Just as I returned to the present and reached for my glass of water, my phone chimed again.
I glanced at it. It was past five, well beyond the time I'd usually expect messages. Curious, I sat back down and unlocked the screen. My heart skipped, then began to pound, the weight of an unexplainable dread settling over me.
With a shaky breath, I opened the email. I nearly dropped my phone when the contents loaded—it was a bank statement belonging to my mate, Jaxon Blackthorn.
Confusion swept over me as I scrolled through. Transactions, regular and hefty, moved from his account to another, stretching back for two years. My eyes stopped on the date of the first transfer.
March 28, 2020.
The exact day we lost our first child.
A storm of questions whipped through my mind.
Who was he sending this money to?
I didn’t waste a second. Grabbing my keys, I shoved the phone into my pocket and hurried to the basement—the pack’s secure tech room, where we stored our advanced computers. Only a few of us in higher ranks had access, and I was one of them. I had a feeling there was more hidden within this email.
After logging into the system, I clicked the link in the email. It opened a video file.
The screen displayed a woman raising a glass, celebrating with a man whose back faced the camera. Recognition hit me like a punch to the chest, and my knees went weak. That man… was Jaxon.
My Jaxon.
Tears blurred my vision, but the betrayal cut deep, raw and real. I didn’t need to watch any more to understand. His presence in that video was all the confirmation I needed.
With a broken heart and tears streaming down my face, I fled to our room, hollowed by the weight of what I’d discovered. Just as I reached the doorway, Jaxon walked in, his face still reflecting the ease of his recent meeting with the neighboring pack.
The moment his eyes landed on me, confusion clouded his face. "Why are you crying, my Luna?" he asked using his soft voice.
I stared at him, words lodged in my throat, unable to respond. My silence was met with a dismissive shrug as he pulled out his phone, his attention already drifting.
“Never mind,” he muttered, clearly more interested in whatever message had come through than in my pain. “I need to take this call.”