Chapter 01

FRANKIE POV (Present Day)

Pain.

I knew it was there. It was coursing through my body faster than the blood was pumping out of my wound, but all I felt was numb.

I stared up at him.

I didn’t recognize him at that moment. It was like I was seeing the true face of my mate, my husband, for the first time at that moment, and I didn’t understand how I missed it.

The signs were there. It’s not like this came out of nowhere, but like everyone else, I failed to see it for what it was. But it was there. I was so blinded by justifying and making excuses for his shortcomings that I didn’t see what was coming.

The pain I was suffering most in my chest wasn’t from the silver ceremonial dagger that my mate pierced through my heart, but the pain of the betrayal that my mate was the one who willingly stabbed me.

My mate, the man whom I was supposed to follow blindly, trust and support, was the one who smiled down at me now while my heart struggled to continue to pump blood through my clammy body.

I felt it.

I knew I was slipping.

I was fading away with each struggling push of my heart, and I felt my life slowly slipping away from me.

It was him. He chose to do this.

For what? Greed.

There he stood. Smiling down at me as though we had just shared a meaningful, loving moment, and not that he didn’t just betray me, our bond or the Goddess’ plan for us.

Aiden Harris.

“Frankie,” Aiden crouched down next to me. He reached out and gave my cheek a light stroke of his finger, tucking back my sweat-matted hair from my face. It was almost insulting. The fu.ck does it matter if my damp bangs cover my face, his fu.cking dagger was sticking out of my chest. Heaven forbid I have a hair out of place. I could feel the rage within me begging to break free, but it was depleting my already drained energy.

“You are so beautiful. I wish things could have been different, but sacrificing you is the key to me getting everything owed to me.”

I hear his words. I hear his excuses, but I want none of them.

I was his Goddess-gifted mate; he wouldn’t get another after this betrayal. Why would he choose to sacrifice her wolf's happy ending for a title?

The betrayal filled my wound. It slithered in the same way she slithered into mine and Aiden’s relationship. The betrayal had been lingering on the surface, waiting for its chance to get inside, and now it succeeded. It was an incurable infection, eating away at the bond that held us together.

“I have a confession before you pass out, Frankie.” His eyes filled with a brief moment of guilt. “I was never your mate. You were wolfless and believed the whole thing.”

“Why?” I spoke in barely a whisper, the air was expelling faster than I could bring it in.

“Because I couldn’t let him have you. I saw it before anyone else, and he took something that mattered to me, so I took someone who mattered to him. All is fair in love and war, don’t you agree?”

My eyes widened.

I knew it. I knew it didn’t feel right, but being wolfless, I also knew I wouldn’t feel the same pull the way wolves would. But I knew, deep down, that we would never connect.

That would also explain why his wolf isn’t fighting him at this moment. I was never his true mate, so his wolf isn’t losing anything of real value.

That cut more.

I wasted years forcing myself to accept someone I barely liked, much less loved, because of a fake bond?

If I had known more, I would have asked better questions. If I were more honest when Aria or Luna Margie pressed for information about what was happening in my marriage, I wouldn’t be suffering here in this cabin, alone, with two homicidal wolves.

I was foolish. I was only now realizing how foolish I had been. I was so focused on finding a reason why we were paired that I missed the signs that maybe we were never meant to be paired at all.

©COPYRIGHT 2025 T.MURPHY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.