002 | Meeting Selene

Aurora’s POV

“Ethan?” I croaked, feeling around the bed for my husband. My hand hit wood – floorboards. I wasn’t in bed. Panic choked me. “Ethan!”

I cried out for my husband, but he didn’t answer.

Grey daylight streaked across the living room. I rolled over and covered my eyes with my hand.

Why was I on the living room floor?

Last night hit me all over again. I bolted upright, saw the scattered pages of the divorce agreement lying next to me, and burst into tears.

“Ethan?” I called out, my voice shaky. “Ethan, please…”

I grabbed the blanket off the couch and let myself cry, cradling my belly. I didn’t understand why he’d changed so suddenly, so drastically. Sure, he’d been a bit distant lately – but I’d thought it was just work stress, or the pressure of being an Alpha, or… something. 

Whatever it was, he’d never treated me like this before. Never.

Ethan woke before me most mornings. He kissed my head, then slipped quietly out of our bed and came back with two steaming mugs of coffee. I thought about the feel of his arms around me, about the way he’d sometimes grab me and fling me over his shoulder, making me scream with laughter as he fireman-lifted me and carried me down the stairs.

He wouldn’t be able to do that anymore, not now I was pregnant. Instead, he could lift me gently, bridal-style, and kiss the swell of my belly instead of my forehead.

I saw the divorce papers again and my broken heart stalled. He wouldn’t do anything with me, or our baby, ever again.

Maybe I just liked pain, because then I remembered the day we got married. His speech had been short and sweet, confidently spoken but with tears glittering in his eyes. 

I got angry – how dare he treat me like this with no explanation?

But that was the key, wasn’t it? He’d given me no explanation. I needed to find out more.

Determination took the place of my anger, and I threw off the blanket, stacked the divorce papers neatly on the coffee table, and took a shower. I repeated a mantra to myself as I got ready for the day: “I will find out what happened. I will make this right. I will win my husband back.”

That was easier said than done. He wasn’t anywhere to be found in our house, or our garden, or anywhere he normally was in our pack. I tried his offices, the pack house’s library, the kitchen.

Grey storm clouds watched me everywhere I went. The rain still hadn’t come, but the air was brimming with electricity. The pressure was making my temples throb.

I sighed and pulled out my phone. Just seeing it made nerves flutter in my stomach, but there was no point wandering around aimlessly all day. I needed to fix this.

I hit the call button. Ring, ring, ring…

The ringing stopped abruptly. A tinny, nasal voice said, “This number is unavailable.”

I tried again. The same robotic message was relayed.

Had he blocked my number?

Tears filled my eyes. What was I supposed to do now?

I had no idea where Ethan went when he wasn’t at work. I didn’t know any of his friends outside of our pack, so I didn’t even have anyone I could ask for help.

“Oh, god,” I whispered brokenly, my lip wobbling, “what’s wrong with my marriage?”

Was that why he wanted a divorce? 

‘There’s no use speculating,’ said Violet, her voice soft. ‘Only he knows the answer to that.’

‘But how can I ask him?’

I bit back a sob. I was still outside, stood in the middle of the pack gardens; I couldn’t let myself fall apart here. I sniffled hard, straightened my spine, and forced a smile as a pair of Warrior Wolves went past, offering me a couple of half-hearted bows.

 ‘You might not know his friends, but you aren’t alone,’ said Violet.

I pursed my lips. I didn’t want to tell anyone about this, but Violet was right. I needed help, and there was someone I could always rely on.

I scrolled down to Zoe’s number and hit call. She answered on the second ring, and told me she had no idea where Ethan was – but she could find out. We agreed to meet at the café in an hour.

 

* * * * *

That hour was the slowest of my life.

But eventually I was sitting down in the café Zoe and I frequented, smiling up at the waiter as he put my oat latte down in front of me. 

“Thanks,” I muttered, cupping it between my palms. 

Zoe took a long sip of her cappuccino, eyeing me the whole time. She was all sharp angles, from her black bob to her perfectly plucked eyebrows to her cat-like eyeliner. Her leather jacket was flung just-so over the back of her chair. 

She put her cappuccino down, sighed, then got straight to the point.

“What happened, girl?” 

I kept my gaze on my coffee.

“Hey.” Zoe took my hand and squeezed it. “You can tell me anything, you know.”

After a moment’s hesitation, I relayed everything that had happened yesterday to her. She leapt out of her chair and fist-pumped the air when I said, “I’m pregnant, Zo.”

“Hell yes!” she cried, rushing over and grabbing my shoulders. “That’s why you want to find him, isn’t it? To tell him?”

I bit my lip and looked away. “He already knows.”

“He knows?” 

 I nodded.

Zoe dropped back down into her chair, pulling an apologetic face at the other people sitting quietly around us. “Sorry, sorry. But – wait, what?” she said to me. “If he knows, why isn’t he attached to you at the hip? Ethan should be over the moon about this.”

Picking up my teaspoon and fiddling with it, I muttered, “He wants me to,” I forced the words out, “get rid of the baby. And he wants a divorce.”

Her face turned to stone. “He what?” she hissed, clutching the edge of the table so hard it snapped. As an Alpha’s daughter, Zoe was strong. Strong enough that she’d be able to defend herself against something like this. Me, though…

I was born an Omega and made a Luna through marriage. It hit me then, how weak and vulnerable I was.

“Sorry, gee, I’m sorry, all right!” Zoe chucked some cash onto the table and held her hands up at the waiter, who didn’t look quite so friendly as he had before. “There, that should cover it. Maybe you can buy yourself a drink with it too, Mister Grumpy.”

“Zoe!” I shushed her and apologised to the waiter, who huffed and stalked away.

She waved a hand at his back. “I can’t believe this. That doesn’t sound like Ethan at all. Did he say why?”

I shook my head, struggling to speak around the lump in my throat. 

“That prick,” she snarled. “How could he do this to you? When you’re pregnant with his child, too?” She arched an eyebrow at me then. “It is his, isn’t it?”

“Zoe!” I cried. “Of course it is. He’s the only guy I’ve ever…”

“Sure, sure. Silly question, silly me. But, Rory… I don’t get why he’d want a divorce out of nowhere.”

I knotted my fingers together. “Me, either. It has to be some sort of misunderstanding, but he won’t listen to me. He won’t even let me talk.”

“Really?” She drummed her fingers on the snapped table’s edge. “You know, he had a bit of a reputation in the heiress circle – back before your marriage, this was. Everyone thought he hated women. Then you told me he was your mate.”

I waited for her to get to the point and took a sip of my latte. It had gone cold.

Zoe levelled her gaze at me. “I was worried he might hurt you, to begin with. But when I saw how tenderly he treated you at your wedding, I knew then that he truly loved you. He loves you. That hasn’t changed. I don’t just believe that, I know it. Don’t you?”

“I…” I ran my tongue over my teeth. “Until last night, I thought I did.”

“You just have to find him and make him talk to you. Clear up this misunderstanding, whatever it is, and everything will go back to normal. He’s been a dick,” she added, “so make him grovel, but… I have faith in your relationship. You should, too.”

Her phone buzzed. “It might be Rita.”

“Rita?”

She waved a hand. “One of my girls from home. She’s married to some billionaire Alpha… anyway. If anyone knows where your man’s got to, it’ll be her.” She unlocked her phone and grinned. “Bingo.”

My stomach turned over. “Is it him?”

She pushed the phone over to me. I felt like I was going to be sick.

There was a photo of Ethan, a bottle of champagne held loosely in his hand, surrounded by people I didn’t recognise somewhere I’d never been. Underneath the photo was a second message, which was just an address. 

“I don’t know where that is,” I whispered. Was this what he did when I wasn’t with him? Did I know my husband at all?

Zoe took the phone back and gave it a quick glance before saying, “I do. It’s a club, not far from here. Well – not a club club, exactly. It’s more of a private venue, used for gatherings by the Alpha families.”

My heart sank even further. “How will I get in? I’m part of an Alpha family through marriage; I’m not a legitimate heir.”

“No, you aren’t.” A slow, confident grin pushed at her cheeks. “But I am. In fact, my family partially own that club. I guess you could say that kind of makes me the boss. Therefore,” her grin was so wide now she looked like the dang Cheshire Chat, “we can go whenever we like.”

* * * * *

The doorman let us in the second he saw Zoe. I nodded at him, my throat too tight to even squeak out a thanks. 

Pounding music rattled my skull. Despite the weak sunlight outside, the clouds still hanging heavy in the sky, it was dark in the club, lit only by the flashing, coloured lights flaring across the dance floor. 

My gaze locked on a couple kissing on the stage, next to the DJ. Cheers erupted across the crowd.

I faltered. Zoe grabbed my arm, but I couldn’t move.

The man being kissed was my husband.

“It’s Ethan,” I choked out.

She turned to look. “That little bastard,” she snarled.

Tears pricked my eyes. I blinked them back – but it was too late. Ethan was looking right at me.

He pushed the girl away. She stumbled slightly, wobbling on her high heels, and turned around enough that I could see her face.

“What the heck?” I gasped.

The girl he’d been kissing looked exactly like me.