Chapter 2 Shattered Promises

Irene’s Point of View

I couldn’t sit still anymore. The party felt like a distant blur, like a scene I wasn’t part of. Every time I looked at Eugene, he found some ridiculous excuse to stay away from me, like I was some kind of plague. His avoidance was suffocating. I tried asking him why he was distancing himself, but he ignored all my questions, not even offering a single word in response.

There had been no hug. No kiss. Not even a simple explanation since he’d returned to the pack. It felt like the moment we’d both been waiting for, the reunion I had imagined countless times, had turned into a cruel joke. I couldn’t even properly congratulate him or tell him how happy I was to have him back.

But I couldn’t demand his attention, not with so many people around in the main yard. I had to swallow the frustration, trying to keep up a brave face. Meanwhile, the woman who had come with Eugene this morning was in his bedroom. What was going on? Why was she still there?

Luna Lorraine and Alpha Dave wouldn’t tell me anything. They just kept repeating the same thing: “We’ll talk about it after the party.” But I could feel the unease building inside me, pushing against my ribs, making my heart pound in my chest.

Maybe it was just my paranoid thoughts, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the other warriors, those who had fought alongside Eugene, were looking at me with pity in their eyes. It was like they all knew something I didn’t.

After what felt like hours of agonizing waiting, when I thought I might break from all the emotions that had been building up, we were finally ushered into the Alpha’s study room.

I sat beside Luna Lorraine, my hand gripping hers so tightly that my knuckles turned white. The tears I had been holding back threatened to spill, clouding my vision, but I couldn’t figure out why I was crying. Was it frustration? Hurt? Confusion?

I couldn’t take it anymore. The silence had stretched too long, and I needed answers. I turned to Luna Lorraine, my voice trembling with desperation.

“What is happening here? What do you know that I don’t? Who is that woman?”

My questions hung in the air, but the only response was silence. It was the kind of silence that felt like it was drowning me.

"Let's wait for Eugene to come. He will explain everything," Alpha Dave finally said, his voice steady. But his words did nothing to ease the tightness in my chest. Since I couldn’t go against the Alpha, I reluctantly stopped asking questions, though the silence between us felt suffocating.

We waited for what felt like an eternity, the minutes dragging on, each second stretching longer than the last. Fifteen minutes later, Eugene walked into the study room, the woman from earlier that morning walking beside him. They entered together, and the sight of them left me feeling uneasy, like a dark cloud had settled over the room.

A bad omen lingered in the air, but I pushed the thought away. There was no way Eugene would do this to me. We were destined mates, meant to be together. There had to be some kind of misunderstanding, something that explained all of this.

But when Eugene sat down next to her, still refusing to meet my gaze, my heart sank deeper. How could he charge fearlessly into battle, face down the enemy with unwavering resolve, but not even have the courage to look at me?

"Mother, father," Eugene said, clearing his throat nervously. He clasped his hands together, his usual nervous habit. "This is Ruby, the woman I mentioned in my letter." He glanced at the woman sitting beside him, then cleared his throat again. "I will take her as my chosen mate."

His words hit me like a physical blow. Not a single acknowledgment was given to me, the woman who had been waiting for him, the one he had always called his destined mate. I sat there in stunned silence, my mind struggling to process what had just been said. Luna Lorraine, still holding my hand, tried to steady me, but I felt like I was about to crumble under the weight of it all.

"What about me?" My voice trembled as the words slipped from my lips. "What am I to you now? Why are you doing this to me? Who is that girl?"

I couldn’t stop myself. The questions poured out of me, raw and desperate. My body shook with disbelief, my heart racing as the reality of the situation settled in. How had everything gone so wrong? Why hadn’t he told me? Why hadn’t I seen this coming?

Eugene took a deep breath, the kind of breath that seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, before finally lifting his head to look me in the eyes. But when our gazes met, all I saw in him was a man drowning in guilt and shame, desperately searching for a justification for his actions. It was like he was silently pleading with me to understand, but I couldn’t make sense of any of it.

"What is actually happening here?" I asked again, my voice echoing through the room. It felt hollow, like a desperate plea for answers that would never come. The hopelessness in my words felt heavier than ever.

Eugene’s grip on his hands tightened, his knuckles white as he searched for the courage to speak. But before he could utter a single word, Ruby spoke first, her voice cutting through the tension.

"You must be Irene," Ruby said, her tone calm but distant, almost too practiced. "I’m sorry things turned out this way for you. We didn’t mean for it to happen, but right now, Eugene has to step up and take responsibility."

I felt like the world was spinning, each word landing like a stone in my chest. "What kind of responsibility?" I managed to ask, my voice shaking. My eyes shifted to Luna Lorraine, whose grip on my hand tightened, as if trying to keep me from falling apart. But the weight of my worst nightmare was sinking in, and I could feel myself starting to crumble.

Eugene’s lips pressed into a thin line, his eyes once again avoiding mine, and in that moment, I knew I wasn’t going to get an answer from him. It was Ruby who answered for him.

"I’m pregnant with the Alpha’s first child," Ruby said, her words cold, though she tried to sound apologetic, like she was doing me some kind of favor. "I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but it’s the truth."

Those words hit me like a freight train, crashing into every fragile part of me I’d been trying to hold together. Pregnant? With his first child? How could this be happening? How had everything fallen apart so quickly?

I could barely breathe. The room seemed to close in around me as I fought to keep my composure. But the truth, her words, the way she said it, left me shattered.

My eyes instinctively drifted to Ruby's stomach. It wasn’t showing yet, so she must still be in the early stages of her pregnancy. The realization hit me like a punch to the gut, Eugene had been with her while he was writing those sweet love letters to me, telling me how much he loved me and how eagerly he awaited our reunion. How could he do this? How could he lie to me, make me believe in something so pure, while all along, he was betraying me?

I couldn’t take it anymore. My world felt like it was shattering, piece by piece, but I refused to break down in front of everyone. They were all so despicable, but worse than that...

"How long have you known about this?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, but it felt like I was screaming. I turned to Alpha Dave and Luna Lorraine, who was now quietly crying beside me. Their silence only made my stomach twist more.

"Two months," Alpha Dave replied, his voice thick with guilt, as if the weight of the truth had finally come crashing down on him.

Two months. They had been hiding this from me for two months, pretending like nothing had happened, like I was still the one Eugene wanted. I couldn’t take it any longer.

With a surge of anger and hurt that I couldn’t suppress, I swatted Luna Lorraine’s hands away from me and stood up, my chest tight with emotions I couldn’t even begin to process. I didn’t say a word as I rushed toward the door, but I could hear Eugene’s voice calling my name, his footsteps quickly following behind me.

"Irene!" Eugene’s voice echoed in the hallway, and before I knew it, he had caught up with me, grabbing me by the arm and turning me around to face him. "Don’t be like this, we can talk about this."

What else was there to talk about? The words escaped me in a rush of fury, my voice trembling with the intensity of everything I had been holding in.

"What else is there to talk about?!" I snapped, my hands shaking with the urge to slap him across the face. "You’ve impregnated another woman!"

"It’s a mistake! You weren’t around, and I was lonely!" Eugene raised his voice in frustration, but I could hear the selfishness in his words. His excuses only made it worse, and I could feel the disbelief growing with every second.

This was the excuse he was offering me?

I couldn’t stop the bitterness from seeping into my words. "Do you expect me to go to the frontlines to warm your bed?" I shot back, my voice dripping with sarcasm and anger.

How could he think that would ever be an acceptable reason? How could he possibly think that I would understand any of this?