**Lysette's POV**
My heart plummets to the floor as I push open the bedroom door.
The scent hits me first. Raw, animalistic, and wrong. So very wrong. The metallic tang of sweat mixed with something else—something that makes my wolf recoil in disgust. The air is thick with the musk of sex and betrayal.
And there he is.
Lucas.
My mate. My alpha. The man I was supposed to bond with permanently.
He's naked, tangled in sheets that smell like another woman, scrambling to cover himself as his eyes meet mine. His dark hair is disheveled, his face flushed with guilt and panic. Behind him, a blonde woman—definitely not pack—clutches the bedsheet to her chest and bolts for the bathroom like a coward.
"Lysette—" Lucas's voice cracks as he stumbles off the bed, his pants around his ankles. "It's not what it looks like."
A hollow laugh escapes my throat. Cold and sharp. The laugh of a woman whose world just shattered into a million pieces.
I take a step forward, my heels clicking against the hardwood floor. Every instinct in my body screams at me to shift, to let my wolf tear him apart for this betrayal. But years of human upbringing have taught me control, even when my supernatural side demands blood.
"Not what it looks like?" I repeat, my voice eerily calm despite the rage burning through my veins. "Really, Lucas? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you were fucking another woman in our bed."
He flinches at my words, finally pulling his pants up. The mate bond between us—that sacred connection I'd felt since I was eighteen—now feels like acid in my chest. I can sense his guilt and panic through it, and it makes me sick.
"Lysette, please, I can explain—"
"Explain what exactly?" My voice rises, the control I've been holding onto finally slipping. "That you decided to cheat on your mate the same day we buried my father? That while I was grieving, you were here screwing some random woman?"
The bond that had once felt like destiny now feels like a curse. Growing up with humans, I'd romanticized the idea of having a fated mate. But this? This was nothing like the fairy tale I'd imagined.
"I wasn't thinking clearly," he stammers, reaching toward me with shaking hands. "The full moon is in two days, and I—"
"Don't." I step back, my wolf snarling inside my head. "Don't you dare blame the moon for this. Don't you dare make excuses."
My breath comes in short gasps as I stare at him. This man who claimed to love me, who had been my introduction to the werewolf world, who promised to show me where I belonged.
"I came here because I needed you," I whisper, my voice breaking. "I buried my father today, Lucas. The man who raised me, who taught me everything about being strong, about honor. And I needed my mate to hold me, to tell me everything would be okay."
Instead, I found him buried between another woman's thighs.
Lucas's face crumbles. "Lysette, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It was a mistake—"
"A mistake?" I laugh again, but there's no humor in it. "Your dick just accidentally slipped into her?"
He flinches like I've slapped him.
The bathroom door opens and the blonde woman emerges, fully dressed now, her eyes darting between us nervously. She's human—I can tell by her scent, by the way she moves. No grace, no predatory awareness. Just a weak little thing who probably has no idea what she's gotten herself into.
"I should go," she mumbles, grabbing her purse.
"Yes, you should," I snap, my eyes never leaving Lucas's face. "And next time, make sure the man you're fucking isn't already mated. Some of us don't take kindly to sharing."
She practically runs from the room, the front door slamming behind her.
Now it's just me and him. The cheating bastard who threw away our sacred bond for a quick fuck.
"Lysette, please," Lucas begs, dropping to his knees in front of me. "I love you. I've always loved you. This doesn't change anything—"
"Doesn't change anything?" My voice turns deadly quiet. "You betrayed our bond, Lucas. You violated the most sacred trust between mates. How does that not change anything?"
I can feel my wolf pacing inside my mind, demanding blood, demanding justice. The human parents who raised me taught me restraint, but my werewolf nature screams for retribution.
"I can fix this," he says desperately. "I'll do whatever it takes. I'll cut off all contact with her, I'll—"
"You think this is about her?" I interrupt. "This isn't about some random human, Lucas. This is about you. About the kind of man you are. The kind of mate you are."
I turn toward the door, my heart pounding against my ribs. I need to leave before I do something I'll regret. Before my wolf takes over completely.
"Lysette, wait!" Lucas lunges forward, grabbing my wrist.
The moment his skin touches mine, I feel it—the bond between us straining like a rope stretched too far. The connection that's been there since the day I turned eighteen and recognized him as my destined mate.
I rip my arm away from him with such force that he stumbles backward.