Chapter Two

Dominic already has his back turned to me as he heads down the stage when I get a hold of myself. Picking my dress up from the front I hurry to him and grab his arm, stopping him.

“Dom, wait!”

He pauses, but he doesn’t bother to look at me and that hurts more than it should. It’s taking everything in me to keep from breaking apart in this moment.

“Won’t you at least tell me what this is about? What could have happened that’s so bad we can’t work through it together?”

He scoffs. “Don’t play that together card on me right now, you traitor.”

I flinch at his words and the venom in his tone.

“You’re really going to act like you don’t know what this is about?”

I shake my head. “I wish it were an act. I wish this whole thing were one big play before the wedding.”

He laughs, but it’s not the cheerful warmth I remember. This one is bitter.

“You really think I would be stupid enough to marry someone like you? Or are you just the stupid one?”

“Dominic, I demand to know why you’re being this way to me right now!”

Somewhere from the corner of my vision I can already see people leaving through the back door, but I don’t care. My heart is being broken so carefully that I don’t know what to do. I can only focus on the person doing the breaking.

He sighs, caught off guard by my yelling for a moment. “I really hoped you wouldn’t make me have to do this, but at this point, there’s no saying what you’re capable of.”

Angrily, he reaches into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulls out his phone. I watch him and the world around us seems to freeze up as he scrolls through for a moment and then shoves the phone in my face.

“Tell me, Kyra. Is that not a picture of you getting cosy with another man on the morning of our wedding?”

His voice is just loud enough and the congregation -or what’s left of it- goes wild with gasps and murmurings. I stand there dumbfounded for a moment with the picture staring right at my face and the question hanging high in the room.

It doesn’t take me a second to recognise the event in the picture. That is me -that part was made clear enough by the lighting and angling of the shot- and pressed against my body, with his face just conveniently shifted out of the frame is none other than Joshua. Dominic’s beta.

It’s a pretty implicating picture and honestly, I look like such a fool just standing right in front of it with my mouth hanging loose. It’s not at all what it seems, but where do I begin that explanation from?

“You can’t even answer? You shameless slut!”

“Dominic I-” “Enough, there really isn’t anything you can say at this point. I trusted you…”

“And you were right to, Dom, I have spent my entire life with you. 19 years! Do you really think I would do something like this?”

“That’s exactly what I thought when your sisters told me of your deception. But then I took one look at this picture and I wondered; who could be worth you throwing away everything we’ve struggled to build?”

“No one!”

“That’s not what the picture says.”

I look around at everyone watching us intently, disappointed looks scattered around the pews.

“Let’s not do this here.”

“In front of my pack is the only place this should be done. Who is he?”

I swallow. I can’t say that here, not when there’s already so much tension in the air. No one would listen to me. Saying his name in this place would be like detonating a live bomb.

And he knew, that’s why he took that picture.

But to use my sisters. That's crossing a line.

I wonder what they think of me, I wonder what they’ve thought of me this whole time- wait, how long have they known?

“Don’t make me ask you again, Kyra. Who is the man in the picture?”

My body remains frozen in its spot as I picture the eyes staring at me from every angle right now. What they must think of me, and even if it’s not true it’s going to scar me for the rest of my life.

How did everything go so wrong? How did I go from having the perfect day of my dreams to a scene right out of a bridal nightmare?

I can’t answer him, I can’t.

So I dip my head and allow the shame to wash over me, falling around my shoulders like a shawl. His eyes go from timid anger to betrayed rage in a second and the next thing I see, his phone hits the ground and shatters into a million pieces.

That earns us another round of gasps and tongue clicks.

“I can’t believe this, you’re going to protect him?” There’s such pain in his voice that it’s hard to imagine I’m the cause of it.

“Fine then. Guards! Take her to the hold and keep her there.”

My head snaps up. “Domi-” “Oh, now she speaks. Too late Kyra, you have failed this pack.” The words settle somewhere deep inside my chest that makes it hard to breathe for a moment.

He steps back, then turns to the guards who are already approaching. “Take her out of my sight,” Dominic growls and tears cloud my eyes as I feel their hands grab my arms and lead me out.

My cries go unheeded and when I turn to my sisters for help, they barely look my way. Even Sylvia stands at one edge of the church with her scarf thrown over her head and her hands crossed over each other.

I scream her name, I beg not to let them take me, I claw at my garments, at the floor, at the air.

She doesn’t even move.