What was the ultimate form of betrayal?

Simple. It was when the person you loved and trusted the most... was the very one hurting you.

Right now, I was living it and that betrayal came from the man I loved.

My boyfriend of four years wanted to reject me-for a woman he had just met. Yesterday.

I stood there, frozen in a daze, listening to him speak. I heard the words, but they didn't seem to register.

Because none of it made sense. I couldn't understand what he was saying... or maybe I just didn't want to.

"Lilith, you need to understand," he said, his voice steady-like this wasn't shattering me. "I know I promised to mark you as my mate when we get married, but that was before I met Seraphina yesterday. She's my real mate, and I can't ignore the bond between us. I can't reject her. So... I'm really sorry, but I have to break up with you."

Before I could stop myself, a single tear slipped down my cheek. I took a sharp, ragged breath-my chest tightening like I was suffocating. I couldn't breathe.

Kael had found his mate.

And she was right there, in his arms, as he broke up with me.

The day I'd always feared had finally come-the day I would be cast aside and abandoned by the man I loved.

But the saddest part? I knew this day would come sooner or later.

Still, I deluded myself. I told myself to trust him, to trust his words and believe in him, even knowing how powerful the mate bond was.

However, he had promised that even if he found his mate, he would still love me. That he wouldn't leave me.

But it hadn't even taken a day for him to break that promise, to destroy everything we'd built over four years.

It was almost amusing.

My nails dug into my skin as I forced myself not to cry. I lifted my head, my eyes flickering to the beautiful red-haired woman in his arms. Her gaze was fixed on me with a pitiful expression-like she was looking down at a wounded dog.

But the slight tilt of her lips told me everything. She was enjoying this, watching me fall apart.

Before I could stop myself, my eyes dropped to her neck-where his bite mark sat.

And in that moment, I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces.

He had already spent the night with her and marked her as his mate.

"Lilith..." Kael called out, taking a step toward me, his hands reaching for mine, his eyes filled with guilt but also, resolution.

"I know you're hurt right now, but you know rejecting my mate would affect my wolf, and I can't-"

"I don't care about the mate bond, my love," I cut him off with a bitter chuckle, repeating the words he had always told me. More tears fell no matter how hard I tried to hold them back.

"I don't care if the mate bond affects me. The love we have is more than some mystical bond. I would never leave you. I want us to be together... to grow old together and have little pups who look like us!"

My voice rose with each word, every memory clawing at my chest, and I saw his eyes widen.

"So don't worry. Don't think about it," I whispered now, my voice trembling as sobs began to break through. "I would never betray you..."

"Lilith..." he whispered, but I yanked my hands out of his grip.

Those hands I had once loved now burned me. Now, they disgusted me.

"Yet all it took was one night to throw away everything you said to me for four years, Kael!" I roared, raising my fist and hitting his chest.

"Four fucking years and you forgot every word you ever said to me just to sleep with someone else and mark her?!"

With each word I spat, my fists kept slamming into his chest, but he didn't speak-didn't argue.

His gaze only lowered in guilt as he let me hit him, over and over again.

"Why, Kael... Why did you have to reassure me every time? Why did you make me trust you when you were going to betray me anyway? Why? Why?!"

I shoved him back, falling to the ground as I broke into harder sobs, the tears blurring everything around me.

Why did he do this to me?

After the death of my father... after what happened to my mother...

He had been the only person truly there for me.

And now?

Now I couldn't even bring myself to hate him.

That was the worst part.

I wasn't even mad at him.

I was just... hurt.

"Please don't be upset, Lilith," a high-pitched female voice chimed in, followed by the click of heels approaching me.

"I know you have every right to be, but this really isn't Kael's fault, you know? You understand how strong the mate bond is, right? When Kael and I met, we couldn't control it-we just had to mate. It wasn't something we could stop."

She paused, then added sweetly,

"But I guess it's something you wouldn't really understand... since you're wolfless."

I lifted my head and glared at her through the tears, my hands tightening into fists.

I knew who she was. Her name was Seraphina. She was once my friend before my life came crashing down that day. Before my father, who was the former Beta to the late Alpha, died.

My father was the late Beta of Fangspire Pack, but after he and the Alpha went to war against the rogues three years ago, they never came back the same.

No-they didn't return alive.

They returned as corpses instead.

And as if that loss wasn't enough, my mother tried to take her own life that same day using wolfsbane, a poison deadly to werewolves.

She didn't die that day, but she's been in a coma ever since, her life hanging by a thread, with none of the hospitals able to help. Since then, I've spent all of our family's fortune on witch doctors, hoping that one of them could cure her.

With no money left and no one willing to help, Kael stepped in. He helped us because our families had always been close when my father was alive, and Kael and I were dating.

Everything that happened that day-the deaths, the coma, the heartbreak is the reason I became wolfless.

Because that day was my eighteenth birthday.

The day my wolf was supposed to awaken.

And according to one of the witch doctor I saw... the grief shattered my connection to her.

I never heard her voice. I never shifted. She never came.

"You know, it's actually funny how you thought you could be with my mate," Seraphina scoffed, her tone laced with mockery. "Even when he's the Beta of the most powerful pack... and you're wolfless. I guess it's your fault for being delusional after all."

I watched Kael reach for her hand, shaking his head slightly, as if trying to stop her.

Yes. Kael was the current Beta to the three Alpha triplets of Fangspire Pack.

After the death of the previous Alpha and Beta, the Alpha's three sons had taken over, and since my father had no son, the Beta position passed to Kael's family.

"What? Why are you still trying to be nice to her, Kael?" Seraphina snapped, glaring at him. "Didn't you say you never loved her? That you only pitied her? I don't like feeling like I'm the other woman when I'm clearly your mate."

Kael looked flustered, glancing at me before quickly looking away, as though he couldn't meet my eyes.

A bitter scoff slipped from my lips, and I bit my bottom one so hard I tasted blood.

"Seraphina, stop-" Kael called her name, but she scoffed and folded her arms.

"I don't care anymore. I'm not listening to you. You promised to cut ties with her, and you're going to start by not paying for her mother's hospital bills anymore."

The world seemed to stop around me as my eyes snapped toward Kael in shock.

Even with everything happening... he couldn't do that.

Kael could break up with me.

He could betray me.

But he couldn't, he wouldn't stop paying for my mother's hospital bills.

Because even if the hospital couldn't cure her, it was the only reason she was still breathing.

And if he stopped... then my mother would truly die.

Kael stared at Seraphina in disbelief before frowning.

"Seraphina, I can't do that to Aunt. If I do, Lilith won't be able to pay, and she won't survive," he said and for the first time today, a relieved breath escaped me.

For a moment, I saw the man I had fallen in love with.

The man who had sworn to protect me.

But that relief was short-lived.

Seraphina glared at Kael and scoffed.

"All right then, fine. If you won't do it, then let's reject each other. And the rejection will kill the child I'm carrying!"

I froze.

Her words hit like a slap and it seemed I wasn't the only one stunned, because Kael's eyes widened, and he took a step back.

"D-Did you just say... child?" he stammered.

I turned to Seraphina's smug face, the words leaving my mouth in a daze.

"I-If you're pregnant then..."

But as though she already knew what I was going to say, she raised her chin and smirked.

"Yes, Lilith. Yesterday wasn't the first time we met and realized we were mates. We've known each other for a month but Kael didn't want to tell you because he didn't want to hurt you. But I am pregnant with his child. So... what can we do about it?"

I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut, refusing to believe it.

"You're lying... You're lying..." I whispered breathlessly.

Then I turned to Kael, praying he would deny it. That he would tell me it wasn't true.

But Kael didn't meet my eyes.

He lowered his head-guilt and shame etched across his face.

A quiet gasp escaped me as I stared at him in disbelief.

It wasn't a lie.

Kael had truly betrayed me in the worst possible way