lphas Second Choice novel Chapter 20

Chapter 3

The air inside the car felt wrong from the moment we pulled out of the parking lot.

Kayla suddenly became talkative, sticky, performative.

One moment she was gushing about a sunset trip she and Wesley took to Turkey last month.

The next, at a red light, she leaned across the console to smear her sweet–scented lip balm across Wesley’s

mouth.

“Every fall and winter you make me remind you,” she teased. “Last time you kissed too hard and split your lip,

and you still never learn.”

She laughed, soft to the point of cloying.

Wesley’s knuckles tightened around the steering wheel. He caught her wrist, clearly irritated. “Kayla, stop.”

“Oh-” She suddenly gasped like she’d just remembered something. “I forgot Lauren’s here too. Lauren, you

don’t mind, right? We’re just used to being like this…”

I cut her off quietly. “Of course not.”

I turned to look at her, my voice thin as a blade.

“Back then, I watched you two having sex in the same bed. Why would I care about something this small?”

Everything in the car went dead silent. Finally, peace.

Streetlights slid past the window. As I stared at their retreating glow, a single thought surfaced.

If my mother were still alive to see what I’d become… she would be shocked.

Back then, my father tried to break his bond with her because of Rachel, and it nearly drove my mother

insane.

And I sealed my mate bond with Wesley behind her back. That bonding ceremony had taken her life.

At first, I hated my father and Rachel. They had pushed my mother into becoming a paranoid, fragile shadow

of the strong she–wolf she once was.

Later, I learned to hate myself. After the funeral, instead of a honeymoon, I disappeared to the Southern Tribe

and lived alone for a month.

In all that time, Wesley was the only one I didn’t hate.

To me, he was a boy trapped by fate, tarnished, helpless, a young wolf who wanted to be saved.

Before I left, I even asked Kayla to look after him.

She had done a beautiful job. She cooked in our new home with practiced ease, five dishes and a soup plated

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perfectly, even satisfying werewolves‘ impossible sense of smell.

I was genuinely grateful.

That year, the three of us had never been closer.

Wesley treated me better and better. With his first big paycheck, he bought the gemstone bracelet I had

wanted for ages.

On my birthday, he lit up the entire city with fireworks. During my cycle days, he canceled every meeting and

worked from home beside me.

Why would I have doubted him? Back then, I believed he loved me… deeper than he loved his own life.

Until that day. I had gone to his private office inside the pack compound.

The office’s hidden side door stood half open, and through it came breaths, quick, ragged, unmistakably the

sound of werewolves entwined.

I froze. My hand pushed the door wider. My wolf’s fur bristled instantly.

Inside, two naked bodies were tangled together.

A broken gasp escaped me.

Wesley reacted fast, instinctively shielding the she–wolf beneath him. That single movement cut deeper than

any words.

“Who told you to come in?!” he roared. “Get out!”

I snapped. I grabbed whatever I could reach and hurled it at them.

Shattering glass, overturned furniture, and my own sobs filled the room.

Blood trickled down Wesley’s temple from where something hit him, but he still curled his body protectively

around the Omega in his arms.

I destroyed the entire room but never once dared get close to that bed..

The bed that had once belonged to the two people I loved and trusted most.

My whole body trembled as I tried to steady myself. “Kayla–look at me.”

She knelt on the mattress, clutching the sheet around her, crying like a terrified fawn cornered by hunters.

“Lauren, I’m sorry… We shouldn’t have… but we already fell in love. Please… let us be together.”

She looked just like she had years ago, cornered in that alley by a pack of Rogues.

Back then, I fought them off for her and spent months afraid to walk home alone. I handed her my wedding

bouquet with my own hands and told her I hoped she’d find happiness.

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And now she sat in my mate’s arms asking me to bless them.

Tears fell. My voice cracked like splintered glass. “When did it start?”

She trembled, unable to speak. But a cold, steady voice answered for her.

“Does it matter? Are you done?” Wesley said. “This is the office, not your home.”

“Does it not matter?!” I screamed. “Wesley! How does this not matter?!”

He stood there naked, looking at me with a calmness that made my skin crawl.

“Matter?” he repeated. “Fine. I’ll tell you.”

“Last March. When you abandoned me and ran off to the Southern Tribe, that’s when we got together.”

“I didn’t hide it on purpose. You had just lost your mother. I didn’t want to push you over the edge, so I kept

the relationship going.”

“Kayla has suffered a lot. I won’t let her be afraid anymore. I planned to tell you after your mother’s death anniversary. But now that you’ve seen it, let’s settle it.”

“Let’s break our bond. You can have whatever you want. I only want Kayla.”

Only in that moment did I truly understand.

The day I took Wesley’s side and pushed my mother away….

That slap I gave her had been heavier than I ever understood.