001|| A Crushing Betrayal

DANA

"You have to be kidding me, Carter," I spit, hating how my voice shakes with emotion. "You're asking me to accept your divorce so you can marry that lycan bitch, but you don't want me to pack my bags and leave?"

Carter strides toward me desperately, raking a hand through his thick, black hair. With sincerity shining in his turquoise gaze, he tells me, "You're my whole world, Dana. Why would I want you to leave? Just because I'm marrying that woman doesn't mean we can't be together anymore."

For several seconds, all I can do is stare at him. Ten minutes ago, he walked right into our bedroom and tried to explain to me how his marriage to Karina Nevaryan, a well-known lycan princess whose entire kingdom has just been invaded by the growing group of rebels everyone's been worried about, would completely change the status of our pack and bring us even more success in our world.

He keeps using the word 'us' like this isn't just about him and his ambitions.

Weakly, I manage to ask him, "What's that supposed to mean, Carter?"

Carter places his hands on my shoulders. Pain rushes through me, because before he told me about his arranged marriage to the lycan princess, his touch was the most comforting thing in the world for me. He's the only man I've ever loved, and in my eyes, nothing would ever be powerful enough to break us apart.

Until now.

"Ours will be a public divorce, yes," he claims as he pinches my chin between his fingers. "But my heart will always belong to you, baby. We'll still be together behind doors. You'll still be my Luna. Mine. Nothing will change as far as our relationship is concerned."

I don't know why, but his words hit me harder than I ever expected them to. Scoffing in disgust, I back away from him and ask, "What? You're... You're asking me to be your mistress, is that it? You're asking me to downgrade from wife to mistress for you? Are you out of your mind!?"

"Honey, you don't have to call it that," he says with all the patience in the world. "The word mistress is a social construct. You'll be mine, and that's the only thing we'll have to focus on. I'll spend every night on your bed. I'll be by your side, Dana."

It's my turn to rake my hands through my hair. A humorless laugh escapes my lips as I try to gather my thoughts and figure out what to make of this.

He places a hand on my shoulder. "Baby—"

"Don't touch me!" I rage, whirling back around so we're face to face. "Don't you dare touch me, Carter! You want to humiliate me in my own home, is that it? What will people say? What will they think? What happens when your precious bride finds out that you're cheating on her with me!?"

Carter takes a deep breath like I'm being unnecessarily difficult, but that doesn't stop me from saying, "If you had an ounce of respect for me, you'd let me pack my bags and leave! You would never have walked up to me with this disgusting offer!"

"Right. I let you pack and leave, and where would you go exactly, Dana? Are you forgetting that you have nowhere to go? That your father sold you to my father to pay the debts his pack owed ours?"

His words are a slap right across my face. This has always been the one thing we've never talked about, yet now, he's flinging it right in my face.

Carter steps even closer to me, tilting his head to the side and clicking his tongue against his teeth. As I stare at his face, I realize that it's changing. Everything's changing. The person standing in front of me isn't the man I married.

My Carter would never have reminded me of that.

"I'm just looking out for you. It's my duty to look out for you, Dana. You're my wife. You were my first kiss. My first everything. And I was yours, too, remember?"

I swallow the knot forming in my throat and ball my hands into fists. He's wrong about that. Yes, I was his first everything, but he wasn't mine. I lost my virginity in the shadiest bar in the rogue world, to a stranger. It was the night my father told me about the sale, and I was angry and desperate. I drank too much and ended up in the wrong place.

No, I don't want to think about that.

The memories surrounding that night are way too painful for me.

The point is that this is a secret I'll take with me to the grave. I have to admit, though, that I'm tempted to fling this right in his face, just to hurt him. Make him feel what I'm feeling right now.

Carter cups my face between his warm hands. I want to pull away, but I'm wedged between his body and the bed behind me, so I have nowhere to go.

"What about Lenny, hm? Will you take him, too? Where would you even go? Those rebels are going around attacking innocent people. You'd easily be a target without any protection. Your father's probably lying drunk in a ditch somewhere. He can't keep you and your brother safe."

I have to admit that the thought of Lenny, my little brother, makes me pause, because I didn't think about him when I started packing my bags.

I could live under a bridge. I don't care. But what about him? What about his education? How can I leave this pack and abandon him?

Tears prick my eyes and this time, I can't hold them back. Carter clicks his tongue against his teeth, then kisses my wet cheeks. I'm revolted by his touch, but at the same time, this is all new to me. I'm used to loving him, not hating him.

I don't want him to touch me, but when I have a bad day, his touch is the only thing that's ever comforted me.

So, what am I supposed to do about all this?

"Baby, don't do this to me," he whispers before dragging his tongue along my face the way he always does whenever I cry. The tears just keep falling, though. "I can't stand your tears. You know I can't."

A sob bubbles up my throat, and I muster the courage to shove his chest. It doesn't do much, though. He stays put, still holding me.

"You asshole," I spit, voice cracking. "You fucking asshole!"

"You're free to be mad at me, baby," he whispers against my hair as I fist his shirt in my hand, ripping the material. "I know I'm hurting you. I know it. But with these rebel attacks on the rise, we have to find a way to protect ourselves, and they have the money we need. The Fallen Moon Pack will be great, and when this war is over, the lycans will reward us. They'll favor us."

His words make me cry even harder, and I'm almost tempted to beg him not to do this. We don't know where we'll end up a few months from now. He could be wrong about everything.

Goddess, how could he do this to me? After everything we've been through?

How can this be the man who fought his own father to keep me safe from his predatory clutches? How can he be the man who slept in my room every night to make sure that perverted old bastard didn't try to come into my room?

He married me against his pack's wishes. I was a nobody, and I had nothing to offer him. Not money or status. But once upon a time, the love we had for each other was enough, so why are things different now?

"I'm doing this for us," Carter says hoarsely as he pulls away to hold me at arm's length, answering my question. His chest is covered in scratch marks, and the look in his eyes is wild and filled with sorrow. "You have to remember that, Dana. Nothing will change. I'll never touch that woman. She knows what the arrangement is."

I shake my head viciously. "I can't do it, Carter. You're asking me to do the impossible. The unimaginable. I can't! Don't ask me to be your mistress while another woman has your ring on her finger!"

We spend the whole night arguing, but my protests are ignored because the very next morning, the lycan princess arrives, and she isn't alone. Her brother, Prince Ferran Nevaryan, is going to be living with us, but even Carter didn't know this would happen until they arrived.

The whole pack is downstairs, ready and eager to welcome the princess and her brother. I won't lie—it hurts that not a single person protested to Carter's decision. You'd think that, after everything I did for these assholes by trying to be the best Luna I could be, they'd at least put up a fight.

But they accepted the decision with open arms. I guess, deep down, they never thought I was the right match for Carter.

I was just supposed to be his father's whore. Nothing more, nothing less. Luck got me this far in life, but I guess it's run out.

I'm still in my bedroom, but I have to admit that I'm tempted to see the face of the woman Carter's tossing me aside for. As I part the curtains, I realize that what I'm hoping to see is that the princess is an old toad, hideous to look at. That would make me feel a hundred times better.

But no. She's around my age with long, dark, wavy hair and sparkling blue eyes. When she smiles, it's like the world all around her lights up.

She's fucking gorgeous, and the look on Carter's face the minute his gaze lands on her breathes life into every fear I've had up until this point.

Hot tears well in my eyes. To say I'm heartbroken would be a gross understatement. I feel hollow on the inside, yet, somehow, I'm bursting at the seams with anger and bitterness. It hurts so badly that I can't take a breath without feeling like my heart will explode.

Everything comes to a staggering halt, though, when the prince steps into view, standing right behind his sister like a bodyguard.

No, this can't be.

As I watch the prince shake Carter's hand with a blank expression on his face, I press my forehead against the cold glass while I stare at them with bulging eyes.

How... How can this man be the lycan prince when he's the rogue who took my virginity all those years ago?