Chapter 3

KELSEY POV:

I needed to get out. The air in the ballroom was thick with perfume and lies, and I felt like I was choking on it. I made my excuses and headed for a quiet lounge down the hall.

As I approached the door, a scent hit me, so potent it made my eyes water. It was Bennett's scent-pine and winter air-tangled with Aria's cloying sweetness. They were in there. Together.

My feet froze to the floor. Through the small crack in the door, I saw them. Bennett had Aria pressed against the wall, his hands tangled in her hair, his mouth devouring hers. It wasn't a gentle kiss. It was hungry, desperate. Feral.

Then I heard his voice, a low growl meant only for her.

"Being with Kelsey is my responsibility," he murmured against her lips. "Being with you... this is instinct." He pulled back slightly, his thumb stroking her cheek. "Be a good girl for me, and I'll buy you that rare black pearl you wanted."

The world tilted. All his talk of control, of his "blood curse," of needing to be careful... it was all a lie. He wasn't restraining himself for my sake. He simply wasn't attracted to me. Not like this.

I backed away from the door, my heart a dead weight in my chest.

A few minutes later, Aria emerged, her lips swollen and her cheeks flushed. She saw me standing there and a smug little smile played on her lips. She walked right up to me, her eyes glinting with a confidence she hadn't had before.

"Kelsey," she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "Would you be a dear and fetch me a glass of moon-spring water? The Alpha's energy... it's made me so thirsty."

It was a power play. An Omega, asking the future Luna to serve her.

I just stared at her, my mind blank with shock.

As she spoke, she took a small step back, bumping into a massive, decorative ice sculpture of a wolf. The whole thing wobbled precariously. For a horrifying second, it seemed to hang in the air.

Then it crashed down.

A shower of razor-sharp ice shards exploded across the floor. I threw my arms up to protect my face, but it was too late. A large, jagged piece slammed into my forehead. The force of it knocked me off my feet.

Pain, white-hot and blinding, erupted in my head. I hit the marble floor hard, the impact jarring my teeth. Warm, sticky liquid began to stream down my face, obscuring my vision. Blood.

Through the haze of pain, I saw Bennett rush out of the lounge. His eyes widened at the scene of chaos. For a single, hopeful heartbeat, I thought he was rushing to me.

I was wrong.

He bypassed me completely, his focus entirely on Aria, who stood frozen but unharmed a few feet away. He threw his body in front of hers, shielding her as if she were the one in danger.

"Are you alright? Is the baby alright?" he roared, his voice laced with the undeniable power of an Alpha's Command. He scanned her from head to toe, his hands hovering over her flat stomach, completely ignoring me lying in a pool of my own blood.

The entire party had gone silent. Everyone was watching. Watching the Alpha protect his mistress while his official partner bled on the floor.

My vision started to blur at the edges. With a strength I didn't know I possessed, I pushed myself up. I didn't look at him. I couldn't. Head high, I walked out of the ballroom, leaving a trail of blood behind me. The pitying and scornful stares of the pack members felt like physical blows.

At the pack hospital, a healer was stitching up the gash on my forehead when I saw them. Bennett had brought Aria to the same hospital. He escorted her into the exclusive VIP wing, his arm wrapped protectively around her, whispering words of comfort I could no longer hear. He was treating her like a precious, fragile treasure.

Lying in that sterile emergency room, the smell of antiseptic burning my nose, I made my final decision. Disappearing wasn't enough. I had to make sure this bond, this life, was severed so completely that not even the Moon Goddess herself could piece it back together.

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