Chapter 12

My Cheating Mate

Jeremy pov

I finished bandaging the worst of my wounds with the supplies Emma had left behind, my hands shaking slightly from blood loss and exhaustion. Every movement pulled at the gashes across my ribs, sending sharp spikes of pain through my body.

My phone buzzed. Then again. And again.

I pulled it out, already knowing who it would be.

Vanessa: "Where are you?"

Vanessa: "Jeremy, answer me right now."

Vanessa: "I know you went after her. You're making a huge mistake."

Vanessa: "She's NOTHING. I'm your real mate. I'm the one who's been there for you."

Vanessa: "Answer your fucking phone!"

I stared at the messages, my wolf snarling with disgust. How had I ever thought I wanted this? Wanted her?

Another message came through, this one with a photo attached. I opened it and immediately wished I hadn't.

It was Vanessa, naked in my bed—our bed, the one I'd shared with Emma—posing suggestively with a caption: "This is what you're missing. This is what you're throwing away for that pathetic little mouse."

My stomach turned. She was in my house. In the bed where Emma should be sleeping.

The phone rang. Vanessa's name flashed across the screen.

I answered. "What the hell are you doing in my house?"

"Our house," she corrected, her voice honey-sweet. "Or at least, it will be once you get rid of her. I'm just getting comfortable, baby. Getting ready for when you come home and we can finally be together properly."

"Get out. Now."

Silence. Then, carefully: "Excuse me?"

"I said get out of my house. You have no right to be there."

"I have every right!" Her voice sharpened. "I'm going to be your mate, Jeremy. Your Luna. That makes it my house too."

"You're not going to be anything to me." The words came out cold, final. "We're done, Vanessa. Completely done."

"Done?" She laughed, but there was an edge of hysteria to it. "You can't be done with me. We're meant to be together. We've been planning this for years!"

"No, you've been planning this. I was just too stupid and selfish to see what I was throwing away."

"Throwing away? That little nobody?" Vanessa's voice turned vicious. "She's weak, Jeremy. Boring. She has nothing to offer you except her father's position. I can give you everything—passion, power, a real partnership."

"Real partnership?" I laughed bitterly. "Is that what you call hiring rogues to attack my mate?"

The silence on the other end was damning.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Vanessa finally said, but her voice was too careful, too controlled.

"Don't lie to me. Those rogues didn't just happen to find Emma. Someone sent them. Someone who knew exactly where she was."

"Well, maybe if she'd stayed where she belonged instead of running away like a coward—"

"You tried to have her killed!" The words exploded out of me. "You hired rogues to attack the future Luna of our pack. Do you have any idea what that means? What the consequences are for that?"

"There's no proof," Vanessa said quickly. "And besides, who's going to believe her? She's the one who abandoned her pack, abandoned her mate. If anything happened to her out there, it's her own fault for leaving pack protection."

The calculated cruelty of it made me see red. "Get out of my house. Now. And if you ever come near Emma again, if you ever even think about hurting her, I will make sure everyone knows exactly what you've done."

"You wouldn't dare. Your precious reputation—"

"I don't give a fuck about my reputation anymore!" I was shouting now, not caring who heard. "I've already destroyed it by cheating on my mate with you. The least I can do is make sure you don't hurt her any more than I already have."

"Jeremy, baby, please. You're not thinking clearly." Vanessa's voice shifted, turning pleading. "You're confused because of the mate bond. It's just biology, making you think you want her. But you don't. You want me. You've always wanted me."

"I thought I did," I admitted. "But I was wrong. About you, about Emma, about everything."

"So what, you're just going to crawl back to her? Beg for forgiveness?" Vanessa laughed cruelly. "She'll never take you back, Jeremy. You heard what she said—she has evidence. She's going to destroy you. Destroy us both."

"There is no us!"

"There's always been us! Since we were teenagers, since before that pathetic mate bond—"

"That 'pathetic mate bond' is the only real thing I had," I interrupted. "And I threw it away for what? For someone who'd hire rogues to kill my mate because she didn't get her way fast enough?"

"I did it for us!" Vanessa's composure finally cracked completely. "She was standing in our way! She was keeping you from claiming what's rightfully yours—what's rightfully ours! I love you, Jeremy. I've loved you for years. And I'm not going to let some nobody Beta's daughter take you from me!"

"She didn't take me from you. I was never yours to begin with." The truth of it settled in my chest like a stone. "I used you as an excuse not to honor my mate bond. I blamed the Moon Goddess for choosing wrong instead of accepting what I'd been given. And I was wrong. About all of it."

"You're choosing her?" Vanessa's voice was ice now. "After everything we've been through, everything we've planned, you're actually choosing that weak little—"

"Stop calling her that!" My wolf surged forward, making my voice come out as a growl. "Emma is not weak. She fought off two rogues tonight while I barely handled one. She's been surviving on her own for a week in unfamiliar territory while blocking me out of the mate bond. She packed up her entire life and disappeared without a trace. That's not weakness—that's strength I was too blind to see."

Vanessa was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice was deadly calm. "Fine. If that's how you want to play this. But Jeremy? If you think I'm going to just walk away and let her win, you're even more deluded than I thought."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I've given you years of my life. Years of waiting, of being patient, of being the other woman while you played house with her. I'm not going to just accept losing. Not to her. Not to anyone."

"Vanessa, don't—"

The line went dead.

I stared at the phone, my wolf snarling with alarm. That hadn't been the response of someone backing down. That had been a threat.

I immediately dialed my father's number. He answered on the second ring, his voice groggy with sleep.

"Jeremy? It's four in the morning. What—"

"Dad, I need you to send guards to the house. Emma's house. Our house. Vanessa's there, and I think she might try something."

"Vanessa?" My father sounded more awake now. "Son, what's going on?"

"I don't have time to explain everything, but those rogues that attacked Emma tonight? I'm pretty sure Vanessa hired them. And she's not taking our breakup well."

"You broke up with Vanessa?" I could hear the surprise in his voice. "Jeremy—"

"Please, Dad. Just send guards. I need to know Emma's house is secure."

"Emma's house?" He paused. "Jeremy, where is Emma? Where are you?"

"Three states away. In a motel. Emma's been hiding here since she left."

"And you found her."

"Yes. And we were attacked by rogues. Dad, please. I know I've screwed everything up, but I need to know our property is protected. That Vanessa can't do anything else to hurt Emma or her belongings."

My father was silent for a moment. Then: "Guards are on their way. Now tell me everything."

So I did. Sitting outside Emma's motel room, bleeding and exhausted, I confessed everything to my father. The affair. The plan to use Emma. How she'd found out. The rogues. Vanessa's threats.

All of it.

When I finished, my father's voice was cold with disappointment. "You realize what you've done? The position you've put this pack in?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you understand that if Emma goes public with evidence of your affair, the political fallout will be devastating?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." He paused. "Now tell me—what are you going to do to fix this?"

I looked at Emma's closed door, thinking about the way she'd looked at me with such cold fury, such justified anger.

"I don't know if I can fix it," I admitted. "But I'm going to try. Even if she never forgives me, even if she rejects me, I'm going to make sure she's safe. That she's protected. That Vanessa never gets near her again."

"That's a start," my father said. "But son? You're going to have to do a lot more than that to earn back anyone's trust. Especially hers."

"I know."

After we hung up, I leaned my head back against the motel wall and closed my eyes. The sky was starting to lighten—dawn was coming.

I'd promised Emma I'd leave at dawn.

But with Vanessa making threats and rogues potentially still circling, how could I leave her unprotected?

The door opened. Emma stood there, dressed and ready, her expression unreadable.

"It's dawn," she said simply. "Time for you to go."