Because you’re scared of what he might say, a voice whispered.You’re scared he’ll confirm everything Vix told you.
Shut up. I was about to push the door open when I heard the voices. One of them was Caelan. The other was Vix.
I froze, my hand on the door handle.
“When are you going to tell her?” Vix was saying.
“I won’t.” Caelan’s voice was flat, final.
“So you’ll keep lying to her, forever? I don’t want to be your dirty little secret.”
My blood turned to ice.
“You’re not my secret.” Caelan sounded almost irritated. “Everyone knows about us. Riley won’t change our relationship, Vix.”
Everyone knows about us.The words echoed in my head as my mind spiraled out of control. Did that mean the entire court knew Caelan and Vix were together? Was I a joke to everyone here? Every bow, every welcome, every polite smile hiding pity or amusement at the human who didn’t realize her mate belonged to another woman?
Congratulations, Riley. You’ve officially become the punchline.
Riley won’t change our relationship.So he was just going to keep seeing Vix behind my back? Keep playing house with me during the day and sneaking off to her at night? Was that what “working late” meant? Was that what it always meant?
All those nights in the human world when he was away dealing with “pack business.” All those times he disappeared for hours without explanation. Had he been with her then too?
Had our entire relationship been a lie?
Tears were streaming down my face before I even realized I was crying. My stomach heaved. I was going to be sick, I was going to collapse, I was going to...
“She’s going to be mad, you know?” Vix’s voice again, tinged with amusement. “When she discovers the truth.”
She laughed. Vix was actually laughing, and I wanted to die.
I slammed the door open.
It banged against the wall with enough force to shake the room. Both heads snapped toward me. Caelan at his desk, papers spread in front of him, and Vix kneeling beside his chair withher hand resting high on his thigh, intimately close to places that should belong only to me.
My vision went white with rage.
“You fucking asshole,” I spat, my voice shaking. “Now I know why you like to stay late to work.”
Caelan’s expression shifted. Confusion, then alarm, then horror as he took in my tear-streaked face.
“Riley...”
“I never should’ve trusted you.” The tears wouldn’t stop. They pour down my cheeks, humiliating me, but I couldn’t control them. “Was any of it real? Was ANYTHING you said to me real?”
“What are you...”
I couldn’t bear to hear his answer right now. Wasn’t ready to stand here and listen to him try to explain, to justify, to lie some more. If he said one more word I would shatter completely.
“Sorry for interrupting.” I was already turning, already running, unable to look at them for another second. “By all means, continue.”
I didn’t wait for a response.
I ran.
The corridors blurred around me. I didn’t know where I was going, didn’t care. Just needed to be anywhere else, anywhere but here, anywhere but near him. My mind was spiraling, thoughts crashing into each other with no order or logic.
Was everything a lie?
