Chapter 2

Ten thousand dollars.

I closed my eyes, remembering the looks on my pack members' faces the first time I handed out the Solstice bonus three years ago.

Shock. Pure joy. Then tears.

Liam held his newborn daughter, voice choked with tears. "Alpha, with this money, I can finally build a safe nursery for her."

Sarah clutched the check, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Her son needed special medication to suppress his feral urges, and it cost three thousand dollars a month.

And the young mated pairs. They used the money to buy their own homes in human territory.

Ten thousand dollars wasn't just a number.

It was safety, in the form of soundproof walls for a newborn’s den. It was life, in the form of alchemical potions to fight silver poisoning. It was a future, in the form of tuition so our cubs wouldn't be torn apart in human schools.

It was the only currency that bought us dignity in a world run by humans.

I opened my eyes and looked at the comments again.

"They get nothing."

What a joke.

The phone rang again. It was Elara.

"Emilia, it's worse!" She sounded like she was about to cry. "The Blackstone Alpha just sent a formal summons. They're threatening to pull the partnership! And three of our human corporate partners have already suspended their contracts!"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "How big are the damages?"

"If the Blackstone project falls through, we lose at least thirty million this year. The others... I'm still counting."

Thirty million dollars.

Enough to give everyone in the pack their Solstice bonus for three years.

And now, because of one damn video, it was all crumbling.

"What else?"

"Every major pack forum is talking about it. Even the Cedar Ridge pack on the West Coast released a statement saying they would 'never abandon tradition'."

Elara's voice was laced with despair. "Emilia, we have to issue a clarification, or else—"

"Or else what?" I cut her off. "Or else the people I personally took in will leave me?"

The line went quiet for a few seconds.

"That's not what I meant..."

"Then what do you mean?" I stood up and paced to my desk. "For three years, I've pulled four million dollars from pack profits for those bonuses. Four million, Elara! And they say I gave them nothing!"

"I know, I know you've given so much—"

"Given?" I scoffed. "Liam's daughter had silver poisoning. The potion was a hundred and fifty grand. I paid it without blinking. Marcus's son wanted to go to a human university. I covered all his expenses. And Chloe, that little viper currently sinking her fangs into my back? She showed up at my door in rags. I gave her a clothing allowance that could have bought a new car!"

My voice grew colder.

"And now they're crucifying me. Why? Because I offered them cold, hard cash instead of a cheap piece of felt?"

"Emilia..."

"I remember now," I stopped suddenly. "Chloe's been spending a lot of time with Marcus lately. That Beta has been over at her place every other day, talking about 'helping a newcomer adjust to pack life'."

Marcus. That forty-something loser who still didn't have a mate.

He was always kissing up to me to my face, but behind my back, he spread rumors that the "Alpha is too young" and "lacks respect for tradition."

"You think this was Marcus's idea?" Elara asked carefully.

"Of course it was," I sneered. "Chloe's just an omega. What does she know about social media strategy? This precision strike? It has Marcus's slimy fingerprints all over it."

I walked to the window, watching the city slowly light up.

For three years, I thought I was building a home.

In reality, I was feeding a pit of vipers.

And vipers always bite the hand that feeds them.

"Emilia, what do we do now?" Elara's voice was small. "Should we call an emergency press conference?"

I was silent for a long time.

So long Elara thought the call had dropped.

"Emilia? Are you still there?"

"I'm here." I turned around and looked at the awards and photos on my desk—mementos from when the pack was thriving. "Elara, do you know what my biggest mistake was?"

"What?"

"I treated the pack like family." My voice was terrifyingly calm. "But family doesn't turn on you over a twenty-eight-dollar trinket after you've given them four million dollars."

"What are you going to do?"

I sank back into my chair, pulling up the viral video one last time.

Chloe's tears. Marcus's smug smirk. The flood of hate in the comments.

"They want tradition so badly..."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips.

"Fine," I breathed, a bitter smile touching my lips. "They want tradition? I'll give them tradition. All of it."