Betrayed by My Beta Mate

The fluorescent lights in the pack house's design wing hummed overhead as I spread the evidence across my desk, each document a damning piece of the puzzle I'd been assembling for the past three days. My hands trembled slightly—not from fear, but from the rage that had been building since I'd first seen Evie Anderson's submission for the Silver Ridge Pack alliance project.

The plagiarism was blatant. Unmistakable. The crescent moon motif interwoven with silver threading that I'd spent months perfecting, the structural innovations I'd developed through countless sleepless nights—all of it stolen and presented as her original work. Even the small imperfection in the eastern corner design, a deliberate choice I'd made to honor the Moon Goddess's teaching that beauty lies in flaws, had been copied exactly.

I gathered the papers, my wolf stirring restlessly within me. Luna, my inner wolf, had been agitated ever since we'd discovered the theft, her anger matching my own. "He'll support us," I whispered to her, though doubt crept into my voice. "Julian is our mate. He has to."

The walk to Julian's Beta office felt longer than usual, each step echoing in the marble hallway. Pack members I passed offered respectful nods—I'd earned my reputation through years of dedication, not through stolen work like some people. The thought made my jaw clench.

Julian's office door stood slightly ajar, and I could hear him speaking in low tones on the phone. "...yes, the Anderson girl shows real promise. Fresh perspective, you know?" His voice carried that pleased tone he used when discussing pack politics.

I knocked and entered without waiting for permission. After three years of being mated, some formalities had long since dissolved between us.

"Sylvia." Julian looked up from his mahogany desk, his dark eyes assessing. Even now, after all this time, the mate bond hummed between us, a constant awareness of his presence that should have been comforting. Today, it felt like a chain. "You look upset."

"I am upset." I placed the evidence carefully on his desk, arranging each document so he could see the clear progression of theft. "Evie Anderson plagiarized my work for the Silver Ridge project. All of it."

Julian's expression didn't change as he glanced at the papers. No shock, no anger on my behalf—just a slight tightening around his eyes that I'd learned to recognize as annoyance. "Sylvia, you're being dramatic."

The words hit me like a physical blow. "Dramatic?" I leaned forward, pointing to the most obvious example. "Look at this pattern. This is my signature technique—the one I developed for the Moonstone Pack alliance last year. She copied it exactly, down to the thread count."

"Great minds think alike," Julian said dismissively, not even bothering to examine the evidence properly. "Evie's wolf just awakened. She's naturally gifted. It's possible she independently—"

"Independently created a technique that took me six months to perfect?" My voice rose despite my efforts to remain calm. "Julian, look at the evidence. Really look at it."

He finally