Elodie POV

The silence in the ballroom was absolute, heavy with the sudden, sour scent of Bianca’s panic. She stared down at the cheap glass crystals on her bodice, a choked sob tearing from her throat. Unable to bear the crushing weight of a hundred mocking stares, she covered her face and fled the room, her heels clicking frantically against the marble floor.

Clotilde recoiled as if Bianca’s humiliation were contagious. She threw her hands up, her eyes wide with practiced innocence. "I didn't know, Bianca! I swear I thought it was real!"

Beside her, Preston Howell, ever the calculating heir, smoothly unlinked his arm from Clotilde’s. He took a deliberate half-step back, severing himself from the sinking ship. The subtle movement echoed like a thunderclap in the quiet room. Their fragile alliance was dead.

"Elodie, my dear," a voice oozing with stiff, opportunistic warmth broke the tension.

Richard Schmidt, my father and the Alpha of the Silver Creek Pack, stepped forward. His eyes gleamed with the sudden realization that I was no longer a stain on his reputation, but a shiny new asset to be claimed.

Kingsley moved faster. He eclipsed me, pulling me flush against his broad chest. His scent—cedarwood before a thunderstorm and a roaring bonfire—exploded outward, thick with lethal, unquestionable aggression.

"Back away," Kingsley’s voice was a low, vibrating growl that rattled the crystal chandeliers. "Funny, Richard, how you only just remembered how to pretend you have a daughter."

Richard’s face mottled with purple rage, the public disrespect from a Lycan burning away his fake smile. Pressed against Kingsley, I felt a strange, intoxicating safety wrapped in the suffocating weight of his absolute control.

Cornered and desperate, Clotilde shot a panicked look at her mother. Luna Victoria Schmidt stepped into the fray, her eyes glittering with venom. If she couldn't win with fashion, she would destroy my character.

"It is indeed curious," Victoria’s shrill voice sliced through the murmurs, ensuring every Alpha and Luna heard her. "How does a wolfless Omega, whose family trust funds are entirely frozen, acquire a priceless masterpiece by Pierre? Unless... she used the only asset an Omega truly possesses to please some unknown, powerful benefactor?"

The implication was a bucket of filthy water thrown directly in my face. The crowd gasped, their awe instantly curdling into disgusted suspicion.

Kingsley’s hand clamped around my waist like an iron vice. A terrifying, feral snarl ripped from his throat. His beast was clawing at the surface, ready to tear Victoria’s throat out for disrespecting his mate. A bloodbath was seconds away.

I placed my hand over his rigid forearm, pressing my fingers into his tense muscles. *Wait,* my touch commanded silently.

Under his storm-gray, murderous gaze, I slipped out of his hold. I walked calmly to a nearby table and picked up a fresh flute of champagne. The crowd parted for me as I approached Victoria. She lifted her chin, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips, expecting me to throw the drink in her face like a hysterical child.

Instead, I stopped inches from her. I lowered the glass and slowly, deliberately, poured the golden liquid over her diamond-encrusted satin shoes.

Gasps erupted around us. In old werewolf traditions, pouring a drink at someone's feet was a gesture reserved only for bidding farewell to the dead.

"You are dead to me, Victoria," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, yet carrying the weight of an executioner's blade.

She stood frozen, trembling with a rage so profound she couldn't speak, the champagne soaking into her ruined shoes.

Before anyone could react to the social slaughter, the auctioneer on the main stage cleared his throat nervously, tapping the microphone. "L-ladies and gentlemen, if we may proceed. The main event of the evening. The auction for The North Lot territory will now commence."

I turned my back on Victoria’s shaking form. Ignoring the bewildered stare of my father and the dark, burning confusion in Kingsley’s eyes, I walked straight to the front row of the auction seating.

I picked up the bidding paddle resting on the velvet chair—number 707. I turned to face the room, my eyes locking onto Preston Howell, and raised the paddle high into the air.

Kingsley POV

The velvet paddle in Elodie’s hand—number 707—hung in the air like a drawn blade.

"Six million," Preston Howell called out, his voice dripping with oily arrogance. He leaned against his chair, casting a mocking glance at the Silver Creek tables. "Let’s put this dying pack out of its misery, shall we?"

I stepped forward, the Lycan blood roaring in my veins, fully intending to silence the insolent pup. But before I could speak, my wolfless wife’s voice rang out, steady and cold.

"Seven million."

I stared at the back of her head, my jaw clenching. I pushed my aura toward her, a heavy, suffocating wave of dominance meant to force her submission. She didn't even flinch.

*'What is she doing? Foolish girl! Protect her!'* Rage, my inner wolf, snarled against my skull, pacing frantically. She had no assets, no pack backing. She was making herself a target.

Preston’s face darkened. "Eight million."

Beside him, Clotilde let out a shrill, grating laugh. "Is the Lycan King footing the bill for his little charity case?"

A lethal growl vibrated in my chest. I was seconds away from tearing Clotilde’s head from her shoulders, but Elodie simply raised her paddle again.

"Nine million."

Preston lost his mind. His pride, fragile and bloated, shattered under the public defiance of an Omega. "Ten million!" he roared, a price absurdly over the territory's valuation.

Elodie calmly lowered her paddle. She was done.

I exhaled a harsh breath, a mixture of confusion and dark irritation swirling in my gut. I couldn't fathom what this suicidal, humiliating performance was meant to achieve.

"Ten million, going once..." the auctioneer stammered, wiping sweat from his brow.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elodie slip a cheap, disposable phone from the hidden pocket of her black velvet gown. Her thumb tapped the screen once.

A split second later, the massive financial monitors flanking the ballroom stage flickered. The standard blue graphs vanished, replaced by a blinding, blood-red screen. A breaking news ticker from Drake Media scrolled across the displays in bold white letters:

*DRAKE HOLDINGS ACQUIRES OMNI-TECH EXCLUSIVE PATENTS.*

My heart stopped dead in my chest.

That acquisition was the Blackwood Pack’s highest-level classified intel. It was my ultimate weapon, designed to dismantle the Howell Pack’s financial infrastructure, and it wasn't supposed to drop until next Monday.

Preston’s phone buzzed violently. He answered it, and I watched the blood drain from his face until he looked like a corpse. His entire credit line for this auction was anchored to the Omni-Tech patents he thought he was securing. His funding was gone. Severed in an instant.

I stared at Elodie’s rigid posture. *How did she know?* The timing was calculated down to the millisecond. The mole I had been hunting for three years, the phantom bleeding my empire... was it my wolfless wife?

"Mr. Howell?" the auctioneer asked nervously. "Do we have confirmation on the ten million?"

Preston was dead silent, his hands shaking uncontrollably.

In the suffocating quiet of the ballroom, Elodie raised paddle 707 one last time.

"Ten thousand and one dollars," she said.

It wasn't a bid. It was a public execution.

The sheer, unadulterated humiliation broke Preston. He let out a guttural, animalistic howl of defeat, kicking his chair violently to the floor before bolting from the ballroom like a wounded stray.

Elodie had just destroyed an Alpha without bearing a single fang.

She walked onto the stage, her movements fluid and precise. Pulling a sleek leather checkbook from her clutch, she signed the paper. I caught a glimpse of the ink—the strokes were sharp, aggressive, entirely alien to the meek Elodie Holloway I thought I knew.

She took the deed from the trembling auctioneer. But she didn't walk back to me.

Instead, she bypassed the Blackwood Pack entirely and walked straight toward the Silver Creek tables. She stopped in front of Elder Constance Schmidt, the crippled matriarch sitting in her wheelchair. Without a word, Elodie placed the deed into the old woman's lap.

They exchanged a single, knowing look.

The leaked intel. The untraceable funds. The silent pact with a rival Elder. The pieces slammed together in my mind, forming a terrifying, undeniable truth.

*'TRAITOR!'* Rage roared, clawing violently at the confines of my mind. *'MATE! MINE! PUNISH HER! CLAIM HER!'*

I stood frozen amidst the whispers of the crowd, my eyes locked on the woman I was bound to by the Moon Goddess. The fragile Omega I had sworn to protect was gone, replaced by a stranger who had just declared war.