Forbidden Obsession

"Jude? Baby, are you home?"

I pushed open the door to our cabin, my arms full of groceries. The smell hit me first. Not just Jude's scent, the one that usually made my wolf purr with contentment. No, this was different. This was wrong.

There was another scent mixed with his. Sweet. Familiar. Sickeningly familiar.

My wolf stirred inside me, uneasy.

"Jude?" I called again, my voice shakier now.

I dropped the grocery bags on the kitchen counter. Apples rolled across the floor. I didn't care. My feet were already moving, carrying me toward our bedroom. Each step felt heavy, like walking through mud. My heart hammered against my ribs.

Please, Moon Goddess, please let me be wrong.

The bedroom door was slightly open. I could hear sounds now. My hand trembled as I reached for the handle.

"Don't," my wolf whispered in my mind. "Don't look. We already know."

But I had to see it. I had to know for sure.

I pushed the door open.

The world stopped.

Jude was in our bed. Our bed. The one we'd shared for two years since the mate bond snapped into place on my eighteenth birthday. But he wasn't alone.

Lucy. My twin sister. Her dark hair spread across my pillow. Her body tangled with his.

"Hailey!" Lucy shrieked, grabbing the sheets.

Jude's head snapped toward me. His green eyes went wide, but I saw no guilt there. No shame. Just... annoyance?

"This isn't what it looks like," he said, climbing out of bed without even bothering to cover himself.

A laugh bubbled up from my throat. It sounded wrong. Broken.

"Really, Jude? Really? Because it looks like you're fucking my sister in our bed!"

The mate bond that had once felt like warm honey in my veins now burned like acid. I could feel it starting to crack, to splinter. My wolf howled inside me, a sound of pure agony.

Lucy wrapped the sheet around herself and stood up. She didn't look sorry. She looked defiant.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," she said, her voice steady. Too steady.

"Find out WHAT way?" I screamed. "That my mate is cheating on me with my own twin sister? How long? How long has this been going on?"

Jude ran his hand through his dark hair. "Hailey, calm down-"

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!"

My wolf was clawing at my insides, desperate to get out. I could feel my eyes shifting, glowing with her anger. My fingernails lengthened into claws.

"Six months," Lucy said quietly.

The room tilted. Six months? Six whole months?

"Six months," I repeated, my voice hollow. "You've been sleeping with my mate for six months?"

"We didn't mean for it to happen," Jude said, taking a step toward me. "It just... did."

"It just did?" I backed away from him. The mate bond was screaming now, tearing itself apart. The pain was unbearable. "Nothing just happens, Jude! You made a choice! You both made a choice!"

"Hailey, please," Lucy started, but I held up my hand.

"Don't. Don't you dare say another word to me."

I looked at Jude.  This man I'd loved since I was eighteen. This man I'd given everything to. The man the Moon Goddess herself had chosen for me.