CHAPTER 2: CONFRONTATION

KATHLEEN

A disheartening, bitter chuckle escaped my lips as I shook my head in disbelief. "Dying mother?" My voice dropped, anger burning in my chest.

"How dare you!" I yelled as tears finally dropped down my chin, and I hated it.

I hated that I was crying in front of them. They didn't deserve it.

He stood up from his bed. I quickly looked away to avoid seeing his nakedness. He tied his towel and walked toward me.

"Watch your tongue, young lady," he warned sternly, pointing a firm finger at my face.

"You are wicked. How could you be so mean as to cheat on your wife!" I screamed in his face, dropping every last shred of respect I had for him.

it wasn't enough that he refused to pay for my mother's bills — now he was cheating too?

He scoffed. "Your mother can go to hell." Then he shrugged. "I have the money," he suddenly disclosed. "But I'm never going to spend a penny of it on her. I've had enough of this sickly bitch."

My eyes widened, my breath hitching, my chest rising and falling in rapid, shallow bursts.

"W-what did you just say?" I sputtered, wondering if I'd heard him wrong.

"Yes." His mistress stood up from the bed, naked, unbothered. "You heard him." She came toward me. "Let your mother go and die. "

She began circling me. "We're going to be selling this house soon. Your dad and I are going to create a home of our own. So it's best if you start looking for a shelter."

Instinctively, my hand flew out and struck her across the chin. She fell back into my father's arms, holding her stinging jaw, raising bloodshot eyes to meet mine.

"KATHLEEN!" my father roared. "Are you out of your mind?!"

I didn't even spare him a glare. My only focus was the home-wrecking woman in front of me.

"If I'm talking to this man right here," I said, my voice dripping cold, "I don't like anyone interfering."

My father almost flinched, but he held himself steady. I guessed he hadn't seen this side of me before.

"Then watch your mother die—" she yelled, pure venom in her voice.

"And watch me put you both to shame." I jabbed a finger at their faces. "My mother will live. I will do anything to make sure of that." I screamed until my lungs burned.

I turned and left the room. I rushed outside the house and broke into tears, my shoulders shaking violently.

‘No — my mother can't die because of this man,’ I thought, searching for any possible solution.

My mind raced through who to ask for help. Then, suddenly, Alpha Hades flashed into my thoughts.

He'll help me. My father's worked for him for years — he'd have no reason to say no. Maybe he'd even help cover the surgery.

I didn't wait around to think it through. I bolted from the building and flagged down the first empty cab I saw.

Before long we reached the Alpha's mansion, pulling up to a massive black iron gate. I climbed out and paid before hurrying into the mansion.

The staff saw me coming, and none of them stopped me — they all knew exactly whose daughter I was.

‘Scoundrel of a Beta,’ I thought bitterly.

I caught the arm of a passing maid. "Where's the Alpha?"

"In a meeting with a Beta from the neighboring pack," she said. "In the meeting chamber."

I headed straight to the direction of the meeting room. I got to the door and knocked softly. "Greetings, Alpha. It's me, Kathleen," I announced.

"Come in," Alpha Hades's voice said.

I let out a long, shaking breath and opened the door, entering the meeting room, where I found him seated with another man.

"Kathleen, what brought you here?" Alpha Hades asked, turning his focus to me.

I stood there for a minute, contemplating whether I should say it in front of this Beta or just walk away. But my mother's life was at risk, and only this Alpha could help me.

"I came to ask for your help, Alpha," I muttered, my voice trembling, refusing to look at him. "My mother has been sick for the past two years now, and the money the hospital is demanding is too much."

There was silence between us. "What about your father?" he finally asked.

"He refused to help!" I responded almost immediately, finally raising my gaze to look at him.

He let out a heavy sigh, his eyes clouded with pity. I fought back my tears, but the stubborn ones spilled anyway.

"Please, help me," I muttered, my lips quavering.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Kathleen. I would have loved to help, but I can't," he said.

Right at that moment, those words broke something in me — like I could feel the pieces of my resolve falling apart, piece by piece.

"Why?" My voice dropped in a whisper.

"The pack's business has been running slow. I can't give out that kind of money right now," he said.

My legs nearly buckled, but I held myself together. How could he give such a lame excuse?

The Alpha owned one of the largest logging companies in the territory — the one nearly every pack for miles around depended on for timber.

‘This was how my mother would die?’ Another fresh tear blurred my vision. I nodded at his words — who was I to argue with him?

I turned around. My legs felt too heavy to move, but I dragged myself forward and walked out slowly, feeling his eyes on me the whole way.

I shut the door behind me and sobbed harder than ever. It felt like my whole world was coming to an end, as my heart kept breaking at every thought of his words.

This was the man who literally carried me when I was born. I had always come to his mansion to play with his son, since we were kids.

At that point I thought he also took me as his daughter and could do anything for me.

It turned out I was wrong.

I picked myself up, dried my tears and tried to walk away, but their voices stopped me midway.

"You came all this way looking for a surrogate?" Alpha Hades asked.

"My Alpha sent me to his place," the Beta said. "He wants someone outside our pack. Someone who can conceive naturally."

"And why isn't he here to ask for that himself?" Hades's tone sharpened, the question landing more like a test than curiosity.

"He doesn't attend to matters like this personally," the man said. "That's what I'm for. Beta Fin — I speak for him in this."

‘Surrogate?’

My stomach turned even hearing the word through a closed door. Somewhere, some pack out there thought it was acceptable to buy a woman's body like livestock, to use her and discard her once she'd served her purpose.

Disgraceful. If it were me, I'd never — I would rather starve than let a man use me like that and call it a transaction.

I almost turned to leave. This wasn't my business. My reputation, whatever was left of my family's name after today, was the one thing I still had control over.

"The pay will be more than generous," Beta Fin went on. "Enough to change someone's entire life."

The words hit me somewhere I hadn't braced for.

I halted before I'd even turned to leave. I froze, and against my will, my mind dragged me somewhere I didn't want to go — my mother's face, the doctor's voice telling me the surgery couldn't wait, Toby's tuition notice still unpaid.

"We've got plenty of beautiful girls in this pack, ripe for it," Alpha Hades said. "Take your pick."

‘Ripe for it.’ Like they were fruit.

Like whoever walked through that door and said yes would stop being a person and start being a body with a price tag.

But my mother's face wouldn't leave me — not even when I closed my eyes.

‘If not this, then what?’ This thought crawled in my chest.

I didn't have an answer. I never had an answer.

Before I could stop myself, I pushed the door open and threw my hand in the air.

"Can I have a try?!"