Chapter 1

I'm the orphan the Aldrich family's steward took in. Edric is the heir to the Aldrich Group and the most powerful top-tier Alpha in Chicago.

We grew up together. I'm his fiancée.

The night of the charity gala, the photographer asked the executives and their partners to move in closer.

Edric gripped my shoulder, pushed me to the edge of the crowd, and pulled Valentina in beside him instead.

"Valentina and I are moving to the New York headquarters together next month. It makes sense for us to be in the shot together."

It wasn't the first time he'd pushed me aside.

When I brought him a question about a quarterly report, he said I was wasting his time.

When Valentina complained that reading files made her tired, he canceled a video call with European investors and rented out an entire amusement park to cheer her up.

When the two of them posed for a photo, everyone around them cheered.

All he could think about was taking Valentina to New York and leaving me behind in New Jersey, sure I would wait for him the way I always had.

What he didn't know was that I had already accepted a transfer to Los Angeles. Three thousand miles from New York.

This time, I wasn't going to wait for him to come home.

————

At the Chicago branch's annual charity gala, the camera flashes were blinding.

"Executives, Alphas, and Lunas, squeeze in a little closer! That's it, big smiles!" the photographer called out behind his enormous lens.

My fiancé, Edric, heir to the Aldrich Group and the most powerful top-tier Alpha in Chicago, gripped my shoulder in front of everyone and shoved me to the edge of the crowd. In the same motion, he pulled Valentina into his arms.

"Valentina and I are taking over the New York headquarters together next month. The PR shots will look better if we're standing together." He turned his head away without sparing me so much as a glance.

None of this surprised me.

In this rigidly ranked werewolf world, I was just the orphan the Aldrich family's late steward had adopted.

My adoptive mother still ran the estate's household operations.

Edric and I had grown up together, but as far as everyone else was concerned, a girl like me landing a fiancé like him was the luckiest thing that could ever happen to her.

It wasn't the first time he'd shut me out of his world.

Last week, I had taken a quarterly report riddled with errors up to his penthouse office to ask for help. He'd yanked his tie loose in irritation. "Elena, how does your brain even work? Don't waste my time with such basic questions."

But then he had turned around and stayed up until two in the morning in the conference room with Valentina, breaking down the data on a ten-billion-dollar merger for New York into idiot-proof steps for her.

When I asked to join his core team's celebration party, he told me, stone-faced, that I would distract him.

But all Valentina had to do was complain that reading files made her tired, and he canceled a video conference with a European conglomerate and rented out an entire amusement park to help her unwind.

The photographer clearly didn't notice the undercurrents. He kept teasing them. "You two are a match made in Heaven. Even your scents go together."

Edric looked at Valentina, his smile warm and proud. "We've always been the perfect partners."

I stood in the shadows where the lights couldn't reach, my nails digging into my palms. In my hand was the anniversary gift I had planned to give him: a custom tie clip engraved with his family crest.

The place beside him as his Luna had never been mine.

And now, I didn't want it anymore.

I turned and walked to the restroom, and without a moment's hesitation, I dropped the tie clip into the trash.

When I came back out into the hallway, Edric's chief assistant handed me an internal transfer form, his eyes full of sympathy.

"Elena, with your experience, you were fully qualified to apply for a core position at headquarters." He sighed and lowered his voice. "But Edric blocked your application. He told me to tell you the competition in New York is brutal, and that someone with your image and abilities couldn't handle it. He's personally approved a transfer for you to the New Jersey office instead. He said it would be easier on you."

I clenched the thin sheet of paper, a chill settling deep in my bones.

He couldn't even be bothered to buy me a plane ticket to New York. He was going to dump me in New Jersey, the dead-end office closest to the city.

That way, he could rule New York, and whenever the mood struck him, he could drive through the tunnel and come find me.

He saw me as a pet he could keep on hand. One too embarrassing to show anyone.

I had barely rounded the corner when I ran straight into Edric and Valentina.

"There you are, Elena." Valentina smiled like a peacock that had just won, and pressed a cup of coffee into my hand. "We just went out for coffee. Edric made a point of telling me to bring you one."

The two of them held matching custom iced lattes. What they had handed me was an iced Americano loaded with extra espresso.

I was caffeine intolerant. And today was the first day of my heat as an Omega, which left me shivering and cramping. Edric knew all of that better than anyone.

I managed a thin smile and dropped the iced Americano straight into the trash.

Valentina's eyes instantly turned red. She hid behind Edric like a startled rabbit.

Edric's brows knotted at once. He lowered his voice, and the weight of his Alpha presence pressed down on me. "Elena, what's wrong with you now? Is this because I didn't put you in the center of the photo? That was my decision. Why are you taking it out on her? I told you I'd take a picture with you later. Do you have to act like a lunatic?"

I looked at him quietly. Suddenly, I didn't even have the energy to defend myself.

He said he would take a picture with me.

But after the gala, he posted more than a dozen cheek-to-cheek photos of himself and Valentina on Instagram, his arm wrapped around her slim waist, never once letting go.

When I said nothing, Edric lost his patience completely. "Fine. Let's take it now. Happy?"

He snatched my phone, tossed it carelessly to Valentina, and stood next to me, his shoulders rigid, refusing to release even a trace of his scent.

Before I could even look up, he grabbed the phone back and shoved it into my hand. "That's enough. Stop making a scene. I'm going to get Valentina's coat. Wait here, and we'll all go back to the villa together."

He walked off without looking back.

I opened my photos.

The picture was a blur. All it had caught was the cold gray carpet of the hallway and the flick of his suit jacket as he turned away.

I stared at it for a long time. Then I deleted it, blocked Edric's number.

I would never wait for him to come home again.