Rejected By My Mate, Claimed By Contract

Fiona's POV

"The Alpha is gone!"

A sharp scream cut through the crowd of wolves that were gathered in their glamorous attires for the celebration of the pack's founding anniversary and my renewal blessing with my mate, Alpha Kael.

My head snapped slowly around, and my stomach lurched aggressively when I saw the person who had just cried wolf was Eva, my personal maid. She trembled in the doorway, wringing her apron with a pale face. 

For a beat, I thought I was imagining it-the bonfire blazing at the center of the open roof hall, smoke from it curling into the night sky, and the elders in white stamping their feet around it-but it was real, collapsing into chaos when it was supposed to be a night of celebration. 

I should have been glowing with pride, hand in hand with Kael before the moon goddess, reaffirming our bond, but instead I knelt alone, my sweaty fingers clutching my white gown that pooled around me as I whispered silent prayers against Kael's humiliation just before Eva came in with the sour news. 

"What?!" The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"Th-the Alpha...he's...he's gone," Eva's lips quivered.

"What do you mean gone?" I demanded in a failed attempt to keep my shaky voice-that echoed around the hall that was now dead silent as the drums and elders incantation had ceased-steady.

"I...I checked everywhere," she stuttered, her grips tightening on her apron, "His chambers... the courtyard...everywhere. But he is nowhere to be found."

I swept my gaze around the hall to find every eye pinned on me in a pitiful, judging manner. With the humiliation now unbearable, I grabbed the extra length of my gown up to my knees and fled the hall without looking back, my heels striking the stone path noisily.

I made my way to the temple, ready to weep before the moon goddess and question why she was letting such fate befall me when a familiar honeysuckle scent hit my nose. With my heart racing and breaths ragged, I followed the scent to the temple doors.

A part of me prayed for it not to be what I thought it was before leaning closer to see Kael, with Laila pressed to his side like conjoined twins through the glass opening. 

"You look best in red."

He said to her in a low, sultry voice, as his eyes, dark with admiration, locked on Laila with so much untold passion that I haven't seen in the past weeks.

Laila giggled flirtatiously just loud enough for me to hear over the night insect that cried endlessly into the still night.

Aside from the fact that I was panting from the race, my chest rising and falling sharply, outwardly, I looked composed with my hair still pinned high like an empress. But inside? I was crumbling. This was supposed to be our vow renewal night, yet, here was my husband and mate, Alpha Kael, having the time of