Chapter 2: Breaking Point
Fiona’s POV
I sank into the couch, the cushions swallowing me whole. My hand moved on autopilot, fishing for chips and chocolate from the mountain of junk food I’d piled on the coffee table. I shoved a fistful of salt and grease into my mouth, not even tasting it anymore. Just… chewing. Existing. Barely.
It had been a month.
A month since my mate-Alpha Dorian-shattered my life with a single betrayal. A month since my sister, Cecilia, carved out my heart with her poisonous smile and took what wasn’t hers. A month of pretending I was okay while bleeding out behind closed doors.
Every day blurred into the next. Wake up. Cry. Eat. Vomit. Sleep. Repeat.
I’d shifted only once in that time, and my wolf hadn’t spoken to me since. She was grieving too, locked in some dark place inside me. She was quiet in a way that scared me more than Dorian’s cruelty. We used to be fierce. Now we were both just… numb.
I’d forgotten how to take care of myself. My glow had dimmed. I’d gained weight. My wolf’s connection to the baby kept me grounded, but just barely. Most days, I felt like a shell-bloated with regret and sadness and salt-crusted tears.
The front door creaked open, and I didn’t even flinch. My nose picked up Chloe’s scent-lavender, pine, and cinnamon. Comfort. My best friend. My pack-sister by bond if not blood.
“Fiona…” Her voice dropped when she saw me. “You look like a sad little potato that’s been left out in the sun.”
I snorted, a wet, snot-filled sound that might’ve been a laugh. Maybe. “Thanks,” I croaked, wiping my face with the back of my sleeve.
Chloe tossed her bag onto the armchair and crossed her arms, glaring at me. “You can’t keep doing this, Fi. You’ve got a pup in your belly, you’re not meant to rot on a damn couch.”
I shook my head, more tears falling. “I don’t know how to stop. Everything hurts. It’s like… every breath is a reminder that he’s betraying.”
Her expression hardened. “It’s been a month, babe. A whole-ass lunar cycle. And you’re still crying over that spineless excuse of an Alpha?”
I curled inward, the sobs crashing down again like a tidal wave I couldn’t hold back. “I don’t know what to do anymore, Chloe!” My voice cracked, hoarse with grief. “I have a baby growing inside me and no mate. No pack. No one but you.”
My shoulders shook violently as I gasped for air. The pain, the betrayal, the abandonment-it all came out in one messy, snot-covered meltdown.
Chloe was beside me in seconds, her arms wrapping around me. “There, there, baby. It’s okay,” she whispered, stroking my hair like I was a child. Her wolf reached out to mine instinctively, offering comfort where mine had gone silent.
I wanted to believe her. I really did. But part of me still clung to the delusion that Dorian would walk through that door, apologize, beg, say it was all a mistake. That he’d snap out of whatever spell my sister had him under and come back to me.
But he wasn’t coming back.
He’d marked her. Claimed her. He’d tossed away the Luna of his pack for my sister-the same one who used to pull my hair and lie to our parents about me. He’d made his choice. And it wasn’t me.
“You’re not alone,” Chloe said softly, pressing her forehead to mine. “You’ve got me. And you’ve got that baby. That little heartbeat you’re growing? That’s proof you’re stronger than you think.”
I nodded weakly. It was all I could manage.
After a while, Chloe brushed my wild hair out of my face like I was a kid who’d just woken from a nightmare. “Come on,” she coaxed, standing and holding out her hand. “Let’s go make something real to eat. Something that doesn’t come in a crinkly bag.”
I hesitated. Every cell in my body wanted to stay curled up and dissolve into the couch. But then I looked at her-my only constant since everything fell apart-and I let her pull me up.
We shuffled into the kitchen, the silence between us warm, not awkward. Chloe was the only one who hadn’t abandoned me. Hell, she’d practically moved in. Slept on my floor. Cooked. Cleaned. Held me when I screamed into the night like a feral thing. She was everything Cecilia had never been-a true sister.
1/3
I stood at the counter, half-aware of the knife in my hand as I robotically chopped a tomato. My eyes glazed over, and Chloe must’ve noticed. because she stopped stirring the pot and glanced over.
= ཌ
There was a lot of pain in her gaze. And not just for me-with me. She understood. She saw me. Not just the mess, but the woman who used to laugh too loud and chase deer on full moons.
“You know,” she said after a long pause, “we should get away for a bit. Just us girls. A cabin near the river maybe, or a spa in Crescent Hollow. You need a break. And your wolf needs to run.”
I tried to smile, but it felt cracked. “I don’t know, Chloe. I feel so heavy. I can’t pretend to be okay when I’m not. Every shadow in this house reminds me of what I lost. It’s like he’s still here, haunting me.”
Chloe set the spoon down with a soft clink, wiped her hands on a dish towel, and crossed the kitchen to me. Before I could flinch, she gently took the knife from my trembling hands and wrapped me in a hug so tight it almost cracked the walls I’d built around myself.
“You don’t have to be okay right now,” she whispered against my hair. “But you do have to keep going. For yourself. For your pup. You’re not defined by the people who broke you, Fiona. You’re more than what they left behind.”
I clung to her like a lifeline, my face pressed against her shoulder. She smelled like lavender, pine, and cinnamon. Safe. Steady. My wolf stirred faintly for the first time in days, nudging me from within like she remembered what comfort used to feel like.
“I just…”I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat like a stone. “I don’t know how to be anything other than this mess. I really thought Dorian and 1-“My voice cracked, heat flaring behind my eyes. “I thought we were forever. But then Cecilia-”
Her name tasted like poison in my mouth.
“She took everything, Chloe. Everything. And now I’m just… empty. Like a house no one wants to live in anymore.”
Chloe pulled back, her hands cupping my face with gentleness. “She didn’t take everything. You still have you. And you’ve got me. And you’ve got that strong little heartbeat inside you.” She looked down, placing a hand gently on my belly. “That’s not nothing. Fi. That’s a beginning.”
I was about to answer,but then the TV blared behind us, interrupting the fragile quiet we’d created.
The screen lit up with flashing red graphics:
BREAKING NEWS: AMBERSY PACK ALPHA DORIAN SEEN WITH CECILIA BLACKWOOD-BABY BUMP ON DISPLAY WHILE SHOPPING FOR INFANT CLOTHES. IS HE THE FATHER? WHERE’S HIS FIRST LUNA?
The words hit me harder than any rogue’s claws ever could.
I turned in slow motion, my heart already shattering before I even saw it. But then, there they were. Dorian and Cecilia. Strolling through a boutique, hand in hand, smiling.
Cecilia’s belly was round and unmistakable beneath a tight ivory dress. Dorian had his hand on the small of her back, his expression soft and proud in a way that used to be mine. I’d seen that look before-when he promised we’d be a family. When he said I was his mate.
I staggered back, my wolf howling inside me like she’d been stabbed. The kitchen spun, blurring at the edges as if the world itself had snapped out of orbit.
“No…” The word tore from my throat, broken and small. “No, no, no-this can’t be happening!”
My knees gave out, and I collapsed onto the cold tile floor. I pressed both hands to my chest like I could physically hold my heart together, but the cracks were everywhere. My sobs came out in violent waves, half-growl, half-grief.
“What the fuck!” I screamed, the words burning in my throat. “What the actual fuck is happening?!”
Chloe dropped beside me, grabbing my hands. Her wolf aura flared, trying to anchor mine. “Fiona, breathe-breathe with me, okay? They’re not worth this. You can’t let them destroy you.”
But her voice felt far away.
All I could see was Cecilia, radiant and smug, stealing everything I loved. All I could feel was Dorian’s betrayal-his lies, his mark on my neck that still hadn’t faded, even though he had already replaced me.
My wolf howled again, louder now, wild and unhinged. She wanted blood. She wanted answers. She wanted revenge.
“How could he do this to me?” I sobbed, tears blinding me. “I gave him everything, Chloe. My loyalty. My body. My soul. I was his Luna, his
mate. And now he’s having a pup with her?”
I curled in on myself, shaking with the kind of sorrow that claws its way into your bones and stays there.
Chloe wrapped her arms around me like a shield, rocking me gently. “You are so much more than this moment,” she whispered fiercely, “t know it hurts like hell right now, but you will survive this. Alpha Dorian is a liar, and Cecilia-she’s not even worth hating.”
I pulled away slightly, trying to wipe my tears but they kept coming. “Why wasn’t I enough?” I rasped. “Why her? Why wasn’t I enough to keep
him?
She held my gaze, her own eyes glistening with unshed tears. “This isn’t about you, Fiona. It never was. This is about two selfish, broken people who don’t know how to love anything but themselves. You didn’t fail. They did.”
Her words hit somewhere deep, but I couldn’t absorb them yet. Not while my heart was still bleeding all over her kitchen floor. Every breath I took felt like I was swallowing glass. Every second that passed was one more I had to live with this truth.
Chloe’s voice felt far away, like she was calling to me from the bottom of a canyon. Her words echoed and blurred.
“One step at a time,” she said gently, her eyes searching mine, her voice laced with worry. “We’ll get through this together.”
But I couldn’t answer her.
Everything around me was spinning-too fast, too loud, too bright. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, wild and erratic like a cornered wolf. My skin burned hot, then cold, then hot again, as if my body didn’t know what to feel anymore.
I tried to steady myself, blinking hard, willing my legs to cooperate. But they betrayed me-just like he had.
I reached out for the counter, desperate for something solid, something real. My fingers brushed the edge but slipped. My hands were trembling so badly I couldn’t even hold myself up.
“Fiona?” Chloe’s voice sharpened, panic rising. She stepped closer, but she sounded like she was underwater now.
I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. My wolf whimpered inside me, weak and curled up, barely hanging on.
And then… everything tilted.
The room flipped sideways and my knees gave out completely. I collapsed-hard and fast-onto the floor. My body hit the tile like a rag doll dropped from a cliff.
The last thing I heard was Chloe screaming my name.
“FIONA!”
And then…
Darkness.
Complete, suffocating black.
