Chapter 318: _ Betrayal
Do I care? Was I supposed to care?
Because right now, all I could think of was how she stood there—my María José who was as calm as spring rain, discussing my defeat with my brother like they were exchanging polite notes over dinner.
A fresh surge of rage gurgled through me. My stomach churned, hot and acidic, as if bile and betrayal had brewed a toxic coffee in it.
Who was she trying to protect here? Me... or herself?
Hugo stayed quiet this time, sensing the boundary I was teetering on. Even the wolf inside me that was usually my leash to sanity knew when to retreat. I was in no mood for reasoning.
"She’s doing it for you," he’d say. "She’s saving your place."
Yeah? Then why did it feel like she was slicing it out of me with a dull blade?
As she negotiated, she didn’t flinch. If anything, she squared her shoulders and said, "Because I’m asking for your mercy... for the good of the pack."
The absurdity of the phrase twisted something inside me. Mercy—from Álvaro? The man who’d stabbed me in the back more times than I could count? But María José believed in something I barely understood anymore... hope. Forgiveness. The soft things I’d been running from.
"Explain," Álvaro said, shifting his weight like a cat preparing to pounce.
I caught the way María José’s fingers twitched at her sides. Her hands, usually so steady when they held a needle or organized my schedule, were now clenched and unclenched like she was wrestling with an invisible fight.
"Axel isn’t just my husband," she said carefully. "He’s the bridge between your claim and the pack’s stability. If you crush him entirely, you risk tearing us apart from within."
A bitter laugh escaped me—tearing apart from within was already happening. I was the first casualty.
Álvaro’s eyes narrowed. "And you think I’ll trust your word? After all he’s done?"
Her voice hardened. "I don’t ask for trust. I ask for a chance."
I could practically hear my own blood pounding in my ears. She was negotiating my future, my title, and my place. She was surrendering to my enemy behind my back.
This was a fight I intended to fight till the end. One I knew I was going to win no matter what it took. And my wife was the first to withdraw her support in this fight.
Wow.
"Your husband’s pride will be the death of him. Why should I make exceptions? Shouldn’t the Beta learn his place under the new Alpha?" Álvaro scoffed, tapping his leg on the floor like he was having the time of his life.
"Should I help him?" He drawled, his voice slinking around the ivy-covered fountain like a serpent coiled around prey. "I mean, your little speech was convincing, María José. I almost forgot who I was, Lovie."
My lungs turned to ash. He was playing with her. With me. With everything. How could she not see this? How could she even do this?
"But you see," he continued, taking a slow step closer to her, "nothing in this world is free, mi reina. So if I am to lift a finger for your husband... what do I get in return?"
I didn’t breathe. I couldn’t.
María José didn’t step back. She didn’t shudder or scream or slap him across his arrogant, venom-dripping face like I wanted her to. No, she stood her ground, spine straight as ever.
"What do you want?" she asked sharply in a controlled tone.
It was the kind of control that made me feel sick. Like she wasn’t even phased. Like she knew exactly what he was going to say next.
Álvaro didn’t answer with words. Not at first. He stepped right into her space, his hand rising slowly. And he touched her arm. Just above the elbow. His fingers roamed there too damn possessively, and still... she didn’t move.
My heart cracked open with a soundless scream.
"I want you," Álvaro said simply, like he was ordering dessert. Like he hadn’t just detonated a nuclear bomb in the center of my chest.
"I want you, María José. I want the cool, collected, pure Luna everyone worships. The one who floats through our halls like a goddess sculpted for Axel’s throne. I want the woman who—despite being his, has haunted me every single night since that goddamn wedding."
I couldn’t move. My breath ceased. My nails dug into the bark of the olive tree so hard my skin split. I barely felt the pain.
Now, my shitty brother was trying to get under my wife’s skirt? Being Father’s favorite all of our lives wasn’t enough. Now, he wants my wife?
He leaned closer, his forehead nearly brushed hers.
"Do you remember that day back in the woods? The moment your wolf surfaced, trembling under the pressure of Axel’s? I was watching. Hell, we all were. I saw the raw magic in your eyes. The way your aura sang. I knew then—I was fucked. I’ve loved you since that moment. Obsessively. Devastatingly."
His hand moved—now brushing a strand of hair from her face, curling it behind her ear. She tilted her head slightly. She didn’t stop him.
Álvaro smiled darkly. "And now, I want the full experience. I want to taste what Axel has spent two months squandering. I want your loyalty. Your silence. Your presence in my court. At my side. In my bed, even if only once. That’s my price."
I was going to murder him.
No—murder was too gentle. I was going to dismember him piece by piece and send the bones to the Sea Witches for boiling. I was going to rip his fangs out with my bare hands and shove them down his arrogant throat. I was going to make him beg before I ended him.
He wanted my wife. In short, all of his speech centered around wanting to fuck her. My own wife.
But of course, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to articulate his dirty thoughts had she not made herself available. Álvaro was not to be blamed for this. She was.
I would have moved, but still couldn’t move. I needed to hear her answer.
Please... say no. Say no. Say something.
Then she did.
"...Okay."
I heard it. I heard it. That one fucking word. She said it so quietly and surely. No tremor. No tears. No flinch.
She said okay.
The breath rushed from my lungs in a violent exhale, like I’d just been stabbed with a thousand frozen knives. Álvaro laughed. It was low, intimate, too close to her mouth.
"You’ll really do anything for him, won’t you?" he arched a brow.
"I told you," she answered, looking him dead in the eyes. "I want Axel protected. If this is what it takes..."
She trailed off.
No. No. No, María.