Betrayed

Eight years ago, one day after Abel died, Celeste came to us.

Cain and I had just gotten married. We hadn't even had our first night together yet. Celeste showed up at our door holding a pregnancy test with two pink lines, telling us the pup she was carrying belonged to Abel.

And from that day on Cain decided Celeste would stay with us until she gave birth. Not only that, he made a promise over Abel's grave that he would look after her. For Abel.

From that day on, Celeste became Cain's priority.

For nine months I took care of her. I gave up my husband every two weeks so he could take her to her prenatal checkups. I let Cain pour every bit of his attention into her under the excuse that she needed support to get through the grief of losing her mate.

Every werewolf knew what it meant to lose a mate. It wasn't just heartbreak. It was like losing half of your own soul, half of your shift, half of everything that made you whole. I understood that. I never once faulted Celeste for her grief.

What I couldn't understand was why my husband's response to her grief had to cost me everything.

And then exactly ninety days after Brody was born, Cain sent Celeste off to pursue a design education abroad. Just like that. He left Brody for me to raise without ever talking to me about it first, like my opinion didn't even register as something worth asking for.

And from that day on I was the one who became Brody's mother. Holding him when he was scared, staying up all night when he was sick, rocking him when he couldn't sleep. The pup whose parents fate had chosen for each other, whose father was gone, whose mother was somewhere building a new life on my husband's money.

And whose aunt was the only one left.

***

I was still staring at the dark screen of my phone when I finally set it down on the nightstand. The young nurse was still in the room, pretending to busy herself with something near the door.

That night I lay in the hospital bed and stared at the ceiling and thought about how Cain hadn't done a single thing after finding out what happened to me and to our pups. No text. No call. Nothing.

What I got instead were notifications. Celeste had posted.

A photo.

The Moon Goddess Festival only came once a year. Every pack in the territory gathered under the full moon for it, offering prayers, lighting the sacred bonfires, letting the pups run their first shift if they were old enough. It was supposed to be the most sacred night in a werewolf's calendar. The night the Moon Goddess herself was said to walk among her children.

It was also the one night every year that the Alpha and Luna were expected to stand together in front of their pack.

In the photo, Cain was standing at the festival grounds under the full moon, the bonfires burning gold behind him. Brody was between them, holding a stick of cloud candy and grinning his gap-toothed grin, one hand gripping Cain's and the other gripping Celeste's. All three of them smiling wide at the camera like they were exactly where they were supposed to be.

Like a family.

Like a Luna, an Alpha, and their pup.

The caption underneath read: *Blessed by the Moon. Grateful for these two.* Followed by a string of comments from pack members I had known for eight years. Heart after heart after heart.

Not one of them asked where I was.

I turned my phone face down and didn't look at it again.

***

The next morning Dr. Graham cleared me to go home. The nurse asked if someone was coming to pick me up and I told her no. She offered me a wheelchair and I turned that down too. I made my way to the exit with one hand on the wall when I needed it and waited outside for the car I'd called.

Less than half an hour later the car stopped at the front gate. I paid, stepped out, and noticed Cain's car in the driveway right away. He never took days off. Not weekdays, not weekends.

I pushed the front door open slowly.

The first thing I saw was luggage. Several large suitcases in pink and red, plastered with tags from international airports I recognized from trips I was never invited on.

I took one slow breath and walked into the house.

The TV was on loud in the living room. Brody's voice, and underneath it, a soft laugh I would have recognized anywhere.

They were all in the family room. Cain stretched out on the long sofa, one arm draped across the back of it, completely at ease. Celeste sat right beside him, close enough that their shoulders nearly touched, legs crossed, a cup of tea in her hands. They were laughing about something and Cain was running his fingers through her blonde hair like it was the most natural thing in the world.

No hesitation. No awareness that anything about it was wrong.

Brody spotted me first.

"Daddy, Aunt Leah's home!"

Cain didn't move. He just turned his head toward me. "Oh. You're back."

Celeste shifted away from him, just slightly.

I stood in the doorway and didn't move. My body felt like it had forgotten how to. My throat was closing around something I couldn't name and there was a knot sitting so deep in my chest it felt like it had roots.

Celeste uncrossed her legs and walked toward me. I stepped back without meaning to.

"Leah, I'm sorry I came back without letting you know first. I wanted it to be a surprise. I'm sorry..." Same tone, same smile, that always somehow made me look like the difficult one and her like the gracious one just for showing up.

"You look pale. Are you feeling okay?"

I didn't answer her.

"Cain." I said his name carefully, putting just enough weight behind it. "I just got out of the hospital."

"I know." He didn't look up from his phone. "You told me yesterday."