“That is enough!” Alpha Efrein’s voice cut through the heavy silence of the office. His tone was sharp, commanding, yet beneath it lay a subtle urgency. He wanted control of this meeting before it spiraled further out of hand.
Later, he told himself, there would be time—time to speak with Elaine properly, to soothe her wounds, to remind her that she was loved. Later, there would be time to repair their broken bonds.
For now, however, the needs of the pack had to come first. The pack always came first. That was the way of things. The pack’s survival, the heir Kathy now carried, the stability of their future. That was the true priority.
Turning his gaze on Elaine, he spoke carefully, almost gently. “Elaine, you said you wanted to talk about Michael and Kathy’s mating ceremony. I know what we are asking of you is painful, but you must understand. Our hands are tied. Kathy is already pregnant with the future heir, and Michael chose her as his Luna long before he knew you were his mate. The timing was simply… unfortunate. You were away at college, far from the pack, and Michael was at the Alpha School. By the time he returned, by the time you crossed paths again, fate had already set its cruel joke in motion. It was not anyone’s fault. It is only… circumstances.”
Elaine’s lips twitched into something that wasn’t quite a smile. Her eyes, however, remained cold, unreadable.
“That is not what I came here to discuss, Alpha.” She said flatly.
Her refusal to acknowledge his explanation. His attempt to soften the blow by blaming timing was deliberate. To Elaine, his words sounded hollow, almost laughable. He was trying to dress betrayal as coincidence, abandonment as fate. But she knew the truth. The truth was brutal: the future Alpha did not wait for her. She wasn’t even worth waiting for. Not to Michael. Not to anyone in this room.
And Kathy? Her sister—the one they now all hailed as “future Luna”—had chosen desire over duty, selfishness over decency. She had opened herself without thought of what it might mean, without waiting for her own mate, without caring that Michael’s fated mate was still out there.
Elaine’s voice sharpened, her bitterness seeping through despite her attempt at composure. “I originally came here to discuss how to limit the fallout of this situation, to minimize the damage to the pack. But since everyone now knows the truth, there is no point in playing politics. Instead, I will make my demands—my compensation—for the humiliation and betrayal I’ve been forced to endure.”
The room went still.
“Demands?” Alpha Efrein repeated, his brows furrowing.
“Yes.” Elaine’s voice was unwavering. She stood straighter, her eyes locked onto his with quiet defiance. “My first demand is your approval for me to move out of the Beta household. I will relocate to the abandoned house at the far edge of the territory. Second, I resign from my position as the Beta secretary. I will no longer serve in that capacity. And lastly, I want all of you to limit your contact with me. Until the mating ceremony, I will remain here, as you ask, but I do not want unnecessary interactions. I want to be left alone.”
Her words dropped like stones into water, and the ripples of shock spread across the room.
The Beta female gasped, tears immediately welling in her eyes.
“Elaine…” She whispered, clutching her mate’s arm as though she could not stand. The Beta male held her close, his face stricken with anguish as his gaze shifted helplessly to his daughter.
Kathy—her future Luna—was crying openly now, sobbing into Michael’s chest as he held her, murmuring words of comfort. The sight of it twisted something inside Elaine. That display of tenderness, that comfort where had it been when she had cried? When she had been ripped apart, when she had been made to bleed for their unity? They had looked away then, but now? Now they rushed to soothe Kathy’s tears.
It burned.
“You are out of line, Elaine!” Alpha Efrein thundered, slamming his fist against his desk with such force the wood groaned. The sound echoed through the room like a blow.
Elaine did not flinch. Her gaze remained fixed on him, steady and unbroken.
“Not really, Alpha. These are the terms for my cooperation. You wanted me to pretend the Moon Goddess made a mistake, that she erred in giving me Michael as my mate. You wanted me to pretend that it was acceptable—no, necessary—for me to sacrifice my mate in the name of pack unity. Very well. I will play along with your narrative. But I will not do so without cost. This—” she gestured to herself, her calm, cold demeanor “—is the price. My payment is freedom from all of you. No ties. No connections. Nothing.”
Her words hit like a blade, slicing through every false assurance, every plea for understanding.
“Sister, stop! Please don’t say that!” Kathy sobbed, her voice breaking. She tore herself from Michael’s arms, reaching out toward Elaine as though she could pull her back from the edge. “I’m sorry. You don’t know how sorry I am for hurting you. Please, sister, don’t push us away! Please!”
Elaine’s eyes did not move to her sister. They stayed locked on the Alpha, unyielding.
“Elaine, don’t do this,” her mother’s voice cracked with desperation. Tears streamed down her face as she stepped forward, hands trembling. “We can still fix this, if only you will listen. You are not the only one hurting, don’t you see? We are your parents, we hurt for you too. Please… don’t let this separate us. We are still family.”
For just a heartbeat, Elaine’s eyes flickered. Her mother thought she saw it—the vulnerability, the ache beneath the ice. A glimmer of the daughter she had always known.
But it vanished as quickly as it appeared.
“Family?” Elaine’s voice was sharp, ringing with a fury that came not from rage but from heartbreak. “This is not a family. A family protects each other. A family supports, uplifts, and sacrifices together. But what did you do? You did not protect me. You did not support me. You sacrificed me—your daughter—for the convenience of this pack. You chose them over me.”
Her gaze swept over the Alpha and Luna, the Beta and his mate, Michael and Kathy. One by one, she stripped them of their illusions.
“You, Alpha and Luna, live with your fated bond. No one ever asked you to give that up. You, Beta and your mate, live with yours as well. But when it came to me, it was easy, wasn’t it? To demand the impossible. To tear me from my fated mate and call it ‘duty.’ To silence me, to bury me, all for the unity of this pack. Tell me—where was that same sacrifice from any of you? Where was it?”
Her voice cracked, but she forced herself steady, her eyes like steel. “I will stay until the mating ceremony. That is the price you asked of me. But I will stay on my terms. And after that… I will never again call this pack, this house, or any of you my family.”
The finality of her words settled over the room like a storm cloud.
Elaine stood there, calm, resolute, untouchable.
Aksara