Chapter 1

Natasha POV

"I'm sorry, Tash. I swear to Selene, I thought she was you.She look so much like you."

Thought I was her? Didn’t know I had a twin?

The words kept playing in my head like a broken record on repeat spinning and screeching until my skull felt too small to contain them.

Seriously?

My gaze dragged from the bastard I called my mate Kade fumbling with his trousers, hands shaking like he’d suddenly forgotten how they worked… to my twin sister.

Naked and sprawled across the bed like she belonged there.

The tangled sheets. The bare skin and the scent in the hotel room—

Was a cruel, undeniable reminder of what I had walked in on barely two minutes ago on the night that was supposed to be the happiest of my life.

My pre-wedding night.

Yes, she looked like me. Same face. Same height.

But she wasn’t me.

I was taut and muscular from years of hard punishing work with calloused hands. My body carried proof of survival and hard life while Katherina was soft and untouched. Smooth in places life had long since hardened in me.

And there was no way no damn way Kade hadn’t noticed.

Not after the two years he had been with me. Not after tracing every inch of my skin like he had it memorized.

“Really?” My voice came out thinner than I wanted, shaky despite the rage clawing up my throat. “That’s what you’re going with? Out of all the shit lies you could tell… that’s the one you picked?”

My chest tightened, something heavy pressing against it as I forced myself to look at him.

At the man I had loved.

The tears had by now started gathering behind my eyes, threatening to fall but I held them back stubbornly Refusing to break in front of him.

Kade couldn’t even meet my eyes.

He just stood there shoulders slumped, jaw clenched hard. His fingers twitched at his sides like the guilt was eating him alive.

And somehow… that made it worse.

Because all I could see in that moment—

Was two wasted years.

Yes two f**king wasted years.

Of standing by a man everyone warned me about. A man with nothing-- no money, no future but I carried everything.

Paid his bills alongside mine like it was my responsibility and still chose to give him myself because he was my mate and I love him.

And just this morning, I even went as far as selling of my restaurant the only thing I truly had just to give us a befitting wedding.

 Just so I could shut the lips of people who laughed and called us names for being mated and not having enough money to hold a proper ceremony.

I'd booked this hotel and sent him ahead with plans to join him after finalizing the last of the wedding plans in order to celebrate our pre-wedding night one of the rare occasions we'd be having since we started dating and I plan to make it special.

But then—

I walked into this.

And he had the nerve… the nerve to call it a mistaken Identity.

Like I was stupid.

Like it made any sense that my twin—whom I never told about the pre-wedding night somehow knew where It was happening.

My hands curled into fists as I hardened my glare on him.

"I'm talking to you,” I hissed, my voice trembling with everything I was holding back. “Yes so… answer me.”

"I swear, Tash…"

"I'm a brunette. She’s blonde. Did you also mistake that too?"

The words tore out of me immediately though I knew it sounded stupid coming from me but I still got a point.

At least if my body didn't do the justice then our hairs color would have done it right?

Right from time Katherina had always dyed her hair blonde it was her signature look, while I kept mine our natural brunette.

"I..." The color drained from Kade face immediately. His hands froze on his belt. He shot a look at Katherina, eyes widening as the stupidity of his excuse finally sank in.

By now I could feel my hands trembling at my sides and all I wanted to do was to grab something anything, and smash it against his lying mouth.

"Fine. I’m sorry." He faced me again but couldn’t meet my eyes. "I know how this looks…"

"Oh, cut the act already, Kade. How long are you going to pretend like she actually matters?"

Katherina’s voice suddenly sliced through the air behind him.

I turned to her.

She was sitting up now, sheets pooled carelessly around her waist, not bothering to cover herself. A cold smile curved her lips. No shame. No guilt. No remorse. Just smug satisfaction glittering in her eyes.

My stomach dropped.

"What is she talking about?"

My voice came out tight so full of desperation as I looked at Kade again.

Although my heart was already putting the pieces together telling me where all these was heading to, but my mind refused to accept it.

Kade said nothing. He just stared at the floor like a coward that he is.

I turned back to her.

Fine. If he wouldn’t speak, she would.

"What the hell are you trying to say Katherina? What's going on? what aren’t you telling me?"

My voice cracked into a scream at the last part my gaze snapping wildly between them.

The more they stayed quiet the louder my thoughts screamed.

"That you’re so dumb you didn’t realize Kade was getting tired of you. Like what kind of woman doesn’t get stimulated when she’s with a man?"

The words hit like a slap.

I staggered back. My fingers fumbled for the table beside me gripping the edge until my knuckles hurt. My lungs refused to work.

No.

No. That couldn’t be it.

That couldn't be the reason for all of this because before Kade and I even started dating, the moment we discovered we were mates, I told him everything. I told him about my condition. My inability to feel desire. My body that never responded no matter how much a man tried.

He said he didn’t care. He said he loved me regardless of that we were fated and that wouldn't be a problem, but now...

"Kade…"

My voice came out small as I returned my gaze to him.

"Tell me what's Katherina is saying isn't true. Tell me you don’t really think of me that way. Tell me you don't find me boring tell me…"

My words dissolved into sobs at the end my shoulders shaking as I searched his face like I could still find the man I loved hiding there.

If there had been any other reason for the cheating I would have taken it. Just let it not be me. Every man I dated before left because of this same condition. I survived it because they weren’t my mate.

But Kade was.

He was the first man who made me feel something. The first one who made me believe I wasn’t broken beyond repair. I loved him so much that if he left me for the same reason…

It wouldn't just break me, it'd destroy me.

"I'm sorry, Tash…"

However when he spoke quietly, still refusing to look at me something inside me shattered.

"I swear I tried. I really did. I thought I could manage since we were fated, but it wasn’t easy…"

"B b… you said you loved me," I choked out, not caring how pathetic and desperate I sounded now. "At least have the decency to say that wasn’t all a lie. Tell me you didn’t use me."

I cried harder now, snot pouring out from my nose, my chest heaving.

Right now I didn't feel like the fierce woman who had stormed in moments ago, ready to cause havoc when she caught her fiancé cheating instead, I felt small, exposed and wrecked.

And maybe I had always been.

"Yes, I loved you Natasha. You were kind. Caring. Not every woman would accept a man like me who couldn’t provide, but you did. I know it was because you really love me not just the mate bond." He paused.

"But then Katherina came to me, and once I got a taste of her…"

He shrugged. Casual and detached. Like he was discussing the weather like his words weren't just shattering me to pieces.

My breath snagged painfully. Not even a single ounce of remorse.

"Yes, you know me, sister."

Katherina stepped forward at that moment, that same icy smile in place.

"As the caring sister I am, I had to cover your shame again" Her voice sounded proud as she circled me.

"You know Kade was bored out of his mind but didn’t know how to tell you. He even thought of finding pleasure elsewhere. So I stepped in just before the pack found out you couldn’t keep a man. I helped you by satisfying him while you guys dated."

"You!" A broken scream ripped from me immediately before I could stop myself.

"Why do you keep doing this to me? This isn’t the first time. Why do you chase every man I choose? Why?"

"I told you, Sister. I’m only looking out for you."

"No you're not You’re just being greedy and cruel." My eyes burned as I glared at her. "You’re the prettier one. Men chase you endlessly. But you can’t stop stealing the few who look at me. But you know what…"

My fingers shook as I pulled off my engagement ring and hurled it at them. It hit the floor with a sharp metallic sound.

"You’re free to take him. You took every other man. I should’ve known my mate wouldn’t be different. But you should know this..." My voice dropped cold in that instant.

And I felt it. Something snapped inside me clean and final.

I was done with this bullsh*t of hers everytime, everytime and it all circles down to her bullcr*p excuse that she was helping me maybe it's time I give her a piece of my mind.

"I’m going to make you pay for this one day. I trust the Moon Goddess. She never abandons her devoted worshippers. One day she’ll give me the chance to repay you for this pain you caused me today as well as every other time. And when she does, I won’t hold back."

I turned to Kade.

"And you all I did was love you selflessly, and you still betrayed me?"

I stepped closer, and he flinched.

"The fire that will burn Katherina will touch you too. I swear I'll make you pay for betraying me like this."

With that, I turned and walked out.

The moment I stepped into the hallway my composure collapsed and tears flooded my vision again. I pressed my palm to my mouth to stop the sound, but it came out anyway.

I didn’t know how I would make good on my promise. I didn't know how I would get my revenge. I didn't know when.

But I prayed.

I prayed the moon goddess would give me a chance.

Because Katherina’s cruelty had gone too far.

And one thing I was certain about was that the Moon Goddess never turns away from the innocent.