Chapter 2

Lilith immediately jerked her hand behind her back, all the color draining from her face.

I did not spare her a second glance, turning on my heel and walking out.

The moment the storage door clicked shut, the muffled sound of teasing drifted from inside. "You are so lucky, Lilith. Mr. Frost takes such good care of you. You will definitely score a high-ranking job in the pack."

Lilith's voice carried a sickeningly smug tone. "So what if she is the Alpha? If Karen was not so caught up in his past pity for her, I would not even bother staying in this dump."

I did not stick around to listen to the rest of her delusion. Standing by the curb, I dialed Ben.

I ordered, "Pull up every single background file on Lilith. I also want a complete track record of her and Karen's whereabouts for the last six months. Send it to my terminal in thirty minutes."

As I hung up, my phone vibrated with an incoming call from Karen. I pressed answer, and his voice flowed through the speaker, layered with forced affection.

"Baby, Cassie told me you dropped by the staging area. Why didn't you let me know? I would have come to pick you up," he said.

I leaned against my car, my fingertips tracing the metallic pack crest etched into the door. "I just finished up at the clinic and figured I would check in on the way home. Do not let me interrupt your work."

Karen let out a faint sigh of relief. "Alright, head home and wait for me. I will be back as soon as I wrap things up here. I have some amazing news to tell you."

Ben was terrifyingly efficient. The moment I walked through my front door, a massive encrypted folder landed on my personal terminal.

I opened the file. The very first thing that popped up was a feed of Lilith's social media accounts.

Her latest post was uploaded barely ten minutes ago. The caption read: [He promised to give me the title I deserve right after the festival.]

The attached photo was a close-up of the wolf-tooth bracelet. The spot where my initials used to be had been filed down completely and replaced with Lilith's.

I scrolled further down. The timeline of her posts started exactly six months ago.

There were photos of her and Karen out on hunting trips, pictures of expensive jewelry he had bought her, and video clips of the two of them cozying up in a vacation cabin that was legally registered under my name.

She never explicitly mentioned Karen's name, but every single line was a blatant, boastful display of their affair.

The most damning piece of evidence was a hidden post from three days ago.

She bragged that Karen had promised to publicly reject me and sever our mating bond at the end of the Full Moon Festival so she could take her rightful place as the Alpha's wife.

I tapped the screen, packaged the entire folder into an encrypted file, and forwarded it directly to the Council of Elders' private server.

The sound of tires crunching on gravel echoed from the driveway. I shut off my terminal and walked into the living room.

Karen pushed the front door open, holding a bag of takeout steak from my favorite restaurant. He headed straight for the kitchen with his usual practiced ease.

"Why do you smell like women's perfume?" I asked, standing in the kitchen doorway.

His hand froze on the refrigerator handle. "Oh, I was just finalizing some details with the hotel coordinator. She was wearing something strong. Everyone is setting up romantic surprises today, so the whole place smelled like a perfume counter."

Keeping silent, I sat at the dining table and watched him plate the steaks.

There was a time when I found the sight of him cooking quite grounding and comforting, but now, it only struck me as pathetic and utterly laughable.

Karen had been my mate for three years. He used to be nothing but a weak, marginalized wolf from the fringes of our territory.

I was the one who defied the entire pack to keep him by my side, poured my resources into him, and taught him how to lead until he attained his current stature.

When he begged for my hand, he knelt in the freezing tundra for three days, swearing by the moon that he would love and cherish only me for the rest of his life.

My terminal chimed with a new notification. It was a fresh screenshot from Ben.

Lilith had updated her status again: [He gave me the ceremonial Luna's circlet for the festival. Once I put it on, I will be the most powerful woman in the pack.]

The photo showed the sacred diamond circlet, an ancient relic meant exclusively for the ruling Luna. I had entrusted it to Karen yesterday, telling him to keep it safe for the ceremony.

My grip on my fork tightened, and I brutally shredded the steak on my plate into an unrecognizable mess.

If Karen wanted to give me a grand surprise, I was going to make sure it was one he would never forget.