Chapter 4: My Future
Juno's POV
My lungs burned as I finished my morning run, the physical pain a welcome distraction from my emotional turmoil. The pack's reaction was immediate as I entered our territory—conversations halting, gazes averted, their scents betraying everything. Excitement, curiosity, and underneath it all, pity. The news about Matthew finding his fated mate had spread like wildfire.
They're already choosing sides, Seraphine growled within me, bristling at the sideways glances and whispers that followed me through the compound.
Matthew sat at the kitchen table when I returned home, his breakfast half-eaten. I walked past him without a word, ignoring his regret-laden voice calling my name.
I needed a shower because I had a meeting to attend today. Luna Scarlett invited me to the meeting; she's one of my closer friends. Despite feeling upset about yesterday's events, I still decided to go.
In the scalding shower, my thoughts turned to Scarlett and Freya—women whose Alphas had found their fated mates. Their hollow eyes and forced smiles haunted me. Would I become just another cautionary tale? Another Luna discarded for destiny?
We are not them, Seraphine snarled. We will not fade.
When I returned to the bedroom wrapped in a towel, Matthew waited on our bed. I ignored him, the rejection I felt bone-deep and primal. When his arms encircled me from behind, his lips finding my marking, I spun away in fury.
"Don't touch me," I spat. "Not after what you did last night."
"Juno, please—"
"You humiliated me," I cut him off, my voice shaking. "In front of everyone."
"I stopped," he insisted, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "I didn't—we didn't—"
"What?" I laughed, bitter and cold. "You didn't fuck her? Is that supposed to make me feel better? That you only did everything else?"
The hurt in his eyes should have given me satisfaction, but it didn't. There was something else there too, a longing that had nothing to do with me.
"Hurry up and change, we have a meeting to attend," I said impatiently, not wanting to say much more to him.
"The meeting's been pushed to this evening," he said softly. "Juno, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"I'm tired of that word," I muttered, turning away from him. "Sorry doesn't mean anything if you're just going to do it again."
"I never wanted to hurt you," he whispered, grabbing my arm and pulling me against him. His eyes were wet with unshed tears. "You have to believe me. I've never felt so ashamed."
"But you couldn't help yourself, could you?"
"You don't understand what it was like," he said. "I couldn't—I can't—fight this pull."
To my shock, Matthew fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around my legs as he pressed his face against my thighs. I'd never seen an Alpha so broken, so vulnerable. It went against everything in their nature.
"Please don't give up on me," he begged, his tears soaking through the fabric of my jeans. "I need you, Juno. I've always needed you."
My fingers found their way into his hair, feeling its familiar texture.
"I know this is happening fast," he continued, his words muffled against my leg. "But we can figure it out. I promise I'll do better. Just don't shut me out."
"You want me to accept sharing you with her," I said flatly.
"I don't know what I want," he admitted, looking up at me with red-rimmed eyes. "But I know I don't want to lose you."
"You already have," I whispered. "What happens now is just... aftermath."
"No," he insisted, getting to his feet and cupping my face in his hands. "I'll fight this, Juno. I swear I will."
I didn't believe him, but I didn't have the energy to argue anymore. The pull of a fated mate was too strong, especially for an Alpha. I knew he was speaking the truth, but I also knew he couldn't follow through.
The ache in my chest threatened to consume me. Our life together, the happiness we'd built, it was over. I knew that with a certainty that terrified me.
The pack meeting hall buzzed with nervous energy as Matthew and I walked in that evening. I felt eyes on me from every direction, heard the whispers that followed in our wake. I picked up fragments of conversation, about Matthew and Isabelle on the balcony, how he'd been so far gone he'd torn her dress, how she'd moaned loud enough for half the party to hear.
Each detail was a fresh wound.
Freya came up to me during the break. She looked terrible. I could tell she'd been drinking. You could smell it on her even through all that perfume.