Chapter 1

Betrayed

Cassie's Pov

My husband had an affair with my maid, got her pregnant, and never cared to hide it from me.

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I slowly opened my eyes, feeling groggy and disoriented. My body ached painfully, and I quickly realized I was tied to a chair.

My wrists were throbbing as the tight ropes cut into my skin, I tried to scream, but my mouth had been gagged, muffling any sound I tried to make.

The scent of deadly wolfsbane poison filled the air, and I gasped as I felt it burning through my veins.

That’s when I realized it, my maid, who I treated like my best friend, had poisoned me. Linda was my maid because she begged me to let her work for me and I agreed. That was because she was the one I trusted most in the world, but now shehad poisoned me and tied me up, and I didn’t know why.

The realization that I was poisoned, tied up and gaged hit me like a sledgehammer, and I felt my heart began to pound in my chest.

Why had she done this to me?

I struggled helplessly, trying to break free, but I was too weak.

Finally I looked up, and I immediately froze when I saw the scene in front of me.

Asher—my husband, the only man I had ever loved with everything I had was standing in front of me, holding and kissing my most trusted maid Linda.

Their bodies were pressed together as if they were the only people in the room, and my husband was kissing her more passionately than he had ever kissed me before.

My heart broke shattered into a million pieces and tears began to blur my vision as I watched them.

“Asher…” I tried to scream, but it was muffled by the gag.

Linda must have heard me, because she pulled away from him, her lips curling into a smirk as she caught me watching them. “Oh look,” she said with a playful sneer, “The bitch is awake.”

My husband snorted at that. “Forget about her, my only focus is you my darling. You’re my everything.” He said and kissed her again.

My body trembled, not just from the poison but from the betrayal slicing through my soul.

How could they talk about me like that? After every I had done for them. After everything I sacrificed for them?!

I tried to speak, but only weak, choked sounds came out. More tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched the two of them start kissing again.

My husband didn’t even care to look in my direction even though he could clearly hear me struggling.

Linda’s smile widened as she looked up at my husband. “So, darling, tell me—will our son inherit the pack now that I’m pregnant? Since he’s your first heir and all.”

My eyes widened in horror, but I could only watch as Asher’s hand rested protectively over her stomach. “Of course, he will,” he said, his voice cold and devoid of any warmth. “He’ll be the next Alpha of the whole pack, and you’ll be my Luna. I promise you that.”

My heart stopped. No. Was this a joke? Or some sick twisted prank?

Because this pack belonged to me, it was the last thing my father passed on to me before he died.

The Grey moon pack was my parents only legacy. Both my parents had spent their entire lives building it, they had given their sweat and blood protecting it, and I had given it all away. I had handed it over to Asher because I loved him, because I loved and trusted him.

And now he wanted to I’ve it all to his mistress and her child.

How could I have been so fucking stupid?

Panic surged through me, and I struggled violently against the ropes, ignoring the burning pain in my arms and legs. I had to stop this. I had to protect the pack. I couldn’t let them take everything my parents had worked for, everything they had sacrificed for. I couldn’t let them win.

Hearing my panicked struggles, Asher and Linda finally turned toward me, amusement flickering in their eyes as they watched my pathetic attempts to escape.

Linda smirked and sauntered over to me, her smile growing more sinister with every step.

“Oh, my poor sweat Cassie,” she cooed mockingly, crouching down to my eye level. “You’re finally awake I’m sure you have now realized what is happening. Asher is finally dumping you fo me, isn’t that great?” She cackled and I glared at her like she had lost her mind.

“Oh, come on Cassie, don’t look at me like that, You really should actually be congratulating us. I mean, I don’t know if you heard the good news, but I’m finally giving Asher something you couldn’t in three years—a child, isn’t that great?.” She giggled and my eyes widened in shock.

What? Cassie was pregnant? For my husband?

I wanted to scream and and cry, I wanted to tear her apart, but the gag held my words back. Tears flooded my eyes as I looked at back Asher, begging him silently to say something, to tell me this was all a nightmare. But he just stood there, watching me struggle and cry with cold detachment.

Linda’s hand finally reached up and ripped the gag from my mouth. I gasped, drawing in a shaky breath. My throat was raw, but I didn’t care. “How could you do this to me?” I screamed at both of them, my voice breaking with anguish. Then I looked at my husband. “Asher, how could you?”

Suddenly, Asher laughed—a dark, cruel laugh that twisted the knife in my heart even deeper. “You should have known this would happen, Cassie. After all, Linda is my fated mate and you already knew that  and yet you let her live in the same house as us. How could I ever settle for someone as dull and foolish as you?”

I stared at him in shock, I couldn’t believe it. “B-But… I loved you, Asher. You promised you would I gave you everything. Everything I had…”

Asher’s smile turned crueler, more menacing. “Exactly. You were so easy to manipulate. So hopelessly in love. You handed me your pack, your power, your trust, all because you were blinded by your feelings for me. It was almost laughable.”

The room spun around me, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Every part of me shattered as he stood there, mocking the love I had for him. Mocking the sacrifices I had made.

“Asher, please…don’t do this to me, you said you loved me, you promised me forever,” I whispered, my voice trembling with the weight of my fear and despair.

But Asher only laughed again. “Don’t you get it yet Cassie? You were nothing but a tool to me. I needed your pack. My own was weak, powerless. Marrying you gave me everything I ever wanted. And now that I’m Alpha, I don’t need you anymore, spits time for you to go.”

What? I thought in shock. What did he mean.

But before I could understand his words, his hand slid Into his pocket, and my heart stopped when I saw him pull out a gun. A silver-plated gun that could kill werewolves. “Goodbye, Cassie.”

Panic surged through me as I realized that my husband was going to kill me. “No! Asher, please! Don’t do this!” I begged, my voice cracking as I felt my life slipping away. “Please, I’m begging you. I loved you Asher. Don’t do this to me.”

For a moment, his expression wavered and he hesitated at my words. The gun lowered slightly, and for the briefest second, hope flickered inside me. Maybe, just maybe, he would spare me.

But that hope was crushed when Linda stepped forward, her hand slipping over his wrist as she took the gun from him. “Go get the hole ready, Asher,” she said with a smirk. “I’ll take care of this.”

He didn’t look back. He left me with her, his fated mate, the woman who had taken everything from me. I watched him walk away, the last piece of my heart going with him.

Linda turned to me, the gun resting casually in her hand. “Please, Linda, don’t do this,” I begged, tears streaming down my face. “I treated you like a friend, not a maid. I took you in when you had nowhere to go. I helped you when rogues attackedyou and you were too injured to leave.”

She laughed, a harsh, mocking sound. “You really believed that story, didn’t you? God, you were gullible. That whole rogue attack? It was Fake. Asher brought me here because we knew you were too in love with him to say no to him. There was no rogue attack and there was no injury, Asher could have easily rejected me anytime he wanted but he didn’t because he knew I was 10 times better than you.” Linda laughed.

I felt my world crumble even further. All of it—a lie. Everything they had ever told me was a lie.

“Everything was planned from the beginning,” she said with a sickening grin. “I seduced Asher when he was dating you, and I was the one who encouraged him to marry you, so that he could take everything you owned for us. Oh, and you know why you never got pregnant?” She leaned in closer, her voice dripping with malice. “And guess what? I also slipped a contraceptive into your food every day so you never got pregnant.”

I gasped in shock as the weight of her confession hit me like a bullet to the chest. The shame, the humiliation I had endured from the pack for never giving Asher an heir, and all along it had been her doing. Linda had comforted me through my tears, pretended to be my friend, all while ensuring I could never carry a child.

“You ruined me,” I whispered, my voice thick with rage and heartbreak.

Linda smirked. “Yes, I did. And now, you’re going to die just like your father did. It wasn’t very easy to kill that old man, but thank goodness, we somehow managed to do it.” She laughed.

My heart stopped. “My father? Alpha Damien killed my father. That’s why I had him executed.”

She laughed, a cold, heartless laugh. “Asher framed Damien. We needed him gone. He was the most powerful alpha in the region, the only one who could stop us. So, Asher set him up, and you…you did the dirty work for us.”

The room spun around me as the horrifying truth sank in. I had killed the one person who could have saved me. I had played right into their hands.

Tears streamed down my face as I whispered, “I wish…I wish I could turn back time. I wish I could stop you.”

Linda laughed again, cruel and cold. “Keep dreaming, Cassie.”

Then, without hesitation, she raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

The pain was instant, ripping through my body as I felt the bullet tear into me. My vision blurred, my life flashing before my eyes. My parents’ smiles, the pack, the love I thought I had with Asher—it all faded into darkness.

I wished I could redo it all. I wish I could go back and my mistakes. But it was too late.

Everything turned black and that’s how I died.