Chapter 1 Ill-fated

YVONNE –

My fists pounced on the punching bag for the hundredth time ~~. Sweat coated my forehead, dripping down my neck, and my heart ~~was~~ racing faster due to the constant depletion of my strength.

Suddenly, I felt a wave of nausea engulf me, and I sat on the floor.

"What could this be?" I wondered. "It's still morning, and I don't feel ill. So why am I nauseated?" I mumbled.

Just then, I felt something forcing its way up my throat to my mouth, and I ran near the woods and threw up.

I was so tired, but the anger within me forbade me from stopping the training. Conan, my alpha-mate of one year, has suddenly changed. He doesn't look at me the way he used to. Instead, his admiring gaze has turned to someone else-Sophia.

Sophia is the Princess of the Darkmoon Pack, a powerful werewolf pack that shares a border with my pack, the Moonstone Pack.

Everything was all about her now. He barely spent time with me anymore; it was as if Sophia was his Luna and not me. I felt like a third wheel in my marriage. I felt so pathetic; hence, I mostly spent my time here because it was my comfort zone.

All this was because I hadn't given him an heir, which was not even my fault. We had taken different lab tests, and the results always said nothing was wrong with me.

I approached the bag and started to punch it again, a long, harsh breath dragging from between my lips. I was so exhausted that I couldn't continue.

Finally stepping away from the punching bag, I sighed, glancing at the pack members training around me. I had been coming here more often than I used to.

"It's time to go home," I mumbled inwardly. I walked towards the exit, nodding at the pack members who greeted me.

On my way home, an unfamiliar pain invaded my chest. I hadn't felt this sudden pain before, or could it be that? It was as if something terrible was about to happen.

I continued walking, staggering forward, until I stood in front of our house. The pain wasn't alleviating; if anything, it was becoming worse.

I pushed the door open and was about to head to our room; however, the sounds of hushed, intimate whispers and movement were unmistakably coming from behind the closed door of our bedroom.

My heart raced faster, and my throat suddenly felt dry.

"Yes, Conan... just like that..." a breathy, unfamiliar voice murmured.

I gulped hard and tried not to believe what I just heard. As I approached the door, a cold dread settled in my stomach at the sounds coming from the room.

"Could it be that Conan brought a woman into our house, into our private space?" I wondered, my mind reeling.

"Say you're mine. I want to hear you say it," Conan's voice replied, low and possessive.

Upon hearing that, my body began to shiver. This betrayal, in our own home! The intimate murmurs and the soft creak of the bed felt like physical blows.

I decided to grab the doorknob weakly, my hand shaking from a devastating mix of heartbreak and rage, and my pulse began racing faster than I had ever experienced.

As I pulled the door open, I was met with the confirming sight I had dreaded-my mate was locked in a close embrace with Sophia in our bed!

They were entangled amidst the disheveled sheets, their sudden stillness amplifying my shock. However, they hadn't noticed my presence until the door opened. I stood there, frozen, and my heart sank. I stared at them for a few seconds before I managed to speak.

"Conan, are you really doing this to me?" I asked in a cold tone.

They jolted upon hearing that and quickly gazed in my direction.

"Didn't we promise not to do something like this to each other?" I stuttered; tears filled my eyes and tried to roll down my cheeks, but I blinked them away. I would not show Sophia that I was affected by this.

"My friends warned me that this guy is a playboy, but the mate bond was too strong for me to resist him," I said as I gulped.

"So what? He doesn't find you attractive anymore, and he changed his mind and chose me," Sophia said as she climbed out of bed and started to gather her clothes from the floor and wear them.

"It is not your concern; this is between him and me. He's my mate, and I have the right to be possessive of him," I warned her. "Before the count of three, I want you out of this room. One!" I thundered.

However, instead of panicking, she let out a long, sarcastic laugh and responded.

"Where is your pride? Why would you pine over someone who doesn't want you? Is this what you call being a Luna?" she responded, her voice dripping with contempt.

Her words made me so furious that my wolf awakened. A growl rumbled in my chest, and I felt my bones ache with the urge to shift. Conan quickly moved to block my path to her, his hands coming up as if to restrain me.

"Conan, what is the meaning of this?" I asked him, trying to quell my anger.

"Yvonne, stop! I'm sorry, but honestly, maybe this was the opportunity I was looking for to speak with you plainly. It's just not working. We're not on the same level, after all."

"What do you mean by that, Conan?" I asked him. His words were like a bomb that exploded near ~~to~~ my ears. This was someone I had lived with for a year. What did he mean by all these things he was saying?

"Yvonne, think about it. You are no match for Sophia; she's more educated than you and the Princess of the Darkmoon pack. I deserve someone like her, not the mere daughter of a beta like you. And to top it all, you couldn't even give me an heir. So allow me to settle with her; she can give me an heir," he added.

I gulped hard upon hearing that. "But I'm just eighteen years old, and I still have more years ahead to achieve great things before ageing. Remember that delay is not denial; I can still give you an heir; after all, the test results prove nothing is wrong with me," I pled.

"You can keep those words to yourself as motivation, but I'm done with you," he remarked.

I burst out crying and knelt immediately, holding his hands and begging, "Conan, please don't do this to me. We can work things out, please!"

"Yvonne, I'm done with you!" he yelled. "The moon goddess must have mistaken you for my mate," he replied.

Feeling depleted, I left the castle, heading into the dark woods. All I wanted was to be alone and drown in my misery. I was weeping inside the dark woods and wondering what fate had in store for me.

"Why, why! Why always me? Why is it that I can't have a happy love life?" I cried as I recalled how I and my first love were separated. He was a Lycan, and his parents forbade him from seeing me, saying a Lycan can't mate with a werewolf in their kingdom; it was taboo to them. A few years later, Conan courted me and made me love him when I had given up on love. Not long after we started dating, we got married. But now he's trying to abandon me, too!

I gazed toward the sky through the dense awning of trees, sobbing, expecting Conan to find me there, but to no avail.

As I curled my leg on the bare ground where I was seated, weeping, I sensed the aura of a group of rogue Lycans coming from behind me, and I swiftly stood up.

"Who are you, and what do you want from me?" I managed to ask, trying to overcome my fear because they were all masked.

None of them responded, but they kept staring at me with unsettling intensity.

"Are you all deaf? Or you're not from this planet?" I growled, bent, and picked up a thick branch of tree beside me for defence.