"Enough," he panted, voice rough, strained. "I said enough."
A pause.
Then Lira's silky, knowing hummed echoed. "Oh, Rain… why do you always resist?"
"Because I can't..." Adrain rasped.
"And why not?" she pressed, her tone playful, edged with something deeper. "It's not like it was so long ago. Isn't it because of me that you kept running away from your little wife since yesterday, is it not? So she doesn't caught my scent on you. After all we did trained a lot in this..."
Nyma's breath turned to frost in her lungs.
Months. His training, his months long training was spend with her. They'd been together all this time.
"We were good together, Adrain." A honeyed pause. "Remember what you told Nyma about the 'blood moon night'?"Her thumb brushed his lower lip. "How creative you were with the truth..."
Adrain's muscles locked. "Lira." A warning growl rumbled in his chest.
Nyma's heartbeat stuttered.
Blood moon night. The last blood moon was six months ago, when Nyma found out about her pregnancy and Adrain proposed her for marriage. What could he lie about then?
"You didn't seem to regret it then," Lira murmured, pressing closer. Her fingers traced the fresh Infidelity Mark on his chest. "You're told to already pack her bags. Why delay the inevitable?"
Adrain's breath hitched. "That's not—"
"Isn't it?" Lira's laugh was velvet poison. "I'm the daughter of your father's Duke Beta, my dear Prince. We both know the council's vote. A Crescent heir that can changes everything." Her nails dug into his shoulders. "But I too can give you pureblood pups. Stronger than Nyma's pup. Without... complications."
Nyma's womb cramped violently.
Adrain's hands flexed at his sides—not pushing Lira away."You don't understand. The alliance—"
"Fuck the alliance!" Lira's composure shattered, her voice raw and laced with a desperation Nyma had never heard before. "You think I don't see how you look at her? Like she's the fucking moon itself?"
Lira's breath hitched, and when she spoke again, her voice dropped into something softer—something broken. "You used to look at me like that. You said Nyma would share, but she didn't...and I can no longer stay like that, I want you. I need you., my love!"
Adrain's jaw clenched, his golden eyes flickering. "I can't just—"
"You can," Lira whispered.
Her hands slid up, cupping his face. Their foreheads nearly touched, their breaths mingling as they looked into each other's eyes.
Nyma couldn't breathe.
Her knees buckled, her vision blurred, her heart pounding like a war drum inside her chest.
But she refused—refused—to let a single tear fall.
Adrain exhaled sharply. "You know I do care about you. But Nyma—"
"Nyma, Nyma, Nyma!" Lira's voice twisted into something vicious, her playful tone shattering like glass. "Gods, you're obsessed with her, you're making me do the same. What exactly does she have that I don't? A status? A Strong wolf? A pretty face? A swollen belly?"
A beat of silence. Then Adrain's voice, lower now, rougher. "You know it's not just that. Nyma's the last Crescents. And for moon goddess's sake, I'm not losing her for anything..."
Nyma's breath caught as Adrain said like his last words. "I need to go, she's waiting—"
For the first time in this entire nightmare, relief curled at the edges of her fury. When Adrain's hands finally pushed Lira away, his golden eyes flickering with restraint as he took a step back.
For one fragile moment, hope flickered in Nyma's chest. Maybe—just maybe—he would choose her.
But then Lira moved with her wolf's speed.
With a predator's grace, she tore her top and caught Adrain's wrist and pressed his palm against the bare skin above her waistband. "You've waited this long," she murmured, guiding his fingers lower. "What's a few more minutes?"
Adrain froze. His throat worked. Nyma saw the exact moment his resistance crumbled—his pupils dilating, his breath quickening.
"Nyma—" His protest died as Lira captured his lips.
Nyma stood frozen, her breath shallow, her world fracturing at the edges.
Her mind screamed at her to move, to look away, to do anything but stand there and witness. But her body wouldn't obey. It was as if the bond itself had anchored her to the spot, forcing her to endure every agonizing second.
This wasn't like before. There was no hesitation now. And all hope crumbled as Adrain's hands fisted in Lira's hair as he kissed her back with desperate hunger, backing her against a tree with a groan that shattered Nyma's heart.
Lira's triumphant gaze over Adrain's shoulder as she wrapped a leg around his hips. "You were saying something about leaving?" she panted between kisses.
"You're being reckless," Adrain growled, though his hands remained locked on Lira's hips. "Nyma would smell."
Lira's answering laugh was all sharp teeth and venom. "What? Afraid your precious Luna will see how you really spend your nights?" Her nails scraped down his bare chest. "Let her then.Don't she deserve the warning signs?"
Nyma's fingers dug into the frostbitten, the mating bond screaming in her chest as Adrain's scent - that familiar cedar and steel - now carried the cloying sweetness of Lira's arousal.
"Not here," Adrain murmured, but the protest died as Lira captured his lips.
The world narrowed to the wet sound of their kissing, to Lira's triumphant moan when Adrain's resistance finally broke. Nyma's stomach heaved as she watched her mate's hands - the hands that had just yesterday cradled her pregnant belly - now tearing at Lira's training leathers with desperate urgency.
"Bathroom," Adrain panted against Lira's throat. "The showers are-"
"No," Lira purred, pushing him back against the shed wall. "Right here. Where she can smell me on you before she leaves. I want her to be as restless as I get when you smell like her. Let her wolf howled when you hugged her. Let her wonder why her mate reeks of me at her departure."
Nyma's wolf howled inside her, a soundless cry of agony as Adrain surrendered—as he took Lira against the tree with the same desperate hunger he'd once reserved for her, Lira's legs locked around his hips, her lustful claws and bites raking down the their mate mark on Adrain's neck which Nyma had always kissed with love.
Every ragged breath, every bitten-off moan, was a silver dagger twisting in the mating bond. The bond didn't just show her the betrayal; it made her feel his pleasure, his want, like fire licking at her veins. Then she heard it: the slick, hungry sounds of flesh against flesh, the low growl of a voice she'd know in any life.
This wasn't the first time and definitely won't be the last. Nyma stumbled back, clutching her belly as their moans filled the clearing.
Adrain rasped, but his teeth were at Lira's throat, his canines lengthening. Was he marking her?