Chapter 2 2: A Public Humiliation

TWO

CAMILE

Everything unfolded like scenes from a nightmare.

They stood at the center of the podium, dressed in royal attire, while the pack members gazed at them as if they were divine beings. The claps echoed throughout the open field and dulled the pounding of my heart. I felt like I was having an out-of-the-body experience, like I was somewhere else and just watching all of this happen to someone that wasn't me.

My mind convinced me that this was a prank. It was definitely a prank, and Zane was soon going to laugh at my expression and shout, "Gotcha!"

None of that happened.

I stood up on shaky feet and slowly moved towards him.

"Zane..." I whispered with a lump lodging in my throat. Zane's head snapped towards me, eyes bitter and angry, and when he opened his mouth, it was to give a command:

"Drag her out."

That didn't deter me. I pulled myself towards Zane, the man who loved me, the man who treated me like I was all of his dreams come true. But this man didn't look like the man I've loved for the past 4 years.

He wasn't looking at me with love. Instead, he was looking at me like I was filthy, dirty, and not worthy of being in his presence.

It troubled me, but I pushed on. There must be something wrong. Emma must have performed some sorcery on him. This wasn't my Zane. Zane wouldn't publicly embarrass me like this.

Maybe I needed to touch him or something... Maybe a physical contact would jolt him back into reality and end this nightmare that he was spewing.

I moved closer, and my eyes flickered briefly to Emma, standing beside him, tall and poignant, a malicious, triumphant glint in her eyes. This was the same Emma who used to cower before me and follow my commands like the perfect maid.

But all along, she was Zane's mistress? And the mother of the child I raised? I could feel the earth rising beneath me, but I pressed on. I had to.

"Zane," I started shakily, "what do you mean... What's going on? How's Emma the... You have a child together? Is this a joke? What..."

I could hardly get any coherent statement out. My heart was pounding so much, and my whole body was shaking. My hand was shaking too much, so I had to press it over my mouth.

Zane didn't dignify me with a reply. He only turned back to the pack.

"I had a child with Emma two years ago," He told them, and my whole world collapsed in front of me, "and of course, it couldn't be announced because of the laws that state that I must be married to my wife for 3 years before getting a divorce. But I made sure my son and the future Alpha of the pack were raised in my home, with his mother as his wet nurse."

This was it. The final break. This confirmed everything. Sam wasn't an abandoned pup. He was the bastard he had with his mistress, the same mistress he brought in as his wet nurse, the same mistress he was now getting married to.

The agony was too much. It was unbearable, and I couldn't stop the blood-curdling scream that came out from deep within me. It was so loud that I dropped to the floor. It was so loud it quietened everything. And the pain... it reached every single part of my body, of my soul. It wrenched my body apart till all I knew was an unending agonizing pain.

I've never felt anything like that in my life. It was like the pain of shifting but not fully shifting, combined with the pain of a rejected mate bond. No, it was worse than those two combined. This pain was indescribable; it was killing me. My whole body was on fire and on pins. My wolf mirrored my pain, so there was no solace, nothing at all to alleviate my pain.

Then the whispers started:

"Is she running mad?"

"The pain of the divorce must be turning her rogue."

"What was she expecting? A barren omega to remain married to an alpha? Such a clown."

Their words were filled with so much disgust and scorn. No one cared for me. I had just been treated in one of the most horrible ways possible, and not a single one of these people, whom I had played a dutiful Luna for over the past four years, pitied me.

"You should walk away now, Camile," Emma's voice came to me where I lay crumpled on the floor. She had never called me by my name before. It was always my Luna, but now she was standing in my place.

"You shouldn't embarrass yourself any further. Just walk out and go to the Chambers for the demoted Lunas. Your miserable belongings are already there."

I wanted to slap her. I tried to scream again, but I was suddenly too spent to do anything. Zane wasn't even looking at me. It felt like I wasn't worth his reaction or reply. This was the same man whom I thought loved me for four years.

He signaled to two guards, and in less than a second, they were beside us.

"Drag her out," he told them, tone set and final.

And I was dragged out, like filth, while my husband and his mistress stood side by side and hand in hand with the crowd cheering them