Chapter 3

The evening arrived with a weight that settled deep in my bones. I stood outside the private dining room where Alpha Marcus and Luna Eleanor had summoned me, my hand frozen on the doorknob. Through the heavy oak door, I could hear their low voices, the familiar cadence now seeming foreign and cold.

Sarah whined anxiously within me. *We don't need to do this.*

'Yes, we do,' I thought back. 'We face our fate with dignity.'

I entered with my head held high, though my heart hammered against my ribs. The room felt different—smaller, colder. The warm, familial atmosphere that had once embraced me had vanished, replaced by a clinical formality that sliced through any remaining illusions I might have harbored.

"Claire," Luna Eleanor acknowledged, her fingers toying with the silver wolf pendant at her throat—a nervous habit I'd noticed whenever she delivered unpleasant news. "Sit."

The command was delivered without warmth. I complied, taking the seat across from them rather than my usual place at Alpha Marcus's right hand.

"We've always been frank with you," Alpha Marcus began, his voice as flat and emotionless as his eyes. "So I'll continue that tradition now."

Luna Eleanor cut in, her perfectly manicured nails tapping an impatient rhythm on the polished table. "You failed, Claire. It's that simple."

I blinked, the bluntness of her statement catching me off-guard despite my preparation.

"Ryan needed a Luna who could stand beside him with strength and presence," she continued, each word precise and cutting. "Not someone who hides behind books and translations."

"I managed the pack house," I said quietly. "I handled diplomatic communications, I—"

"Yes, yes," Alpha Marcus waved his hand dismissively. "You were a competent assistant. But a Luna needs to be more than competent. She needs to command respect, to inspire loyalty."

"Like Sophia does?" The question slipped out before I could stop it.

Luna Eleanor's eyes narrowed. "Sophia understands what Ryan needs. She enhances his strength rather than... compensating for his weaknesses."

The implication stung. All those years I'd thought I was supporting Ryan, they had seen me as covering for him.

"We gave you every opportunity," Alpha Marcus said, his tone suggesting incredible generosity. "We welcomed you into our home, treated you like family—"

"You treated me like an employee," I corrected softly. "A useful one, until I wasn't."

Silence fell across the table. Luna Eleanor's face hardened into a mask of disdain.

"This attitude," she hissed, "is precisely why you failed. You lack proper respect for your position—former position," she amended with a cruel smile.

I stood slowly, unable to stomach another minute of their revisionist history. "Thank you for your candor. And for finally showing me exactly where I stand."

I left them sitting there, their expressions a mixture of shock and indignation that I hadn't stayed to absorb more of their carefully crafted cruelty.

* * *

Morning arrived with a cacophony of noise that jolted me from fitful sleep. The sound of items crashing against walls echoed down the hallway, punctuated by a shrill voice barking orders.

I threw on clothes and hurried toward the commotion, already knowing what I would find. The door to what had been my quarters—my home for years—stood open. Sophia Chen stood in the center of the room, her glossy black hair pulled into a severe ponytail, her face flushed with exertion and triumph.

"Those curtains are hideous," she was saying to a nervous-looking Omega servant. "Take them down immediately. And this furniture—all of it needs to go."

Boxes of my belongings littered the hallway, their contents spilling across the floor. Some had clearly been thrown rather than carried.

Sophia spotted me in the doorway and her lips curved into a smile that never reached her eyes. "Oh good, you're here. I wasn't sure where you wanted all this... stuff." She gestured dismissively at my possessions. "Though honestly, most of it looks like it belongs in the trash."

The Omegas avoided my gaze, shame evident in their hunched shoulders as they continued following Sophia's orders. These were pack members who had once smiled at me, thanked me for my kindness. Now they couldn't even look at me.

I said nothing, refusing to give Sophia the satisfaction of seeing me break. Instead, I knelt beside the nearest box and began gathering what I could salvage.

"Ryan said I could redecorate completely," Sophia continued, touching my arm with false sympathy. "He said the room needed a woman's touch—a real woman's touch."

I ignored her, methodically sorting through my scattered belongings. Then I saw them—my collection of ancient linguistic texts, some over a century old, passed down through generations of pack scholars. Books that had been my most treasured possessions.

Several lay open, their spines cracked, pages torn. A rare German wolf dialect dictionary had been soaked with what smelled like perfume, its delicate pages stuck together, the ink running in blue rivulets.

Something inside me cracked at the sight. Not my heart—that had already been broken. This was different. This was the last thread of my former self snapping clean.

I gathered the damaged books carefully, cradling them like wounded creatures. Sophia watched, her expression shifting from triumph to uncertainty as she registered the absolute calm with which I handled my destroyed treasures.

"They're just books," she said, a defensive edge creeping into her voice.

I finally looked up at her, and whatever she saw in my eyes made her take an involuntary step back.

"Yes," I said softly. "Just books. Just like I was just a mate."

I rose with the damaged volumes in my arms and turned away. Behind me, I heard Sophia resume her orders, but her voice had lost some of its imperious confidence.

As I walked away, Sarah stirred within me. *They've taken everything from us.*

'No,' I thought back. 'They've freed us from everything that was holding us back.'

What I didn't yet understand was that freedom would come with a price—and it would be Ryan, not me, who would ultimately pay it.