Cruel Alpha

His eyes, wide open from the deplorable spectacle before him, burned with a searing heat far beyond physical fatigue.

Every primal fiber of his Alpha nature screamed in violent protest at the scene etched into his retinas.

His breathing came in ragged gasps, and the fists clenched at his sides were the only things preventing him from doing something reckless.

His mind was a chaotic, bleeding mess, overwhelmed by what he was forced to witness and hear.

Moans, gasps, and sighs echoed relentlessly from two bodies intertwined in the shameless rhythm of betrayal.

Those sounds tormented his head without mercy, each echo feeling like a physical spike driven into his skull.

When Noah had first met his Mate, the universe had tilted on its axis.

He had thought it a sacred blessing whispered by the moon goddess herself, never feeling so alive, complete, or at peace.

She had looked at him with stars in her eyes, whispering vows of eternal devotion. He had desperately convinced himself she loved him as much as he loved her.

Standing here now, watching the agonizing reality unfold, it was painfully clear he was the only one who had truly invested his soul.

To her, he was just a convenient shelter, a crown to wear, while her heart belonged to the shadows.

He had entered the room with a deafening crash, kicking the heavy oak door off its latch.

They froze, turning with expressions of disbelief and confusion.

Paula stared at him wide-eyed, while the other man merely looked annoyed that his performance had been interrupted.

"Paula..." Noah’s voice was barely a rasp, stripped of Alpha authority.

"Love... please? It's not what you think," she pleaded, her hands reaching out, but the rushing of blood in his ears drowned her excuses into white noise.

Everything hit him at once—a tidal wave of betrayal, grief, and incandescent rage. His mind scrambled through memories, searching for a single flaw where he might have failed her.

But there was nothing. He had given her his world, his absolute loyalty. So, why?

“D*mn you…” he hissed, dark and poisonous.

“Love, look at me…” She stepped forward, her fingers trembling toward his cheek.

Before her fingertips grazed his skin, his hand shot out, catching her wrist in an unyielding grip.

“Don’t you dare touch me,” he spoke in the terrifying register of an Alpha pushed past the brink. “Never again in your life.”

“No. Don’t do this, please, Noah,” she sobbed, tears spilling down her flushed cheeks. “I love you… I swear I do…”

That single, hypocritical phrase enraged him beyond measure. He glared down with unadulterated fury in his bloodshot eyes.

She shrank back, frightened by his expression and the heavy weight of his Alpha pressure.

A sharp, physical pang in his chest caught him off guard. It cut deeper than any blade. It hurt to know the person he loved more than life itself was now cowering from his wrath in fear.

But that fear wouldn't fix what she had deliberately done. The fragile glass of their bond had shattered into a thousand jagged pieces.

“You love me? Really?” he spat, dripping with venomous irony. “Then why the hell did you sleep with him?”

With a disgusted shove, he pushed her away against the edge of the mattress.

He didn’t want her anywhere near him; the scent of another man clinging to her skin made him feel violently sick.

“Alpha…”

The voice came from the bed, smooth and unapologetic. Noah turned his burning gaze onto the man tangled in the sheets.

“And with one of my men! A Delta!” Noah snarled, taking a step toward the edge of the bed. “D*mn traitor. I’ll finish you off without mercy!”

The man remained chillingly impassive, his eyes betraying only a flicker of cold, calculating disdain. Death was too good for a cur who bit the hand that fed him.

“Then tell me!” Noah roared, snapping his attention back to Paula. “Do you love me?! Are you serious?!”

She kept crying, offering pathetic apologies, but his ears were deaf to her pleas. There was only cold, dead ash where his devotion used to be.

His eyes snapped back to the other occupant. “And you,” he pointed a shaking, lethal finger at Ezra, the Delta. “I’ll tear you apart, d*mn scoundrel.”

Ezra propped himself up on one elbow, pulling the sheet over his waist. A slow, sickening smirk spread across his lips.

“At least now you know the truth. Have some dignity and leave,” Ezra said with calm, grating mockery. “I don’t owe you any loyalty anymore. Do whatever you want with your pathetic pack.”

That mocking smile was the final straw. It was agonizingly obvious Ezra found the whole situation amusing, treating the ruination of Noah's life like a cheap afternoon spectacle.

It infuriated Noah to the point of temporary insanity.

Before logic could intervene, Noah lunged forward. His fist connected squarely with Ezra’s jaw in a sickening crack.

Before Ezra could recover, Noah’s large hands wrapped tightly around the traitor's throat, hauling him up against the headboard.

“I still deserve respect from you, bstrd,” Noah growled, his thumbs pressing into Ezra’s windpipe.

Noah’s fingers tightened, his wolf howling for blood, urging him to finish the job.

He was just a fraction of a second away from doing it when Paula suddenly lunged forward, clinging to Noah’s free arm with all her weight, crying out in terror.

“L-Love, wait… please! Don't do this! Listen to me!”

Noah stopped. He turned his head to look down at her. Seeing her half-naked, disheveled, and marked by another man, he didn't feel anger toward her anymore. He felt a profound, soul-crushing disgust and revulsion.

The woman clinging to his arm was a stranger.

The sudden, sharp impact caught him entirely off guard. A heavy blow landed squarely across Noah’s jaw, snapping his head to the side and forcing his grip to loosen.

Noah stumbled back, shaking off the daze, but when his vision cleared, the bed was empty. The other wolf had vanished out the open balcony doors, disappearing into the dark, rainy night.

"He escaped, like the d*mn coward he is," Noah spat through gritted teeth, wiping a smear of blood from his lip, standing alone amidst the wreckage of his shattered life.

He passed a calloused hand over his face, a deep grimace twisting his features, but the physical wound on his jaw healed instantly by the time he looked back down at his Mate.

“I was going to give you everything,” Noah said, his voice dropping dangerously low in the tense silence of the ruined room. “I was going to make you my queen and share my entire world, but your selfishness and greed took it all away from us in a single heartbeat.”

“No, love. H-He forced me, I didn’t want to do any of it, I swear to the goddess…” she sobbed, scrambling backward against the wooden frame.

“Shut up!” Noah raised his hand, cutting her off with a sharp gesture. “I would have believed that cowardly excuse if I hadn't heard you with my own ears. Or are you going to deny that you said you were going to leave me to be with him? Didn't you say that I was only good for satisfying your pathetic whims?”

“I-I…” she stammered, entirely unable to meet his fu