Chapter 6

My Cheating Mate

Emma pov

My phone buzzed for the fifteenth time today. Dad's name flashed across the screen, and I felt my chest constrict with guilt and grief.

I couldn't answer. Not yet. Not when I was barely holding myself together.

I was holed up in a cheap motel three states away from Crescent Moon territory, paying cash so there'd be no trail. The room smelled like stale cigarette smoke and cleaning chemicals, and the mattress had a suspicious stain I tried not to think about. But it was anonymous, and right now, anonymity was all I needed.

The phone stopped buzzing. Seconds later, a voicemail notification appeared. I didn't listen to it. I couldn't. I'd already heard the previous fourteen—each one growing more desperate, more worried, more dad-like.

"Emma, sweetheart, please call me back."

"Baby girl, I need to know you're safe."

"Emma, whatever's wrong, we can fix it. Just come home."

Home. The word felt foreign now, like it belonged to a different person, a different life.

I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them as I sat on the edge of the bed. My wolf was pacing restlessly in my mind, caught between the instinct to return to our pack and the rage that kept us running.

She wanted blood. Jeremy's blood. Vanessa's blood.

So did I.

The mate bond tugged at me constantly, a painful ache in my chest that never quite went away. Jeremy kept trying to reach through it, pushing against the walls I'd erected. Each attempt made my wolf snarl with renewed fury.

*How dare he?* she growled. *How dare he try to reach us now?*

He didn't want us when he was with her. Didn't want us when he was planning to use us as a broodmare and throw us away. But now that we were gone, now that his perfect plan was falling apart, suddenly he needed to connect?

I grabbed my laptop from the nightstand and opened it, pulling up the video for what had to be the hundredth time. I don't know why I kept watching it. Maybe I was punishing myself. Maybe I needed to keep the anger fresh, to stop myself from giving in to the bond's pull to forgive, to return, to pretend everything was fine.

Jeremy's face filled the screen, contorted in pleasure as he thrust into Vanessa. The sounds were obscene, their words even worse.

*"I never said I loved her."*

I slammed the laptop shut, my hands shaking with rage.

Five years. We'd known each other for five years before the mate bond snapped into place. I'd thought we were building something real, something lasting. I'd trusted him with everything—my heart, my body, my future.

And the entire time, he'd been waiting for Vanessa.

My phone buzzed again. This time it was Aria: "Your dad came by looking for you. He's really worried, Em. I didn't tell him anything, but he knows I'm hiding something. Please at least text him that you're alive?"

Aria was right. I couldn't keep ignoring my father. It wasn't fair to him, and it wasn't fair to my pack. Beta Marcus's daughter disappearing without explanation was causing problems I couldn't even imagine.

But what could I say? How could I explain that I'd discovered my mate's betrayal and run like a coward instead of facing it?

Except I wasn't a coward. I'd needed to leave. Needed space and time to process the devastation before I did something I'd regret.

Like shift and tear Jeremy's throat out.

The thought should have horrified me. Sweet, gentle Emma Smith fantasizing about violence? But it didn't horrify me. It felt right. Natural. Like my wolf's rage was finally aligning with my own.

I picked up my phone and stared at my dad's contact information. My finger hovered over the call button.

What would I tell him? That his daughter's mate was a cheating bastard who'd been planning to use her and discard her? That would destroy him. Dad had been so happy when Jeremy and I mated, so proud that his daughter was going to be Luna someday.

He'd blame himself. Blame himself for not seeing what Jeremy really was, for pushing me to give the relationship a chance when my wolf had been uncertain at first.

The memory hit me like a slap. My wolf had been uncertain. When the mate bond first snapped into place, she'd been confused, resistant. Like she knew something I didn't.

And I'd overridden her instincts. Told myself that the Moon Goddess didn't make mistakes, that the bond was sacred, that Jeremy was meant to be mine.

The Moon Goddess had chosen wrong. Or maybe she hadn't chosen at all. Maybe mate bonds weren't the divine gift I'd been taught to believe in. Maybe they were just biology, random genetic compatibility that had nothing to do with love or loyalty or actual partnership.

I typed out a text to my dad with shaking hands: "I'm safe. I need some time alone. I'm sorry for worrying you. Please don't look for me. I'll explain everything when I'm ready. I love you."

I hit send before I could second-guess myself.

His response came almost immediately: "Emma, thank god. Where are you? What happened? I'm coming to get you."

"No. Please, Dad. I need to do this on my own. Trust me."

The three dots appeared, disappeared, appeared again. Finally: "I trust you, baby girl. But I need to know—are you in danger? Did someone hurt you?"

Did someone hurt me? Yes. My mate. My supposedly fated partner. The man who was supposed to cherish and protect me above all others.

"I'm not in physical danger. I promise. I just need time."

"Does this have to do with Jeremy?"

Of course he'd figured it out. My father wasn't Beta because he was stupid.

I couldn't lie to him. "Yes."

"That little shit. What did he do?"

Despite everything, I almost smiled. My dad had never been Jeremy's biggest fan, though he'd hidden it well for my sake.

"I can't talk about it yet. But I have proof. When I'm ready to come home, I'll show you everything. Please just... give me time."

The response took longer this time: "Okay. I'll give you time. But Emma, whatever he did, it's not your fault. You hear me? None of this is your fault."

The tears came then, hot and fast. Because I needed to hear that. Needed someone to tell me that I wasn't crazy, wasn't overreacting, wasn't the problem.

"Thank you, Dad. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetheart. And when you're ready to come home, I'll be here. We'll fix this together."

I set the phone down and let myself cry again, but this time it was different. Not the broken, shattered sobs of the last three days. This was grief mixed with something else.

Determination.

Jeremy thought he could use me and throw me away. Thought I'd be compliant, controllable, easy to manipulate.

He was about to learn exactly how wrong he was.

I opened my laptop again, but this time I didn't watch the video. Instead, I started researching pack law, mate bond severance, and the legal rights of unmated she-wolves.

If Jeremy wanted to discard me, fine.

But it was going to be on my terms, not his.