Chapter 4

My Cheating Mate

Emma pov

I made it two hours past pack borders before I had to pull over.

The tears had been building behind my eyes the entire drive, blurring the highway lines, making my chest tight with the effort of holding them back. I'd kept myself together through sheer willpower, focusing on putting distance between myself and the Crescent Moon pack territory.

But when I saw the sign for a rest stop, my body made the decision my mind couldn't. I yanked the steering wheel right, barely making the exit, and pulled into the farthest corner of the parking lot, away from the few semi-trucks idling near the building.

Then I shattered.

The sobs came from somewhere deep inside, violent and raw, tearing through me like claws. I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles went white, my whole body shaking with the force of my grief.

Jeremy didn't love me. Had never loved me.

The mate bond—the Moon Goddess's sacred gift—meant nothing to him. I was just an inconvenience. A broodmare. Something to use and throw away when he was done.

*"I never said I loved her. I said the mate bond chose her. There's a difference."*

His words echoed in my head, each syllable a fresh knife wound. How many times had I told him I loved him? How many times had I looked into his eyes and seen what I thought was affection reflected back?

All lies. All of it.

And Vanessa. God, Vanessa.

I'd tried so hard to befriend her. Had swallowed my wolf's warnings, my own instincts, because Jeremy told me I was being paranoid. Insecure. Immature.

He'd gaslit me. That was the term, wasn't it? Made me question my own reality, my own perceptions, until I didn't trust myself anymore.

*"She's just teasing, Em. Don't be so sensitive."*

*"Why can't you be more understanding?"*

*"I can't cut her out of my life because you're insecure."*

Every time I'd brought up my discomfort with their relationship, he'd made me feel like the problem. Like I was the one being unreasonable, jealous, difficult.

And I'd believed him. I'd actually believed that I was the broken one, that something was wrong with me for not being okay with my mate's intimate friendship with another woman.

A fresh wave of sobs overtook me. I leaned forward, pressing my forehead against the steering wheel, and let myself cry for the girl I'd been this morning. The naive, trusting fool who'd baked cookies for a man who was planning to impregnate and abandon her.

My phone buzzed in the cupholder. Jeremy's name flashed across the screen for the sixth time.

I watched it ring, feeling nothing but a hollow ache where my heart used to be. The mate bond tugged at me, trying to compel me to answer, to return, to forgive. But I'd blocked him as much as I could, pushing him to the furthest corners of my consciousness.

Let him wonder. Let him worry. Let him feel even a fraction of the uncertainty and pain I was drowning in.

The phone went silent, then immediately buzzed with a text: "Emma, where are you? I'm worried. Please call me."

Worried. He was worried.

Not sorry. Not apologetic. Just worried that his carefully laid plans were falling apart.

Another text came through, this time from Aria: "Jeremy just called me asking if you're here. What's going on? Are you okay?"

I typed back with shaking fingers: "I'm safe. Can't talk about it yet. Please don't tell him anything if he calls again."

Her response was immediate: "Done. I've got your back. Always. Text me when you can ❤️"

Aria. My best friend since elementary school. One of the few people in my life who'd never made me feel less than, who'd celebrated my mating to Jeremy even though I knew she'd had her doubts about him.

I should have listened to her. Should have paid attention when she'd carefully, diplomatically suggested that maybe Jeremy's relationship with Vanessa was "a little unusual for an already-mated male."

But I'd defended him. Made excuses. Insisted that their friendship was innocent, that the mate bond meant Jeremy would never betray me.

The Moon Goddess had chosen us, after all. That was supposed to mean something.

Except it didn't. Not to Jeremy.

I lifted my head, catching sight of myself in the rearview mirror. My eyes were red and swollen, mascara streaking down my cheeks. I looked destroyed. Broken.

I looked exactly how I felt.

My wolf whimpered in my mind, her pain mirroring my own. The mate bond was hurting her too, trying to drag us back to Jeremy despite everything we knew. It was biological, instinctual, beyond our control.

But we were stronger than our instincts. We had to be.

*We survive this,* I told her, trying to pour conviction into the words. *We heal. We become something he never expected.*

She didn't respond, too lost in her own grief. I couldn't blame her. We'd both believed in the bond, in the promise of forever with our mate.

Now we had nothing but an open highway and a duffel bag of belongings.

I pulled some napkins from my glove box and tried to clean my face, though it was mostly futile. The tears kept coming, slower now but no less painful.

My mother would have known what to do. She'd been strong, fierce, everything a Beta's mate should be. Even when she was dying from the rogue attack, she'd held my hand and told me to be brave, to trust in the Moon Goddess, to believe in the goodness of my fated mate when I found him.

"The mate bond is sacred, Emma," she'd whispered, her life fading with each word. "Treasure it. Honor it. Your mate will be your greatest blessing."

I'd carried those words in my heart for fifteen years. Had believed them with everything I was.

Another lie. Another broken promise from a universe that seemed determined to take everything I loved.

I pulled out my phone and opened my email, staring at the video I'd sent myself. Proof of Jeremy's betrayal, insurance for my freedom.

But looking at it now, at the thumbnail of him with Vanessa, I felt something shift inside me.

The crying slowed. Stopped.

A different emotion was rising through the grief—something harder, colder, more dangerous.

Anger.

Jeremy thought I was weak. Thought I was controllable, compliant, easy to manipulate. He'd built his entire plan around my supposed docility.

He was about to learn exactly how wrong he was.

I started the engine, my hands steady now despite the tears still drying on my face.

I didn't know where I was going yet. Didn't have a plan beyond survive and stay hidden.

But I knew one thing with absolute certainty: Jeremy Trent had underestimated me for the last time.

And when I was ready—when I was strong enough—I would make sure he regretted ever taking me for granted.