Chapter 3
Smack—
The slap burned across my cheek, fire spreading under my skin. Elder Lily’s voice cracked the air, icy and merciless:
“Are you useless? You couldn’t even hold on to your fiancé!”
She had thought Darren’s public betrayal would crush me and drag Elden Pack down with it. She never expected it would spiral into this—a scandal so dire someone would threaten death.
And yet somehow, everything landed at my feet.
That slap wasn’t for discipline. It was violence, plain and simple. And when her hand dropped, she refused to look at me again.
From the stairwell came the sound of footsteps.
Darren.
He walked down carrying Paisley in his arms—her hands looped around his neck, tear stains streaking her face, his shirt soaked with her crying.
He looked at me.
But first, he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead, eased her into the car, and whispered words I couldn’t hear.
Only the warmth of his scent drifted on the wind—familiar, intimate, a dagger twisting in my chest.
Then he strode toward me, each step slow, deliberate, predatory.
“Scarlett, are you really this pathetic?”
His breath brushed my ear, dripping with contempt.
Emily roared in my skull, frantic, violent:
“Get away from him!”
But when his ice-blue eyes bore into mine, my body betrayed me. My instincts twisted his nearness into heat, into yearning, into something that set my nerves alight.
I stared up at him, frozen, until I saw it—
Not desire.
Not affection.
Pure, unrestrained disgust.
He jerked back, lips curling.
“So desperate to be touched?”
Then shadows moved.
A handful of thugs lunged from the dark, pinning me down.
A hand smothered my mouth and nose. The world shrank into muffled breath and the stench of sweat.
I thrashed, muffled screams breaking from my throat.
Rage detonated inside me. Emily tore against my control, Alpha power flooding through my blood, burning like fire.
One thought consumed me—
Rip them apart. Make them pay.
But their weight crushed me, pinning me down.
All that power, all that fury, caged and useless.
Humiliation churned with rage until it boiled over, a tide too heavy to hold.
The next day, I walked into the boardroom in a sharp suit.
Cold light bled across the table, harsher still were the eyes of those who watched.
None of them had expected me—the blood-born Alpha heir without real power—to set foot in this sanctum of authority.
A pen cracked against the table, sharp as a gunshot.
“Scarlett, how dare you show your face here? If not for your fiancé, none of this would’ve happened!” an elder roared, fury blotching his face.
I looked at him—and laughed.
“At your age, you’ve abandoned even your dignity. Your greed and incompetence got us here. Don’t you dare pin it on me.”
His face burned crimson, words strangling in his throat.
“You—!” He sputtered, enraged and speechless.
From the corner, Lily’s voice cut through, deceptively calm.
“You’re young and clever. But how can you lead if you can’t even keep your mate?”
Emily clawed at my insides, itching for blood. I pressed her back with effort.
Then I drew out a stack of papers and slammed them onto the table.
Gift lists. Chat logs. Financial records—every contract I had pushed through, every risk I had staked for Elden Pack.
I swept my gaze over the room, my voice quiet but unyielding.
“Any other objections?”
Lily flipped through the documents, her expression twitching with every page.
She scoffed, but her voice cracked.
“This only proves you had a relationship with Darren. It doesn’t erase the charge that you abused your status to pressure him.”
I laughed, sharp as a blade.
“And whose job is it to refute false charges, hm? Mine—or yours, Elders?”
Her jaw tightened. Slowly, she removed the badge hanging at her neck.
“Scarlett… if that’s how you want it, then I can’t cover for you. You’ll answer for your own sins.”
My smile faded, steel replacing it.
I could feel my wolf beneath my skin, not howling for vengeance, but waiting.
Waiting for the moment to reclaim what was mine—
And put it back in place.
