Betrayed Twice, I Pretended Amnesia To Take Revenge On My Alpha Mate And Sister Chapter 04

Betrayed Twice, I Pretended Amnesia To Take Revenge On My Alpha Mate And Sister Chapter 04

A moment later, the sound of kissing drifted through the wall.

Then Bethany’s breathy laughter floated in.

“You’re so bad. Tonight was supposed to be yours and Haley’s, and instead you’re making her listen.”

“She deserves it,” Clarence said.

I clamped both hands over my ears.

It didn’t help.

The sounds still seeped through the gaps between my fingers–impossible to block, impossible to escape.

Every noise clawed into my wolf like sharpened talons.

My mind split in two.

One moment I saw the Clarence who had stayed up with me through sleepless nights, who had pulled me back from the brink of despair.

The next, I couldn’t stop imagining him tangled up with Bethany on the other side of that wall.

The two memories collided over and over until my skull felt like it was cracking open.

With trembling hands, I fumbled through my clothes for the witch-prescribed medication and swallowed it dry.

I prayed desperately for the drug to numb my world into silence.

I don’t know how long it was before the door opened.

Clarence walked in wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, looking down at me.

“That’s all you’ve got?” he asked. “How do you plan to survive the next year?”

Bethany followed behind him, smiling, and the marks on her skin were enough to make me sick all over again.

“Clarence, don’t tell me you’re starting to feel sorry for her?”

Something like pity flickered in his eyes, so fast I thought I had imagined it.

Then he let out a cold laugh.

“Feel sorry for her? Please.”

“I made her my mate specifically so she could experience what I went through. Why would I pity her?”

I looked up at him in disbelief.

This time, the despair didn’t come like a knife.

It fell like snow, slow and relentless, filling every hollow space inside me until there was nothing left.

So it had all been a lie.

The tenderness. The comfort. The promises.

I hadn’t been saved. I had been lured into a trap to attend my own execution.

Somehow, when you reach the very edge of breaking, strength can rise from the wreckage.

My wolf pushed with everything she had left, and I stood.

I slapped Clarence across the face with every ounce of force I had.

The sharp crack echoed through the room.

For one frozen instant, all three of us went still.

Then Clarence roared. “You dare hit your pack’s Alpha? Haley, have you lost your mind?”

I looked at him, and somewhere deep in my chest, I felt my wolf beginning to fade.

“Did you forget your little bet?” I reminded him, smiling.

“You said if I found out about the affair, I’d hit you. I hit you. So why are you angry?”

Then I twisted the knife on purpose.

“But if it were Gabriel, I wouldn’t have hit him. Because I couldn’t bear to hurt him.”

The color drained from his face.

He stared at me for several long seconds, and then he laughed too–a laugh with no warmth in it at all.

“Trying to provoke me?”

“Fine. Then watch.”

He dragged me into the master bedroom and threw me to the floor.

I curled into the corner and looked toward the bed as Clarence pulled Bethany into his arms and kissed her hard.

On the floor, the mating ceremony gown lay trampled underfoot, reduced to a rag in the dust.

In that instant, memories began playing in reverse behind my eyes.

Clarence holding me through an entire sleepless night, pointing at the gentle moonlight outside, counting the stars with me until dawn.

My Luna mother striking me across the face so hard it swelled, screaming that I had no right to compete with Bethany for a mate.

And then the grand finale–Gabriel’s betrayal.

Gabriel scrambling to pull up his pants, his face pale and panicked.

Bethany just smiling at me, lazy and cruel.

What she said then: “Sorry, Haley. I was bored and lonely, so I borrowed your mate for a bit. You really do have great taste.”

Three years ago and this moment collapsed into a single instant.

Before I even realized the sound was coming from my own throat, a broken cry tore from my mouth.

My hands and legs were shaking so violently I could barely feel them anymore.

Bethany let out a soft breath and looked at me with the exact same mocking smile from back then.

“I was wrong on the phone earlier. Clarence is so much better than your last mate.”

Hearing that, Clarence put on even more of a show.

He turned his head and looked straight at me, his eyes glittering with a sick excitement.

“Does it hurt, Haley?”

“Good.”

The two tangled figures on the bed blurred until I could barely see them.

Somewhere deep inside me, my wolf spoke in a voice so faint it was almost gone.

Haley, it seems like no one has ever truly loved you.

I got to my feet and walked to the window.

Then I turned my back to the room and gave Clarence one last smile.

Absolute.

Final.

“Clarence.”.

“I don’t want you anymore.”

For the first time that night, fear flashed across his face.

“Haley…”

And then—