Chapter 24 The Other Woman
The Other Woman
One year later
Ember was curled up on my lap, purring away while I absentmindedly dug my fingers through his soft fur. I removed them for a moment to turn the page, then returned them immediately.
The day after Victor came back, he’d surprised me with a collection of books—classics, mostly. And then proceeded to spend the following week with me, spoiling me with the care and attention I’d been starving for, and I hated myself for how much I’d enjoyed it.
So I’d put all my resentment in a tight box in my heart, locked away for some other day. It was just easier to submit, to keep my questions to myself. Because I couldn’t risk him leaving me again.
“Let me in.”
My ears perked at the woman’s voice coming from outside the apartment.
“M-Madam Corvane, I’m sorry, but only the Premier is allowed…”
“I’m his Vorrak-damned wife. So if he owns this property, I own this property. Move.”
Familiar feelings of despair exploded in my gut. Oh no, this couldn’t be happening. I had compartmentalized his marriage enough to the point where I could function, but I was starting to spiral, forced to confront his betrayal all over again.
That while I was his mate, he had married another.
I wouldn’t even care if he’d just let me break this bond and let me live in peace, but as long as he held my leash, I was a slave to him and my emotions. The primal instincts of an omega with an unfaithful alpha.
The door swung open and a very pregnant alpha werewolf strode in, her roots dark and her face red with fury. She pointed a shaking finger at me, and Ember scratched my legs as he bolted towards the bedroom to hide.
“So you’re the home-wrecking whore!” she spat, her pale eyes striking and full of fire. “Have you no shame in taking another woman’s husband? For taking a father from his child? You make me sick!”
Leudo was trying to pull her back outside the door but she managed to shove him against the wall. Pregnant werewolves were exceptionally strong, and combined with what I assumed was an approaching full moon, she could likely tear me apart if she felt so inclined.
And oh Hecara… was she pregnant.
I swallowed, ignoring the onslaught of slurs against omegas, witches, and “other women” while the sorrow bubbled up inside me until I could no longer contain it. I grabbed my hair, pulling it as hard as I could and began to wail.
His wife’s mouth fell open in confusion, and she turned to Leudo as I collapsed on the floor, shaking and rocking back and forth.
She’s pregnant, she’s pregnant, she’s pregnant.
He lied, he lied, he lied.
He cheated, he cheated, he cheated.
Leudo whispered in her ear, and her face contorted, going through a broad range of emotions until it finally settled into a mixture of shock and pity.
“… Mate,” she whispered. She continued to stare as I broke down, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Leave us. And do not contact Victor, or I will have your balls.”
The door closed and after a few moments, I felt her come closer. “I would get down there to talk to you, but it’s really hard with this belly. Any chance you can get up to the couch? When you’re ready.”
I registered the words, but they didn’t reach me for a few minutes as I continued to lose myself in my pain. Finally, I mustered up the will to sit up, and I looked at the gorgeous woman who had married my mate.
She was absolutely stunning, with smooth, tanned skin, dyed golden blonde hair, and tasteful make up. Her baby bump was perfect, adorable in shape, her body remaining slim despite the new life it was busy creating.
And she was even wearing stilettos to match her expensive-looking dress.
The picture of elegance and classic beauty.
“I’m Accalia,” she started.
“I know,” I sniffed, my voice hoarse. “I saw you on the news. Before Victor took my TV. I’m Sage.”
She started to look around the barren space, taking in the lack of personal touch or sign that anyone actually lived there, aside from the book on the floor.
“How long have you two been bonded?” she asked.
“Four years, I… I think. Or maybe almost five. It’s hard to keep track of time here.”
Her brows furrowed. “I don’t follow. What do you mean, it’s hard to keep track of time?”
“I don’t have a calendar, and sometimes I get too depressed and the days sort of blend together.”
She sighed like she didn’t understand, pinching the bridge of her nose and scrunching her eyes. “Can you start at the beginning, Sage?”
I told her everything, how Victor had apparently detected my scent at parade, and then three years later found me working at his event. How he’d chased me through the city and took me from my apartment to live here, and how since then I’d never left.
With each revelation her mouth twisted in greater horror. “Oh, sweet Vorrak, what has he done to you?” She now looked at my skin, taking in the scars. “But no, they’re not all vampire bites…”
I shook my head, my arms wrapped tightly around my abdomen. “That was, um, your cousin.”
She gasped, and then cursed under her breath as she made the connection. “Kain attacked you and then Victor killed him. Our marriage… I knew it was to appease Thangmar, but… this whole time. It was because of you, wasn’t it?”
Her eyes glistened as they continued to trace over my marred skin. She reached out and her fingers hovered over my chest. “And this one?”
“Not Victor’s fault. Surgery. Well before we met.”
“I see.” She turned her head away, taking a moment to process all the new information.
She sniffed and then faced me again, saying with a sad smile, “When Victor told me it would be a loveless marriage, I didn’t question him.
At our station, no one marries for love, anyway.
And with relations between Noctis and Fenmoor at an all-time low due to Kain’s death, our coupling made sense. ”
The rational side of my brain understood every word she was saying, but the cramping in my stomach wouldn’t stop.
She began twisting the large diamond ring on her finger as she continued.
“But then on our wedding night, he told me there’d been an emergency, and he needed to leave.
I traveled to the private resort in Tideholm by myself, confused and alone.
When our allotted honeymoon time was over and he picked me up, making sure our departure was photographed together to give the illusion that we’d spent the week together, I figured he must have a girlfriend.
It wasn’t surprising—my own parents hated each other and had plenty of affairs, but I was pretty sure they at least slept together a few times because I exist. That made the fact that he didn’t even want to try was confusing.
I mean, I think I look pretty similar to the women he used to date. It shouldn’t have been a struggle.”
Ember slinked back out from the bedroom now that the commotion was over, jumping up on the couch and rubbing his head on Accalia’s belly. She sniffed a small laugh, scratching behind his ears before he headed back towards me and sat on my lap.
“So then I began to think that maybe he was gay, especially when he informed me that we would use IVF to secure an heir. His excuse was that he needed to make sure our child was a vampire, but I knew there was some other reason why he didn’t want to even consider touching me.”
Victor was definitely the type to insist his children all be vampires, so it wasn’t out of character for him to insist on picking out the perfect embryos himself.
I hated how relieved I felt that they hadn’t made their child the old-fashioned way, to know they had never been intimate. And then I felt guilty, because Accalia was obviously in pain over it—another innocent victim stuck in an unfulfilling relationship with the Victor.
She chuckled sadly, looking at her belly.
“Victor never promised me companionship or love, so I don’t know why I ever expected it.
But once the pregnancy hormones kicked in, I started craving his attention.
It’s a werewolf thing; we get very needy when we’re expecting.
And I thought he might at least change his ways a bit once the little one came.
That he might actually spend some of his days at home.
And believing that I was competing with a man, that he needed something I couldn’t give him, was comforting in a way. ”
She finally looked back up at me, then reached forward, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear, a comforting purr sounding in her chest.
“I went into his office one morning a few days ago. I couldn’t sleep, and I was overcome with the urge to snoop.
He’s always so secretive, you know. And when I saw he was still logged on to his computer, it felt like I finally had a chance to figure out what was keeping him away.
I clicked open the first tab and saw… and saw… ”
Her next breath shuddered, and she pointed her chin up towards the security camera in the corner.
“He was here, doing… well, what he’s never done with me… all over the place. With you. I couldn’t stop myself; it was like walking along tracks and freezing as a train barrels straight towards you. For hours, you two went at it, and it was beautiful and loving and… and…”
“Beautiful” and “loving” were two words I’d never use to describe my relationship with Victor, but the grass was always greener, wasn’t it?
She reached into her purse and pulled out a tissue, blowing into it. “He’s never showed me an ounce of that kind of affection. And it’s so silly, because he never told me he would! But I was jealous, and irrationally, all I could see was some witch whore—”