My heart cracked, but I forced myself forward. One step, two steps, until I was close enough to see the conflict in his eyes, to smell his familiar scent. My wolf whimpered with joy at finally being near our mate again.
Dimitri stepped back, as if trying to maintain distance. He was trying to fight it, to fight his wolf. My wolf could feel his pressing against the edges of his restraint, wanting me the way mine wanted him. And it spurred me to go on, to believe I could convince him to give in to his wolf’s feelings, to his feelings. I kept moving until he was backed against the railing with nowhere to go, until I was close enough that a breath would close the distance between us.
“You promised,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “You told me to trust you, Dimitri. And I spent three weeks doing exactly that. Despite the silence. Despite you ignoring every call, every text.”
I lifted my hand to touch his face, and he flinched away.
Tears spilled over my cheeks. “So that night meant nothing to you? What was I—just a quick fuck before you married your convenient political bride? Were you just after my virginity?”
“Isabella, no!” His voice was anguished. “It wasn’t like that—”
“Then what was it?” I cried. “How can you say I’m your Fated Mate and then go through with an engagement to someone else? How can you make promises you never intended to keep?”
“Because it’s not worth the trouble of ruining my life!” The words exploded out of him, raw and vicious.
Theworld stopped.
I stumbled backward as if he’d physically struck me, my hand pressed to my chest where it felt like my heart was being ripped apart.
“Dimitri—”
“Well, well, well.” A cold voice cut through the air. “What do we have here?”
I spun to find Selene emerging from the shadows like a predator.
She was stunning in a white dress that clung to her curves, blonde hair cascading in perfect waves, diamonds glittering at her neck. She looked like she belonged at an Alpha’s side.
She was everything I wasn’t.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” she purred, circling me like prey. “The whore’s daughter. Isabella Garrett.” She spat my name like it was filth. “Just like your mother—using dark magic to seduce men who are already spoken for.”
“My mother didn’t—”
“Oh, shut up!” Her hand shot out, fisting in my carefully pinned hair. Pain exploded across my scalp as she yanked me forward. “Everyone knows what your mother was. A common slut who used witchcraft to steal an Alpha from his Fated Mate.”
“Selene, stop!” Dimitri’s voice rang out. She was already dragging me by my hair towards the gathering. People turned to stare as we emerged into the main room.
The music died. Conversations halted. Every eye turned to us.
“Look!” Selene’s voice carried across the silence. “Look what I caught! The bastard, trying to seduce my fiancé!” She threw me forward, and I stumbled, barely catching myself before I fell to my knees. “She was using dark magic to create a false Mate bond! Trying to trick Dimitri into rejecting me!”
Gasps rippled through the crowd like a shockwave.
“That’s not true,” I said, but my voice was small, drowned by the rising murmurs.
“Witch!”
“Abomination!”
“Just like her mother!”
“That’s not true,” I tried again, tears streaming freely now. “I didn’t—”
But who would believe me? I was the whore’s daughter, the charity case. My word meant nothing against Selene Ashworth’s.
Maia Ravencrest stepped forward. Her face was twisted with rage. Before I could react, she lifted her hand and smacked it across my face with enough force to snap my head sideways.
Pain exploded across my cheek. I tasted blood.