Chapter 1 ~ Betrayed!

{Isla's POV}

“You make love to me so close just to throw me so far away,” I muttered in tears as I staggered through the shaggy forest path with my bruised heart and my wounded hope— I was literally drunk on my grief. 

Almost immediately, I realized I was being followed. I wasn’t quite sure who these creeping bunch were, but I knew they weren’t coming to have a chat.

And I clearly understood why.

It’s not every day you see the eminent Luna of GreyStone Pack wandering through the eerie Woodlands-- alone!

I tried to creep faster now but the swollen weight of the grief in my chest hampered my already shaky legs from making any new advances. 

To be honest, there was no point in trying to escape from these prowlers. For all I know, nothing they could do to me would equally match my present agony. Nothing mattered anymore, not even my dear ‘esteemed’ life. So death was the least of my worries, and the stream of doleful tears still trailing from my eyes was an extra validation of this fact.

The nameless crooks were already catching up to me and from perception, I knew they were more than five in their numbers.

On a normal basis, I would have shifted to Cora, my wolf, and would have maimed all of them to their bones, irrespective of their numbers, battle artistry, or size— I wasn’t GreyStone’s Luna for nothing.

But sadly, nothing was normal about this instance. As I was emotionally wounded— stabbed to the chest because of love, because I had given my all to someone...

My fated mate, Alpha Cayden Hunter, the fearless Ruler of GreyStone Pack, had suddenly presented me with divorce papers and had rejected me out of the blue… and the stinging part was that I was clueless of his reason or what I had done wrong! 

The only thing I could ever be accused of was giving that man my all. In fact, I had gone against my family, my entire Pack… my darling parents, just so I could be with Cayden. I had tolerated his sister’s trash talks and had even put up with his villainous mother.

But look what I was given in return-- betrayal, hurt and a divorce envelope stoned to my happiness.

What was most disturbing now was the fact that I had believed Cayden was beginning to love me, as he had suddenly grown nicer. In fact, Cayden had, for the first time since our outré Mating ceremony, had sex with me, of which my frenzied moans had echoed throughout the entire expanse of the Mansion’s Grand Hall.

It had been a casual afternoon and I had been in the Grand Hall on the Mansion’s East tail sorting the Documents and Indentures of the Residential Estate Cayden had just acquired.

This was one of my usual ‘idle businesses’ as the Mate of a Powerful Alpha who wanted to earn her mate’s love at all costs. 

Yeah, sad right?

But don't judge me. They say "You must fight for your Love". So that was what I had believed and held onto.

I had finished recording the Estate sale’s agreements and had been rounding up some other entries when Cayden had quietly snuck up behind me and immediately took me into a liquid cuddle, completely hauling me off the Chenille couch. 

My slender body had been crushed into the warming depth of his muscle-packed framework. And without warning, he had circled me around and straddled my legs around his sturdy waist, like I didn’t even weigh up to a feather. He had then ripped off every piece of clothing that stood in his way before he plunged his threatening length deep inside me. 

I had let out emotive moans— moans of surprise and deeper confusion rather than of pleasure, as I wasn’t still certain of what had hit me— literally. But this had changed within the following seconds of Cayden’s heavy thrusts, as it had started to stir up a rush inside me. 

My moans had taken a higher pitch as exhilaration and fervor had been added, but Cayden had muffled my squeals of pleasure with venereal kisses while still digging his way into my soul.

My hunger for him had been ignited the more so that I had assumed partial control in our heated grinding and had begun swaying against his thick erection with risky haste. 

The following moment had been filled with more electrifying pulses, hair pulls, dampened cuddles, vigorous growls, heated grinds, and spirited clinches… and I had savored every single second of it, wishing it would never end. 

Cayden also hadn’t relented in his thrusts until my legs had pleaded their surrender and trembled violently in the air of my culmination.

I had been really happy and hopeful after that racy experience since It had been the first time we had gotten that intimate. I had interpreted it as a sign that our relationship was about taking a positive turn, but just when I had started to settle into the bliss of this newfound hope, Cayden suddenly presented me with divorce papers.

Wild right?

At first, I had thought it to be just spoofing jokes even though it really hadn't seemed like one. I had then asked him countless times what I had done wrong but he had only offered me a snub and a dismissive attitude. Still, I had decided not to sign the papers, as I wasn’t ready to give into such a reality and render all my years of sacrifices useless, even though the divorce papers had already been signed by Cayden. 

“I can’t just let him go. He is my fated.” I had occasionally reminded myself in spite of the hurt I was burdened with.

I had been so certain it wasn’t real life, because… ”How could you just have the most enamored sex with me and want to send me away afterward?” Things like that could only be acted out in a movie! … or so I had thought.

However, after a few days of more silence and contempt, things had finally been made clearer to me as I had walked in on the very scene of Cayden making love to another woman! And I had almost collapsed at the sight. 

He had betrayed me and the resulting pain had been so stabbing that my heart had seemed to burn up in its cavity so that even my tears had grown steamy. The memory flashes and loneliness had tortured me for days, but as hurtful as it had been, I had appreciated the clarity and understanding it had given me, even though it came at the expense of my sanity. 

The unsung lady, whoever the fuck she was, had suddenly started staying in the house, and nobody had seemed bothered by that development. Cayden’s family was unbothered, his subordinates were not disturbed, his family acted clueless. Everyone was just neutral while I was fucking losing my mind!

With the following days, the galling lassie had effortlessly earned Cayden’s love and utmost attention— something I had struggled years to achieve, despite the fact of me being his fated mate… The crazy part was that Cayden didn’t act like he owed me an explanation, and this was beginning to build up annoyance within me.

I had grown really ruffled and confused that I had finally decided to sign the fucking papers and leave them to their unruly union, but first, I had resolved to confront Cayden and get answers from him— an explanation at least, of why he would suddenly decide to do something this cruel to me. I knew I didn’t matter much to him, but the least he could have done was to dismiss me some way else.

With my resolve, I had barged in on their glorious family dinner on an ill evening…