the wolf and the lamb

The air in the Alpha’s office was thick with the scent of cheap perfume and expensive lies. Maxwell was scrambling, adjusting his belt, while Amelie tried—and failed—to look ashamed.

“Aella, it’s not what it looks like,” Maxwell started, his Alpha-heir tone beginning to edge into his voice. “We were just… discussing the ceremony.”

I didn’t blink. I didn’t shout. I simply turned on my heel and walked back toward the Luna’s office.

“Where are you going?” he barked, his ego bruised by my silence.

“To the Assembly Hall,” I said, my voice projecting with a clarity that made Caleb and Asher flinch. “I’m calling an emergency meeting. Right now.”

“You don’t have the authority!” Maxwell yelled, but I was already gone.

He was wrong. I had the keys, I had the codes, and for the last twelve months, I was the only person in the Sandwell Pack who actually knew where the bodies—and the bank accounts—were buried.

The Assembly Hall was drafty, filled with the murmurs of confused high-ranking wolves. Alpha Richard sat on the dais, looking annoyed, flanked by the Beta and Gamma elders. My father, the Lead Warrior, was away on a border patrol—a fact I knew Maxwell had timed perfectly.

I stood at the center of the hall, my laptop open on the mahogany lectern.

“Alpha Richard,” I began, my voice echoing. “I am here to declare a breach of the arranged mating contract. Maxwell has been involved with my cousin, Amelie, for two years. He has used my mother’s investment funds to finance his lifestyle while I performed the duties of the Alpha-heir.”

A gasp rippled through the room. Maxwell stepped forward, his face flushed. “She’s delusional! Father, she’s bitter because the mating bond hasn't snapped into place yet. She’s making up stories to shirk her duties!”

“Is that so?” I tapped a key. The massive projector screen behind me hummed to life.

It wasn't just photos. It was a trail of digital fire.

“These are the treaties I’ve signed this year,” I stated, scrolling through documents. “Note the signatures. The Alphas of the Northern Alliance didn't sign with Maxwell. They signed with me. Half of them don't even know Maxwell exists; they think I am the designated successor because I’m the only one who showed up to the negotiations.”

I clicked another file. “And these are the bank statements. My mother’s trust has funneled three million dollars into Sandwell’s infrastructure in eighteen months. Maxwell’s personal account shows expenditures for jewelry and hotel rooms in the city—all on the dates he told the Pack he was ‘training.’”

The room went silent. Alpha Richard looked at his son, his eyes narrowing. For a second, I thought the truth would win.

Then, Amelie stepped forward.

She didn't look like the girl who was just half-naked in an office. She looked like a wounded lamb. She let out a sob that sounded like it had been rehearsed in a mirror for a decade.

“It’s not true!” she wailed, clutching her mother’s hand. “Aella forced us! She told me if I didn't let her take credit for everything, she’d use her money to have my parents banished! She wanted to be the one to mate Maxwell—she obsessed over him. I loved him first, but she had the gold, so she bought her way into his bed!”

My aunt, Amelie’s mother, stepped up with a look of fake terror. “It’s true, Alpha. Aella told us she would ruin us if we spoke up. She’s been power-tripping on that inheritance since she was seventeen. She’s been faking those signatures to make Maxwell look bad so she could stage a coup!”

The tide turned so fast I felt dizzy. The elders began to mutter. In their world, a "sweet, submissive" girl like Amelie was much more believable than a "cold, calculating" woman who understood interest rates.

“She’s a liar!” Maxwell shouted, sensing the room shifting in his favor. “She’s trying to steal my birthright with forged documents!”

Alpha Richard stood up, his face hardening. He didn't want to believe his son was a failure. He wanted to believe the girl with the money was the villain.

“Aella,” the Alpha growled. “You have brought shame to this hall. You have used your wealth to bully your family and undermine the future Alpha of Sandwell. This is treason.”

“Treason?” I whispered, a cold laugh bubbling up in my throat. “I am the only reason you still have a roof over your head.”

“Enough!” Richard roared. “By the laws of Sandwell, you are stripped of your rank. You are hereby banished. You are permitted to take only what you brought with you. You have one hour to clear out of the territory.”

The room erupted. Amelie smirked at me through her fake tears, a silent 'I won' dancing in her eyes. Maxwell stood tall, looking down his nose at me as if I were a piece of trash he’d finally swept out the door.

I looked at them all—the people I had worked for, the people I had saved from poverty.

“Only what I brought with me?” I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.

“Yes,” the Alpha spat. “Get out.”

“Fine.”

I sat back down at my laptop. My fingers flew across the keys with a speed that none of them understood. I logged into the Sandwell Central Treasury. I opened the bridge between the pack's operational accounts and my mother’s private investment fund.

Transferring…

Processing…

Completed.

I didn't take their money. I didn't touch a single cent that belonged to the Sandwell Pack before I arrived. I simply took back my mother’s legacy. I withdrew the three million dollars in liquid assets, canceled the pending trade contracts I had signed in my name, and severed the digital ties to the Northern Alliance.

I closed the laptop with a soft click.

“I’m leaving now,” I said, standing up. I tucked the laptop under my arm. “I’ve left the accounts exactly as they were when I took them over. I hope you enjoy the inheritance you actually earned.”

As I walked out of the hall, Maxwell yelled, “We don’t need your charity, Aella! We’re better off without a cold-hearted bitch like you!”

I didn't look back. I knew something he didn't.

Without my "charity," the Sandwell Pack had exactly four hundred dollars in their operational account and a tax bill due in three days for fifty thousand.

The adventure was just beginning.