Chapter 3

"Alpha, we need to finalize your plus-one and the security escort route for the Metropolitan Charity Gala tonight."

The pack's high council meeting had just wrapped up. Rowan, his lieutenant, stepped forward quickly and handed Kallum a tablet.

The air in the hallway instantly froze.

I stood half a step behind Kallum, clutching a thick stack of organized lab results to my chest.

Four years.

As the former Alpha's only daughter and his secret fated mate, I had never once stood by his side at a public event. In everyone's eyes, I was just the chief scientist in a lab coat, cleaning up his messes in the dark.

Now, Scarlett was officially single.

Who was he taking?

A pathetic, self-destructive urge rose in my chest. I stepped forward, keeping my voice low. "The gala tonight... do you want me to come with you?"

Kallum stopped in his tracks.

He turned his head, his cold, piercing wolf eyes looking down at me.

No answer.

Just absolute, suffocating silence.

The guards down the hall looked away, staring straight ahead. The tension was thick enough to choke on.

Every second of that silence felt like a hard slap across my face.

I swallowed the bitter lump in my throat. Before he could speak, I forced a flawless professional smile. "Just asking. I have a neural rejection control group to run in the lab anyway. I don't have time to waste on useless socializing."

Hearing that, the sharp line of Kallum's jaw softened noticeably.

A flicker of relief crossed his eyes. He even lowered his tone, sounding unusually gentle. "Good work, Sierra. I'll bring you back a gift tonight."

"Thank you, Alpha." I nodded politely, turned on my heel, and walked away.

At eleven that night, the harsh fluorescent lights of the lab burned my eyes.

I leaned against the counter and opened social media.

Scarlett's profile had updated three minutes ago.

In the photo, she wore a strapless black designer gown. Pinned against her black dress was a breathtaking royal-blue sapphire brooch. The gemstone was pure perfection, catching every light in the ballroom.

The comments were exploding. It was the centerpiece of the Metropolitan auction—sold for twenty-two million dollars.

Her caption was short and sweet: [He always knows what I love.]

I stared at the screen, let out a soft, dry chuckle, and locked the phone face down.

At one in the morning, Kallum returned to the penthouse.

He carried a faint trace of expensive perfume. Tossing a midnight-blue velvet box onto the coffee table, he loosened his tie.

"Your gift." His tone was casual.

I opened the box with a blank face.

Inside lay a pair of blue sapphire earrings. The cut, color, and setting were an exact match to the twenty-two-million-dollar brooch on Scarlett's chest.

He had bought the entire luxury set at the auction, pinned the show-stopping masterpiece onto the woman he adored, and tossed the leftover scraps to his secret wife like pocket change.

A wave of pure disgust hit my stomach.

I didn't even touch the earrings. I slammed the box shut and shoved it back across the marble table.

"What's wrong?" Kallum's brow furrowed, irritation creeping into his Alpha voice. "Not good enough for you?"

Before I could answer, his eyes caught my phone screen on the table. It was still lit up, displaying Scarlett's post with the matching brooch.

Kallum froze. A quick flash of guilt crossed his face, but he quickly masked it with a low explanation. "Things got hectic at the auction. I only grabbed what was available. Scarlett just got out of a bad marriage, and she was having a rough night. That brooch was..."

His phone rang, cutting him off.

It was the pack's head of legal. Kallum didn't bother stepping away. He put it straight on speaker.

"Alpha, Miss Scarlett's divorce settlement is fully finalized," the lawyer reported with respect. "We secured every single asset under her name. Her ex-husband won't touch a dime."

"Clean work," Kallum said, his tension easing.

The lawyer paused, then added casually, "Funny enough, Chief Sierra also came to my office privately the other day to ask about the legal process for severing a mating bond. I thought..."

The temperature in the living room plummeted to absolute zero.

Kallum's Alpha scent exploded in raw, murderous fury, heavy enough to shatter the glass walls.

He hung up instantly without another word and whipped around to face me.

"Severing a mating bond?" He closed the distance between us, his voice dropping into a lethal, guttural growl. "Sierra, why were you digging into that?!"

His crushing Alpha presence slammed into me. Any ordinary wolf would have dropped to their knees in terror.

I dug my nails into my palms, keeping my eyes steady and blank. "Bridget had a terrible fight with her mate. She wanted to know how to cut the bond permanently. I asked for her."

Kallum's predatory eyes cut into my face like sharp blades. He studied me for thirty agonizing seconds, searching for a single tell.

I stayed still as stone, not even letting my eyelashes flutter.

Finally, the lethal tension began to drain from his shoulders. He scoffed coldly. "Stay out of other people's business."

Seeing him slip right back into his arrogant, untouchable posture, a faint smirk touched my lips. I couldn't help but speak up:

"Kallum."

"What if... the one who wants to break the bond is me?"

Dead silence fell over the room.

The calm in Kallum's eyes vanished instantly. He took one step, his powerful fingers clamping around my chin, forcing my head up to meet his dark gaze.

His grip was iron-tight, dripping with absolute possession. His cold fingertips slowly traced the mating mark hidden in the crook of my neck.

He leaned down until his hot breath brushed against my lips. His voice dropped to a dark, dangerous whisper:

"Don't ever play games like that with me, Sierra."

His thumb pressed hard against my bottom lip, his eyes dark with terrifying certainty.

"You carry my mark. You are my Luna in life and in death. Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I will hunt you down and drag you straight back to my bed."