Chapter 2
~~MILA~~
My heart didn't just break, it shattered into dust.
“You only stayed with me because you wanted me to have family property?”
“Don't be dramatic, I needed the property.”
He shrugged, utterly indifferent to the ruin he had just made of my life.
“What was I supposed to do? Ask nicely and hope you would give it to me?”
Lilian let out a triumphant laugh from his side.
I couldn't breathe, the air in the locker room turned to lead.
Kelvin looked at me as though I were the most pathetic creature on earth.
“You already signed everything, Mila, so the land is mine now.”
Then Lilian leaned forward, her eyes shining with smug satisfaction.
“So is the future you thought you were building with him.”
Everything dawned on me.
He hadn't been building a shared future at all.
He had been grooming me, bleeding me dry, and setting me up to steal the last remaining legacy of my family.
My hands began to tremble violently.
The weight of the box became too much to bear.
My fingers slipped, and the package crashed against the hard tile floor.
The lid popped wide open, spilling the custom silver goalie pads out into the open air between us.
Lilian looked down at them, a cruel glint of amusement sparkling in her eyes.
She stepped forward, nudging one of the pads with the toe of her sneaker.
“Did you honestly buy these for him?”
I couldn't speak, my tongue felt like ash.
Without warning, she bent down, picked one up, and reached over to the bench, picking up a skate blade left behind by one of the equipment managers.
“Too bad,” she whispered.
The sound of shearing leather tore through the silence of the locker room.
“He doesn't want it.”
I held my breath as she dragged the blade across the silver surface, leaving a long, cut down the middle of the gear.
She sliced it again and again until it turned to pieces.
Now satisfied, Lilian tossed the ruined leather down at my feet with a careless shrug.
“Oops. My hand slipped.”
Hot tears finally blurred my vision, spilling over my lashes.
I looked up at Kelvin, praying for a spark of remorse.
But he merely looked down at me with deep irritation.
“Kelvin…”
“Don't,” he snapped, his voice harsh.
“Don't start crying. You are making this unnecessarily dramatic.”
I wiped a tear from my cheek, my voice cracking.
“How could you do this to me? You cheated on me and used me!”
“Well, I found my true mate,” he spat back, as if that single phrase absolved him of every sin.
“So grow up, Mila.”
The relaxed brutality of his confession destroyed the last remaining ember of feelings in my chest.
Just then I heard footsteps echoing suddenly from the hallway outside.
I turned my head to see my little brothers walking into the doorway, still wearing their team jackets.
They had clearly heard the raised voices, yet neither of them looked shocked, nor angry.
My second brother Nathan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Mila, just accept it and let it go.”
I stared at him, my voice barely a cracked whisper.
“You knew?”
He looked away, unable to meet my eyes.
"It's business, Mila,"
Nick chimed in, crossing his arms defensively, refusing to meet my eyes.
“Kelvin’s taking the team to the championships,” Nick said, his voice calm but firm.
“If you hadn’t been so stubborn about holding onto the old ways and your suppressants, things wouldn’t be like this.”
He shook his head, looking at me with disappointment.
“You just... you couldn’t keep up with where the pack is going.”
The room spun on its axis, my own flesh and blood.
The brothers I had protected, covered for, and supported had stood by and watched me be exploited.
Lilian flashed a radiant, victorious smile.
“See? You are the only one who doesn't understand your place.”
Kelvin stepped forward, his chest puffing out slightly as he sought to dominate me.
He lowered his voice into a deep Alpha command, trying to force me to obey.
“Go home, Mila, and stop embarrassing yourself.”
His command filled the room, reaching me like a powerful wave.
If it was a few minutes before now that voice would have made my knees shake.
That command would have forced my head down, driving me out the door in tears.
But this time, my wolf refused to bow.
Instead, a strange power stirred inside me, breaking through the walls I had kept around it for years.
My fingernails grew long and the air in the room now smelled of a powerful Alpha aura that made Kelvin's power look like nothing.
Kelvin's arrogant look vanished immediately.
His eyes went wide with pure fear, and all the color drained from his face.
My brothers stumbled back and crashed into the lockers.
Lilian's smile disappeared, and she shrank away from me.
For the first time, they weren't looking at the calm woman they thought they could use and throw away.
Slowly, I looked up at Kelvin.
“You should have asked yourself one question before you betrayed me, Kelvin,”
I said, my voice dangerously calm.
He swallowed hard, his throat moving fast. “Wh... What?” A small smile touched my lips.
“Who exactly did you think you were betraying?”
Without waiting for an answer, I turned around and walked out of the locker room.
The freezing night air hit my face. It felt cold, but it felt free.
For the first time in three long years.
I took a deep breath without pills clouding my body, without a fake mate holding me back, hiding who I truly was.
My phone was already in my hand, its screen glowing softly in the darkness.
There was one number I had refused to call all this time, the one person Kelvin had always warned me to stay away from.
The one person who will help me in my current position.
“Bryant.”
The ruthless captain of Ravencrest's biggest rival team, and Alpha of the rival pack.
A man who once told me that if I ever got tired of being nice, he would give me the world.
I pressed his name and the moment it rang just once, a deep voice answered.
“Mila?”
I looked out across the parking lot, the wind blowing through my hair.
“I changed my mind,” I said in a cold voice.
There was a short pause on the other end. “About what?”
My fingers squeezed the phone until the plastic almost cracked.
“About destroying Kelvin,” I whispered.
“I want to take everything he built, strip him of every title, and watch him burn.”