Chapter 5: Direct Impact
Juno's POV
"How are you holding up?" she asked, her voice raspy from years of drinking.
"I'm fine," I lied.
Freya gave me a knowing look. "It's okay not to be fine, you know. No one expects you to be."
I glanced around the room, noticing how the other women carefully avoided the topic of Matthew and Isabelle. I appreciated their attempt at tact. Some genuinely hoped this was just a phase that would pass. Others, like Scarlett and Freya, knew better.
"Does it get easier?" I asked Freya, keeping my voice low.
She let out a humorless laugh. "You want the truth? No. But you get braver."
"Quinn hasn't touched me in over a year," Freya continued, her fingers fidgeting with her necklace. "Our bed grew cold long before that. He sleeps in her room now."
"And you just... accept it?" I couldn't keep the disbelief from my voice.
"What choice do I have?" she countered. "An Alpha won't reject his fated mate - the risk of weakness is too great. And no one wants used goods, Juno. No wolf will challenge an Alpha for a woman he's marked and discarded."
Her statement landed like a punch to the gut. Seraphine, usually so quick to roar in defiance, fell silent. A chill ran down my spine. This was my future, watching Matthew fall deeper in love with Isabelle while I faded into the background.
"So what do you do?" I asked, desperate for some solution, some way out of this nightmare.
Freya's smile didn't reach her eyes. "I find comfort where I can. Discreetly, of course."
It took me a moment to understand what she meant. "You have affairs?"
"Quinn doesn't care who I fuck anymore," she shrugged. "As long as I don't embarrass him in public. It's... an arrangement."
Is that what my marriage would become? An "arrangement" where Matthew slept with Isabelle while I sought physical comfort elsewhere? The thought made me sick.
When the meeting started up again, I was watching Matthew across the room. I noticed how he was talking to Alpha Charles, Isabelle's dad. I could totally tell there was tension between them, like Matthew was trying to act polite but was actually pretty pissed off.
A storm was coming.
"Alpha Matthew."
Charles's deep voice stopped us in the parking lot after the meeting. I felt Matthew tense up beside me. I could feel the tension between the two Alphas.
"Not now, Alpha Charles," Matthew warned, his hand possessively at the my back.
"This can't wait." Charles's gaze flicked to me, contempt clear in his eyes. "You know you can't keep him, right? Not when my daughter is his fated mate."
The words stabbed into me like knives. Seraphine snarled, wanting to lunge at the other Alpha.
"Don't bring my wife into this," Matthew growled, stepping slightly in front of me.
Charles laughed, the sound harsh. "She's already in it. You made sure of that when you put your hands on my daughter at the party and then left her there."
"We didn't—"
"What? Fuck?" Charles spat. "Is that supposed to make it better? You were all over her and then you just walked away with her." He jerked his chin toward me.
Before Matthew could respond, Charles's fist connected with his jaw, the impact echoing in the empty parking lot. I should have been horrified, but my heart felt a twisted satisfaction. It was what I'd wanted to do myself.
"I spent years protecting Isabelle," Charles continued, his voice shaking with emotion. "She just finished her master's degree. She had options. Plans. Now what? She becomes one of your whores?"
"That's not—"
"Shut up," Charles snarled, "Let me make this crystal clear for you. You're taking Isabelle from my pack because I can't stomach watching what comes next. You're going to mark her—properly—because you've already ruined any chance she had at a normal life. And then the three of you can sort out your pathetic little circus of an arrangement." His lips curled into a cruel smile.
"I can't reject Juno," Matthew said. "She means too much to me."
Charles laughed, "And you can't reject Isabelle because it would cripple your wolf. How convenient for you." He leaned in, "I know exactly how this works. So does she." He jerked his chin toward me, not even bothering to use my name. "You want to play both sides? Fine. But remember who put the noose around all your necks." He tapped Matthew's chest with one finger. "This bed? You made it, son. Now all three of you get to lie in it. Enjoy the thorns."