Chapter 3
The Night Blood pack was exactly what Brianna needed.
She’d booked a private villa overlooking the beach and had no intention of doing anything productive for the next few days.
The moment she stepped onto the white sand of the beach, she felt like some of the weight she had been carrying had been lifted off her shoulder.
As she stared off at the endless ocean stretching before her, she no longer felt like she was suffocating.
There was no cheating mate. No mistress.
No pack members whispering about the wolfless Omega who had somehow managed to become the prestigious Alpha Tristian’s wife.
There was nobody looking at her with pity.
She didn’t have to wonder where her mate was or who he was sleeping with either.
When the first morning of her stay came, she woke before sunrise and walked straight into the ocean.
The water was cold enough to make her gasp, but she kept going until it reached her waist.
Then she dove beneath the surface and stayed there, letting the silence wash over her.
In that moment, she reminisced on the past.
For years, she’d hated the feeling of being different.
Every full moon, while the other wolves in Dark Howl pack shifted and ran beneath the moonlight, she’d stayed behind.
She didn’t have a wolf and she was unable to shift.
She was just an Omega who happened to be missing the one thing that supposedly made all werewolves complete.
But here, surrounded by strangers who knew nothing about her, it didn’t seem to matter.
She spent the next few days doing whatever she wanted.
She explored the reefs and slept until noon.
She wandered along the beach with no destination in mind and spent entire afternoons beneath the shade of palm trees with a cold drink in her hand.
And whenever her eyes went to her phone that she had switched off since her arrival, she would simply go back to ignoring it.
Without being a witness to what was happening at the Dark Howl pack, she could already imagine the chaos.
Wherever her mate was, he must be panicking. And Riley likely shivering, both of them trying to find ways to get rid of the proof of their affair from the company group chat so it wouldn’t leak out to the rest of the Pack.
Good.
They deserved every second of it.
Most especially Riley.
Her plan to kick Brianna out of the marriage had backfired.
Riley had expected Brianna to quietly pack her bags and disappear so she could take her place beside Tristan as his Luna.
And since she was carrying Tristan’s pup, she must have felt even more confident that she could corner her.
If only she knew that Brianna had been preparing for this long before she even discovered who her husband was having an affair with.
On the second day, as the sun climbed back into the sky, Brianna stretched out beneath a beach umbrella, toasting marshmallows over a small fire.
When they were done, she happily shoved one into her mouth, savoring the sweetness as the sound of waves rolling against the shore filled the air.
Everything felt so peaceful. For once, she didn’t have to miss dinner and go to bed hungry because Tristan had come home late again.
She also opened the bottles of wine she had always avoided.
She had stayed away from alcohol because it made her tipsy and easily drunk. She had wanted to be the well-behaved wife.
Now? There was no reason to hold herself back anymore.
She took a long drink, and as the wine slid down her throat, she realized just how much enjoyment she had been denying herself.
She had spent years starving herself of little pleasures just so she could be the perfect wife for a man who had never appreciated it.
But not again.
When evening began to settle over the beach, Brianna finally stopped basking in the sun, deciding she wanted new clothes.
Brianna wandering through the boutiques lining The Night Blood pack’s beachfront, trying on anything that caught her attention.
Dresses she’d never have worn back home. Crop tops. Skirts. A pair of ridiculously expensive heels that she bought simply because she liked the way they looked on her.
She left one store carrying three shopping bags and wearing a fitted black dress she’d bought on impulse.
The hem stopped several inches above her knees, and the thin straps left her shoulders bare.
She caught her own reflection in a shop window and stopped.
For a moment, she simply admired how it looked on her.
When was the last time she’d dressed for myself?
She turned slightly, examining the way the dress hugged her waist.
“You look good, trust me.”
She glanced beside her.
A man stood near the entrance of the next boutique, holding one shopping bag. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and ridiculously handsome.
And he was looking directly at her.
She should have walked away but her mouth curved with a smile. “I know I do.” As she said, she found herself adding, “Do you usually stare at women you don’t know?”
“Only when they make it difficult not to.” He replied softly, and she laughed under her breath.
That was smooth.
As she raised her gaze back to his face, he stepped closer but at a respectful distance.
“I’m guessing you’re here on a visit?” As he asked, his eyes dropped briefly to the bags in her hands.
Brianna shook her head negatively. “A vacation, actually.” She casually told him, looking him over deliberately.
He paused for a moment, something warm crossing his expression, “Then I hope The Night Blood pack is treating you well.”
They spoke for a few more minutes. Brianna hadn’t flirted with another man since she’d been with Tristian, but she did in that moment.
Even letting his fingers drag over hers on purpose as he handed her the shopping bag he’d picked up after it slipped from her grip.
That moment sent a small thrill within her.
But it was nothing serious. Nothing that needed to head anywhere.
If anything, it was just a small taste of the freedom she finally owned.
And God, it felt good. It was like a fucking whole new life.
No more waking beside an Alpha who made her feel like a defect because she hadn’t awakened her wolf.
But then the night came in a wink and it was time to head back to the villa.
When Brianna woke up the next morning, she sucked in a deep breath and switched her phone back on.
The moment the screen turned on, she immediately regretted it.
Messages flooded the screen faster than she could read them.
Tristan's texts seemed to be full of furious tirades.
Riley’s on the other hand contained frantic begging.
Then her colleagues.
Even numbers she didn’t recognize.
Missed calls stacked one after another until the screen displayed hundreds of calls.
She stared dumbfounded at her lagging screen from the flood of texts for several more seconds.
Then she barked a bitter laugh.
They’d spent days tearing each other apart while she had been lying on a beach, had a whole villa to herself and couldn’t care less.
With a satisfactory chuckle, Brianna slipped her phone back into her hand bag.
They made the bed. They could lie on it. As for her? She was done.