that turned my world upside down.

‘Your husband is cheating on you.’

The message came in midday on a sunny afternoon, sent to my personal number, which had never happened before. As the wife of Alpha King Aaron, I got emails, fan letters, and all sorts of messages asking how I kept my husband and man in check and away from the pandemic of ‘ALPHA CHEATERS’—a pandemic where every husband apparently cheated on his wife. But I had never gotten a message directly to my personal line.

I immediately typed back,

“Who is this?”

The person read it immediately but didn’t respond, making my frown deepen. I typed again.

“Is this some sort of prank?”

Read again, without any response.

My frustration doubled.

“If this is a prank, go and play it with someone else. I’m not interested.”

I sent the last message, about to block the number and drop my phone when I saw the three dots indicating that they were typing. Curious, I waited for a second, and immediately, a message came through.

“See for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Before I could ask what they meant, images flooded my phone, and I instantly clicked on them.

My heart sank as I saw the first image.

It was blurry, but not blurry enough for me to miss the fade haircut Aaron had told me to give him two days ago, or the mole at the side of his neck.

It was him.

My Aaron.

Standing in front of a car while a blonde woman kissed him in broad daylight.

I swiped quickly to the next image, and it became clearer with every picture. Aaron bringing a child seat out of the car. Aaron kissing her face. Aaron walking into a building with her.

My heart was pounding heavily now.

No.

No, this could not be.

Aaron was supposed to be in a meeting. He had left two hours ago for a meeting with the Lycans, the same creatures bordering our territory and calling for blood.

He couldn’t be with another woman.

Aaron would never cheat on me. It didn’t make any sense. He loves me. Maybe she was his secretary. Yet the pictures formed in my head again, he was kissing her. Immediately, I left the chat and dialed his number, listening to it ring. Ten seconds passed. Then twenty.

Aaron never took this long to pick up my call.

The call was about to end when he finally answered, and his calm, soothing voice rolled through the phone. Only this time, it didn’t calm me like it always did.

“Hi, darling. How are you?”

“Good. Good,” I quickly replied, swallowing nervously before continuing. “Where are you?”

“Where am I?” Aaron replied, chuckling. “Did you forget, Daisy? Today is the Lycan peace meeting. I’m in the meeting room, and those bastards are delaying things by not even showing up.”

“Really?” I stuttered.

I didn’t even realize I was already out of my chair until I felt my fingers gripping the curtain, twisting and twisting.

“Can I see your face, then?”

“My face? Do you miss me that much?” he teased, his words caressing me like they always did and I couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Well, anything for my queen. Give me a minute.”

Before I could say anything else, the call ended with a soft clicking sound.

I stared at my phone.

This was strange.

Aaron had never hung up on me before. Not once. I was always the one asking him to hang up and go back to his meetings.

The images replayed in my head, making my chest tighten.

My phone rang before I could delve any further into my thoughts, and I immediately picked up the video call.

Aaron’s face appeared on my screen.

The first thing I noticed was his crisp white shirt and the black suit jacket over it, making every thought of cheating vanish from my head.

In the pictures, Aaron had been wearing a yellow shirt.

There was no way he could have switched shirts that quickly if he was cheating on me.

“Satisfied now?” he called out.

I smiled playfully.

“Yes. Yes.”

For a second, his smile faltered.

It was quick—so quick that I almost thought I imagined it.

Then he smiled again.

“What’s wrong? Is it the baby? Is that what’s causing you to miss me?”

My hand instinctively went to my stomach as my smile grew.

I was so stupid. Of course Aaron wouldn’t cheat on me. It was all a prank by some stupid, bored person.

We had a baby on the way. A baby he had been looking forward to after five miscarriages.

And then he would go on to cheat?

“Goddess to Daisy. Are you missing me that much?” he called again.

I blinked and focused on him.

“I’m here.”

He laughed softly, but his eyes briefly darted away from the screen.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be home soon. If these bastards don’t show up in the next twenty minutes, I’ll leave. Wait for me until then, okay?”

“Of course.”

I nodded.

I opened my mouth to ask him something when he suddenly shifted the phone, his face disappearing from the center of the screen for a moment.

“Actually, darling, I have to—”

The call ended.

I stared at the screen.

Again.

He had hung up without even waiting for me to finish.

I shrugged it off.

He was probably on edge. The meeting must have been getting to him.

And maybe the strange expression on his face was nothing. Maybe the way he kept glancing away was nothing.

Aaron had a lot on his mind.

At least, that was what I told myself.

Now that everything was settled, I went back to the number, wanting to give the person a piece of my mind when I saw the three dots moving again.

What else did they have to say this time?

That it was a prank?

I scoffed and typed back furiously.

“Keep your apologies to yourself. I’ll let it go this time, but the next time you decide to play such a prank on me, my husband will find you and tear you apart.”

I clicked send, watching the blue tick appear, showing that they had read it.

Immediately, they reacted to the message.

A laughing emoji.

I felt irritation prick at the back of my neck, tangled with something else. Either this person was digging their own grave, or there was something more. A message followed instantly.

“You poor fool. He’s lying to you.”

Suddenly, a video was sent to my phone.

I didn’t want to open it but I wondered what the texter was playing at, and eventually, I clicked.

My world stopped. My heart violently slamming in my chest.I watched and watched, unable to tear my eyes away from what I was looking at. From the horror of what this is.

Because in the video was my husband talking to me. The same call he had just picked up, the same words, in the same white shirt.

Except now I could see what had been happening outside the frame. There was no meeting room, no lycans, just a room.

A woman was kneeling between his legs, her hands tied to her back with the same yellow shirt I saw in the first picture, his trousers pulled down as her head bobbed up and down, spit dripping down her mouth like a whore.

And my husband was enjoying it, gripping her head and pushing her deep, moaning deeply with no shame.

My breath caught in my throat.

He had been looking away from the camera.

He had been ending the call abruptly.

He had been making those strange faces.

And I had been too stupid to understand why.

I was shaking, trembling even, when my phone buzzed again.

It was Aaron. My mind immediately told me it was him, but when I shakily picked up the phone, it was the texter again with a message and an address.

‘Come to this place if you want to see it yourself.’

I didn’t know how I stumbled out of the house, how I hailed a taxi, or how I even managed to get to the location.

Every part of me was distraught.

My heart felt tight, pounding painfully against my ribcage.

Aaron promised me.

When I caught him on our wedding day with a woman between his legs just like this one. He had promised me it won’t happen again. That was a drunken mistake, he thought it was me and he was so high.

He had begged, lavished me with attention, yearned for my forgiveness, and done everything he could to convince me to take him back. And he had kept his words all these years, perfect, good.

And now, the only word ringing in my head was—

Fool.

What a fool I had been. Once a cheater, always a cheater.

Yet another voice whispered inside my head.

He won’t cheat on you.

He won’t.

He’s good.

He brings me flowers. He writes me notes. He kissed me and my bump this morning before leaving.

Aaron won’t.

“We’re here, ma’am,” the taxi driver announced, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I looked outside.

It was a nice residential apartment building, nothing like a meeting room.

I didn’t even realize a tear had slid down my cheek until I felt the wetness. I immediately wiped it away, paid the taxi driver, and got out.

I approached the building, where security asked me a few questions before allowing me to pass after I repeated exactly what the anonymous texter had told me.

“Tell the security Room 2501. He’ll let you in, and you’ll see what you married.”

I entered the elevator, noticing that the room was on the last floor of the residence.

In fact, it was a penthouse. A good place for his whore. My heart broke into even tinier pieces.

The elevator stopped and opened, and I stepped out.

There was only one door on the entire floor.

I made my way toward it, every step heavier than the last.

My hand hovered over the doorbell before I finally pressed it. I prayed to the moon goddess, please let it all be a lie. It’s all just a lie but even the words tasted ashy in my mouth.

The door swung open.

And immediately, a chorus of voices shouted—

“Surprise!”