Cameron's POV
"I don't know what happened," Odette was saying to my mother, her voice shaking but not a single real tear left on her face. Her makeup had streaked from her earlier theatrics, black trails cutting through her blush, but the tears had lasted all of ten seconds. "She just… fell. I think she wasn't used to wearing high heels."
"It's not your fault," my mother soothed her, patting her arm like she was the victim here.
"She only has herself to blame," Odette's mother added with a sniff. "She's too uncultured to carry herself like a Luna."
My jaw clenched. Rome was snarling in my head, his fury pounding through me.
She did this. His voice was a low growl.
Odette pushed our mate. I can smell her guilt all over her.
"We don't know that," I gritted out, though my own chest burned with the same suspicion.
Don't defend her! Our mate is broken, and you're letting that brat hide behind lies!
But then Chloe's last words echoed in my skull…
I hate you. I fucking hate you.
She hadn't called for me. She hadn't begged for help. She hadn't said Odette pushed her. She said she hated me.
A sharp twist of pain coiled in my gut as I stared at her unconscious body on the hospital bed. My mate. My Luna. Wrapped in white bandages, her skin pale and bruised, but still—still the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
"She hates us," I muttered, mostly to myself. "Maybe she wanted this… maybe she did it on purpose. To get away from me."
You're a fool. Rome's growl was cutting. She's a fighter. She would never take a coward's way out, no matter how much you've earned her hatred.
"I haven't—"
You neglected her, you stupid bastard. You flirted with every she-wolf who threw herself at you while your mate sat there, alone, waiting for a reason to care about you. You gave her nothing. And now look at her.
His words hit hard, leaving me raw and exposed.
I sat down heavily, my eyes locked on her. Her head was swathed in bandages after they'd drilled to relieve the swelling in her skull. I couldn't even bring myself to look away from her face—the bruises, the busted lip, the faint crease between her brows even in sleep. My chest squeezed painfully.
I wanted her. I always wanted her. Even when she looked at me like I was dirt beneath her boots.
I remember the first time I saw her—really saw her. The training field. Her eighteenth birthday.
She wasn't like the other girls who'd tried to get my attention. She didn't flutter her lashes or flaunt her body like she was waiting to be chosen. She moved like a warrior, her muscles taut, her expression fierce, her body made of curves and fire.
And then… she looked at me.
And I knew.
Mate.
But the horror in her eyes burned me worse than any flame. She didn't want me. Me. The future Alpha of Fire Moon.
I should have let her go. I should have rejected her then, but I couldn't.
I told myself I'd make her want me. That if I gave her time, she'd come around.
For months, I watched her laugh with others while she barely looked at me. I burned with jealousy every time she smiled at another man, while I got nothing but her cold stares.
So I brought her here. I had my mother drag her out of the training grounds and into the packhouse, thinking maybe if she stepped into her Luna role, she'd learn to love me. But all I did was kill the fire in her eyes.
And yet, I still couldn't let her go. Rome wouldn't allow it. Neither would I. The idea of another man's hands on her… it would drive me feral.
When I finally took her—on our mating night—I was angry. I was bitter. I was rough. Too rough.
I didn't know she was a virgin. If I had, maybe I would have slowed down. Maybe I would have… no. I wouldn't have left her crying alone the next morning, terrified of the look she might give me. That look that said I was nothing to her.
Her disgust cut me deeper than claws.
And every night after, when I saw her lying there like she'd rather be anywhere else, I snapped. I told myself it was my right, that she was mine. My mate. My Luna. My property.
But sitting here now, looking at her bruised and broken… I feel like I'm the one who's been gutted.