Chapter 4

The Corporate Interruption

The Grand Jax Convention Center was packed with over ten thousand elite werewolves, corporate investors, and high-ranking high council members. The premium air-conditioning hummed perfectly, keeping the scent of wealth, gold-plating, and expensive perfumes circulating through the massive glass amphitheater.

On the center stage, Kaelen Jax was finalizing the digital signature for the pack merger. A massive holographic contract floated in the air above his podium, flashing blue confirmation rings.

"With this digital seal," Kaelen shouted, his voice amplified by the premium audio network, "the Jax Empire officially controls eighty percent of the continent's tech infrastructure! No glitch can stop us!"

He pressed his biometric ring onto the digital document. The crowd erupted into deafening cheers. Investors clapped, and Chloe threw her arms around Kaelen’s neck, kissing him deeply for the rolling media drones.

BOOM.

A sudden, catastrophic shockwave slammed into the building, rattling the foundations.

The massive, hundred-foot reinforced glass ceiling of the amphitheater didn't just crack—it shattered into ten million glittering diamonds, raining down onto the screaming elite crowd. The premium audio network shrieked with violent, agonizing static before dying out completely. The holographic contract fractured into pixelated red warnings.

"Security! Shield the Prince! Section lockdown!" the enforcer captains roared, their cybernetic arms shifting into heavy defense shields as smoke poured from the ceiling vents.

Through the shattered roof, a massive, midnight-black hover-warship descended into the middle of the amphitheater, its heavy thrusters blowing the expensive banquet tables and holographic displays into crumpled scrap metal. The ship bore a single, glowing red insignia: The Obsidian Syndicate.

The boarding doors slid open with a synchronized, high-pressure hiss.

Out stepped twelve heavily armored rogue Lycan warriors, their plasma rifles primed and glowing red. But they didn't fire a single shot. They immediately formed a flawless, military-grade line down the ramp, dropping to one knee as a single figure stepped out of the ship's steam.

It was Valerius Thorne.

He wore his dark carbon-fiber tactical armor, his trench coat flowing behind him as his crimson cyber-optics cast a lethal red glow across the trembling crowd. The raw, oppressive weight of his alpha pressure dropped over the stadium like a collapsing mountain. Over half the corporate alphas in the audience instantly collapsed to their knees, their internal systems glitching out and vomiting error codes from the sheer dominance of a pure-blooded Lycan ruler.

Kaelen forced himself to stand straight behind his podium, his amber eyes burning with fury as his systems glitched. "Valerius Thorne! You are breaching a sovereign corporate sector! This is an act of total war!"

"War?" Valerius murmured, his deep voice easily cutting through the panic despite the dead audio system. He let out a cold, mocking laugh that echoed off the broken walls. "No, Prince Kaelen. This isn't a war. This is a collection agency."

Valerius stepped aside, extending his bare hand back toward the ship’s dark entrance.

Out of the cargo bay stepped a woman.

The entire convention center fell into a suffocating, dead silence.

I walked down the metal ramp, the heels of my thigh-high leather combat boots clicking sharply against the debris-covered floor. The silver silk coat Valerius had given me flowed majestically behind me, catching the dim afternoon light. My hair flowed freely in the wind, and my skin possessed a stunning, celestial radiance that made every high-born lady in the room look like cheap synthetic plastic. The glowing silver circuits crawling up my neck flared beautifully against the dark leather.

But it was the liquid silver rings pulsing in my gold eyes that made Kaelen’s jaw drop.

"Z-Zylah?!" Kaelen choked out, his voice cracking completely as he stumbled three staggered steps backward from the podium. He stared at my full, powerful figure, his face turning pale as a ghost as his internal metrics spun completely out of control. His ocular scanners were actively smoking as they tried to read my data.

[Warning: Ocular Scanners Overloaded. Unable to parse High-Frequency Royal Silver Data. System Corruption Imminent.]

"Impossible..." Chloe screamed, her face contorting into a hideous mask of pure jealousy and rage as she pointed a trembling, cyber-tipped finger at me. "She’s a null-code fatass! We deleted her tracker! She should be rotting in the mud files!"

I stopped at the bottom of the ramp, standing right beside Valerius’s massive frame. I looked at the male who had publicly humiliated me, the male who had broken my soul just twenty-four hours ago. I felt absolutely nothing but cold, unyielding amusement.

"You deleted a tracker, Chloe," I called out, my voice resonating with a terrifying, melodic power that vibrated on an ancient analog frequency, instantly blowing out every remaining electronic screen in the room. "But you can't delete a bloodline."

I let the full force of my newly awakened silver wolf flare outward. A massive wave of shimmering silver energy erupted from my body, hitting the main stage like a physical truck.

Kaelen fell to his knees, his hands slamming into the dirt as the sheer weight of my royal Luna pressure crushed his corporate compliance. The fated mate bond he had brutally cut yesterday tried to spark back to life inside his chest, desperate to reconnect, but my silver wolf snapped its jaws, completely rejecting his pathetic signal.

"Zylah... please..." Kaelen groaned, looking up at me with eyes filled with a sudden, toxic wave of profound regret. He crawled a few inches forward across the stage, his hands trembling in the debris. "I was wrong... the data was corrupted... the altar glitched. Look at you... you are a true Luna. Come back to the upper sector. I'll delete Chloe’s profile. I'll rewrite the marriage logs. I'll make you the supreme queen of the Jax Empire right now! Just leave the rogues!"

Chloe gasped, her eyes wide with betrayal. "Kaelen! What are you saying?!"

"Shut your mouth, Chloe!" Kaelen shifted his head to roar at her, his eyes glued back to my face, begging for mercy.

Valerius slowly stepped in front of me, his massive, scarred frame completely blocking Kaelen’s view. He reached down, wrapping a heavy, possessive arm around my waist, drawing my body tightly against his side. He looked down at the kneeling prince like an executioner looking at a broken piece of code.

"Your contract is expired, boy," Valerius growled, his crimson cyber-optics flashing with murderous intent. "You called her a disgrace. You threw her into the trash. Now, you get to watch me burn your entire corporate network to keep her warm."

Valerius raised his hand, clicking a small black detonator device.

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