Chapter 2

The office door was thrown open again.

It was Damon.

His Alpha presence crashed into the room, thick with rage and a suffocating possessiveness.

The very air grew heavy.

“What did you do to Lydia?” His voice was low and dangerous.

I didn’t look up. I kept working on the files on my desk.

“My duty.”

“Your duty?” Damon strode to my desk, planting his hands on it. “Your duty is to throw your Beta rank around with a submissive Omega?”

I finally looked up at him.

The face I once loved now looked like a stranger’s.

“She attempted to access the war room. She has no clearance.”

“So what?” His eyes flashed with impatience. “She just wanted to help.”

“Help?” I stood, meeting his gaze. “An Omega trying to access the pack’s core secrets? Have you lost your mind, Damon?”

His expression turned menacing.

“How dare you speak to me like that?”

“I’m stating a fact,” I said, my voice steady. “As Head Beta, it’s my duty to protect the pack’s secrets from outsiders.”

“Outsiders?” Damon sneered. “She’s docile and sensible—just a fragile Omega? Are you suggesting you’re afraid of what she might do?”

Docile. Sensible. Fragile.

Each word pierced my heart.

That was what he adored.

But strangely, after all his betrayals, I didn't feel the pain of our bond.

“An Omega has no clearance for top-level secrets,” I forced myself to remain calm. “That’s pack law.”

“The law?” his voice rose. “Gods, Elysia, when did you become so damn rigid? So obsessed with the rules?”

I looked at him like he was someone I’d never met.

“I’ve always been this way. You just never cared before.”

“You never talked back to me before!” he roared. “You used to know what obedience meant!”

“I used to think I was your mate,” my voice was a bare whisper, yet it carried the weight of a mountain. “Now I see I was just your weapon.”

Damon froze. He clearly didn’t expect me to say that.

“Elysia…”

“In that case, I will perform my duties as a subordinate,” I sat back down and picked up a file. “Is there anything else, Alpha?”

He stared at me, his eyes a storm of conflict I couldn't decipher. And then, he delivered the final, killing blow to my heart.

“Starting today, Lydia will share some of your tactical command duties.”

My pen stopped on the paper.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

He took the obsidian wolf’s head seal from my desk.

The symbol of my position as Head Beta.

“Lydia will prove that gentle is more valuable than strong.”

I watched him slip my seal into his pocket.

Six years.

I had fought for this pack for six years.

Fought for him for six years.

“You’re insane,” I whispered. “You’re putting an Omega in charge of pack strategy?”

“Then teach her,” he said, looking down on me. “Or have you lost even that much patience?”

I slowly stood, staring at the man I was once willing to die for.

“I understand.”

“Good. I knew you’d see reason—”

“I understand. You don’t want a mate. You want a lapdog,” I cut him off. “A pet who wags her tail, fawns over you, and never, ever questions you!”

Damon’s face went dark with rage. He lunged, pinning me against the wall.

“You dare defy me? I am the Alpha of this pack!”

His wolf roared, unleashing his Alpha dominance on me.

I could barely breathe.

He only released me when an urgent call came through his mind.

“If you don’t agree to this, then you can step down as Head Beta!”

The door slammed shut behind him. I listened to his footsteps fade, and my heart didn't just ache. It fractured.

I stood tall and sent a message straight to Damon’s mind.

“I’m giving you one day to take that back.”

My voice shot through our mind-link, clear and cold. “Otherwise, I will petition the Elders’ Council to challenge your fitness as Alpha.”