Chapter 2

My assistant, Paige, knocked on the door without warning.

"Viola, Keira's here. She brought seven of the mothers from the program."

Before she could finish, the office door swung open.

Keira walked in first. She pulled Ollie to her side and rolled up his sleeve, showing everyone the needle marks.

Ollie had no idea what was going on. He just reached for me.

"Aunt Viola."

Keira yanked him back.

"Don't call her that."

The boy stumbled, and fear flashed through his eyes.

I stood up instinctively, but Keira stepped in front of him.

"What, you want to check his wolf again?"

She held up her phone, the camera pointed straight at me.

"Everyone's watching. You'd better explain why you draw his blood at every single treatment."

"To calibrate the serum dosage."

"Then why do Alpha pups in other packs already have the finished serum?"

"That batch of serum didn't come from Moonbridge. The full purchase order has the manufacturer's name on it. You cropped it out on purpose."

Keira let out a short laugh.

"Ordinary mothers don't understand your paperwork. All we know is that every time our kids come home, they're feverish, exhausted, and covered in needle marks."

The mothers behind her nodded along.

One of them even held her daughter's follow-up report in front of the camera, crying that her child had already had her blood drawn six times.

Of those six times, three were because she had called in the middle of the night, insisting the doctor run extra tests immediately because her child had a fever.

I didn't call her out in front of everyone. I just asked Keira, "What is it you actually want?"

That was exactly what she had been waiting to hear.

"Shut down your treatment, give us back your illegal profits. Eight thousand dollars a month, minimum!"

"We'll pick our own hospital and our own doctor. And even if we don't spend it all, that money is what our kids deserve as compensation."

"The treatment costs aren't compensation, and they aren't a salary. They're a benefit I provide to the pack."

"The money never passed through our hands, so of course you can call it whatever you want."

Keira patted Ollie's shoulder.

"I'd rather take him to an independent clinic than let him keep being a test subject here."

Ollie looked up at her and said quietly, "But Dr. Noah said I can move to the next phase next week."

Her hand tightened abruptly on his shoulder.

"Adults are talking. Don't interrupt."

Ollie winced and hunched his shoulders. His eyes found mine, full of silent pleading.

I held back the anger surging through my wolf and didn't release any Alpha pressure.

She was already livestreaming.

The moment I made any mother in that room feel even a hint of dominance, she could prove I was using my rank to silence them.

"Whether to continue treatment is the guardian's decision," I said. "But the funds can't be converted to cash. If you stop the treatment, you're giving up the support I've been paying for out of my own pocket."

The smile faded from Keira's face.

"Out of your own pocket?"

"Yes."

She clearly hadn't prepared for that. She quickly raised her phone again.

"Don't try to scare us with that. Eight thousand a month per pup, and you're paying for twenty-seven families out of the goodness of your heart? You're really that generous?"

At the back of the group, Lydia finally looked up.

When her daughter Mia suffered her first wolf collapse, I was the one who called Noah to free up a bed, and I stayed with Lydia in the emergency room until dawn. That night, she held my hand and said I had saved Mia's life.

Now she held my gaze for one second, then looked away.

Keira leaned closer to my desk.

"Viola, just because you treated Ollie doesn't mean you get to decide what he has to endure."

She pulled up the rising repost count.

"Alpha pups get the serum, our children get the needle marks. A hundred thousand people believe that now."

"Tomorrow, I'll make sure all of Moonbridge knows exactly what you've been doing to these children."

She turned and pulled Ollie toward the door.

The boy kept looking back with every step, still calling my name even as the door closed behind him.

Lydia followed them out.

Not a single mother stayed.