Aria's Pov
The laughter and music from downstairs vibrated through the floorboards as I made my way up the spiral staircase. My heart pounded with excitement. It was my birthday, my special day. I wanted to check on Darian, make sure he was ready with the cake he had insisted on bringing up himself. As I reached the top, the hallway seemed oddly silent compared to the lively noise below.
"Maybe he's just getting everything set," I murmured to myself, pushing slightly open the door to his room.
My breath caught in my throat. The scene before me was like a punch to the gut. Scarlet, my best friend, her golden hair splayed across Darian's pillow, laid decadently exposed. Her legs were spread wide, her skirt hiked up to her waist. She gasped as Darian's hand gripped her throat possessively. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the sight of my boyfriend standing over her, his manhood throbbing against her bare thigh.
I have never had sex.
Darian and I have never been naked in each other's presence.
"Suck my cock, I want to come quickly, Aria is waiting downstairs," he growled, pushing her down towards his groin, suddenly. His erection was thick and throbbing against her lips, and she took him into her mouth without further hesitation but not before she said, "Fuck this dumb little bitch. I'll take my time if I want to."
She reached down to touch herself, her moans of pleasure filling the room.
Darian's grip on her hair tightened, urging her to take more of him. He began to thrust into her mouth, his hips pounding against her face as she continued to suck him off. Scarlet's own moans grew louder.
I stood frozen in shock, my heart breaking as I witnessed the ultimate betrayal of my boyfriend and best friend through the slightly ajar door.
Suddenly, Darian pulled out of her mouth, his eyes glazed over with lust. "On your knees," he commanded and she obeyed, his voice a low rumble,"I'll finish in your mouth so you won't look messy when you come downstairs to wish Aria a happy birthday."
Instinctively, he noticed me in the doorway.
"Aria!" Darian's voice was filled with half-hearted surprise, but there was no remorse in his eyes. He didn't even stop moving.
"How could you?" I managed to choke out, feeling my legs go weak.
"Sweetie, don't be so dramatic," Scarlet said, her voice dripping with condescension. She didn't bother covering herself, instead she looked at me with a smirk, as she got up. "It's not like you ever really had him."
"Shut up, Scarlet!" I snapped, feeling tears sting my eyes. "Darian, what is this?"
"Come on, babe, you know it's complicated," Darian replied smoothly, pulling away from Scarlet just enough to stand up. "I mean, we've had our issues, right? And Scarlet was... comforting."
The issues were that I wanted to save myself for our marriage. For him.
All these months I had felt guilty because I would always refuse to consent to his persistent demand for a sexual relationship.
"Comforting?" I repeated, my voice trembling. Every word felt like a dagger twisting deeper into my heart.
Scarlet's voice dripped with venom as she sneered at me. "Darian didn't want you to find out like this, well he didn't want you to find out about it at all. Dumb virgins are rare these days and he wanted to keep you under his wrap, isn't it, darling?"
Darian remained silent. His gaze was fixed on me, but it wasn't filled with remorse. Instead, it held only desire and nothing else. Desire towards someone else.
"Obviously," she continued, smiling, " I don't give a fuck about your feelings. We've been together since you've met, fucking for months while you were playing that little engagement fantasy in your foolish little head and if you can't accept that, then tough luck. This is how things are," Scarlet's words cut through me like shards of glass, leaving my feeling exposed and betrayed by my closest friend.
"How things really are!" I echoed, my mind spinning. "You were supposed to be my friend!"
"Friend? Friend? Girl, just because I had time to lose talking to you when my parents forced me to volunteer at your orphanage does not mean that I am your friend. In fact, I always thought you were very clingy…pathetic even, " Scarlet said, her icy blue eyes locking onto mine.
"You sent me kind, wonderful letters every month…for years," I began, grasping for a fragment of honesty between us, the final piece of truth in a crumbling world of deception and lies.
"Well, I'll thank my servant Mina for the wonderful letters I forced her to write for you every fucking month. You see, I've never had the time to spare for you, not now and not in all these years."
"Stop it," I whispered, shaking my head. "Just stop."
"Aria, listen—" Darian began, but I cut him off.
"Don't. Just don't." I turned on my heel, running down the stairs as fast as I could. The sounds of the party faded into a blur of noise. My chest felt tight, like I couldn't breathe.
"Aria! Wait!" Darian called after me, but I didn't stop. Pushing through the crowd, I ignored the concerned faces of my friends from the orphanage. They were all here for me, and yet I felt so utterly alone.
"Aria, what's wrong?" one of them asked, grabbing my arm.
"Let me go," I said, pulling away. I needed to get out, needed air. Finally, I found myself outside, the cool night air hitting my face. I fumbled for my phone, dialing Sage's number with shaking fingers.
"Please pick up," I whispered, my voice breaking. Each ring felt like an eternity. But there was no answer, just Sage's voicemail.
"Hey, it's Sage. Leave a message and I'll get back to you—"
"Please, Sage, I need you to come get me," I cried into the phone. "I can't stay here. Please. I will be outside of my…of Darian's house, in Waterlake," I ended the call and sank onto the curb, hugging my knees to my chest.
"Why?" I sobbed into the darkness. "Why would they do this to me?"
The wind rustled the leaves around me, offering no comfort, no answers. My mind raced, replaying every moment, every lie. How blind had I been?
"Happy birthday, Aria," I muttered bitterly to myself, wiping away the tears that wouldn't stop falling.
----
"Aria?"
I looked up to see two of the orphanage kids standing nearby, concern etched on their young faces.
"Are you okay?" One of them asked softly.
"Don't worry about me," I managed to say, forcing a weak smile. "Just go back inside and enjoy the party."
"But everyone is waiting for you," they started, but I shook my head.
"Please, just go," I pleaded. They hesitated but eventually nodded and walked back inside.
"Why does everything have to hurt so much?"
The night that should have been the highlight of my life has turned into a living nightmare. In just a matter of minutes, I lost both my boyfriend and someone, who I considered as close as a sister. My chest felt like it was weighed down by a ton of bricks, every breath bringing sharp pains to my heart that had been shattered into pieces.
"Please, Sage," I murmured, staring at my phone. "Please, call me back."
But the screen remained dark and silent, mirroring the void inside me.
The guests behind me were heading outside and calling for me to join them in blowing out the candles on my birthday cake. I turned around as I heard Darian's voice clearly, asking me to stop being ridiculous and come back inside.
Just minutes ago, the man I deeply loved and adored had been having sex with my so-called best friend. We made eye contact, and his gaze was cold and calculating, showing no sign of remorse. In a fit of anger and hurt, I kicked off my high heels and ran towards the nearby forest. Nobody came after me, not even Darian. As I sprinted through the trees, tears streaming down my face, I couldn't shake off the feeling of complete isolation and loneliness.
A sudden surge of heat coursed through my body, feeling like an inferno burning within me. I immediately recognized the sensation; it was the same feeling that had caused embarrassment and ridicule on my 18th birthday when I attempted to transform but could only change half of my body.
The pain had been unbearable and a professor from Banes Academy had to be called in to help me return to my full human form.
It was then that the professor told me I might be wolfless if I couldn't shift properly.
Running further, hoping the pain would numb, but collapsing to my knees as half of my body shifted.
Still human from the waist up, I was struggling to maintain control over my body.
I tried to follow what the professor had taught me last year during my unfortunate shift but the pain was overwhelming. I was deep in the woods with no werewolf by my side, unable to access our mental link. I was not even sure if I could share a mental link to another one of my kind since I was wolf-less.
As I shifted on the ground, I felt something sharp underneath me and realized my phone had been crushed in the fall. Completely alone and vulnerable, I struggled to get back up and regain control of my thoughts. The professor had suggested shifting into wolf form as a way to cope with these situations, so I attempted it again. With a cry of agony, my hand transformed into a paw.
Time seemed to stand still as I lay there, trapped and alone. The moon mocked me with its steady rise in the sky, a cruel reminder of how long I had been stuck in this nightmare. My body alternated between moments of awareness and unconsciousness, each one more agonizing than the last. I begged for someone to hear my cries for help, but they fell on deaf ears.
As the pain from my crushed organs became unbearable, I slipped into a fitful sleep where I was trapped in my wedding dress, waiting for my no-show husband Darian at the altar.
"Mate."
A deep, masculine voice pierced through the suffocating fog of pain. Was it real? I forced my eyes open, each blink a battle against the agony that threatened to swallow me whole.