My Alpha's Mistress, My Son's Unmarked Grave

On the fourth anniversary of my son's death, I went to the Pack Archives to perform a soul-soothing ritual for his spirit.

But the records showed a truth I couldn't comprehend. My mate, Alpha Damien, had another child-a secret son with the she-wolf he'd sworn was just a crazed stalker.

He lied through our sacred mind-link, claiming a pack emergency, but I found them at a secret manor, laughing. He, his mistress, and their boy-a perfect, happy family.

Hiding in my own garage, I overheard the conversation that shattered my world. My son didn't just slip and fall into the river. He ran in terror, scared by the sound of their wild, careless mating nearby.

Their affair killed my baby.

As this horror crashed down on me, our mate bond, meant for love, became a tool of torture. It forced me to feel every second of his pleasure as he took her again, right there in the car, just feet from where I hid.

He and his mother then framed me for abuse, had my son's ashes dug up and flushed down a sewer, and beat me with a silver whip before leaving me for dead with a pack of feral Rogues.

But I survived. And I made a choice. I wouldn't seek revenge. I would seek oblivion.

I found a pack that practiced forbidden magic, a ritual that could wipe my mind clean.

I would erase him, our son, and every memory of my old life. I would be reborn.

Chapter 1

SERAPHINA'S POV:

The full moon hung in the sky like a silver scar, a perfect, mocking circle. Four years. It had been four years to the day since the light of my life, my only cub, Zayn, was extinguished.

My fingers trembled as I parked the car. The Black Moon Pack's Archives were an old stone building, smelling of ancient paper and secrets. Tonight, I was here to perform the final soul-soothing ritual for Zayn. A small, private ceremony to help his spirit find peace. It was all I had left.

The Elder at the records desk, a stooped wolf with cloudy eyes, greeted me with a respectful nod. "Luna Seraphina."

"I'm here for the soul-soothing," I said, my voice a thin whisper.

He nodded slowly, pulling out a heavy ledger bound in dark leather. "Of course. We just need to verify the bloodline records for the ritual."

He ran a gnarled finger down the page. "Alpha Damien Blackwood... your mate. One cub, Zayn Blackwood, deceased." He paused, his brow furrowed. "Ah, and... one other."

A cold dread, heavy and thick, settled in my stomach. "What other?"

The Elder squinted at the book. "A second cub. Orion. Mother's name is listed as Lila."

Lila.

The name hit me like a physical blow. Lila, the she-wolf who had been so obsessed with Damien that she'd been cast out, declared a Rogue for her relentless stalking. That was years ago.

Just then, a warmth spread through my mind, a familiar presence. It was Damien, using our Mind-Link. The sacred connection between fated mates, meant to be a channel of pure truth and love.

"My moon," his voice echoed in my head, smooth as velvet. "I love you. I'm caught up dealing with an urgent Pack emergency. I'll be home as soon as I can."

The words, once a source of comfort, now felt like ice. A lie. I could feel the falsehood of it, a sour note in the symphony of our bond. An emergency?

My wolf, a broken and silent thing since Zayn's death, stirred with a flicker of rage.

I couldn't breathe. I wouldn't believe it. Not my mate. Not the Alpha who was sworn to me by the Moon Goddess herself.

"The address," I choked out, pointing a shaking finger at the ledger. "Where is this... Orion registered?"

The Elder, sensing my distress, wrote it down on a slip of paper. I snatched it and ran from the Archives, the ritual forgotten.

The address led me to the Pack's private academy, a place I hadn't visited in four years. I parked across the street, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird.

And then I saw him.

My mate. My Alpha. Damien.

He wasn't in a meeting. He was standing by the school gates, a soft smile on his handsome face. A woman with long, dark hair, Lila, was walking toward him. And holding her hand was a small boy, his face a miniature version of Damien's.

"Daddy!" the boy shouted, running forward.

Damien scooped him up into his arms, his smile widening. He then reached out, his hand settling naturally on the small of Lila's back, pulling her closer. They looked like a family. A perfect, happy family.

My soul felt like it was being torn in two.

I followed them, my car a ghost trailing their happy little life. They went to a beautiful manor I'd never seen before, a secret nest tucked away. I watched from the street as they played in the garden, Damien pushing the boy on a swing, Lila laughing as she looked on. It was a picture of the life that should have been mine. The life that was stolen from me.

Numbly, I drove back to our home, our "nest." I entered through the underground garage and hid behind a thick concrete pillar, my own home now feeling like enemy territory.

His car pulled in moments later. The air was instantly thick with her scent. Not perfume. It was the primal, musky scent of a she-wolf, marking her territory. Marking my mate. Marking my home.

I held my breath, listening. They were still in the car.

"He was so happy to see you today," Lila's voice was sweet, cloying. "He misses his father."

"I know," Damien's voice was heavy. "It's complicated, Lila."

"Is it?" she purred. "Four years, Damien. Four years since that night. We were just... lost in the moment. Our howls... how could we have known the cub would wander so close to the river?"

The world stopped.

My blood turned to ice.

That night. The night Zayn died. He had been playing by the riverbank. They told me he slipped. They told me it was a tragic accident.

But it wasn't.

It was them. Their mating, so loud and uncontrolled, had terrified my little boy. He had run, scared and alone, and fallen into the freezing water.

As this new, horrifying truth crashed down on me, another sensation flooded my senses, transmitted through the mate bond. It was a wave of raw, animalistic pleasure. His pleasure.

I clamped my hands over my mouth to stifle a scream.

He was with her. Right now. In the car, not twenty feet from where I was hiding, in the garage of the home I shared with him. He was taking her, marking her, their bodies moving together in a rhythm of pure betrayal. The sacred bond, meant only for me, was forcing me to feel every second of his infidelity.

My world didn't just break. It was annihilated.

SERAPHINA'S POV:

The first thing I did was go to Zayn's grave. The small stone was cold under my touch, just like my heart.

I opened a hidden channel on my phone, one I'd never used before, and sent a coded message. It was a secure line to Alpha Kael of the Silver Creek Pack. He was a renowned healer, but he was also known for his controversial research into the very nature of the mate bond.

My message was simple. "I'm in."

His reply came instantly. "The research center is ready for you. When?"

I typed back, my fingers moving with a cold, clear purpose. "Soon. But I have a condition. I want to be the first volunteer for the 'Memory Strip' protocol. The forbidden one."

There was a long pause. "Seraphina... that ritual is dangerous. It's irreversible."

"Good," I sent back. "That's what I want."

Next, I called the Pack's chief lawyer. "I need you to draw up a Mate Relationship Dissolution request," I said, my voice flat. "I'll be picking it up tomorrow."

Back at our nest, the grand house felt like a tomb. I walked through the rooms, gathering every gift he had ever given me, every photo of us together, every token of our supposed love. I threw them all into the massive stone fireplace.

I watched as the flames licked at a photo of us on our Mating Day, his arms wrapped around me, his eyes full of what I had mistaken for devotion. The fire consumed it all, turning our history to ash.

The front door opened. Damien walked in.

His eyes widened when he saw the fire, then landed on me. His inner wolf, I could feel it through the bond, let out a low, pained growl. It wasn't a growl of remorse. It was a growl of possession, of an Alpha seeing his property being destroyed.

"Seraphina? What is this?" he asked, his voice tight with a strange mix of hurt and anger.

I just stared at him, my face a blank mask.

He took a step closer, his expression shifting to one of deep, theatrical pain. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a heavy, platinum emblem engraved with the Black Moon sigil. The Luna's Crest. It controlled fifty-one percent of the Pack's vast wealth and assets.

"I was going to give this to you tomorrow," he said, his voice dropping to a seductive whisper. "At the annual gala. A surprise. To show everyone, to show you, that you are my everything. My one and only Luna."

The next evening, at the gala, he made good on his word. The grand hall was filled with the most powerful wolves from every corner of our territory. Damien stood on the dais, a microphone in hand, his eyes locked on me.

He gave a beautiful speech about love, loyalty, and the sacredness of the mate bond. Then, he called me to the stage.

As he placed the heavy Crest in my hand, he announced his "surprise."

"To celebrate our love," he said to the crowd, "I have adopted a young orphan cub. His bloodline talents are remarkably similar to our dear Zayn's. I know he can never replace our son, but I hope he can help heal my Luna's broken heart."

On cue, a side door opened. Lila walked out, holding the hand of the boy, Orion. She was dressed in a simple, modest uniform, posing as a caregiver from the orphanage.

My blood ran cold. He was bringing his bastard into our lives, under this disgusting lie.

Lila led Orion toward me. As she got close, her eyes, full of venomous triumph, met mine. "Oh, my!" she suddenly gasped, pointing at the moonstone pin in my hair. "The boy is terribly allergic to moon-glow flowers! The dust from the stone..."

Before I could react, she lunged forward. She didn't just remove the pin. She ripped it from my hair, her nails scraping my scalp, tearing out a small clump of my hair with it. The pain was sharp, but the humiliation was worse.

"How dare you!" Damien's voice boomed through the hall. It was his Alpha's Command. The entire room fell silent, every wolf frozen in place by the sheer power in his voice.

He grabbed Lila's arm. "You need to be taught some manners," he snarled, his face a mask of fury. He dragged her from the stage, down a long corridor behind the dais.

The Pack members whispered, impressed by their Alpha's fierce protection of his Luna.

But I knew better.

I followed them, my feet moving silently. I didn't need to see. The mate bond, that cursed connection, told me everything. As soon as they were in a private room at the end of the hall, the scent of his anger was replaced by something else.

It was a sick, twisted game. A power play. Through the bond, I felt his arousal, and her feigned fear turning into eager submission. His "punishment" was just another one of their depraved, role-playing encounters.

I stood there in the hallway, the sound of the party behind me, forced to feel my mate's climax with another woman, a woman he was pretending to punish for my sake. The Crest in my hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

SERAPHINA'S POV:

As the gala ended and guests began to leave, Orion, the little monster, ran up to me. He smiled a sickeningly sweet smile and then, deliberately, sank his sharp little cub teeth into my arm.

Pain, white-hot and sharp, shot up to my shoulder. I cried out, instinctively shoving him away. He stumbled backward and fell to the floor, his face immediately crumpling into a mask of theatrical tears.

"She pushed me!" he wailed.

Lila rushed to his side, scooping him up. "My poor baby!" she cried, glaring at me. "How could you? Just because you're jealous, you take it out on an innocent child!"

Damien strode over, his face dark as a thundercloud. He didn't even look at the bite mark on my arm. He looked at the crying boy in Lila's arms.

"That is enough, Seraphina," he said, and the air crackled with the power of his Alpha's Command. I felt my muscles lock, my jaw clench. "You will establish a mother-cub link with Orion. Now. You will accept him."

He turned his back on me, comforting Lila and his son, and walked away, leaving me standing there, shaking with rage and humiliation.

Later that night, the manor was quiet. Damien was gone. I knew where. He was at the other manor, the secret one. I didn't need to see him to know. I could feel it through the mate bond, a constant, sickening thrum of his pleasure with her. The heart-rate monitor in the cuff I'd given him years ago, a gift of love, now served as a tool of my torture, confirming his every betrayal.

I was alone in this vast, empty house with the boy.

Orion was a demon. He screamed and cried, refusing to sleep. He ran into my room, my sanctuary, and began destroying it. He tore my books, smashed my perfumes, and smeared mud on my white bedsheets.

"My mommy is the Alpha's real woman!" he shrieked, his face twisted with a malice that was terrifying in a child so young. "You're just a sad old wolf he doesn't want! You're why my brother Zayn is dead!"

His words were poison. I sank to the floor, my energy gone, my spirit crushed.

The next morning, the door to my room was thrown open. Damien's mother, the former Luna, stormed in. Her face was a mask of cold fury.

"Get up," she spat, grabbing my arm and hauling me roughly to my feet. "The boy has a fever. It's your fault."

She dragged me down the hall to Orion's room. He was in bed, whimpering, his face flushed. Lila was there, dabbing his forehead with a cool cloth, looking every bit the worried mother.

The moment Orion saw me, he recoiled in pretend terror. "Don't let her touch me!" he screamed. "She's the one who made me sick! She made me take a bath in ice water last night!"

"What?" Damien's mother gasped.

Lila's eyes filled with tears as she pulled back the boy's blanket. His legs were covered in angry red welts and blisters. "He told me she held him under the cold water," she sobbed. "Punishing him for being born."

I knew it was a lie. The welts were from a specific herb, one known to cause skin reactions that mimic burns or frostbite. It was a performance, and they were all playing their parts perfectly.

Damien, who must have returned at dawn, stood in the doorway. He looked from the "evidence" on Orion's legs to my face. His eyes were filled with a chilling, absolute disappointment.

He didn't ask. He didn't question. He just believed them.

"You have become a monster, Seraphina," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Guards."

Two pack warriors appeared at his side.

"Take her to the reservoir," he commanded. "To the old pump house. Lock her in. Maybe some time with the water will remind her of the consequences of her cruelty."

My heart stopped. The reservoir. The place where Zayn had drowned. My deepest, darkest place of trauma. He was sending me to my own personal hell.