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 prepared—the decorations, the invitations, the wedding dress—even 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 anyway—let'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.

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.

"I…couldn'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."