The Alpha King’s Broken Mate

The betrayal

I think I’m losing my mind, Ethan. I’m dreaming about… about you. About us. Like that.” I whispered, my head resting on his lap as we lay on the pack’s field. The sun was warm, but not enough to thaw the dread I’d been carrying. It was quiet here—no one came around at this hour, and when Ethan suggested a picnic, I clung to the idea like a child reaching for a lullaby.

The maids had packed us fruits and bread, and I’d begged my mother to excuse me from chores for just two hours. She agreed with a casual flick of her hand.

“Go,” she’d said, eyes gleaming with something distant. “I want alone time with my husband anyway.”

My mother is beautiful, so beautiful, in fact, it never surprised me that the Alpha had chosen her. Adorned with jewels and silks, wealth had soaked into her skin and made her shine brighter… colder, too. But still, somehow, in a way that made me love her more, not less.

We share the same black hair, though mine is longer. She has blue eyes, icy and unreadable now. Mine are brown. Earthy. Easier to break.

“That’s insane, Namiko.” Ethan’s laugh was light, but his eyes didn’t quite match it at all. Like I was ridiculous for dreaming such things. Shouldn’t he. . . want that? Isn’t that what boys did? I have heard things, I have heard whispers, whispers in the kitchens, giggles in the servants’ quarters. Boys wanted these things, they craved these things.

But maybe not for girls like me.

Confused and ashamed, I went to the only person I thought might help, Lilac, the pack’s healer. I masked my fear with a clumsy lie.

“Okay, pretend a friend thinks she’s being drugged to sleep. Not intentionally, maybe she took something unknowingly, but she wants it to stop. What can she do?”

Lily barely glanced up from her herbs. “Why? If she’s overworked, sleep is a blessing. Don’t we all want more sleep?” Her tone was dismissive, but I couldn’t blame her.. The words coming out of my mouth sounded ridiculous.

But how could I say it? How could I tell her that every night I fall asleep and feel my body being used, violated? That I wake up aching in places that scream truths no one wants to hear?

I pressed, my voice wobbling. “Just… something mild to lessen sleeping drug effects. Just in case. I mean, what if it’s serious? What if someone’s hurting her?”

Lilac paused, finally meeting my eyes. I couldn’t hold her gaze.

“Please?” My hands were shaking, clasped together in desperation.

She sighed. “If she’s taking something strong enough to knock her out without knowing it, she’s more careless than innocent.”

“She’s innocent,” I croaked, forcing a smile through the storm in my chest. “She is just a bit. . . clueless.”

She didn’t press. Thank goodness. If she had, I would’ve unraveled, I would not be able to keep quiet. My mind was already splintering from the weight of what I dared not believe.

“This is a universal antidote,” Lilac said, pressing a pouch into my hand. “If it’s poison, something like wolfsbane or worse, it’ll clear out of her system in thirty minutes. But for something milder? Ten should do. Or just tell her to stop taking things she is not familiar with altogether.”

“I will.” My voice was a whisper.

Did she know? I wondered as I walked away. Did she suspect I was talking about myself?

That night, Ethan brought dinner to my room, and for a moment, the world felt soft again. I laughed. I ate and for more than a moment I forgot my problems. The antidote stayed tucked in my pocket, forgotten in the warmth of his smile.

“Do you want to stay tonight?” I asked, my heart trembling at the edge of hope. Maybe tonight will be different.

“I wish I could,” he said. “But I have an early meeting with your stepfather. I need to clear my head and sleep early.”

I nodded. “Right. Of course. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s not your fault. I feel it too. Just a little longer, Nami. Then we’ll be together.”

I smiled faintly, I loved it when he called me, clinging to that promise like it was a lifeline was the only thing I wanted to do.

He handed me a cup of tea. I hesitated, just for a second. Was I really going to doubt the only person who’s ever shown me kindness, who ever loved me?

When he drank first from the tea, my chest loosened, I took the cup and drank it all.

Moments after Ethan left, the heaviness began to creep in. Drowsiness spreads like ink in water. No. Not again. This couldn’t be happening again. At least now, It was not Ethan, he drank from the tea. He would not have done that if it was harmful.

I fumbled in my pocket, pulled out the antidote, and poured some into my mouth. I kept the rest hidden and began to count. Ten minutes. That’s all she said if it was milder than a wolfsbane.

But five minutes in, I still couldn’t move. Eight minutes. Still nothing.

My limbs were lead. My thoughts were foggy, tangled in webs of panic. I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn’t open.

Then, my door creaked open and I froze.

Ethan?

My voice stayed locked in my throat. I couldn’t call out, I could make any sound in the darkness of my room. Suddenly, I started to feel really scared.

Then I felt it, my skirt being yanked up. My heart exploded in my chest.

No. No, please. Not this, why is this happening? Who is this? I need help. Omg! Ethan would be long gone. Ethan?.

He didn’t smell like Ethan. The scent was wrong, foul and familiar in a way that made bile rise in my throat.

I tried to scream. Nothing came out.

I tried to move but my body betrayed me.

“Please don’t,” I begged inside my head. Was it even audible? Could he hear it? I didn’t know. I didn’t care.

“Please don’t.” I try again, I don’t know what I’m begging for, or if he can hear me but that's all my mind can come up with, too shocked to think clearly. I'm too worried the antidote will malfunction, and I would have to live through this torture, this r**e. I just wanted it to stop.

Heat suffocated me. The room spun. Panic dug its claws into my lungs.

Then, grunts. Pain. He was inside me.

I was being r***d. The man is grunting on top of me! He is having s*x with me, he is violating my body as I lay there unable to do anything.

I want to tear my hair out for not using the antidote immediately after Ethan left. I want to kick myself for allowing this to happen to me when I had the antidote with me.

I lay there, trapped in my own skin, my soul screaming while my body lay still. I wanted to die. I wanted to vanish. I wanted to claw his eyes out, to scream until the moon shattered.

Why is the antidote not taking its effect? Why didn't I take the antidote sooner?

Why had I trusted anyone? Had the healer given me something else because she didn't take me seriously? No please.

As if my prayers were being answered, I felt my fingers twitch. My left hand moved. Then my arm. Relief and rage surged as feelings returned.

With the strength of every ounce of horror in me, I screamed,

“GET OFF ME, YOU BASTARD!”

He froze, and his grunts stopped.

He looked down, startled. Then he yanked my skirt down and stared at me. And that's when I saw him.

Not just the man, the monster.

My stepfather. My Alpha.

The one who was supposed to protect me.

And all at once, I shattered.

Because this wasn’t a nightmare.

It was my reality.