CHAPTER 4: The Prize Of Mercy

The silence in the VIP conference room was so thick you could taste it. Kaelen sat across from me, his large hands gripped so tightly on the glass table I thought it might shatter. Elena sat beside him, her face a pale mask of fury and fear. She kept adjusting her fur wrap, but in this room of sleek steel and high-tech displays, she looked like a relic of a world I had outgrown.

"I don't understand," Kaelen finally choked out. "How? We were told you were dead. Your father said.."

"My father said what he needed to say to keep his position in your pack," I interrupted, leaning back and crossing my legs. "He threw me to the wolves, Kaelen. Literally. But as you can see, I didn't just survive. I conquered."

I slid a thick legal folder across the table.

"The Silverwood Pack is currently seventy-eight million dollars in debt," I said, my voice as cold as a mountain stream. "Your timber mills are shuttered. Your scouts are leaving for other packs because you can't pay for their healthcare or their children's schooling. In three months, the Northern Alliance will seize your land and turn your sacred groves into a strip mall."

Kaelen winced at the mention of the groves. "I did what I thought was best for the pack's future. I needed a Luna with connections, someone who…"

"Someone who wasn't me," I finished for him. I stood up and walked toward the window, looking out at the city I now owned. "You chose 'connections' over your fated mate. And look where it got you. You’re sitting in my office, begging the girl you called an 'Omega' to save your legacy."

"I am not begging," he growled, his golden eyes flashing. The Alpha in him was trying to claw its way out, but the silver-lined walls of the room dampened his power.

"Aren't you?" I turned around, pinning him with a stare. "Because if I don't sign these papers today, Silverwood ceases to exist. I am the only person on this planet with the liquid capital and the spite to keep you afloat."

"What are your terms?" the Beta asked, his voice trembling. He was the only one in the room looking at the situation realistically.

I walked back to the table and tapped the last page of the contract.

"One: Miller Global becomes the sole owner of all Silverwood territories. You stay on as Alpha, but you report to me. Every decision, every expansion, every marriage within the pack must be approved by my office."

Elena gasped. "That’s... that’s slavery!"

"That’s business," I snapped. "Two: I want the ancestral Luna suite at the pack house cleared and renovated. I will be visiting once a month to oversee my investment. And three..."

I paused, thinking of Leo’s golden eyes in the lobby.

"Three: You never, ever ask me about my life in New York. You come here when called, you sign what is put in front of you, and you leave. Do we have a deal, Alpha?"

Kaelen looked at the pen as if it were a weapon. He looked at Elena, then back at me. I could see the internal struggle, the pride of an Alpha fighting against the survival of his people.

"Why are you doing this, Sierra?" he whispered. "If you hate us so much, why not just let us burn?"

"Because," I said, leaning down so I was inches from his face, letting him catch the scent of my power, a mix of rain, ozone, and success. "Watching you lose everything is boring. Watching you work for me while I own the ground you walk on? That’s justice."

With a shaky hand, Kaelen reached for the pen.