Heart Given, Heart Broken

I've followed an Instagram account. While unremarkable, it showcases some pretty sweet and romantic content.

The account details the daily life of the owner and her Alpha.

When it's raining cats and dogs outside, they share a hot beverage in a cafe. After they leave the place, he tilts the umbrella slightly toward her.

Also, when they look up at the moon while sitting side by side, the sight of their fingers grazing each other strums my heartstrings.

The Alpha in the photos has never revealed his face, yet he gives off a familiar feeling to me.

On the night before my and Xavier Lupine's mating ceremony takes place, the account has a new update.

"This marks the end of our eight-year entanglement. From now onward, he's her fated Alpha. I'm just her best friend.

"This account will go silent from here on. I wish my 'best friend' and the Alpha, who's rightfully mine, eternal happiness."

The latest photo shows Xavier and me. But the thing is, I've never shown anyone that photo before.

Chapter 1

That was a photo taken last week in front of the Moonshine clan's altar.

At that time, my best friend, Queenie Blackrose, had been helping me adjust the train of my dress, saying, "Vanessa, the Moon Goddess will surely bless your union with Xavier. He is the Alpha of the Shadow pack after all."

Meanwhile, my fated mate, Xavier Lupine, was standing right below the altar. He overheard our conversation and turned to look at us, his lips curling upward into a light smile that was as gentle as always.

However, for some reason, I felt as though the gentleness was not directed toward me.

"You're just too nervous," I said, holding Queenie's hands. "If it weren't for the rehearsals for the mating ceremony today, I probably wouldn't even have had my vows memorized yet."

Yet, my wolf, Misty, agreed with Queenie instead, saying that I was far too laid-back.

"That simply won't do!" Queenie said with a laugh. "This is a joint marriage between the Moonshine pack and the Shadow pack. It's going to be the mating ceremony of the century. How could you be so casual about it, Vanessa Clawson?"

She turned around, looking at Xavier, and asked, "Don't you agree, Alpha?"

Xavier looked at me with a gentle smile. "Anything works, my mate."

Just before the rehearsals started, however, Queenie suddenly took out her phone and snapped a photo of us.

I looked around at her. She waved the phone in the air and said, "Gotta immortalize the most touching moment for our future Luna."

Everyone in the pack raised their glasses at me during the bachelorette party the night before the mating ceremony. I drank until I felt warm and hot all over, and my consciousness gradually turned blurry.

Queenie kept staying by my side. When Xavier hurried toward us, she was in the midst of helping me onto a couch to sit.

"It's her bachelorette party tonight. You, as the groom-to-be, should not be here," Queenie said, shielding me behind her as she stabbed Xavier's chest with her finger.

Xavier looked at her, seemingly weighing something in his mind.

"Xavier," I called out to him, slurring his name as I instinctively reached out toward him.

He immediately came up to me and picked me up bridal-style, gently yet firmly.

"How could you have had so much to drink?" he asked in a low voice tinged with deep concern.

Queenie just chuckled by the side and said, "She's been waiting for this day for eight years. Of course, she has to have all the fun she can tonight!

"Remember what we promised each other in the past? Whoever found their mate first would have to be there to witness and officiate their mating ceremony."

I had indeed said something like that in the past. Back then, Queenie and I were still young and happily chasing and playing with each other in the mountains where our pack lived.

Then, when I was 18 years old, my wolf resonated with Xavier's wolf, and the Moon Goddess sent down a prophecy, confirming that we were each other's fated mates.

When I told Queenie about it, she hugged me and cried for a long time, saying that she was so happy that I finally had someone to look after me and protect me for the rest of my life.

Now that I thought of it, however, I didn't know who exactly she was crying for.

Xavier picked me up and nodded in Queenie's direction. "Thanks for taking care of her."

"We're best friends, after all," she answered in a voice as light as the breeze. "We won't have another chance like this anymore next time anyway."

I was still half-conscious and couldn't quite understand the meaning between the lines.

The next day, I woke up early in the morning on my bed to the sound of an Instagram notification on my phone, telling me someone had posted online.

I tapped into it without thinking. However, my eyes immediately widened the moment I saw what it was about.

Chapter 2

I had chanced upon that Instagram account purely by accident.

I had been scrolling through my "Explore" tab when the algorithm suggested that I follow a random account that was based in the same location as I was and had a black-and-white photo of a street in a rather familiar photography style.

I then tapped into the account out of curiosity.

The account had fewer than a thousand followers. The latest story posted was from last night, during my bachelorette party, after I'd gotten drunk at home.

It was a photo of a parking garage late at night, and the caption in the photo was quite long.

"He said that he wasn't going home today, wanting to wait with me until the rain stopped. But he still put his coat around my shoulders, leaving himself in just a thin shirt."

I tapped into the next highlighted story.

"He shielded me from trouble again today. The problem would have been solved with just a simple explanation, but he still insisted on shielding me behind him first.

"I complained to him that he was being too quiet. He then took off one side of his earbuds and handed it to me, saying that I wouldn't call him 'cold and distant' anymore like that.

"He doesn't like taking photos, but he's always willing to let me take photos in our wolf form. He said that it was a way for us to leave our mark on each other.

"He's always so busy, but he never forgets what kind of perfume I like. He even bought it for me while walking past the store."

There were plenty more Instagram stories in the account's highlights, and I felt as though something just struck my heart, very lightly.

The subtle gentleness the account described somehow struck a chord within me.

Misty licked her lips and said, "Well, if you like these, you can tell the Alpha about it so he'd do the same things for you."

I nodded, thinking about leaving a comment on the stories, but I realized that I couldn't. So, I ended up following the account instead.

However, I never imagined that those seemingly unrelated moments were, in fact, all related to me.

Misty howled, and I could hear the sorrow in her voice.

The account owner said that they had been in love for eight years.

Meanwhile, Xavier and I had also been dating for eight years.

Queenie and I had known each other for 19 years. When I was ten years old, she and her clan had joined the Moonshine pack, and that very night, she knocked on my door in two cute pigtails and a sack of wild berries over her shoulder.

"Hi! My name's Queenie Blackrose. We're going to be best friends from today onward!"

Ever since then, we grew up together, trained together, and basically were glued to each other at the hip.

Queenie eventually became my closest friend in the pack.

When I was 18 years old, a group of Rogues in the pack broke through our border. The werewolves in our pack who weren't skilled in combat began running off in all directions, and I was shoved to the ground in the chaos.

Just as sharp claws were about to strike me, a strong arm suddenly pulled me behind his back.

"Stay next to me."

It was Xavier. His voice was authoritative and intimidating since he was an Alpha, but it somehow made me calm down and feel safe with him.

At that point in time, he was already the Alpha leader of the Shadow pack, and his grayish-silver wolf silhouette was particularly striking and fierce under the moonlit night.

However, when he looked at me, his golden-brown eyes were tender and full of gentleness instead.

Soon after, I learned that Xavier had suddenly shown up because he was here to discuss a potential marriage alliance between his pack and ours, and he had unexpectedly felt an attraction toward me. His wolf had resonated completely with Misty.

When I told Queenie about it, she got so excited that she began dancing around me, saying, "I can't believe that you and the alpha of the Shadow pack are actually fated mates! You're so lucky, Vanessa!"

The marriage alliance progressed naturally after that, and Xavier had always been nothing but gentle and caring toward me.

He would find time to share anecdotes about his tribe with me, accompany me as we cultivated our wolves, and hold my hand during the annual offering ceremony.

I always thought that our relationship would be unbreakable.

Queenie also often came over to our place as a regular guest. At times, she would even stay for dinner.

Xavier didn't seem particularly affectionate toward her, but he never stopped her from coming close to him.

I used to laugh and joke, saying, "Hey, you're going to be our witness, so you'd better keep a good eye on him for me next time!"

Queenie would keep laughing and nodding at me in response, but her eyes were also filled with a rather complex expression I couldn't understand.

I always thought that this was the perfect happiness I'd always have.

However, after going through all of the highlighted stories on the Instagram account, I realized that the gentleness and tenderness I'd always thought were exclusively reserved for me had been shared with someone else without my knowledge.

Misty roared in anger. "We can't take this anymore! They're desecrating your feelings and emotions!"

Chapter 3

I stumbled into the bathroom and splashed cold water onto my face. However, it couldn't ease the suffocating feeling in my chest.

Tomorrow was going to be my mating ceremony with Xavier. Everything had already been preparedthe decorations, the invitations, the wedding dresseven the elders from both packs and our friends and family were already here.

They were all waiting for me.

But I knew that something had already withered away in the shadows.

My hands shook as I dialed Xavier's number.

The phone rang once, twice, even three times But nobody picked up.

Almost instinctively, I dialled Queenie's number next. There was nothing but a busy tone.

My heart sank to the pit of my stomach.

How much of a coincidence could it be that both of them would suddenly completely disappear at the same time like this?

I knew that Queenie had a lot of other secondary Instagram accounts. She liked using different accounts to post about different parts of her life online.

So, I decided to tap on the hashtags in her posts, searching for nearby, similar accounts using the same IP address, and finally stumbled onto a post published by an account called "@HisTrueLove". It had posted a photo that sent a chill straight down my spine.

The photo showed a wineglass in the male werewolf's hand as the light illuminated his side profile.

There was a ring on his hand, and that was the same one that I had given to Xavier as a gift.

So, the person in the photo had to be him.

The caption for that post was a simple one-liner.

"She won't understand anywaylet's just continue having fun."

The comment section was filled with jeering and mockery.

I tapped into the main account and realized that the account was far more dark and sinister than I'd ever imagined.

There were tens of thousands of followers on the account, and it had begun posting regularly a few years ago.

The first post I saw was a black photo with the caption blatantly insulting me and calling me out.

"I really don't know where she gets the confidence from. Did she really think that she managed to snag such an outstanding Alpha on her own?

"If it weren't for my being too lazy to compete with her, she wouldn't even get a chance!"

Someone in the comments asked the account if the person described was a friend, and they had replied, "Kind of. After all, I'd had to look after her ever since she was a little pup."

Some time later, I had been stung by a very venomous wasp, and Xavier had to come over to care for me.

However, the account posted, "It's just a tiny injury, and she still insisted that he take care of her. She's such a drama queen. But still, it's all thanks to her being such a dumb wolf that I could stay alone with him for such a long time."

The account even posted a screenshot of their chat history with Xavier, with the names blurred out.

Xavier was talking to her about the power struggles in his clan and some more grave topics regarding stress and other secrets that he never once brought up with me.

Meanwhile, the account holder was always able to respond precisely to his needs and soothe his frustrations with gentle words of affirmation and encouragement.

According to the account holder, I was a "naive and troublesome" burden to Xavier.

"With a brain like hers, she'd never be able to understand him anyway!

"I just had to chat casually with him, and he'd tell me that he felt more relaxed whenever he was with me than when he was with her."

Queenie.

She and Xavier disguised their ambiguous, intimate actions with each other, dismissing them all and saying that it was just for my sake.

If they went out for a meal together, they'd say that they were testing out catering recommendations for the mating ceremony.

If they went out on a nightly date to gaze at the stars, they'd say that they were scouting the perfect venue for the mating ceremony.

If he gave her a gift, it was a "thank you gift" because she'd been taking such good care of me.

Every excuse felt like a knife repeatedly stabbing into the wound in my heart.

Misty wouldn't stop roaring and howling in distress. She was furious on my behalf.

She knew that I had always thought I was the only ray of sunshine in Xavier's life.

However, in his and Queenie's story, I was nothing but the fool that they toyed with, took advantage of, and laughed at behind my back.

Chapter 4

Queenie once told me that the diamond ring I gave Xavier was very pretty.

So, I had decided to give her another equally sparkling diamond ring for her birthday.

The next day, she wore the ring to Xavier's private winery and made sure to include him in the background of the photos she took there, as if she were flaunting some sort of secret possession.

Her posting schedule on the Instagram account got more and more frequent as of late.

She'd even posted a photo of the two of them secretly holding hands with each other behind my back when the three of us went out together.

The night Xavier proposed to me, she had posted another black photo with a caption that read, "I guess I've been waiting for some people for far too long.

"If he also loves me back, then he should give me an answer as well."

She made it.

Late that night, she made the first move to kiss Xavier, and he never pushed her away.

They promised to go to the beach the night before the mating ceremony to relax and unwind. That was why Xavier had told me that he was going to settle some "problems" that had arisen in his pack, and that he would be gone for a whole week.

I felt nauseated.

All of his excuses of "settling problems" were just a front for him going out on trips with Queenie.

She had literally recorded every single moment of the seven days she spent with him and posted them online.

They went to the place where I used to go with Xavier to look at the sea view and took the same videos with the same angles he and I took.

They went to the same restaurant Xavier and I went to on our first date, smiling in a carefree manner as she sat in the place where I used to sit.

She wanted every memory I had with Xavier to be filled with her shadow in his heart.

I felt like I was now forced to watch a movie that didn't belong to me play out before my eyes. Misty told me to stop watching, but I couldn't stop myself from scrolling further.

The pain in my chest eventually grew numb. Eventually, there was nothing left but an unexpected calmness in my heart.

As it turned out, even emotions didn't bother showing anymore once someone had reached peak disappointment in someone else.

Before light, I had made my decision.

The mating ceremony must be called off.

I turned on my laptop and began writing the notice for the ceremony cancellation. Every word I wrote felt like I was shattering all the trust that I had in Xavier for the past eight years.

Before I was done drafting it out, however, my phone suddenly began to ring.

It was Queenie.

"Vanessa? Haven't you gone to sleep yet?" she asked, her voice light as though nothing had just happened. "It's your big day tomorrow. You shouldn't tire yourself out tonight."

I gripped my phone a little harder, but I couldn't manage to say a thing.

Queenie followed up with more questions at once.

"What's the matter? Are you getting butterflies in your stomach? Isn't Xavier with you?"

I felt a chilling irony.

Misty was practically screaming in my head. "Liar! You lied to me the whole time!"

Just a few minutes ago, she'd posted a very intimate photo of herself and Xavier. But now, she was pretending that nothing was wrong when talking to me.

"Icouldn't sleep," I said, trying to make myself sound as calm as possible.

"You silly goose," Queenie said with a chuckle. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine tomorrow. You still have me."

Just then, I heard a very low exhale on her side of the call, sounding like it was from a male wolf.

Misty told me that it was Xavier.

I closed my eyes and said, "Queenie, are you hiding something from me?"

Queenie was startled for a while and began to panic. "Vanessa, you must be mistaken."

I inhaled deeply and said, "Put me on loudspeaker."

After a moment's deliberation, she still did as I said.

My voice was icy-cold as I said, "Queenie Blackrose. Xavier Lupine."

I could hear their breaths catching in their throat.

"I know everything. I hope"

I paused for a while before slowly saying, "I hope that you'll hold your own mating ceremony very soon to become each other's mates."