The Ugly Truth, The slap of Guilt

*Redwood Pack, Oregon*
*Arianna*
The sound of children laughing coming from the courtyard below made Arianna look over the railing from where she sat on the balcony of her bedroom. Calista, her three-year-old daughter, and Jace, Sebastion, and Gia’s almost five-year-old son were running around the courtyard chasing after Justin for the fifth time today. She looked at the two differences between the two children, think again how different the two cousins looked to each other. She had very serious doubts that Jace was Sebastion’s son. She was also not the only one to voice that opinion, though many had stopped questioning his origins.
Calista took after their Greek heritage with her olive-colored skin tone, dark silky hair, and grey eyes from Sebastion and Arianna’s father’s family. The little girl got her looks from her mother, but her attitude was all her father’s. Playful, outgoing, strong-willed, and far more intelligent than a child her age normally is. Flynn, her mate, was the Beta of Red Dawn pack from Georgia. They had met while she was on a business trip for the company that she ran with her brother. She was beyond happy to have finally met her mate.
Jace was fair-skinned, blonde hair, blue eyes. The eyes she could believe he got from Gia, but the rest was not normally found with their heritage. Yes, she knew that some genetics could skip generations, but she had watched all of Gia’s flirtatious ways while Sebastion was not in town. He never believed that she was with other men, even when his Beta and Gamma told him tales of her trying to seduce them. Even when several she-wolves came to him complaining that she had seduced their mates. He would not listen to their stories. He said that he believed in her loyalty to him.
For a year after Jace was born, Sebastion would challenge those who spoke out openly about him not being his son. For the first time since he became Alpha of the pack, those he had sworn to protect feared him. His blind devotion to a woman who was not his true mate, for the woman he chose over Rayne, was not a healthy thing. Gia was not as devoted to him as he wanted to believe, and the entire pack knew it.
Arianna smiled as Calista hopped on Jace’s back as they raced out of the courtyard to chase after Justin, who slipped away again. Her phone rang, making her frown at the ringtone. It was her mother. Why would she be calling this early in the week? They normally touched base once a week on Fridays to discuss business and the children. It was only Tuesday, not that she minded talking to her mother anytime.
“Mother, what a surprise to....,” She was cut off by the urgency in her mother’s voice. Her mouth fell open in shock.
Her mother and father were on the Werewolf Council of Elders, they were in Europe on council business. For her mother to call her during meetings with the council, something of dire importance must have happened. She hung up the phone as soon as her mother finished telling her the horrors of what had happened. Two packs had been attacked, one of them Arianna knew. So did her brother. That pack was nearly wiped out. She had to find Sebastion.
She tried to mind link him, but he was blocking their connection. That meant he was with Gia. That would make what she had to tell him harder for him to hear. Arianna stood from her chair, raced into the house to go in search of her brother. She cringed at the thought of walking in on him and Gia having sex, but what she had to tell him was far more important than him getting laid.

*Sebastion*
He stood in the little doorway of the cabin he had built a few years ago, away from the mansion. It was a retreat for him and Gia to have some alone time without the rest of the household hearing them. His heart was breaking at the sight of his lover in the throes of passion with another man. The smell of their lust filled the small cabin to the point he knew that she hadn’t sensed him yet.
Finally, after over nine years of people telling him she was an unfaithful harlot, he was seeing the proof with his own eyes. He would never have believed all their tales unless he had proof, and now he did. He took a step into the room, letting the cabin door slam closed behind him, alerting the lovers that their secret was out. He let out a growl so loud that he was sure that those back at the mansion could hear it. The glass rattled, and the lovers jumped to untangle themselves from each other.
“Bastion, it isn’t what it looks like, baby...” Gia pleaded with him.
Part of him wanted to believe her, but he knew now that this woman would do or say anything to get what she wanted. The blinders were off now. No longer did he see the girl he fell in love with as a teenager, the woman she had grown into that he had loved above almost all others. Gone was the family they had created from that love, from the bond he thought was stronger than any real mate bond. Stronger than the bond he had with that pathetic wolf he left in the dirt five years ago.
“Oh, isn’t it?” He narrowed his eyes at her, then looked to the man beside her, who was oozing fear.
“No, he attacked me. Bastion I would never be with....” She closed her mouth at his angry growl.
“You looked to be very much enjoying what the two of you were doing, so do not lie to me.” Sebastion took another step into the room.
“Baby, you have got to believe me.” Gia let the tears fall down her cheeks. She knew he was a sucker for her tears.
He moved across the room faster than either of them had time to think what he was going to do, grabbed her lover by the throat, then threw him as hard as he could against the wall. The wall cracked, the window next to where he had hit shattered, and Gia screamed. Ares was close to the surface. Though he hated Gia, it enraged him that this woman would hurt Sebastion how she did. Because of her, he had lost his true mate, the one that the Moon Goddess had made just for them.
When his eyes flashed to pure black, Gia stopped screaming and backed herself against the wall. He was no longer in complete control. She knew this was going to be bad for her and her lover. For the first time in her life, she was afraid of the man she claimed to have loved. All she ever wanted from him was to have the title of the Luna of this pack and to have him cater to her every desire. He gave her everything but the title she coveted so much.
The door to the cabin burst open as Justin barged in to see what that howl of pain he had heard was about. As he took in the scene, he instantly knew what had finally happened. The whore had finally gotten caught by the one person in the pack she had always had wrapped around her little finger.
Sebastion turned his head to look at Justin, “Call someone to take care of that filth, then have someone escort Gia to the dungeons, lock her in, then leave. I want this cabin burnt to the ground.” He turned back to look at Gia as she huddled naked, smelling of another man and sex.
“Bastion, baby, think of our son. He needs me.” She begged him as she shivered in fear.
“Is he my son? No one believes he is.” That thought made his stomach drop. The boy was his light, his joy, his world. To think he wasn’t Jace’s father made something in him snap.
He stepped to her, wrapped his hand around her throat, and squeezed, her eyes bulging as he lifted her on the wall, holding her there as his rage consumed him. He could feel Ares trying to calm him, he could sense Justin stepping closer behind him, prepared to pull him away if needed. He wouldn’t kill her, but he would surely make her fear that he would.
“Have there been as many men as I have been told about over the years? Would you even know who Jace’s father is? Are you that much of a greedy slut?” He squeezed harder until her face turned purple, then he dropped his hand, letting her slide to the ground. Even after what he had seen, he could not hurt her further.
He spun around, walked past Justin, then exited the cabin and walked a few feet away before dropping to his knees in the dirt. He was shaking with the many emotions that were passing through him. Anger at himself for being such a fool for her. Pain at knowing she used him for everything he ever gave her. Most of all the guilt he felt as he remembered leaving his true mate, kneeling in the dirt very much like he was now.
He never formally rejected her, so their bond was still there, so weak that most days he didn’t feel it. Today was one of those days he didn’t. He felt even more hollow than ever. Not knowing what else to do, he reached out to his sister to tell her he needed her, opening their link to share the images that had greeted him when he walked into that cabin. She had been right about Gia all these years, but he had just been too blinded by love to listen to the one person who had never once lied to him.
Sebastion looked up as two guards arrived to escort Gia to the dungeons. He would throw her lover out of pack territory. They had to leave her lover behind, as Gia was kicking and screaming, so the two guards had to work together to drag her from the cabin. Justin walked out of the cabin with her lover over his shoulder, wrapped in a blanket from the bed.
“I will take care of this one, please go back to the house, talk to....” He looked behind Sebastion as Arianna stepped out of the woods in front of the cabin. “Talk to your sister.” He turned away, leaving to take out the poor unlucky bastard that slept with the Alpha’s woman.
Seeing her brother on his knees in the dirt made Arianna forget what she had originally wanted to tell him. The pain in his eyes shook her. He was so strong-willed that she couldn’t remember that last time she has seen him cry. Rushing to him, she went to her knees, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, letting him know that it was ok to let it out.
She saw the images he shared with her as she was rushing here for him, not surprised at all about Gia finally being caught in the act. He cried until his voice was hoarse and his body had sagged completely against her as he finished crying. She gently pushed him back so she could see his face.
“What will you do with her now that you know the truth?”
“I had her taken to the dungeons, she can stay there until I have all her things packed, then I will have her banished from the pack.”
“What about Jace? He....” She paused at the glare he sent her. “He is still your son, even if you are not his biological father. You are all he knows.”
“He will go with his mother, I will not have him here as a reminder of her infidelities, nor will I have him here to remind Rayne of what I did. Rayne will take her place by my side where she belongs as soon as I find her.” He looked off into the distance as he thought of Rayne.
Arianna’s face paled as she remembered what she needed to tell him. “Sebbie, there is something that you need to know.”
“What more do I need to know? Haven’t I learned all there was to know today?” He looked at her when he heard the note of sadness to her voice.
“Mother called me awhile ago...... there was an attack......” She didn’t get to finish as Sebastion shot up off the ground to tower over her.
“Father? Are they both alright? What happened to them?” He peppered her with questions as he reached down to pull her up off the ground.
“Yes, they are fine. The attack wasn’t on them. They are with the council. The attack was on two packs”
He frowned down at her, “Then why the urgency to tell me? Is it an allied pack? Did we miss the call for help?”
He took his alliances with neighboring packs seriously, if they ever needed help he would give it, with the idea that if his pack ever needed help, they would return the favor. Since he has been Alpha, there had never once been a call for help against attacks of any kind. He had helped with food, housing, or other needs as the occasions had called for it. He would be concerned if an ally had called for help and he was too busy to heed the call.
“No, Sebbie, it wasn’t any of the nearby packs, one of them however was one we both know. We have been there once before, five years ago to be exact. Jade Moon.”
He shook his head as what she said sank in, tried to deny what she was telling him. “Were there survivors? Did she make it out?”
“There were survivors, but Rayne was not among them.”
“No, she isn’t dead. I would feel it if she was.” Wouldn’t he? Their bond was so weak that he couldn’t even feel it right now.
Usually when one half of a mated pair dies, the other dies too, rarely does one survive without the other. Since they had not fully mated, since he had left her behind, he believed she would be safe if he were to die in battle. He should be the one to die, not her. He left her behind in the dirt like garbage. Now he would never get the chance to claim her as his.
“I need to see her body. I need to know how damned my soul is for the things I said to her.”
“Sebastion, you are not damned. You were in love.”
“I made the wrong choice Ari, I knew what I did was wrong, but I did it anyway. I was cruel with my words for no reason at all. I could have just left with Gia and not looked back, but I had to make her hate me.”
“You hurt her, but she told me she never wanted a mate, it sounded so much like you I laughed when she told me. I joked that it would be ironic if she ended up being your mate. The Moon Goddess was right when she paired you two together. I am sorry that Gia was always in the front of your mind.”
“I need to go see her body, Ari.”
“I know. Let’s go back to the house, I will plan for Flynn to take Calista so I can come with you. We will leave first thing in the morning,” She held his arm, leading him away from the cabin, back towards the mansion.
Sebastion let her guide him home as he got lost in his thoughts. Thoughts of what his life would have been like if he had just listened to his wolf. Her pale green eyes full of tears and anger at that last exchange of words would forever haunt him.
He would go to Arizona, find out for sure if she made it out alive, or if what his sister believes is true. That he lost his soul mate before he could make her his. When he met her that night, he was in the mindset of not wanting a mate. A mate for him would change his life from where he wanted it to stay, even if he intended to only use her for an heir. Thinking of that made him feel even worse because no matter what happened, no one deserved to be treated as less than what they were.
As the mate of an Alpha, she would be the pack Luna, his equal in all things, but she would be more. The Luna is the heart of the pack, leading from within, supporting the Alpha in any way that she can. Gia had clouded his heart, his mind, and worst of all, his moral code. He had put her above almost his entire pack, making him weak and cruel to the eyes of those he swore to protect.
When he brought his Luna home, there would be changes in the pack that was long overdue, changes to set things right. To show his mate, his pack, and himself that he could be a better man. A better Alpha. She belonged to him. He would find her and bring her home where she was meant to be.
She was alive.
She had to be.
Sebastion prayed to the Moon Goddess for the first time since he was a child. He prayed for her for forgiveness from his blind devotion to an unworthy, unfaithful, liar of a woman. He prayed for forgiveness for believing Gia over all the people who tried to tell him the truth. Most of all, he prayed that she would give him the chance to find Rayne, that she was alive, that she would finally be his.
Please!
Be!
Alive!