Before I could walk past Albus, he grabbed my hands.

“Where are you going?” he asked, his eyes reflecting momentarily panic.

“To the outhouse. You can ask Celeste to shift to our bedroom. She will be more comfortable there.” I replied, my voice indifferent.

Albus’s eyes darkened. His grip over my wrist tightened to the point of hurting me as he asked, “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what you heard!” I spat, my voice gaining volume though I tried my best to be calm.

“For Goddess’s sake, Diana. Can't you be a little kind to Celeste? She has no one to rely on.”

Have I?

I wanted to scream my lungs out but I chose to be silent. There was no need of confronting an Alpha I had already discarded.

“This is why I’m leaving. She needs you, Albus. I don't.” I said, trying not to be sarcastic.

There was a brief moment of silence between us before he said, “You don't need to move out. Celeste will just stay in the guest room.”

“No need.” I refused, “I don't want to run into you and her intimacy and get punished instead. I too have self-esteem to maintain.”

Last time Celeste stayed at our home, Albus sneaked out of our bedroom in the middle of the night. When he didn't come for too long, I followed his scent only to find him sleeping with Celeste instead, both naked.

And his audacity! When I confronted him, I was punished for breaching Alpha’s privacy. My punishment, washing Celeste’s undergarments, even those she had worn while sleeping next to my mate.

“We weren't intimate-” Albus spat, his expression turned distressful.

“My bad! We can’t call it just ‘intimacy’. It was more like you two were resting after f*cking each other hard.”

“You-” he pressed his lips before adding, “Celeste was missing my brother. I and David were twins. My scent is similar to him. So, that's why she felt comfortable around me. I was just helping-”

“Helping her vent out her desire?” I raised my eyebrows, “So, that's what you two do whenever you go ‘comforting’ her?”

“I-”

“Save it, Albus!” He wanted to explain, perhaps one more pathetic excuse. But, I cut him off, “I’m not living under the same room as Celeste. It's no use of asking you to stop Celeste from coming here. So, I’m moving out instead.”

With that, I turned back and left.

I had barely taken three steps toward the stairs when a soft, broken sob echoed from the main door.

"Diana... please, don't leave because of me."

Celeste stood there, leaning heavily against the doorframe. She looked fragile, her eyes rimmed with red and she trembled as if a light breeze might knock her over.

"I heard everything," she whimpered, clutching her chest. "I didn't mean to come between you and Albus. He was just being kind... he knew how much I was hurting. If my presence causes this much trouble, I’ll be the one to leave. I'll go sleep on the streets, I don't care about my health."

Albus’s expression softened instantly. The cold Alpha who had just been gripping my wrist with bruising force was gone, replaced by a man filled with protective instinct.

"Celeste, don't be ridiculous," Albus said, his voice dropping an octave. "You're in no condition to go anywhere."

"No, Albus, Diana is right!" Celeste cried out, moving toward me with her hands outstretched, her movements frantic and clumsy. "Diana, please. Look at me. I’ll do anything. I’ll be your servant, I’ll stay out of your sight—just don't hate Albus for his big heart."

She reached for my arm, her fingers digging into my sleeve. I felt a surge of revulsion and instinctively stepped back, pulling my arm away to avoid her touch.

"Don't touch me, Celeste," I said coldly.

The moment I moved, Celeste’s eyes flickered with something sharp—a flash of calculation that vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Instead of simply letting go, she let out a sharp, Piercing shriek. She threw her body backward with theatrical force, slamming her shoulder against the sharp edge of a marble pedestal before collapsing onto the hardwood floor.

Thud.

"Ah! My shoulder!" she gasped, curling into a ball. She began to hyperventilate, her face contorting in simulated agony.

"Celeste!" Albus roared.

He lunged past me, nearly knocking me over in his haste to get to her. He gathered her into his arms, his face pale with fury and worry. Celeste sobbed into his neck, pointing a trembling, accusing finger at me.

"I just... I just wanted to hold her hand and apologize," Celeste choked out, fresh tears streaming down her face. "Why did she push me so hard? I know she is angry, but the baby... what if I had fallen on my stomach?”

The baby?

David died a year ago. Then whose child Celeste had been carrying?

Her words kept echoing in my head while Albus roared at me. I could see the hate and disdain in his eyes for me. Even if we were not connected anymore, the way he easily believed that I could do something like that, ached my heart.

“If anything happens to Celeste, you just forget about the moon ceremony, Diana.” He spat, his voice, sharp and cold.

The audacity!

He didn't know he was threatening me with something that I would care about the least. Our bonding ceremony.

“I didn't touch her, Albus," I said, my voice dead and hollow. I looked at Celeste, who was tucked safely against his chest, watching me over his shoulder with a tiny, triumphant smirk that Albus couldn't see.

"She tripped," I added, though I knew it was useless. “You know me. I will never-”

"Enough!" Albus barked. "I was going to let you go to the outhouse to cool off, but now? You’re going to the cellar. You’ll stay there until you’re ready to apologize to Celeste for this 'accident'."

I looked at the man I once called my mate, and then at the woman playing the victim in his arms. The pain I expected to feel didn't come. Instead, there was only a cold, sharpening clarity.

“The cellar,” I whispered, “You can't do this to me, Albus. I’m innocent.”

Albus didn’t listen to one word from me. He hadn't just sent me in the cell, he had personally dragged me down the stairs, his grip so tight I knew my skin would be mottled with bruises by morning.

Hours passed. The cold seeped through my clothes, settling into my bones. I huddled in the corner, staring at the sliver of moonlight filtering through a high, barred vent, when the sound of clicking heels echoed against the stone floor outside.

The door creaked open. It wasn't the guard with bread and water.

Celeste stepped in, draped in a plush cashmere shawl that I recognized—it was a gift Albus had bought for me during our honeymoon that I had never been "allowed" to wear because it was "too delicate."

She looked radiant, the dim light catching the expensive diamond earrings dangling from her lobes.

"It’s quite chilly down here, isn't it, Diana?" she said, her voice dripping with mock sympathy.

"Get out," I rasped, my throat raw.

"Oh, don't be like that. I came to thank you," she smirked, walking closer until she could look down at me. She placed a hand over her still-flat stomach, a gesture of pure possessiveness.

"Albus was so worried about the 'stress' you caused me that he spent the last three hours massaging my feet and whispering how much he wishes I was his Luna instead of a 'vicious woman' like you."

The question I had been stifling finally burst out. "David has been dead for a year, Celeste. Wolf pregnancies don't last twelve months. Whose baby is it?"

Celeste’s smirk widened into a predatory grin. She leaned down, whispering so close I could smell Albus’s scent—cedar and rain—clinging to her skin.

"Does it really matter? Albus and David, both are the Alphas. He has been ‘comforting’ me for his brother," She chuckled, a low, chilling sound. "And, he's been doing it long before David’s funeral, Diana. This child is an Alpha's heir. His heir."

My heart didn't break, it turned to ice. The betrayal was so absolute it was almost absurd.

‘Comforting’

They call their absurd act ‘Comforting’ and the fact that they had their affair even when David was alive and yet every time he left me for her, he used his dead brother's name, made me feel like throwing up.

He has been using his brother's death to hide his absurdity.

She turned on her heel, the heavy door groaning as she pushed it shut. "Sleep well, Diana. Or don't. Albus told the guards not to bring you any blankets. He said you needed the cold to 'freeze out your cruelty'."

The lock clicked again.

As the silence swallowed the cellar once more, a wave of dizziness hit me. The air here was thin, and the dampness was settling into my lungs. My wolf was silent, suppressed by the silver-laced stones of the cellar walls.

I looked at my trembling hands. If Albus kept me here for days without food or warmth, I wouldn't make it to my escape. I wouldn't make it to the border. I would die in this dark hole, a forgotten footnote in the story of an Alpha and his mistress.

I can't die here, I thought, a desperate fire flickering in my chest. I won't let them win.

Three days and three nights. I lay on the cold floor of the cellar, curled into a small pump without food and water.

Everyone told me that the Alpha of the Blackwood pack was cold and ruthless. I never believed that. But now I witnessed his ruthlessness by myself.

Never did once he checked on me let alone feeding me. Occasionally, I would feel his presence on the door, giggling and gasping in Celeste's scent, making my blood run even colder.

Three days later for what felt like living hell, when the heavy iron door groaned open, I didn't expect the Alpha. I expected another taunt from Celeste or perhaps someone sent by the Goddess to take my soul.

Instead, the silhouette of Albus filled the doorway. He wasn't wearing his usual armor of cold indifference. He looked... tired.

"Diana," he said, his voice unusually soft.

I didn't move from my corner. I didn't want him to see how much I was shaking. He stepped into the cell, the expensive leather of his boots clicking against the wet stone. He knelt a few feet away, reaching out as if to touch my shoulder before drawing back.

"The physician looked at Celeste," he began, his tone lacking its usual bite. "She’s fine. The baby is stable."

There was a brief moment of pause before he continued,"The guards said they saw her heel catch on the rug. I... I reacted in the heat of the moment. Protecting the pack’s legacy is my duty, Diana. You have to understand that."

“The baby…” I whispered, no longer interested in his explanation, “Is it yours?”

Albus's hands that were reaching out to hold my shoulder stopped midway. I could feel his heart skipping a beat before he regained his composure and said, “Does it matter?”

The fact that he spoke the same words as Celeste and doesn't even care how much his betrayal could hurt me, ripped my heart apart.

“Shouldn't it, Albus?” I raised my eyebrows, my lips shivering. “You slept with her. She is carrying your child and you think it's not a big deal?”

“It was an accident, Diana!” He spat, “I have told you a million times. I was just helping her wolf feel comfortable and things just went wrong.”

“As for her baby… he will be the heir to our pack. The next full moon, I’m going to adopt the baby as our son, Diana.” He said while smiling as if he was offering me something good.

“I have talked to Celeste. She will let you raise her child as your own. This way, you will be his mother and I’ll be the Dad.”

“The next full moon, it's a big day, Diana.” He said, reaching out to hold my hands. “After you accept her baby as your own before the whole pack and they all accept him as the legitimate heir to the pack, I’ll hold the moon ceremony for you the same night.”

“We will be a family!” He added.

“What about Celeste?” I asked, “What would come of her? Where would she go?”

“She will live with us.” He replied, “That's the least you can do for her. After all, she is giving you her baby.”

I pursed my lips so hard it bled. I looked up at him to see if this was a kind of joke.

He has been offering me Celeste’s baby, a symbol of his betrayal to be his nanny while he continues embarrassing our bond in Celeste’s bed and that's even in my own house. And the audacity, he was even making it look like he was doing me a favor.

He didn't stay for long. After declaring his decision, he left.

Even though I was released from the cell, I didn't stay in the Alpha House. I simply walked out to live in the outhouse.

The next few days passed in blur. Every time I bumped into Albus, he would be either taking Celeste to see the healer or giving her a massage. Later, I locked myself in the cottage to not ruin my sight.

On the day of Full Moon night, he just left me a message.

[Tonight is the full moon. Our Moon ceremony. Don't forget.]

[Make sure to arrive on time. 7:00 PM sharp. I’ll be coming with Celeste. She is feeling weak today.]

Of course, he would be coming with Celeste or else she would again miss her dead husband. How can he have the heart to see her alone?

He can only see me alone and embarrassed in the gala when my mate will be coming with another lady in the gala, like always. After all these while, I should have gotten used to it.

I shot a short glance at the white gown his guard had delivered early in the morning. It was supposed to be my ninth mating gown.

But, I was not going to wear that.

One hour later, I stood outside my cottage waving hands for a cab.

Two hours later, I stood in the airport waiting for my flight, the small leather bag clutched to my hands.

Three hours later, I was already boarding my flight. I shot a glance at my wrist watch. It was 7:30 PM.

I grabbed my phone and saw ten missed calls and twenty messages from Albus. I didn't bother checking them.

I simply blocked his number and shut the phone off.

Goodbye, my Alpha.