The Rogue's Captive

2 - Betrayed

~Jenetta’s PoV~

As I lie in bed that evening, hoping for sleep to come and save me from the depressing thoughts in my head, my guilt refuses to rest.

I feel terrible. Patrick has never been anything but kind and supportive to me, and though I can’t force myself to be attracted to him, I did agree to be his mate. That means treating him with respect and taking his feelings into account, so I owe it to him to be as honest as I possibly can. Having our mating confirmed by my father made the whole thing seem more real, and that stirred up some things inside me that I didn’t anticipate. Maybe if we talk those through, openly and honestly, we’ll find a way to move forward together.

If nothing else, at least it might help me get some rest.

With a sigh, I swing my legs over the side of the bed. The pack house is quiet, the staff all retired for the night, and after putting my dressing gown over my nightgown, I do my best to slip noiselessly down the hall, attracting no attention.

Patrick’s room is located the floor below mine, among those for the other ranked, unmated males in the territory. Though we’re not a monarchy like the northern empire or the southern and western kingdoms, we still maintain a lot of the traditional customs. My father and sister and I live on the third floor of the pack house, my father’s top advisors and the single ranked men beneath us, and on the first floor, the other ranked families. We live separately from the general population, mingling with them only at official events. I’ve lived in the pack my whole life and I probably only know about a hundred people out of the thousands of wolves in our territory.

I’ve been to Patrick’s room before to pick him up when we were going somewhere together, but I’ve never been inside. It wouldn’t have been appropriate. The Alpha’s daughters must be beyond reproach; I’ve heard that refrain my whole life, which explains how I’m an almost 25-year-old virgin whose only s****l experiences are the ones I’ve had with myself: tentative, uncertain, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Luckily, light spills into the hall from beneath the doorway, letting me know Patrick must still be awake. He’s probably as tormented by how things ended today as much as I am, and guilt rushes through me again at the thought that I’ve upset him.

Knocking would only attract attention, so I don’t bother. We’re going to be mated, so even if he’s in a state of undress, it’s something I’ll be seeing soon anyway. Walking in on him naked would be better than getting caught by someone sneaking into his room.

I’m not at all prepared for the actual sight that greets me, though.

Patrick is naked, but he’s not alone. He’s lying on his bed that sits against the wall opposite the door while a completely naked woman bounces on top of him, her hands gripping his shoulders and his hands on her breasts. I may have never seen anyone having s*x before, but I’m not an i***t. I know exactly what I’m looking at, and it shocks me so much that it takes a moment for me to recognize the woman with my future husband’s c**k inside her.

“Evie?!”

My sister turns to me at the same time Patrick does. I guess I really did do a good job at sneaking in quietly because it’s clear from their faces that neither of them had any idea I was there until right that second. Patrick blinks at me in horror, like he can’t quite believe his eyes, while the corner of Evie’s lips curl up in an unmistakable smirk of satisfaction.

“Jenny.” Patrick pushes Evie off him so fast that she falls over onto the bed, her smile melting into indignation as her face hits the mattress ungracefully. “This isn’t… I don’t know… I didn’t mean… I didn’t want…”

I take a step back, my body cold and numb with my shock. I have no idea how he possibly thinks that any explanation would excuse this, and I can barely focus on him anyway. As he gets to his feet, his c**k springs up and down in front of him, slick with my sister’s moisture, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.

“Don’t look so surprised, Jen,” Evie says, managing to right herself after being tossed aside. “You pushed him away, so why shouldn’t he get some satisfaction somewhere else?”

“No, that’s not…” Patrick tries to say, but I’m not listening, my eyes glued to my sister’s smug face. I knew she resented me at times, but her glee at seeing me humiliated this way is hard to stomach. When did her jealousy actually turn to outright dislike? Maybe that’s still too mild. She almost looks like she hates me.

“You’re supposed to be saving yourself for your mate too,” I remind her, the words sounding heavy and dull as they come out of my mouth.

“What makes you think I haven’t?” she shoots back at me, and before I can answer, the door opens behind me, pushing me further into the room.

“Jenetta! What are you doing in here? You’re not mated yet and you still have a reputation…”

My father’s admonitions die off as he takes in the full scene, his eyes taking in each of us in turn. Patrick looks ready to crawl into the floor as he tries to cover himself with his hands, bowing his head to his Alpha. I bow my head too, more out of humiliation than anything else. Not only has my chosen mate-to-be cheated on me with my own sister, but now my father and Alpha knows it too.

I’ll have to live with this for the rest of my life.

When he speaks again, my father’s words are low and clear, each one clearly enunciated. “What the f**k is going on here?”

Evie answers him, not sounding nearly as afraid as she should in the circumstances. “Patrick and I have mated, Daddy. He’s claimed me.”

“No!” Patrick immediately protests, his eyes moving to me, imploring me. “That’s not what happened.”

What he wants from me in this situation, I can’t imagine. I quickly look away.

“Are you saying my daughter is lying?” my father asks, his voice dangerously quiet.

“No, of course not,” Patrick replies miserably, since he has no choice. Everyone knows Evie’s my father’s favorite, and to say anything against her is almost as bad as maligning the Alpha himself.

“And you did sleep with her?” the Alpha presses.

Again, he can’t deny it, so he bows his head in agreement. “Yes, Alpha.”

“Well, then.” With an unhappy sigh, my father looks around at all of us again. When I raise my gaze to him, something unreadable sits in his eyes, something cold and hard, but it vanishes so fast, I don’t have time to process it. “It looks like today’s announcement will have to be amended. Patrick will take Evie as his mate instead of Jenetta.”

Patrick’s shoulders sag so hard I almost feel sorry for him. He’s never shown the least bit of interest in Evie before. He would commiserate with me when she tried her best to outshine me. I can believe he’s not thrilled about being mated to her, but if that’s the case, why on earth did he have s*x with her? If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.

“I’ve already promised your father that his son will be my heir,” the Alpha continues, addressing Patrick even though the younger man’s head is still down, his face hidden from me. “I don’t like to go back on my word.”

The way he says it has my nerves on edge. He’s building to something, leading up to something big, but I don’t know what it could be.

“My mate will be your heir,” I remind him, trying to steer us away from the cliff edge we seem to be walking on.

He acknowledges that with a nod but quickly offers an amendment. “Unless your mate is of a higher rank. If you leave the territory to join your mate, then Evie’s mate becomes my heir. Perhaps that’s the best solution here, given this whole… mess. No one needs to know exactly what happened.”

Patrick’s head raises, horror in his eyes. Wet tracks trail down his cheeks from silent tears he must have shed. “You’re going to send her away?”

“I’m not throwing her out into the wilderness,” my father snarls back at him, clearly not in the mood to answer to someone who just screwed up so spectacularly. “The western king has been hinting at an alliance for a long time. He’s an arrogant son-of-a-b***h and I had no intention of giving him what he wanted, but his son is the only foreigner worthy of my daughter since the northern and southern kingdoms both already have a queen.”

My life is being traded away in front of my eyes and I’m helpless to stop it. “Please, Alpha. Give me a chance to find someone else on my own.”

His response isn’t harsh, but it’s firm. “We’re out of time, Jenetta. You made your choice and it didn’t work out. I’ll make the arrangements tomorrow. Now, get back to bed, all of you. Your own beds.”

As he turns to go, I glance back at my sister in time to see her smile as she leans down to pick her clothes up off the floor. Unlike Patrick, she never even tried to hide her nakedness. With our father’s decision, she’ll have what she always wanted: me out of the way, and herself as Luna of the pack once my father’s gone.

Does it even cross her mind to think about what it means for me?

“Jenny, I didn’t…”

Patrick tries one more time to talk to me, but there’s nothing he can say, nothing anyone can say. In no more than ten minutes, life as I know it has been changed forever, and I turn on my heel and head back to my room, more alone than I’ve ever been before.