My Mate Betrayed Me for the Lycan Princess

The cold seeped into my bones, but it was a fraction of the ice freezing my heart. I sat on the damp stone floor of the dungeon, my knees pulled to my chest. Every breath felt like inhaling broken glass. Seven years of loyalty, of shared secrets and stolen kisses in the dark, had been slaughtered in a single night. Reid's betrayal was a living, bleeding wound in my soul.

The heavy iron door groaned open, shattering the silence. Sharp, rhythmic clicks of expensive heels echoed down the corridor. The cloying scent of vanilla and roses hit my nose before she even stepped into the dim light.

Maren Sanders.

She stood outside my cell bars, the picture of Lycan royalty in a pristine white coat. But the fake, trembling victim from the ballroom was gone. Her lips curled into an ugly, vicious sneer.

"Look at you," Maren mocked, her voice dripping with poison. "Exactly where a filthy rogue belongs."

I didn't answer. I just stared at her, letting my dead, flat gaze meet hers. My silence seemed to infuriate her. She gripped the iron bars, her knuckles turning white.

"You think you're so special, don't you?" she hissed, dropping her voice to a venomous whisper. "I saw the way people looked at you tonight. I saw the way Reid looked at you, even while he was planning to destroy you. You walk around with this sickening confidence, this natural grace that I am supposed to have! I'm the Princess, Juliet. Not you."

She laughed, but it sounded brittle and frantic. "I need you gone. As long as you're breathing, Reid will always compare us. I won't allow it. Your 'merciful exile' tomorrow? It won't be a peaceful walk in the woods, rogue."

She turned on her heel and vanished into the shadows, leaving me with the suffocating smell of her perfume and a chilling promise of death.

Hours later, brutal hands dragged me from the cell. They clamped heavy silver cuffs around my wrists. The metal seared my skin instantly, sending waves of nauseating weakness through my veins. The guards shoved me into the back of an armored transport truck. I hit the metal floor hard, too drained by the burning silver to catch myself.

The drive felt like an eternity. When the truck finally lurched to a halt, the heavy doors swung open to reveal the dark, towering pines of the territory border. A frigid morning wind whipped through my torn dress.

The guards hauled me out and threw me into the dirt. But they didn't unlock the cuffs.

Tires crunched on the gravel behind us. A sleek, black SUV rolled to a stop. The door opened, and Maren stepped out into the freezing air. She didn't look like a princess right now. She looked like a predator.

"Stand down," Maren ordered the guards, not taking her eyes off me. "Return to the pack house. I will handle the rogue's crossing personally."

The guards hesitated, looking at my bound hands, but they didn't dare disobey the future Luna. They climbed into the truck and drove away, leaving me completely alone with her.

The moment the taillights disappeared, Maren's bones began to crack. She dropped to all fours, her body expanding and twisting until a large, sandy-blonde wolf stood in her place. Her yellow eyes locked onto me, burning with lethal intent.

I forced myself to my feet. The silver cuffs burned so hot I could smell my own scorching flesh. I turned and ran into the treeline, my legs trembling.

I didn't make it ten yards.

A massive weight slammed into my back. I hit the forest floor, the breath knocked from my lungs. Maren's claws tore through the fabric of my dress, slicing deep into the flesh of my back. I screamed, thrashing wildly.

She pinned me down, her jaws snapping inches from my face. She wanted to maul me. She wanted to rip my throat out and leave me unrecognizable, just another tragic rogue attack at the border.

Maren lunged for my neck.

Pure, primal survival instinct exploded inside me. I twisted my body, bringing my silver-bound wrists up. As her jaws clamped down toward my jugular, I drove my hands upward. I hooked my fingers like claws and raked my nails violently across her snout and right eye.

Maren shrieked—a high, piercing yelp of agony. She recoiled, blood instantly welling from the deep gashes across her face.

I scrambled backward, gasping for air, blood pouring from my own shredded shoulders. I was at the very edge of a steep, rocky ravine. There was nowhere left to go.

Maren shook her massive head, blood splattering the dead leaves. She looked at my fatal wounds, her yellow eyes gleaming with cruel satisfaction. She didn't need to bite my throat. Instead, she stepped forward and slammed her heavy paw into my chest.

I tipped backward into the empty air.

The wind roared in my ears. I crashed through thick branches, the wood tearing at my skin and snapping my bones. I hit the rocky bottom with a sickening crunch. Agony exploded through my entire body, so intense it instantly turned into a cold, heavy numbness.

Deep inside my mind, my wolf let out a weak, fading whimper. The trauma was too severe. She curled into a tight ball and slipped into a dark, coma-like state just to keep my heart beating.

I lay broken at the bottom of the ravine, staring up at the tiny patch of gray sky. My blood soaked into the frozen earth. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. But as the darkness finally pulled me under, one thought burned brighter than the pain.

I will survive this. And I will kill them both.