Chapter 4

The next morning, Sienna gave me my new orders. I was to scrub the toilets on every floor. A blatant humiliation.

Suppressing my anger, I tried to mind-link Caleb, but met a wall of silence.

Strolling to his study door, I heard Sienna's sickeningly sweet giggles inside. Through the crack in the heavy oak door, I saw Sienna straddling Caleb's lap, her skirt hiked up, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as they kissed passionately.

Looked like I interrupted their little session. I pushed the door wide open, my face an expressionless mask.

Caleb froze. He instinctively shoved Sienna off him and frantically straightened his rumpled shirt. A flash of panic crossed his face as he took a step forward. "Aurora, we were just..."

"I came to tell you I am not scrubbing toilets," I cut him off smoothly.

There were no hysterical tears, no humiliating questions. I was as calm as if looking at two strangers.

Caleb stopped in his tracks, scrutinizing my face, desperately searching for a trace of jealousy. Too bad there was absolutely none.

His eyes darkened. He suddenly spun around, grabbed Sienna by the waist, and kissed her forcefully right in front of me. Sienna let out a pathetic fake whimper, wrapping her arms around his neck while shooting me a smug, provocative glare.

I stood there, quietly watching their pathetic performance.

"Are you quite finished?" I asked. "Caleb, I will say it again. I am not cleaning the bathrooms. Either make her retract the order, or if you have a problem with it, banish me from the pack right now."

Caleb looked at Sienna with an ugly expression.

Sienna panicked for a split second before launching into fake tears. "Alpha, I just wanted to give her a warning so she would learn her place. But Aurora storming in here to question you like this is openly challenging your authority!"

Caleb's expression shifted from doubt to fury. He glared at me and barked for the guards.

"Sienna is the Head Beta now. You have no right to defy her, Aurora. You better obey. I don't want to use force on you."

Looking at the guards behind him, I stayed silent for a moment. Fighting my way out on Caleb's turf wasn't smart.

I shot Caleb a dark look. "You are going to regret this." Then I turned on my heel and walked out under the guards' watchful eyes.

For the next month, I played the perfect janitor. I followed Sienna's orders, only scrubbing the bathrooms, staying entirely out of pack affairs, and cutting ties with all my business partners.

But the outside world was far from quiet.

Abusing her new authority, Sienna went wild trying to play the grand socialite in the werewolf community. She blew through the pack's treasury on lavish parties and gaudy jewelry.

But obviously, not everyone bought her pathetic act. The partners I had carefully vetted were packs that valued loyalty and character above all else. Every alliance invitation she sent out was either returned unopened or blatantly ignored. No major pack wanted anything to do with a shallow, flashy Omega.

Later that night, my apartment door was kicked open. Caleb stormed inside, absolutely livid.

"Aurora! What the hell are you doing behind my back?! Why are all the packs suddenly tearing up their contracts? Did you secretly contact them to sabotage Sienna?!"

I sat on the couch, not even batting an eye.

"Alpha, you give me way too much credit." I took a calm sip of my coffee. "For the past month, I have been under strict surveillance by the four guards you assigned me. How exactly would I contact our allies?"

"You're lying!" Caleb's eyes were bloodshot. "If you didn't meddle, why would they break the pacts?!"

"Break the pacts?" I finally glanced up, mocking him openly. "They signed those contracts because of me. Now that you have locked me up, they have zero obligation to help you. What is the matter? Without my protection, our great and powerful Alpha cannot even secure a single ally?"

My sarcasm shattered his fragile, pathetic ego. Caleb lunged forward, slamming his heavy palms onto the armrests of my couch, looming over me.

"You think we can't survive without you?!" he growled through gritted teeth. "You're just jealous! Jealous that I favor Sienna, jealous she took your place! You're sickeningly petty!"

I stared at his face. He was completely insane, swallowed by power and ambition without a shred of logic left.

"Think whatever you want," I leaned back, putting distance between us. "If there's nothing else, get out. I need to rest."

"Rest? You think you can still live here comfortably?!"

Caleb was completely enraged by my attitude. He summoned the entire pack on the spot and announced in front of everyone:

"I, Alpha Caleb, officially announce this! From today on, Aurora is stripped of all rank! She is banished from the Iron Moon pack forever!"

The hall went dead silent.

Caleb sneered down at me. "Weren't you so arrogant? Didn't you think you were totally irreplaceable? Tomorrow at the Alpha King's gala, I will earn his favor! I will prove to everyone that I can reach the top without you!"

Faced with this very public banishment, I did not fight back or beg. I simply and calmly grabbed my already-packed luggage from my bedroom. Under the shocked gazes of the entire pack, I strode out the door without a single backward glance.

I quickly returned to my own private villa. My true territory. An estate twice the size of Iron Moon's main grounds.

In my study, I opened the safe, took out the IOU, and called my lawyer.

"Have the legal team ready. Tomorrow morning, take this ten-million-dollar IOU to the Council and officially sue Caleb for unpaid debt. I want him to know the price of crossing me."

"Yes, Lady Aurora," the lawyer's firm voice replied.