2: Like Filth

TWO

CAMILE

Everything unfolded in slow motion.

They stood at the center of the podium, dressed in royal attire, while the pack members gazed at them as if they were divine beings. The claps echoed throughout the opening. It dulled the pounding of my heart.

I couldn't tell what was happening, what I was seeing. I wanted the nightmare to end, for the prank to end. This was definitely a prank, and Zane was soon going to laugh at my expression and shout, "Gotcha!”

None of that happened.

I stood up on shaky feet.

“Zane…” This time I could speak. Zane’s head snapped towards me, and I heard someone shout a command.

“Drag her out.”

That didn't deter me. I pulled myself towards Zane, the man who loved me, the man who treated me like I was all of his dreams come true. But this man didn't look like the man I've loved for the past 4 years.

He wasn't looking at me like I was all of his dreams come true. He was looking at me like I was filth, dirty, and not worthy of being in his presence.

It troubled me, but I pushed on. There was something wrong. Emma must have blindsided him. She must have performed some sorcery. This wasn't my Zane.

She stood beside him, tall and poignant, a malicious and triumphant glint still in her eyes.

“Zane,” I started shakily, “what do you mean… what's going on? How's Emma the… You have a child together? Is this a joke? What…”

I could hardly get any coherent statement out. My heart was pounding so much, and my whole body was shaking. My hand was shaking too much, so I had to press it over my mouth.

Emma only chuckled. A deriding and mocking sound that I felt deep within me. Zane didn't dignify me with a reply. He only turned back to the pack.

“I had a child with Emma two years ago,” He told them, while I died bit by bit, “and of course, it couldn't be announced because of the laws that stated that I must be married to my wife for 3 years before getting a divorce. I made sure my son and the future Alpha of the pack was raised in my home though, with his mother as his wet nurse.”

This was it. The final break. This confirmed everything. Sam wasn't an abandoned pup. He was the bastard he had with his mistress, the same mistress he brought in as his wet nurse, the same mistress he was now getting married to.

The agony was too much. It was unbearable, and I couldn't stop the blood-curdling scream that wracked out from deep within me. It was so loud that I dropped to the floor. It was so loud it quietened everything. And the pain… it reached every single part of my body, of my soul.

I've never felt anything like that in my life. It was like the pain of shifting but not fully shifting, combined with the pain of a rejected mate bond. No, it was worse than those two combined. This pain was indescribable; it was killing me. My whole body was on fire and on pins. My wolf mirrored my pain, so there was no solace, nothing at all to alleviate my pain.

Then the whispers started:

“Is she running mad?”

“The pain of the divorce must be turning her rogue.”

“What was she expecting? A barren omega to remain married to an alpha? Such a clown.”

Their words were filled with so much disgust and scorn. No one cared for me. I had just been treated in one of the most horrible ways possible, and not a single one of these people, whom I had played a dutiful Luna for over the past four years, pitied me.

“You should walk away now, Camile,” Emma's voice came to me where I lay rumpled on the floor. She had never called me by my name before. I was her madam. Her boss and now, she was stealing my place.

“You shouldn't embarrass yourself any further. Just walk out and go to the Chambers for the demoted Lunas. Your miserable belongings are already there.”

I wanted to slap her. I tried to scream again, but I was suddenly too spent to do anything. Zane wasn't even looking at me. It felt like I wasn't worth his reaction or reply. This was the same man I had loved for four years. The man who I thought loved me for four years.

He signaled to two guards, and in less than a second, they were beside us.

“Drag her out,” he told them, tone set and final.

And I was dragged out, like filth, while my husband and his mistress stood side by side and hand in hand with the crowd cheering them on.