3: My Ex-husband's Enemies

THREE

CAMILE

I thought the gala was the most painful and embarrassing part, but I was wrong. It wasn't. It was the days that followed that hurt the most.

It was the demotion: the fact that I had to live in the worn-out demoted Luna's quarters. I couldn't leave immediately, even though I wanted nothing more than to leave and put this life behind me. That was because of some ancient werewolf laws —the same ones that mandated that couples stay married for at least 3 years before they could divorce. I couldn't leave until after 6 months of our divorce.

So I lived there in the quarters that had more cobwebs than life, where the only thing I heard was the echoes of my own voices. A maid was assigned to me, of course, but the meals she brought were either terrible or foul-smelling or downright inedible. I knew Zane’s mother and Emma must be going out of their way to make sure my life was more miserable.

For the first week, I lay on the bed in my new room, unable to process what had happened, unable to wrap my head around what I had gone through. Each time I woke up, the pain started anew because I remembered each time the humiliation and betrayal that I had suffered.

I wanted to take my life. That was the only way to get out of this emptiness. I had nothing to live for anymore —no family, no business, and hardly any money to my name. For the past four years, I had built my life entirely around Zane, so much so that I had no identity outside him. Not like I've ever had any identity before him. He gave me my identity, gave me my first home, but now, all of that has been forcefully snatched away from me.

I had nothing, no willpower even to forge on.

My wolf thought otherwise. She refused to give me the strength needed to put an end to our suffering. She didn't say it, but I felt it: she thinks our lives could get better. I didn't buy into that. I was the disgraced former Luna of the WhiteBrock Pack.

I'd probably never achieve anything good again.

No man would want a disgraced Luna.

It was just better than letting go now rather than prolonging my suffering.

But I couldn't do it, and by the end of the week, I was too tired and dreary from staying inside. I wanted sunlight, so I decided to step out of my prison.

That was a mistake. I was looked at and pointed at. The maids whispered and chuckled. The guards hide their snarls. I forged through and pretended I had a thick skin that made me immune to their reactions, but by the time I made it back to my prison, I broke down and wept for hours. I fell asleep while sleeping and woke up to caked tears on my face.

I didn't go out again for the next two days, but I knew I couldn't remain indoors. I needed to take control of my life. I needed to do something, so I started going out more. Now, the sounds of laughter and conversation drifted into my ears from the main building. Emma and Zane were having the time of their lives while I drowned in anguish. I was banned from going over to the main house, and each time I even walked close to it, the guards would throw me away like I was nothing.

The whispers of the maids carried the news to me. They were getting married. They were planning an elaborate marriage that'd be the first of its kind in the Whitebrock pack. The arrangements started, and it was everywhere on social media.

My pictures were everywhere, too. My humiliation was everywhere. I was the disgraced omega Luna of the Whitebrock. The stain that was finally removed. The stain that should never have been allowed to be in the first place.

I was powerless and helpless through it all. It made me realize how dependent I've been on Zade. Without him, I didn't have an identity. I had no friends, nothing at all. Whispers of how good he was to Emma got to me while I lay in bed, desperate for a relief that wasn't going to come.

I wanted to see Zane for myself. I wanted him to tell me why he treated me like that. I wanted him to look me in the eye and tell me that. Maybe that'd break the curse then, because I still believed that Emma did something to him.

I didn't get any opportunity to talk to him because the guards stopped me from getting anywhere close to the main house until one evening when I stumbled upon the three of them in the garden.

My heart stopped when I saw them. That was us. That was supposed to be us. That has been us on many occasions. I've had Sam on my thighs with Zane playing with him. That was us. We were happy, but now Emma was in my place. She was the one carrying Sam. She was the one holding my son.

Except that he was her son. He was never mine.

I was blinded with so much rage that I moved towards them with alarming speed. Emma saw me first, and her eyes narrowed into slits.

“Didn't you get the orders not to come anywhere close to us?” she asked, but I ignored her. I ignored Sam, too. Sam, whose eyes brightened when he saw. Sam, who instinctively stretched out his hands towards me. Sam, whom I had given a piece of my life for. Emma noticed this and quickly tucked his hands away.

“How could you, Zane? How could you do this to me?”

“For moon’s sake, Camile,” he growled, “haven't you heard enough? Why do you keep doing this? Why? What do you want me to say?”

I couldn't believe this was Zane. Something must have gone wrong somewhere.

“I want you to tell me that you've never loved me. That everything was a lie.”

“Loved you?” he scoffed and rose to his feet and looked at me straight in the eyes, “don't be delusional, Camile. No man will ever want you. Don't you look in the mirror? You're so shapeless that the moon goddess must have assigned one of her scorned maids the job of molding you.”

My heart stopped existing. My eyes swam with tears.

“You were twenty when we met and yet no man has ever loved you, touched you… not even as a prank. Shouldn't that tell you just how ridiculous you look?”

Emma snickered while I died over and over again. I shouldn't have come here. I shouldn't be listening to this. I didn't want to listen further.

“Stop,” I told him weakly, but he pressed on, desperate to break me even further.

“I took you in because I thought you were something special, but it turned out that you were nothing but an empty vessel. Of course, I should have turned against you when I found out that you were nothing, but then Emma got pregnant, and we found out that our baby might have a weak heart. It clicked then that I should keep you around and make you raise him so you could donate a part of your heart to him, because I didn't want Emma to do something that dangerous. It worked. You gave a part of your soul to our son, and my only regret was that you didn't die during the operation. It'd have saved everyone all this trouble.”

He finished with a spat. There was nothing in his voice but coldness and detachment, and he sounded like I wasn't worth more than an object to be used and discarded.

I was that worthless.

The world was spinning. My legs were shaking. They walked away, but not before I heard Emma whisper, “Are you happy now that you've heard what you wanted to hear?”

I didn't know how I got back to my quarters. I was ready to end it all. I couldn't deal with this anymore. I didn't want to deal with this anymore.

Stop, Camile. We have to fight back. We have to get our revenge on him. We have to make him regret ever treating us like this.

How? I was a nameless omega. I had nothing. How could I make an alpha, no matter how small his pack was, regret divorcing me?

Still, my wolf persisted. She persisted till I gave up on giving up. I wasn't keen on getting revenge on Zane; I was keen on building myself. I wanted to rediscover myself. I wanted to love myself. I wanted to feel loved, too. I didn't want to be remembered as just the disgraced former Luna of the Whitebrock pack.

I started small. I started with going to the library, to museums, to other places in Moonfall that made Whitebrock look inconsequential. I was discovering the magic that was Moonfall when I've made Whitebrock the center of my life for the past four years.

I got my peace back, bit by bit. It wasn't evident at first, but then my heart no longer broke whenever I saw them together. I no longer wake up with caked tears on my face. I cleared out my quarter to make it more habitable, and I never thought I'd be the one to do this, but I bought a sex toy kit to take care of my own pleasure.

And the girls on social media were right: nothing beats understanding your own body. I've always taken whatever Zane had to give, and now I was coming to realize that he had nothing to give.

It was Friday evening, and I decided to go to a club. Clubs weren't my thing, and it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. I dressed up in a short blue gown, did a little makeup, and ordered Uber to the club. I instantly regretted my decision the second I got in. The girls here were sizes 6 and 8. Nobody looked like me here. I felt like the odd one out, sitting alone. It was bringing back all my self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. I wanted to leave.

I stood up to leave, but my wolf suddenly reared up and commanded me to look in a specific direction. I followed her command and standing at the other side of the bar and watching me were two people I didn't recognize at first. It seemed like they've been watching me for a while, and even when I caught them, they didn't look away.

Instead, they smirked, almost simultaneously, and started walking towards me.

It was only after the distance between us thinned that I recognized them. They were Kael and Arlo, infamous best friends from the once-enemy packs of Nightshade and Midnight Pack.

I didn't know them from how wealthy, popular, influential, or renowned they were. I knew them because Zane always talked about them. He hated them. Hated everything they represent. Hated how he couldn't measure up to them. He spoke of them each time they conquered new territories and expanded their businesses.

He talked about them with that bitter, ugly undertone of someone who coveted what they had and knew he'd never have it.

I knew them because they were my ex-husband's enemies