Chapter 2

I didn’t go home. I told the driver to take me to the company instead.

Past midnight, the tower was empty; only my office was still lit.

Cora paced outside, eyes reddening as soon as she saw my banged-up knee and bedraggled state.

“Ms. Lena, you—”

“I’m fine.” I pushed open the office door. “What’s PR saying?”

“Useless,” Cora said, voice shaking. “They planned this. Troll comments are massive. Any statement we post sinks in seconds.

The whole internet is cursing you, and someone even doxed the company address—people are saying they’ll block you at the door tomorrow.”

I was a noble-born princess of the Moon Frost Pack. If not for helping him, I’d never have hidden my identity.

Since he’d made his choice, he needed to be ready to lose everything.

I gave a small laugh and turned back. “Where’s Lycan?”

“The after party…still going. He and Vivian hit number one on the trending list together—

‘A Match Made by God, A Couple Destined by Fate.’”

How ironic. I smiled coldly. An ungrateful man…

I put him on the altar with my own hands, and he turned around holding another woman’s hand, stepping on my bones to accept the world’s applause.

Cora dabbed disinfectant on my knee. The sting snapped me awake.

“Ms. Lena, should we call the police? That was defamation!”

“Pointless.” I shook my head. “He’s smart. He only ever said ‘that lady.’ He never stated my name.

The more I argue now, the more the public will say I’m ‘lashing out in shame.’”

“Then…what should we do?”

I didn’t answer. My eyes fell to the photo frame on my desk, and my mind slipped.

It was taken ten years ago.

A scrawny boy in an ill-fitting school uniform pressed his mouth into a hard line,

eyes fierce like a wild wolf pup.

That was the first time I met Lycan—no, back then he was still Allan, filed by his pack as a “peripheral heir,” a bastard left to fend for himself.

In that barren mountain village, he’d been strung up and beaten for stealing a bun.

Everyone spat that he was a parentless mutt, a petty thief.

Only I stepped forward and untied the rope around his wrists.

“Why did you steal?” I asked.

He stared without a word, clutching the dirty bun to his chest.

I later learned it had been his sister’s birthday—and she hadn’t eaten for three days.

I took him out of that village and gave him a new name: Lycan, a name that carried the honor of our kind.

I sent him to the best schools, covered all living and medical expenses for him and his sister.

I wrote him letters, telling him to stand straight, to study, to look beyond the horizon—that no matter his birth, he could grow into a clean, upright man worthy of his werewolf blood.

I even created the “L·A Future Growth Trust” in our company’s offshore accounts, to be overseen by the Pack Council of Elders. I was only the trustee, and legally had “zero blood relation.”

I thought I would guard him quietly from afar.

Blessed with a striking face, Lycan had always dreamed of acting. The day he was accepted by the film academy, he called me for the first time on his own.

His voice shook with excitement. “Hi, Selena—thank you! I got in! I’ll make so much money and repay you!”

That “thank you” stayed with me for years.

Later, when he entered showbiz, I worried my Moon Frost Pack’s noble blood would affect him, so I founded what is now Lena Entertainment, signed him, and used every contact and resource I had to launch him.

I pulled back from the spotlight and became the industry’s whisper—“Ms. Lena.”

I thought I was the closest, most trusted person in his life.

Turns out, I was acting alone all along.

My comm-unit pinged with a message from an unknown number.

It was Vivian’s account. My brows tugged together, but I opened it anyway.

“Selena, are you asleep? Sorry for embarrassing you tonight. Lycan’s just like that—he’s not bad, just too frank.

He hates being lied to the most.”

“He said people like you—who try to chain his life with petty kindness—are the most contemptible.”

“Oh, and those letters you wrote? He said even one glance made him feel dirty.

He burned them all backstage just now.”

“Friendly tip: know your place. What isn’t yours, don’t covet. Don’t you agree?”

Every sentence was a poisoned needle, pricking the softest places in me.

I turned my comm-unit screen down and told Cora, “Notify Legal and PR. Full executive meeting at nine tomorrow.”

Cora blinked. “Ms. Lena, you’re going to…?”

I looked out at the dark window, and spoke word by word.

“Reclaim everything he took from me.”