Silas stood frozen, his eyes raking over her with a hunger he couldn't mask, his breathing turning shallow as her dominant scent filled the room like a physical weight. He didn't look away; he couldn't.

"Mr. Greene Jones? The ordinary Alpha who works in one of the lower companies that belongs to Mr. Prime Minister, Arthur Sterling?"

"You know him?"

"Yes, he's been quite a ruse since he started dating the prime minister's daughter, Beatrice Sterling."

Oh, that was the girl she was replaced with? But why did the girl lie that she was the President's daughter? Perhaps Greene was so desperate for power that he had hallucinated the title, or Beatrice was so desperate for status that she had stolen a crown that didn't belong to her. Either way, the irony was delicious.

"Okay, but can you locate him?" She asked while Silas fought to keep his eyes away from her body as she walked across the room to fetch her neatly tucked robe.

"Yeah, he was invited to the party too. Beatrice Sterling insisted on bringing her 'new find' to the Vance homecoming gala. She wants to show him off to the elite."

"Invited?" She asked, her mouth releasing into a smirk. Looks like things just got more interesting. The man who had kicked her out of a "rickety house" hours ago was now a guest in her palace. He was coming here to worship at the altar of her father, probably hoping to shake the hand of the man whose daughter he had just discarded like trash.

"Do I have new clothes and good ones in my wardrobe?"

"I sent the maids to get you new ones, they will be here soon."

As if on cue, the heavy doors groaned open. A procession of six maids entered, their heads bowed so low their chins nearly touched their chests. They carried garment bags of opaque silk, they laid them down in the bed and her eyes ran through that dress. She remembered herself in dresses like these, she remembered herself adorned in jewelry that were specifically made for her. No one wore her kind of dress or clothes. They even had a brand made in her name, for clothes, shoes, perfumes, makeup, everything was in her name. 

It's almost like a trend when people dress in the president's daughter's name even when they haven't seen her, but they know her brand name, "Elara". Everything she did was a lifestyle but twelve year age gap seemed to rip it all away. She must've been so stupid to think running away was the best option. If only her father stopped her, locked her up instead of letting her walk free, he could have gotten to her and chosen not to. 

She slipped the robe over her shoulders, tying the silk cord with a sharp, decisive tug. She turned to the mirrors, watching the maids begin to lay out the options.

The maids swarmed around her, making up her face, changing her entire look, until she was a whole new person. Someone she'd craved to be twelve years ago was finally staring at her as she looked in the mirror. Where had she hidden all this beauty? Behind suffering, when she mopped floors and cleaned dirt like a slave, even omegas were never treated the way she was treated. Was she treated so badly because she claimed to be an omega simply to gain Greene's love? Well, did she gain that in the end?

She walked out of her room, the heavy doors thudding shut behind her. Silas was there, leaning against the far wall, but as she emerged, he straightened as if struck. His breath hitched, his eyes traveling from her sharp, short hair down to the lethal curve of her silhouette. 

"Lead me down the stairs," she said, stretching out her hand. Silas nodded, his throat bobbing as he took her hand in a firm, protective grip.

They walked down the stairs, and the atmospheric pressure in the ballroom shifted instantly. Every head turned. The hum of a thousand elite voices died down into a series of jagged whispers.

"Wow, truly, the heiress is back," she heard a woman breathe.

"Wow, she's so beautiful. How can she be so beautiful even after all these years?" 

"Is this how she looks? No one has seen her since she was a child. She's beautiful."

"Do you think Calvin will like this development?" a man muttered near the banister. "He's been the heir apparent for twelve years. If she's back to claim the prize after he did all the labor... the White House will be torn apart."

"I heard they were supposed to be mates," another whispered. "Why would she run from this?"

"Careful," a stern voice warned. "She's a dominant Alpha. Her pheromones can shut yours down forever if she catches you gossiping."

At the bottom of the stairs, President Vance was waiting. He didn't waste time with sentiment. He tucked her arm into his, leading her straight into a circle of the most powerful men in the country.

"Arthur," the President said, nodding to the Prime Minister. "You remember my daughter, Elara."

Arthur Sterling leaned in, his eyes narrowed. "I remember a rebellious girl. I see a woman who looks like she's been to war and won. Tell me, Elara, where does a Vance hide for twelve years?"

"In the places men like you are too afraid to look, Mr. Prime Minister," Elara replied, her voice smooth as glass. "How have you been your honor?" 

"She has your bite, Alexander," laughed a man with silver stars on his shoulders, General Ross. Calvin's father, "Have you seen Calvin yet? I think he's been looking for you since he heard you're back."

Calvin? She furrowed her brows as that name bit into her memory, her fated mate..the alternative her father offered if she didn't want to change her sex. 

"I haven't seen him" she said, letting a flicker of her pheromones flare. The General blinked, his bravado momentarily faltering.

"A dominant indeed," noted the Chief Justice, sipping his wine. "What are we to do when we have two strong alpha males in this environment? I mean one has to topple the order in my opinion"

So many references to Calvin again. And where the hell is he? It's been so long since she's seen him. The last time was when he helped her climb over the walls of her father's house twelve years ago.

Her father chuckled, a sound like grinding stones. "She's had enough of you old wolves for one night. Go, Elara. Mingle, the party is made for you."

She drifted away, her eyes scanning the sea of faces looking for two people, she bumped into old faces, gave a smile, still searching, still... until she found them. Greene and Beatrice had just walked in, looking smug, until Greene saw her. He stormed over, his face twisting with a fury that looked pathetic in this room.

"What are you doing here, you lowly being!" he hissed. "Are you determined to follow me everywhere? We're divorced! Where did you get this makeup? These clothes? You think it makes you less of a swine? A pig is a pig, even in silk."

"Do you know who you're speaking with?" she asked, feeling a dark amusement.

"And who am I speaking with?" Greene sneered, leaning in.

"I'm the President's daughter," she said clearly like she'd been waiting twelve years to finally let him know that. 

Greene's laughter rang through the room, attracting every eye. "You're the President's daughter? What an irony! If you're the President's daughter, then I'm nothing but the god of birth!"

" What did you just say?" Came Silas' voice from behind me as he approached.

"What did you just say?" Silas's voice dropped like a guillotine. He stepped from behind Elara, his presence expanding until he seemed to eclipse the very light in the room. The sheer intensity of his gaze was a physical blow, yet Greene, blinded by his own delusion, didn't flinch.

"Who are you having the audacity to talk to like that?" Silas asked, his voice vibrating with a fury that made the nearest guests take a collective step back.

"And who are you to speak to me like that?" Greene challenged, his chest puffed out. He sneered, looking Silas up and down with a dismissive grunt. "Are you the one who smuggled her into this place?" He scoffed, gesturing vaguely at Elara's gown. "Were you also invited? You don't look like an Alpha to me, more like a Beta feeding on suppressants."

Silas took another step forward, his shadow looming over Greene. "What did you just say?"

"I'm with the President's daughter!" Greene boasted, throwing an arm around Beatrice's waist. "You don't want to be thrown out of here. I can have you sacked with one word to her father!"

Beatrice, however, had gone deathly pale. Her eyes were fixed on Silas, and her expression shifted from smugness to pure, unadulterated terror. She recognized him. Everyone in the inner circle knew the 'Beast of the Presidential Guard.' She began to shrink back, her voice a frantic whisper. "Greene... lower your voice."

"Lower my voice? I'm not going to lower my voice! Speaking to me like this when you're here with me? I'm going to have him dealt with!"

"Greene, stop raising your voice..." Beatrice pleaded, her hand shaking as she tried to detach herself from his side.

The murmurs from the crowd grew sharper, biting into the silence.

"Who's that guy speaking arrogantly to Alpha Vance?"

"He must have a death wish. Who gave him an invitation? Ordinary Alphas of low rank are suddenly allowed into spaces like this?"

"And he's so brazenly pointing at Silas... that beast no one dares look at twice. He's cooked."

Greene ignored them all, looking at Beatrice with confusion. "Why are you scared? Do they intimidate you? Look at me, I'm this woman's ex-husband. You know who she is already. She's nothing!"

"You're Alpha Vance's ex-husband?"

The voice that cut through the air was like cold steel sliding over silk. The entire room pivoted. The crowd parted like the Red Sea as a man walked through, his every step echoing with the weight of absolute authority.

It was Calvin.

Elara's breath hitched as she looked at him. Twelve years had transformed the boy who helped her scale the wall into a titan. He was massive, his physique honed by a decade of military command, his shoulders broad enough to carry the weight of the nation. His hair was dark and swept back, framing a face that was strikingly handsome but carved from granite. His eyes, a piercing, predatory grey, locked onto hers for a fraction of a second, a soft, knowing smile ghosting his lips, before they turned back into ice as he looked at Greene.

"Calvin is here," someone whispered. "That mentally deranged man is as good as dead."

"You said you were Alpha Vance's ex-husband?" Calvin repeated, stopping mere inches from Greene. Silas stepped aside, yielding the floor to the man who had been groomed to be Elara's mate.

Greene's smile died a little. He looked at Elara, then at Calvin, then back at Elara. A flicker of doubt finally crossed his face, but his arrogance was a hard habit to break. "I don't know about an 'Alpha Vance,' but I know I'm this woman's ex-husband," he replied, pointing a finger at Elara.

Calvin's jaw tightened. "Stop embarrassing her by saying you're Alpha Vance's ex-husband. You could be jailed for such a claim."

"Jailed for what? Beatrice, can you hear what they're saying?" Greene turned to the girl, but Beatrice was already three steps away, her face a mask of sweating panic.

"You're supposed to keep quiet at this point, Greene," Elara said, her voice cutting through his panic like a scalpel. She turned her cold gaze to the girl. "Beatrice... you said you're the President's daughter?"

Beatrice looked like she wanted to melt into the floorboards. She couldn't even find her voice.

"Well, you know she is!" Greene snapped, letting go of Beatrice's hand to gesture toward the ballroom at large. "Go find your father, Beatrice. I would love to discuss our marriage proceedings with him right now."

"Marriage proceedings?" Elara asked while Greene nodded proudly, adjusted his lapels as if he already wore the crown.

"Yeah, marriage proceedings. To marry an Alpha, things like this always happen. You know, you don't just marry them off like Omegas who have no real marriage, they just stick with their Alphas that they're mated... why am I explaining all these to you like you actually understand."

Elara suddenly began to spread her pheromones as the anger in her began to set in. It wasn't just a scent; it was a tidal wave of pure, unadulterated power. A dizzying feeling enveloped everyone in a thirty-foot radius. The air grew heavy, thick with the metallic tang of a Dominant Alpha's rage. The only people not affected were the other apex predators, Calvin, her father, and a few other Dominant Alphas. Every other person in the room began to take wavering steps, clutching their heads as dizziness washed over them. His father flickered a gaze from where he stood to where she was, wondering what must've made her spread out her strong pheromones so angrily. 

"Who is this Alpha with such strong pheromones?" Greene asked, his voice cracking as he tried plucking his nose, his knees beginning to tremble under a weight he didn't comprehend.

Calvin turned to look at Elara. Of course, he had missed her strong pheromones for so long. The feel of it brought back memories of their childhood, the way they used to spar until the air itself felt like it would combust. He connected to her mind effortlessly, his voice echoing in her head via their old mind link.

"Seriously? This man is your ex-husband? He asked, his mental tone dripping with condescending disbelief. "You didn't want me as your mate so you could be with such a blabbermouth like this? What did he give to you to make you waste years with him?"

"Calvin, just shut up."

"I will shut up, but please stop spreading your pheromones everywhere. You're contaminating the party. There are some Omegas in this building, Elara. You won't know how to take care of them all if you break them into their heat cycles."

The warning snapped her back. She remembered someone, she turned around immediately to where Silas stood. He was shaking violently, his knuckles white as he gripped the back of a chair. He was trying so hard to maintain his composure, but the sweat soaking through his suit gave him away. Her pheromones were hitting him like a physical blow; even the strongest suppressants couldn't shield an Omega from a Dominant Alpha's direct, unbridled fury.

"Who is this Alpha with these pheromones? He should stop spreading it!" Greene yelled, his voice rising in a panicked pitch as the room began to spin for him.

Elara stepped closer toward him, her shadow looming large. "It's me. I'm the woman with those pheromones you're talking about."

"You?" He asked, a scoff forming on his lips, but the scoff died as she released them further. "You're an alpha?" 

The surge was too much. To everyone's absolute shock, Silas slumped to the floor immediately. The air was suddenly flooded with a new scent, something sweet, raw, and terrifyingly vulnerable. His own Omega pheromones were slipping out of him in a desperate, uncontrollable rush, stripped bare by Elara's presence. It was as if he had turned twelve again, caught in the terrifying onset of a gender he had spent a decade hiding.

Elara blinked, swallowing hard as the sweet scent hit her senses.

The scent hit her like a memory she had no permission to forget. It was sweet, soft, and dangerously familiar. Just like twelve years ago. 

Elara's breath caught as it wrapped around her senses, slipping past her control, settling deep in her chest like something ancient recognizing its own.

Silas.

Her gaze snapped fully to him, he was on the floor.

Not just fallen, broken.

His broad frame trembled violently, one hand gripping the chair leg so hard the wood creaked in protest. Sweat clung to his skin, his jaw locked tight as if he was fighting something feral clawing its way out of him.

And the scent, his scent was spilling. It was everywhere, uncontrolled, exposed, and vulnerable. 

A silence rippled through the room, heavy and suffocating. Everyone felt it, even those who didn't understand it. 

Elara moved instinctively, one step then another and the crowd parted without being told even further after the sudden crowd. Because something in her expression had changed, it wasn't about Greene anymore. 

This was something far more dangerous. "Silas." When she called his name, Calvin's attention snapped to Elara's face. 

That softness didn't belong to Elara. Not like this. He's trying to get the hang of Silas's sudden collapse but Elara's strange reaction to it was far worse. 

Silas's head snapped up at the sound of his name. Those stormy blue eyes, usually controlled and distant, were wrecked now.  It was raw and exposed. Burning with something that made her chest tighten in a way she didn't understand.

"Alpha..." he breathed, his voice rough, almost breaking.

The word did something to her, something deeper and behind her, Greene let out a disbelieving laugh. 

"Oh, so now the act changes?" he scoffed, though his voice lacked the same confidence as before. "What is this? Some performance to scare me? He's just weak, look at him!"

No one laughed and no one even agreed. Everyone seemed to be worried about the sudden melting of Silas to the floor.

And Greene... still didn't understand. Elara didn't even look at him.

"Silas," she said again, quieter this time, it was a command, a pull, and his body reacted instantly. 

His shoulders jerked, his grip tightening as a low, involuntary sound escaped him, something between a groan and a plea. The scent thickened, curling tighter around her like a chain.

He hates himself for this. This is why he hates himself so much but now, even that hate seems to be melting away as the seconds pass. 

Calvin's voice cut through the tension, sharp and controlled.

"Elara," Calvin called out like a warning, but she ignored him. 

"Look at me."

Silas did fully and in that moment, something clicked. Something that made the back of her neck prickle. Silas needed to get out of here as fast as possible. She tried to release more of her pheromones to mask Silas's scent while scanning for ways to smuggle him away without bringing attention to herself. 

"Guards!" Calvin quickly called and they appeared very quickly, "Help Silas, he doesn't seem to be okay at the moment. Take him to his room." 

"No one should touch him." Elara quickly whipped out without a second thought. 

All eyes came to her immediately, "I will deal with him myself." She said with a note of finality, even Calvin shouldn't dare question what she just said. 

Greene took a step back, just one and his eyes darted between them, then everyone, confusion finally cracking through his arrogance. And then, he panicked when he couldn't find Beatrice by his side anymore. 

Fear began to creep into him, "Where's Beatrice?" He asked, seeing himself suddenly feeling cold. It was becoming more real as the seconds passed especially when the guards took a step back on Elara's order. 

Greene staggered slightly, catching his balance on a nearby table. His breathing was uneven now, his eyes...wide, his fears growing stronger, slow, ugly, and real. 

"You..." he started, pointing at Elara with a shaking hand. "You're... you're the one?"

No one spoke, no one helped him because now...he was finally seeing it. Elara turned to him at last, and when her gaze landed on him, it wasn't the woman he had known, the Elle who scrubbed his floors or the one he hit at will to his own pleasure. 

It wasn't the quiet girl who bowed her head and whispered apologies. She was something else entirely and that made his panic work up higher. 

"Yes," she said simply, the word dropped like a verdict, like his doom was already sealed the moment he walked through that door. 

"I am."

Greene's mouth opened, closed, and then opened again. 

His mind struggled to catch up, to rearrange every memory he had of her into something that made sense.

"You're... the President's..." His voice cracked. "That means... that means..."

"That you threw the President's daughter out of your house," Calvin finished for him inaudibly since no one has to know where the president's daughter disappeared to for the past twelve years. 

Then he began to laugh, while Greene's face drained of colour. Beatrice hid deeper into the crowd, slowly finding herself shoving through wolves to get to her father. 

"No... no, that's not-she-she was-"

"Nothing?" Elara tilted her head slightly, her gaze sharpening. "Say it again."

He couldn't, he physically couldn't because now, he understood. The clothes, the silence, the obedience, the power he thought he had...it had never been his. 

It had been hers all along. 

"I..." His knees buckled slightly. "El-Alpha... I didn't know-"

"No," she cut in, her voice calm, "You didn't."

She took a step closer and he stepped back instinctively. 

"That's what makes it worse." The words landed softly. But they hit harder than anything she had said.

Behind her, Silas shifted, still on the floor, still watching her like she was the only one anchoring him to reality. 

Elara felt it again, that pull, that awareness and she furrowed, hating the way her alpha absorbed it without taking it back. 

"Guards." Her voice rang out, sharp and absolute, and two men stepped forward instantly.

Greene turned, panic fully setting in now.

"Elara, wait-please-listen to me-I didn't mean-"

"Strip him of his access," she said, not even looking at him. "Every privilege. Every title he thinks he has."