Chapter 3

Selena's POV

It was like I had gone deaf. People kept cheering for Rowan and the woman by his side, but I couldn't understand what was even happening before my eyes. 

I turned to Raven by my side, surprised to even see her among those clapping. I held her hand tightly, like it was the only piece of floating wood that could save me from drowning.

“What's happening?” I asked her, hoping that she at least had some answers. 

I expected her to burst into laughter and tell me that the lady Rowan was holding was some kind of distant relative that he was welcoming, or that they were trying to play an elaborate prank on me, but she didn't say anything of the sort. 

No, instead, she pulled her hand out of my grasp, and her face contorted into a sneer. “Why don't you go ask him? He's right up there,” she said, pointing up to the stage where Rowan stood.

He and the woman stood too close. The woman kept looking at him with such adoration in her eyes that definitely couldn't have been mere familial love.

“Raven—” I started to say, but she got out of her seat and pulled me along with her. 

With a firm grip on me, she dragged me up to the stage, bringing me right to Rowan.

“There. I've brought you to him. You may now air your grievances,” she said, crossing her arms across her chest and looking so different from the person I had come to know and trust. 

Still, I didn't want to believe my eyes. Perhaps I had entered into one of those dreams that were so real that you mistook them for reality.

I looked at Rowan. “Honey, what's going on? W-who’s this?” I pointed to the woman to casually pressed herself against his body shamelessly. 

Something about her appeared familiar. She was definitely a pack member, but how did she end up here? Why did she end up here?

Rowan frowned. So much anger burned inside his eyes, more than I had ever seen before. He had never looked at me in such a way. My skin crawled from the intensity of his gaze, and my heart crumpled up inside my chest like abandoned paper. 

“You're asking me what's going on?” he asked. “You actually have the audacity to ask me that?” He scoffed and pressed a hand to his forehead, before turning to give a signal to the man in charge of the media at the hidden corner of the stage. 

The man nodded, and got to work operating the big screen atop the stage, as we all stood there, watching.

A deadly hush had fallen over the once cheerful crowd, with a few quiet whispers here and there. 

“Rowan—” I started to say, but he cut me off.

“Be quiet, Selena. Just . . . don't open that mouth of yours.”

The mega screen came to life, flooded with colors and bright light that illuminated the hall.

Someone gasped loudly. Then another person. And another, until the whole hall was full of shocked whispers and murmurs.

For some reason, even before I focused on the image on the screen, my blood had already started to cool down to an unreasonable temperature.

And then, I saw what it was.

“No.” I pressed my hand against my mouth. “No!” 

It was a picture of me, pressed up against that strange man I had seen back at the garden. Against the romantic-themed backdrop of little candles and rose-petal stained grass, it was the perfect picture of forbidden romance.

If only they knew that it wasn't true. How could they, though, when my arms reached back to the man, and my lips were wide with a sensual smile. 

Whoever had taken this picture had been smart enough to take it right at the moment before I discovered that he wasn't my husband.

“I knew she was nothing but a cheap woofless slut!” someone in the crowd screamed. 

“What a prostitute. She doesn't even have shame, showing up here like she has dignity.”

“We had seen it from a mile away. We knew that she would only disgrace this pack.”

The whispers and harsh words rose up all around me, engulfing me until they were the only things I could see and hear. I wanted to disappear into the ground, but more importantly, I desperately needed to get them to see the truth.

I turned to Raven. “Raven, please tell them that it's not what it looks like at all! I was harassed by that man.”

She frowned. “Harassed? I've never seen a harassed woman wearing such a smile on her face. Stop lying.”

“I would never lie.” I spoke, things started to piece themselves together in my head. “I was set up! That evening that I told you Rowan sent me a text to meet up, you saw how I came back. You knew that something was wrong, but I couldn't tell you because I wasn't feeling too well. Please, Raven, you have to believe me. That man came out of nowhere.”

Rowan pulled away from the woman that nearly wanted to enter his nose. “Wait, Raven, what is she talking about? What text?” For the first time that day, I held hope in my heart that Rowan still held compassion for me.”

I wiped away the tears that had escaped with the back of my hand and brought out my phone. “Wait, I'll show you.” I scrolled through my phone, trying to find the message.

I searched and searched, but the text had mysteriously vanished from my inbox. “What's going on? I got a text from you yesterday, Rowan. You told me to meet up with you.”

All traces of warmth fell out of the love of my life's eyes, and he reverted to that cold, unfeeling man that I had been seeing since I stepped into that hall. 

“I never sent you any text yesterday. I was working. I even told you that I would be home late, so why would I have asked you to meet up?”

“Rowan, please, I know how this looks, but you have to trust me,” I reached out to him, “I would never cheat on you.”

Raven slapped away my hand before I could touch his face. “You're such a liar, Selena. I trusted you, and this is how you repay my brother?”

“But . . . Raven . . .” Why was she saying all this? She was a witness that day that I went out to see Rowan that evening. “You even told me that the number was Rowan's. You saw the message too.”

She gasped. “Are you now resorting to telling lies? I never saw such a message.” Her face betrayed no emotion as she spoke. It was like  . . . She was an entirely different person.

I shook my head. This couldn't be happening. Things couldn't have gotten this bad. I didn't want to believe it.

“If I had known this was how you'd repay my brother's kindness, I would have never gotten close to you in the first place,” Raven said, shaking her head. She touched Rowan's shoulder. “I'm so sorry, brother. If I had known sooner . . .”

“You don't have to apologize for anything, Raven,” Rowan said. “It's not your fault for trusting her. I guess she was just a very good liar. She fooled me too.”

“No, Rowan . . .” The other words I wanted to say got muddled in my throat with sobs. I fell to my knees, unable to keep myself from crying. “Please . . .”

He pulled his new Luna close to him once again. My replacement. How was he able to find someone else this quick? Perhaps…“I don't ever want to see you again, Selena. Go back to being the worthless person you once were.”