The Bet That Cost Him His Mate Chapter 06

The Bet That Cost Him His Mate Chapter 06

When Wyatt returned to the estate, the house was dead silent.

Valerie’s slippers were gone from the entryway.

Her books were gone from the coffee table.

The bathroom counter was wiped clean of her perfume, her lip balm, and those little hair clips he used to find everywhere.

In the closet, empty hangers swung where her dresses used to be.

In the bedroom trash can, he found the torn pieces of his vow.

“I, Wyatt, swear on my wolf that for every thunderstorm from now on, I will hold Valerie in my arms and never let her face the dark alone.”

He picked up the shreds, staring at the words until his vision blurred.

He had written that after she had braved a terrible storm just to take care of him. He had sworn to keep everything that could hurt her far away.

He remembered how tears of emotion had filled her eyes as she threw herself into his arms.

But now, he was the thing hurting her.

Not only did he abandon her during the storm, he let her walk out into it alone.

How completely broken must she have felt?

No… He had seen the tears fighting to fall from her eyes. He just deliberately ignored them.

Because his arrogant, stupid brain told him: She has nowhere to go. She’ll stay.

On the table sat the custom watch she had bought him, but the glass face had been shattered in the chaos of rushing her to the hospital.

He stared at the broken watch for a long minute, then strapped it onto his wrist. Because it was the only thing of Valerie’s left in the entire house.

Wyatt called his Beta, ordering him to turn the entire territory upside down to find her.

His Beta called back quickly, his voice stammering. “Alpha… I found the hotel she stayed at. The staff said… they saw Miss Valerie being picked up by a convoy. The cars bore the dark gold wolf crest.”

“Dark gold wolf crest?” Wyatt repeated, disbelief coloring his voice.

Every wolf in North America knew that crest. It belonged to the Alpha King.

But how could that be? How could Valerie have anything to do with the Alpha King?

His Beta swallowed hard. “I did some digging. Three years ago, the Alpha King’s only daughter ran away from home. The timeline matches perfectly with when Valerie arrived here.”

The truth crashed down on him.

No matter how impossible it seemed, Wyatt understood. Valerie wasn’t just Valerie. She was Valerie Sterling. The heir to the Alpha King.

His Beta quickly sent over the files.

Wyatt read them once. Then again.

Valerie Sterling.

The only daughter of Alpha King Alaric, who hid her identity to escape her fated mate.

And for three years, he had let his friends and pack members call her clingy, weak, and low-ranking.

He had told himself she had nowhere to go. He believed she stayed because she needed him.

But all along, an entire empire was waiting for her to come home.

She never needed him. She chose him.

And he made her regret it.

Wyatt didn’t sleep a wink. He drove like a madman to the Alpha King’s estate.

The whole way there, his mind raced with apologies. He would tell her he was wrong, that what she heard wasn’t the whole truth, that he truly loved her, and it was never just about a bet.

But when he arrived, he realized he couldn’t even see her.

The iron gates were massive and imposing. The heavily armed guards gave his car one cold, dismissive glance before looking away, treating him like dust.

For the first time in his life, the proud, worshipped Alpha of Crescent Ridge finally understood what it felt like to be absolutely nothing.