Chapter 2

LEAH

The first light of dawn was filtered through the heavy curtains, painting the room in soft, deceptive gold. I woke with a slow, lingering smile, my body feeling heavy and warm. My wolf was purring, a low rumble of contentment I had never felt before. I reached out a hand, expecting to find the solid, muscular heat of Austin’s back, wanting to pull him back into the dream we had shared.

Instead, I heard a sharp, jagged intake of breath.

I opened my eyes to see Austin sitting bolt upright. He wasn’t looking at me with love. He was staring at the tangled sheets, his face pale and his eyes wide with a look of pure, unadulterated revulsion.

"What the fuck?" he croaked. His voice was like a bucket of ice water over my soul. "Leah? What the hell are you doing in this bed?"

The smile died on my face. "Austin? What do you mean? Last night... you said it was me. You said it was always me."

"I was drunk!" he hissed, his eyes darting toward the door as if he were a trapped animal. "I didn't—I wouldn't—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door burst open.

"Austin!" a shrill, sobbing voice rang out.

It was Valeria. She stood in the doorway, her eyes red and puffy, looking like a shattered porcelain doll. She was a low-ranking Omega from a fringe pack, a girl Austin had claimed to be "helping." Tears streamed down her face, and her small frame trembled.

"Valeria? Baby, wait!" Austin scrambled out of bed, completely ignoring my nakedness, my confusion, my presence.

He rushed to her, grabbing her shoulders. "It's not what it looks like!"

"Is this why you didn't come home last night?" Valeria sobbed, pointing a shaking finger at me. "Because of her? You told me I was the only one!”

"No! No, it’s not what it looks like," Austin pleaded, grabbing her hands.

I sat there, frozen, the cold air hitting my skin. "Austin, what is she talking about?"

He didn't answer me. He was too busy franticly trying to calm her. But the drama was only beginning. I heard footsteps in the hallway—heavy, authoritative. Austin’s father, the elders of his family, and several prominent socialites were rounding the corner. They had come for an early morning breakfast meeting Austin was supposed to host in the lounge.

Austin’s face went from pale to ghostly. He looked at the bloodstain on the white sheets—the proof of my first time, the proof of what we had shared. Then he looked at Valeria.

A dark, cruel light flickered in his eyes.

"Get out," he whispered to me, his voice a lethal blade.

"What?" I gasped.

"Get out of the bed! NOW!”

Before I could even wrap the sheet around my shivering frame, Austin grabbed my arm. He didn't lead me; he hauled me. With a strength that bruised my skin, he literally kicked me out of the bed. I hit the cold hardwood floor with a dull thud, my breath leaving my lungs in a painful rush.

I looked up, stunned and half-naked, only to see him grab Valeria and shove her into the warm spot I had just occupied. He pulled the duvet over her, hiding her fully clothed body, and positioned her right next to the bloodstain.

The door swung wide.

"Austin? We heard shouting," his father, Alpha Silas, boomed, stepping into the room with three other high-ranking wolves. They stopped dead, their eyes taking in the disheveled bed and the scent of sex that hung heavy in the air.

I scrambled behind a velvet armchair, clutching my trench coat to my chest, my face burning with a shame so hot I thought I might catch fire.

Austin stood tall, his chest bare, looking every bit the defiant Alpha-in-waiting. He didn't cast a single glance toward the corner where I sat shivering on the floor. He stepped toward his father, shielding the bed—shielding Valeria—from their view.

"Father," Austin said, his voice ringing with a false, heavy solemnity. "I know you and mother have been against my union with Valeria because of her status. You wanted me to find a 'suitable' match. But it’s too late for that."

He gestured vaguely toward the bed, toward the blood I had shed for him. "I have taken Valeria’s virginity. According to our laws, I have claimed her. She is mine, and I am hers. That stain is the proof of her purity and my commitment."

My heart didn't just break; it disintegrated. He was passing off my blood as hers. He was using the most intimate moment of my life to solidify a lie for another woman.

The Elders whispered among themselves, their faces hardening. In our pack, "purity" was a sacred currency. If Austin had taken an Omega's innocence, he was duty-bound to marry her to avoid a scandal that would weaken the Silver Moon's reputation.

“But what about Leah? I heard she was here last night…” Francesca, his mother frowned with displeasure as she stepped forward in disbelief.

"M-mother," Austin stiffened, "Last night there was a misunderstanding. Leah was just... helping me. But it’s Valeria I’ve taken responsibility for. This blood? It’s hers. Valeria is the one I’m marrying."

The room blurred. I felt the air leave my lungs. He was giving away the only thing I had left to the woman who had spent the last six months systematically erasing me from his life.

"You've been reckless, Austin," Silas growled, though his eyes showed a hint of reluctant acceptance. "But the law is the law. We will not have the Alpha line tainted by a broken claim. We must prepare for a wedding immediately to save face."

They turned and left, their heavy footsteps echoing down the hall as they discussed the logistics of a shotgun wedding to contain the "scandal."

The silence that followed was suffocating.

I stood up slowly, my legs shaking so hard I could barely balance. I wrapped my coat around me, my knuckles white as I gripped the fabric. Valeria sat up in the bed, the "purity" sheet draped around her, looking at me with eyes that were no longer crying.

"Why?" I screamed. The sound was raw, the cry of a wounded animal. "Why her?! Why did you do this to me, Austin? You kissed me first!”

Austin turned to me. The boyish charm was gone. In its place was a man I didn't recognize—cold-hearted and calculating.

"Valeria is my true love," he said, his voice flat. He stepped toward her, and the way he looked at her made my stomach turn. ""But my family won't let me marry her because of her low status. They think she's a social climber. But they value 'purity' above all else. Now that they think I’ve taken her innocence, they have no choice but to accept her to save face. This was the only way, Leah. The bloodstain... it gave her the leverage she needed to be accepted."

"You used my life's blood to buy her a crown?" I whispered, tears finally spilling over. "I was your best friend. I loved you!"

"Then be a friend now," he snapped, his eyes flashing gold for a brief, threatening second. "You're a daughter of a high-ranking family, Leah. You’re from a well-off family, you have status, you have power. You can recover from this. You’ll find someone else. But Valeria has nothing! She needed this more than you did. Be considerate for once in your life and let her have this."

Be considerate.

The man I loved had just used my body to buy a wedding ticket for another woman, and he was asking me to be polite about it.

"Considerate?" I choked on the word. "I gave you my soul last night!"

"You gave me a drunken mistake," he countered, his words cutting deeper than any claw could. "It was just sex, Leah. Jesus get over it, stop acting like a spoilt child.”

Valeria let out a soft, feline whine, reaching out for him. "Austin, my head hurts... the stress is too much."

Austin’s expression softened instantly. He leaned down and scooped her up into his arms, cradling her as if she were made of the finest glass. Valeria tucked her head into his chest, but as they walked past me toward the door, she peeked over his shoulder.

She didn't look sad. She didn't look like a victim. She looked directly at me and curled her lips into a slow, victorious smirk.

I watched as the man I loved carried another woman out of the room, using the very lie he built on my ruins to build her future. I stood alone in the wreckage of the night, the cold morning air biting at my skin, finally realizing that in the story of Austin’s life, I wasn't the heroine.

I was just the sacrifice.