Seraphina POV

"Ms. Reeves?" Cathie’s voice snapped like a whip through the encrypted comms, dragging me back to the nightmare of my reality.

I gripped the edge of my desk, my knuckles turning white. "Cathie, I swear to you, MQ Clothing has not authorized any changes to Darlene's contract. I had no knowledge of this."

"Then you better get your PR Director on a leash," Cathie spat, her tone dripping with disgust. "Evelyn Garrett personally informed us of the termination. If the Blackwood Pack thinks they can humiliate my client to make room for your Alpha's ex-girlfriend, you can expect a formal dispute."

The line went dead.

I sat in the sterile silence of my office, a wave of nausea washing over me. Evelyn Garrett. Of course. I was supposed to be the future Luna, yet I was completely blind to a major pack business decision. Kain’s cruel severance package from last night was already taking effect. My authority was bleeding out, and the vultures were circling.

I didn't wait for my assistant. I marched straight out of my office and headed down to the PR department.

I shoved Evelyn’s office door open without knocking. The aggressive, cloying scent of her heavy rose perfume hit me like a physical wall. Outside in the corridor, several pack employees paused, their eyes darting toward the open doorway.

Evelyn was leaning back in her plush leather chair, casually scrolling through her phone. She was a high-born she-wolf, and for three years, she had made no secret of her disdain for my wolfless existence.

"Evelyn," I demanded, my voice trembling with suppressed rage. "Why did you terminate Darlene Ortiz?"

She didn't even flinch. She slowly lowered her phone, a smug, condescending smirk playing on her lips. "It was the Alpha's decision, Seraphina. He believes Princess Galilea's image aligns much better with our Pack's elevated status."

"You bypassed me," I said, stepping closer to her desk. "I am the head of this brand."

Evelyn let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Are you? Let's face reality. You were just a placeholder. Now that the true Luna has returned, Kain is finally done playing house with a wolfless charity case."

Her words sliced through the frayed remnants of my mate-bond, but I refused to let her see me bleed. "This is a business matter, Evelyn. You breached a contract with a powerful allied pack."

"I secured a better one," she countered, standing up to use her height advantage. Her eyes flashed with a hint of her inner wolf's gold. "You have no power here. The only reason you're even breathing our air is because the former Alpha took pity on your pathetic, wolfless father."

My blood ran cold. "Don't talk about my father."

"Why not?" Evelyn sneered, stepping around her desk, her voice rising so the onlookers in the hallway could hear. "Connor Reeves died a worthless death. He was a weak, pathetic human-equivalent who left behind an equally useless daughter. Your father died a miserable death because he had a shameless—"

*Smack.*

The sound of my palm striking her cheek echoed like a gunshot.

The murmurs from the hallway instantly died. The entire floor went dead silent.

Evelyn’s head snapped to the side. For a split second, genuine shock widened her eyes. But as she slowly touched her reddened skin, a twisted, triumphant smile crept onto her lips. She had wanted this. She had wanted me to break.

"Look at this," Evelyn hissed, her eyes welling with fake tears as she looked toward the open door. "Is this our future Luna? Throwing a tantrum and attacking pack members like a feral rogue? Your father would be disgusted by what a shameless bitch you've—"

Blind, white-hot fury consumed me. I raised my hand to strike her again, putting every ounce of my strength into it.

But my hand never landed.

Fingers like bands of iron clamped around my wrist mid-air, halting my momentum so violently it sent a jolt of pain up my arm.

The temperature in the room plummeted to freezing. The overwhelming scent of pine after a storm and cold steel flooded my senses, suffocating the rose perfume entirely. A crushing, terrifying Alpha aura filled the space, so heavy it made my knees buckle.

I looked up, my breath catching in my throat, straight into Kain's furious, ice-cold eyes.

Seraphina POV

My raised hand remained suspended in the air, trapped in Kain’s iron grip. His towering frame cast a dark shadow over me, and the crushing weight of his Alpha aura—a suffocating blend of pine after a storm and cold steel—froze the very air in Evelyn's office.

"Alpha!" Evelyn gasped, her smugness vanishing instantly. She clutched her reddened cheek, forcing tears to well in her eyes as she cowered behind her desk. "She attacked me! Like a feral rogue, she just snapped!"

"She insulted my father, Kain," I choked out, my voice trembling as I looked up into his merciless eyes, desperately searching for a shred of the man who used to hold me. "She said Connor was a worthless—"

"Enough." Kain’s voice wasn't a shout, but a low, vibrating growl that rattled my bones. He released my wrist, shoving my arm down with a look of utter disdain. He didn't even glance at Evelyn; his icy stare was fixed entirely on me.

The murmurs in the hallway grew louder. The entire pack was watching their future Luna being treated like a criminal.

"Apologize. Now," Kain demanded.

The words hit me like a physical blow. It wasn't a request. It was an *Alpha's Command*. As a wolfless, I didn't possess an inner wolf to feel the magical, knee-bending compulsion that forced lower-ranking wolves to submit. But I didn't need to. The absolute, freezing authority in his tone, the public betrayal of his stance—it crushed my spirit just the same.

"Kain, she—"

"I said, apologize," he repeated, the temperature in the room dropping further.

I looked at Evelyn, who was watching me from behind her fingers, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. My throat tightened, swallowing glass. Under the heavy, judgmental stares of the pack members and the unyielding command of my mate, my resistance shattered.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, the words tasting like ash on my tongue.

Kain didn't offer a single word of comfort. He simply turned on his heel. "My office. Now."

The walk to the top floor was a blur of humiliation. When the heavy oak doors of the Alpha's Office clicked shut behind us, the silence was deafening. The room was stark, powerful, and dominated by a massive black desk that looked more like an altar.

And sitting right in the center of it was the mate-bond severance agreement.

"Why did you bypass me on the MQ Clothing contract?" I asked, my voice hollow. I needed to cling to my professionalism, the only armor I had left. "I built that campaign."

Kain ignored my question entirely. He walked behind his desk, tapping a long finger against the cold, white paper. "Have you read the terms yet? I want this signed by tomorrow."

I stared at the document, my hands trembling at my sides. The frayed remnants of our mate-bond bled out in my chest. I looked at the man I had loved for years, the man who was currently tearing my soul apart to make room for his ex-girlfriend.

I had to know. I had to ask the one question that terrified me the most.

"Kain," I started, my voice barely a breath. "If... if we had a child, would you still do this?"

For a fraction of a second, a muscle feathered in his jaw. But then his eyes hardened into twin chips of ice, devoid of any warmth or hesitation.

"There are no what-ifs, Seraphina," he said, his voice a cruel, steady blade. "And even if you were pregnant right now... I would not allow a pup born from a bond I intend to sever to see the light of day."

The blood drained from my face. The room spun. My hand twitched, instinctively wanting to cover my flat stomach, but I forced it to remain at my side.

He would kill it. He would erase his own flesh and blood just to wipe the slate clean for Galilea.

The secret growing inside me morphed instantly from a fragile miracle into a death sentence. He could never know. I would die before I let him find out.

"As for your campaign," Kain continued, oblivious to the fact that he had just murdered the last beating piece of my heart. "Darlene Ortiz is out. The new spokesperson for MQ Clothing is Galilea Clifford. It is already done."