The Unwanted Omega Wife's Final Goodbye

Khloe Harper POV:

"Khloe, your sister Katharine is back."

The voice of my mother, Kristine Harper, the Luna of the Sunstone Pack, echoed in my mind. It was a cold, formal transmission through our mind-link, devoid of any warmth.

My heart seized. A sudden, sharp coldness spread through my veins, making my fingertips feel like ice.

Katharine.

The name was a splinter lodged deep under my skin, one I'd been trying to ignore for years.

I took a shaky breath, forcing the air into lungs.

"Understood."

I walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse, looking down at the sprawling city lights below. This was Barron Burgess's kingdom, his territory. And I was just a dull pearl on his crown, a political offering to secure an alliance between our Packs.

Katharine was back.

The woman everyone whispered should be the one standing here, beside the Alpha King. My perfect, powerful, Alpha-blooded sister.

A wave of anxiety washed over me. My hand instinctively went to the back of my neck, my fingers tracing the crescent-moon-shaped silver birthmark. It was the symbol of my Omega status, the source of my deepest insecurities.

I couldn't just wait for the inevitable.

I opened the private mind-link to Barron. It was a privilege of being Mates, though most of the time it felt like a one-way street paved with ice.

"Barron, are you coming home tonight?"

My voice sounded more fragile than I intended.

Silence stretched from his end of the link. It was so long I thought he wouldn't answer at all.

Finally, his voice came through, deep and devoid of emotion, like a winter wind.

"Busy with Pack affairs."

It was his usual excuse. The same three words he always used when he didn't want to face me, when he didn't want to come home.

A spark of anger ignited in my chest.

"My sister is back, Barron! Katharine is back! Don't you care at all?" My voice climbed, sharp with desperation. I needed reassurance. I needed him to tell me it didn't matter.

Another silence, but this time I could feel the irritation rolling off him in cold, dark waves.

"That has nothing to do with you."

His voice was laced with an authority that was absolute, the Alpha King's dominance pressing down on me even through the link. It made it hard to breathe.

His words choked me. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head.

Nothing to do with me? My sister, his once-rumored flame, was back, and he said it had nothing to do with me?

"You have to come home! Tonight, right now!" I was practically screaming, using every ounce of my Omega strength to fight his coldness.

The only response was the hollow void of the link being abruptly severed. The feeling was like having a small piece of my soul ripped away, leaving a gaping hole for the cold to rush in.

I collapsed onto the sofa, my body feeling heavy and useless. I looked around the empty, cavernous space that was supposed to be my home.

Barron, the most powerful Alpha King in North America, my Mate, had just shown me in the most direct way possible that my feelings were worthless.

My gaze fell on the ridiculously expensive watch on my wrist, a gift from him. The irony was suffocating. He could give me anything material, but he was stingy with even a sliver of warmth.

I pushed myself up and walked to the liquor cabinet, pouring a glass of amber liquid.

The harsh spirit burned its way down my throat, a fire in my esophagus that couldn't touch the ice around my heart.

I stared at the liquid swirling in the glass, a single thought crystallizing in my mind.

This position as Luna... did I really want to keep it?

My phone buzzed. A message from my best friend, Aimee. "Honey, you okay? Heard Katharine's back."

I stared at the screen but didn't reply. I didn't want to talk to anyone.

A soft chime from the apartment's smart system announced that the temperature in the master bedroom had been adjusted to Barron's preference. He could control the details of our home from afar, but he wouldn't step foot in it.

I downed the rest of the drink in one gulp. The dizziness from the alcohol was a welcome, temporary numbness.

I walked barefoot across the plush carpet, the expensive wool soft under my feet, yet I felt like I was walking on air, with nothing solid beneath me.

I entered our walk-in closet. One side was filled with my dresses and jewelry. The other held his meticulously organized suits and shirts.

His scent lingered on his clothes-cedar and mint, powerful and cold. The scent I once craved now felt suffocating.

I shut the closet door, as if that could shut out his existence.

Back in the living room, I stared out at the night again. For the first time, this penthouse, envied by so many, felt like a gilded cage.

Katharine's face floated in my mind, always with that victorious smile, as if everything I had was just something she'd temporarily discarded.

I shook my head hard, trying to dislodge the thought.

I needed a shower. Maybe the hot water would calm me down.

As I stepped into the master bathroom, my eyes landed on the two sinks. Two toothbrush cups sat side-by-side.

One of them, Barron's, was covered in a thin layer of dust.

He hadn't stayed the night here in a very, very long time.

The discovery was the final, crushing weight on my already strained nerves.

Khloe Harper POV:

I didn't sleep.

The morning sun streamed through the windows, but it brought no warmth. Barron never came home.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My face was pale, and my blue eyes were shot through with red veins. A bitter, self-mocking smile touched my lips.

I couldn't stay in this cold cage any longer.

I changed into a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I was going back to the Sunstone Pack.

I didn't tell anyone, not even my parents. I just wanted to escape, even if it was just to breathe familiar air for a little while.

I drove my car out of the underground garage, leaving Barron's territory behind. As my car crossed the Pack border, the invisible pressure on my shoulders lessened slightly.

After a few hours, I arrived at the Sunstone Pack's territory. The air was filled with the familiar scent of pine and earth, but my heart remained heavy.

I parked in front of the Harper main house, the house I grew up in.

The moment I got out of the car, I saw her.

Katharine.

She was standing on the porch steps, as if she had been waiting for me.

She had changed. She was no longer the sister I remembered, always in elegant dresses. She wore a sleek, black combat suit, her dark brown curls pulled back in a high ponytail. Her eyes were sharp, like a hawk's.

Her scent had changed, too. It wasn't just her usual Alpha scent anymore. It was mixed with something else... a foreign, hard power that made me deeply uncomfortable.

"You're back, little sister," she said. Her voice was calm, but there was no warmth in her brown eyes.

"I just... came back for a visit." I found my voice was dry. In front of her powerful aura, my Omega instincts felt suppressed.

Her gaze swept over me, as if assessing an object. "You've lost weight," she said flatly. "It seems the Alpha King's castle isn't as nourishing as the legends say."

Her words were a gentle knife, sliding precisely into my wound. I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.

"That's none of your business," I retorted coldly.

She let out a soft laugh and slowly walked down the steps, closing the distance between us.

"How is it not my business? You're a Luna now. You represent the face of our Sunstone Pack. If you look too... pathetic, what will others think of us?"

Her words infuriated me. "It's not your place to lecture me, Katharine!"

She stopped right in front of me, her height advantage allowing her to look down at me. "Not my place?" She tilted her head. "Khloe, have you forgotten? If it weren't for your Mate-bond with Barron, I might be the one standing in his territory, lecturing you."

Her words hit me like lightning. It was my deepest fear, and the Pack's most well-known "regret."

I saw my mother, Kristine, walk out of the house. Her face wore its usual worried expression. "You two, why are you arguing the moment you see each other?"

Katharine immediately shed her aggressive demeanor, turning to our mother with a gentle smile. "It's nothing, Mom. I was just showing Khloe some concern."

I watched her change faces so quickly, a chill running down my spine. This was the real her, always able to play the perfect daughter in front of our parents.

My mother's gaze fell on me, laced with a hint of disapproval. "Khloe, why did you come back alone? Where's Barron? As a Luna, how could you leave the Alpha King's territory without permission?"

There it was again. She was always concerned with my title, my duties, never with me as a person.

I didn't want to explain. I just said tiredly, "I'm tired. I want to rest in my room."

I walked past them and headed into the main house.

In the instant I brushed past Katharine, I smelled it. On top of her own scent, there was another faint, but achingly familiar, aroma.

Cedar and mint.

Barron's scent.

My feet froze. All the blood in my body rushed to my head.

I whipped around, staring at Katharine, my voice trembling with rage. "You... you've seen him?"

A flicker of surprise crossed Katharine's face before she regained her composure. She lifted her sleeve to her nose, feigning innocence. "Oh? Have I? Perhaps I brushed against someone in a public place."

She was lying. The scent was faint, but it clung to her combat suit. It was not something you could get from "brushing against someone."

My mind went blank, filled with one horrifying thought: while I was desperately waiting for him to come home, he was with my sister.

Khloe Harper POV:

I locked myself in my room. My mind replayed Katharine's innocent expression and the scent of Barron on her clothes, over and over.

Rage and a sense of betrayal coiled around my heart like a poisonous vine, squeezing until I couldn't breathe.

I needed an explanation, an answer. But I knew that asking either Barron or Katharine would only result in lies or more humiliation.

Just then, my mind-link chimed with a call from Aimee. She was my best friend in the Sunstone Pack, a gentle Beta and the only person I could confide in.

I accepted the link, trying to keep my voice steady. "Aimee?"

"Khloe! You're back? I heard! Are you okay? I was so worried about you!" Aimee's voice was full of concern, a welcome warmth in my cold world.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. The dam of my emotions broke. I told her everything-Barron's coldness last night, and the scent I'd just found on Katharine.

The other end of the link went silent for a moment. That was unusual. Aimee would normally have immediately agreed with me, cursing Barron as an "Alpha-hole."

"Aimee? What is it?" I pressed.

"Khloe..." Aimee's voice was hesitant, as if she were struggling with a secret. "I... I don't know if I should tell you something."

Her hesitation only made the sense of dread in my gut grow stronger. "Tell me, Aimee! Whatever it is, I want to know!"

"Okay..." Aimee took a deep breath. "Well... yesterday, a friend of mine, Stacy White, she was at the Moonlight Hotel in the neutral zone for some business, and she... she saw something."

The Moonlight Hotel was the most luxurious hotel at the junction of the three major Pack territories, famous for its absolute privacy. It was a place where powerful people held secret meetings.

My heart started to pound against my ribs. "What did she see?"

"She saw... Alpha King Barron and Katharine... going into the penthouse suite together."

Aimee's words were a lightning bolt that struck me right in the head.

I lost the ability to think. A loud ringing filled my ears.

Hotel... penthouse suite... Barron... Katharine...

The words combined to form the filthiest picture I could imagine.

"Khloe? Are you still there? Khloe!" Aimee's voice called out, laced with panic.

I snapped back to reality, my voice hoarse and unrecognizable. "How long... were they together?"

"Stacy said she saw them go in during the afternoon, and they hadn't come out by the time she left late at night... Khloe, you know Katharine has always had a thing for the Alpha King, and... honestly, besides not having the Mate-bond, she's a better fit to be Luna in every way than... than you."

Aimee's words were like salt rubbed into my open wound. Yes, I was just an Omega, a substitute who had landed this position because of some cruel joke by the Moon Goddess.

So, Barron's "busy with Pack affairs" meant holing up in a hotel room with my sister?

So, the scent on Katharine wasn't from "brushing against someone," but proof that they had spent the entire night tangled together in bed?

A wave of unprecedented fury washed over me, threatening to burn away my sanity.

Betrayal! This was a blatant betrayal! A violation of the most sacred bond decreed by the Moon Goddess herself!

Every werewolf knows that if a Mate is unfaithful, the pain can be enough to tear a soul apart, even causing the betrayed to lose their inner wolf, or die.

My body began to shake uncontrollably, not from fear, but from pure, unadulterated rage.

"I'm going to kill him..." I squeezed the words through my clenched teeth.

"Khloe, calm down! He's the Alpha King!" Aimee exclaimed through the link.

Calm down? How could I be calm? My husband and my sister had betrayed me!

I shot to my feet, my mind consumed by a single thought: find Barron, confront him, and then...

Then perform the Rejection.

I would reject him. I, Khloe, would personally tear apart this disgusting bond.

I cut the link with Aimee and stormed out of my room.

I had to get back to Barron's territory immediately. I couldn't wait another second.