Chapter 1 The End
Content Warning: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
This book contains explicit sexual content, including frequent and detailed intimate scenes. It also contains lots and lots of naughty cheating, emotional manipulation, violence, and other mature themes. Reader discretion is advised.
Chapter 1
“The End”
POV Megan
Seven years of marriage, and Zach ends it in six words.
“I want a divorce. I’ve met someone.”
I want to ask questions. When did you meet her? When did you start looking elsewhere? But I can’t get a word out. I just stand there looking at him.
“Okay,” I answer, holding back tears.
Yesterday he told me he loved me and couldn’t live without me. Is he going to change his mind tomorrow?
I walk to my room in a daze and pull out all our photos. I sit looking through them, trying to piece together where I went wrong.
He walks in with a large white envelope.
“This house is mine. I bought you another house. The movers will be here in three days to collect your stuff. The keys and new house information are in this envelope, along with the divorce paperwork. I’ve been generous. Please just sign by the time you leave,” Zach says coldly and walks out.
Generous. Hmm.
I’m getting a buyout. Like I’m a piece of cheap real estate he can throw some money at and walk away from.
I call Casey, my best friend.
“Hello?”
“He wants a divorce and gave me three days to get out.” I try to hold back my tears, but suddenly, I’m a sobbing mess.
Telling Casey makes it feel real. She’s my person.
“I’ll be right there.”
Casey hangs up.
She lives three doors down.
I hear the front door fly open and her run up the stairs and straight into my room. She looks at me with sad eyes and hugs me.
“Zach told Stan a couple of months ago he had met someone. I know I should have told you, but Stan wants a divorce too. They call it the seven-year itch.”
“Did they just get together and say, hey, let’s upgrade our mates?” I sob.
“I don’t have any answers.” She pulls the stuff out of my white folder. “Wow, this house is beautiful. Do you want to go look at it?”
“Seriously?”
“Stan and I just had a huge fight. I just want to eat ice cream and forget.”
“Okay.”
“Pack a couple of boxes,” she says.
“Why?”
“Maybe it will help?”
I run down to the basement and grab a few Amazon boxes we were going to recycle, then run back to my room.
“Good old Amazon.” She chuckles.
“Where do I start?”
“Just throw whatever in.”
I pull our wedding picture off the wall and grab all Zach’s favorite clothes of mine and put them in the same box. In another, I put clothes I like, random things from the bathroom, and a pillow.
“A pillow?” she asks.
“Don’t ask.”
We take the boxes downstairs and walk over to her tiny red car. We stuff the boxes in the trunk and drive for ice cream.
I get a fudge Blizzard with chocolate chunks, and we drive to the house.
It’s twenty minutes away, and Casey’s right. It’s beautiful.
We pull up in front and get out, just staring at the white house with a glass front door, oval windows, and a small fountain with a frog. It looks like the frog is peeing.
My brain is mush, and I just can’t comprehend why anyone would buy a fountain like that.
I use my key, and we walk into an already furnished house. Everything inside is lavish, like someone spared no expense.
The living room is massive, with huge windows facing the mountains, navy blue couches, and a fireplace surrounded by stone. Everything looks expensive, right down to the rugs and little tables.
“Do you think he feels guilty?”
“Maybe the furniture came with the house?” Casey says.
We walk into the kitchen. It’s all wood, with a huge island in the middle and shiny new appliances.
Another oval window overlooks the mountains.
“This is nicer than your old kitchen,” Casey says.
I sigh deeply, trying not to overthink.
We walk upstairs to the bedrooms. There are three before we reach the master bedroom at the end of the hall.
The master is massive, with a four-poster bed, a huge TV, and everything painted navy blue.
The attached bathroom is almost as ridiculous. Two sinks, a huge glass shower, and a tub you could fit five people in.
Perfect. I can drown myself in luxury.
We head downstairs and walk out back.
The backyard has a fire pit surrounded by chairs and a huge infinity pool overlooking the mountains.
“This house must have cost a fortune,” Casey says.
I stare at the pool.
Seven years together, and apparently this is what I’m worth.
Just a fancy house.
Then I look at the fire pit.
I know exactly what I want to burn first.
I run back into the house, grab my Amazon box with our wedding photo and all the clothes Zach loves on me, and shove it into the fire pit.
I find matches and lighter fluid sitting on one of the chairs.
I soak the box in lighter fluid and reach for the matches.
Casey snatches them before I can.
“Trust me. You’re standing way too close.”
She pulls me back, strikes a match, and tosses it into the fire pit.
Whoosh.
Flames explode upward, and Casey yanks me back another few feet.
The box, our wedding photo, and every piece of clothing Zach loved on me disappear into the flames.
I should feel devastated watching pieces of our marriage burn.
Instead, something deep inside me stirs.
And for the first time today, I don’t feel like crying.
We sit in the chairs, and Casey pulls out a flask and hands it to me.
“You drink now? I thought you quit?” I ask, bewildered.
“When your mate asks for a divorce, you start picking up bad habits. Would it be selfish if I said a part of me is glad I’m not alone now?”
“I don’t understand, Casey. You’re perfect, and you have your wolf. My wolf is bound. I’m practically wolfless. How can Stan end things with you?”
“Remember when the boys went on an all-boys retreat a couple of months ago?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it wasn’t all boys, and Stan met someone.”
“Fuck, I bet you that’s where Zach met his girl.” I sigh. “Do you want to move in with me? It will be like old times. We can burn shit and figure out where to go from here.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to move out.”
“When you’re ready. I wish I had more time, but maybe more time will hurt more?”
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Casey says as the fire starts to die out.
We hang out until late, then head home.
I get ready for bed. I expect Zach to sleep in the spare room, but instead, he crawls under the covers and wraps his arms around me.
“I’m so sorry, Megan. I love you so much.”
“Please don’t. I can’t handle you touching me and telling me you love me.”
“She’s pregnant,” he says, pulling the ground out from under me.
