Chapter 2

"Pup, what pup?!" I roared from within, utterly inflamed eyes shifted between my mate and his mistress.

Liliana's face scrunched with pain as she folded over Caden's thigh, in a single breath he scooped her from the bed like she was made of ice.

"My moonlight..." He said looking into her face as he held her princess style, she reached up to cup his cheek but halfway true her hand slumped and she continued to wince.

It was all too much, I was right here and the man that was meant to be mine was fawning over this tramp!

"Caden..." I called helplessly, calling for his attention.

But he wasn't even looking at me, his eyes were all over her, with a tenderness I'd never seen.

The Caden I knew was stoic and hardened like a blade's edge. All these years I filtered through his actions convinced my affections were reciprocated, now I see what this all was.

I was never the one for him.

He just let me believe that.

Caden finally looked at me, all the tenderness in his eyes gone, replaced with staggering spite.

"You better pray to the moon goddess that no harm comes to this woman Serena, or else..." He left the rest of the threat dangling then brushed past me like I was furniture.

He was gone.

His scent fading, my heart aching and my wolf wailing.

This was not how tonight was supposed to go.

I've waited for so long, all for this?!

My feet wobbled until they caved to the stress and I collapsed in a fit of tears, mascara running as I cried myself senseless.

This was too much.

If it had been just a one night stand I would have no choice but to put my pride aside and remain by his side as his infidelity remained like a perpetual dagger lodged in my heart.

But the way he looked at her like she was life, love and everything in between. I couldn't remember when he had ever looked at me like that.

She was pregnant, and it made my heart sink deeper knowing who the father was without asking.

•••••

"Why are you still asleep?" I was awakened by a pail of ice cold water dumped over me, sending sharp shivers over my skin and forcing me to violently upright, a chill penetrating my soaked clothes.

"Belinda?" I recognized my mother in law, she stood hands crossed, behind her was a shivering servant holding a pail.

"You didn't answer my question, why are you still asleep?" She yelled at me.

Her tone shocked me, Belinda treated me like her daughter. Where was all of this anger coming from?

I stood up from the floor where I had unceremoniously fallen asleep last night, too hurt emotionally and physically to drag myself to bed.

Icy water was still dripping from my clothes to the floorboard, my surprise was slowly slipping into anger.

Had both mother and son lost their minds?

"Belinda, why would you tell a servant to dump cold water on me?"

She huffed; "because you deserve it for sleeping here while my son is in the hospital right now,"

Every singular muscle in my body went taunt, last night replayed in my head the pain of his betrayal came crushing down with me like a wave.

"Did he tell you why he was in the hospital?" I asked, barely getting the words out.

She waved the servant out of my room then turned back to me saying what shattered what was left of my world.

"I'm his mother of course he tells me everything."

I staggered back, nearly sliding off my balance but somehow managing to keep both legs planted on the floor.

"You knew?" I said the words barely a whisper. "For how long?"

"I've known from the beginning," she said without a hint of guilt in her eyes.

I ran my fingers through my wet hair digging in till I felt my scalp being scraped by my fingernails, my wolf was beginning to stir again.

"Why didn't you say anything Belinda? It's been 3 years!" I screamed at the top of my voice. She just rolled her eyes like I was overreacting.

"You had failed to live up to your responsibilities and my son considered other options, instead of being angry you should be thanking him," the ground was spinning the more she spoke.

"Thanking him? While I was here running the pack for him? Keeping everything together so it wouldn't fall apart like a stack of cards? Grinding myself to nothing? Wasn't that supposed to mean something to him?"

She waved her hand in the air like there was an incessant fly hovering around her face.

"Enough with that, I've had the lion share of the work and you contributed once in a while stop acting like I dumped everything on you,"

But you did. The thought ran through my mind. Not just her but the Beta's mate too. Everything from budgeting for the pack to meeting those stuck up elders fell to me while they were only available for get- togethers, galas and other parties that I had to arrange.

However I had never uttered a peep of a complaint, anytime I got tired I would imagine Caden's face smiling at me for the first time proud that I had been able to keep the pack together in his absence.

But turns out I've just been a fool.

"This can't be happening to me..." I said trying to sit down but she grabbed me by my arm holding me upright.

"What do you think you are doing right now?"

I looked at her, too swollen with pain to speak, only yesterday she had spoken to me kindly saying I was the daughter she never had and she couldn't wait for her son to come back and officially claim me as his mate.

She had said a variation of that over the past 3 years all of it lies.

"Leave me be!" I said too tired to even fight out of her grip, then what she said next came like a blow to my goat.

"How can you think of sitting?Get up, we're going to see  Liliana in the hospital”