Chapter 3

SOPHIA'S POV

The next morning, a knock came at my door, sharp and impatient, the kind that already told me who was on the other side before I'd even reached the handle.

I opened it to find my stepsister standing there, her arms folded, her expression carved from the same cold stone I'd grown up learning to read.

"What are you doing here?" Anger boiled up before I could stop it, my voice louder than I meant it to be in the quiet hallway.

"You have no right to be here," Leah spat, not bothering with a greeting, as if the accusation alone was supposed to explain everything.

"And you have no right to tell me where I can and can't be. I work here now. I'm not leaving," I said, holding the door frame like it might steady me.

"You have no loyalty to our pack! You've gone against everything and disgraced our family!" Her voice rose with every word, carrying down the corridor.

"I did what I had to do," I shot back, my chest tight. "I had to start over somewhere, since you took everything I had left."

"You could have gone anywhere. You chose to work for our biggest enemy. That makes you the betrayer, not me," Leah said, tilting her chin as though the logic of it settled the matter entirely.

"I didn't know it was owned by the enemy of the pack when I applied," I said, though I could already tell the explanation wouldn't land.

"You knew exactly what you were doing." Her voice hardened, flattening into something almost rehearsed. "Our pack is being humiliated because of you. Father asked me to tell you. You're banished. Don't come back."

The words hit before I could brace for them. "Banished?" My chest went tight, the hallway suddenly too small to breathe in. "He's banishing me over a job?"

"He's banishing you because you chose them over us. What did you expect him to do, throw you a parade?" Leah asked, arms still crossed, utterly unmoved.

"I didn't do this to humiliate anyone. I did it to survive what Alpha Blake did to me," I said, my voice cracking despite every effort to keep it steady.

"He chose me instead of you. Deal with it." Leah was smug now, the satisfaction settling into her features like something she'd been saving up. "He made the right choice."

Something in me went cold and still. "You may have won his heart. You'll never have mine." I looked at her, done arguing, done giving her anything more of my morning. "Now if you don't mind, I have work to do."

She glared at me a moment longer before storming off down the hall, her heels striking the tile in short, furious beats until they faded around the corner.

I stood there in the doorway a while after she'd gone, still unable to understand why Leah, of all people, had been the one sent to deliver that particular sentence. It should never have fallen to her.

"You could have called," I muttered after her, even though she was already gone, the words dissolving uselessly into the empty hallway. "You could have at least called instead of showing up to gloat."

I closed the door, pressed my back against it for a moment, and let my mind drift somewhere further back, to a memory that had nothing to do with today and everything to do with how we'd gotten here.

Two years before any of this, Derick Mondragon had come to our home to speak with my father, uninvited and entirely too sure of his welcome.

"Since your pack has no Alpha," he'd said, standing in our front room with his hands clasped behind his back, "I'd like to join forces. Strengthen us both."

My father hadn't taken the offer as anything but an insult. "I may not be fit to lead yet," he said, tight jawed, "but I will never merge my pack with a Mondragon's. Your father was a betrayer his whole life."

"Careful." Derick's face darkened, the pleasant mask slipping for just a moment. "My father led his pack with more honor than you'll ever manage."

That was when Leah had walked in, and before either of them could say another word, she'd crossed the room and slapped Derick across the face, the sound sharp enough to still the whole room.

"Don't ever strike me again," Derick said, slapping her back just as hard, the sound cracking through the room a second time, and Leah had stood there frozen, stunned that he'd actually returned it.

My father's restraint had broken entirely by then. "Get out of my house," he growled. "Now, or you'll regret it."

"What a shame," Derick smirked, straightening his jacket like the whole exchange had cost him nothing. "You can't lead your pack, and you can't even raise a daughter with manners."

"Out. Now," my father repeated, and something in his voice had finally made Derick take a step back.

"I'm going." He'd left without another word, and the door had shut behind him with a finality that felt, even then, like the opening move of something much larger.

I surfaced from the memory abruptly, shutting my laptop with more force than necessary. I was already running late, and outside my window the sky had gone the flat gray of a storm that had no intention of passing quickly.

I grabbed my coat and hurried down to the street, where the rain was coming down in sheets thick enough to blur the taxis lining the curb.

"Where to, ma'am?" the driver asked once I'd slid inside, dripping onto his upholstery.

"Mondragon Corporation," I said, straightening my dress and trying to wring some of the damp from my sleeves.

The rain hadn't let up at all by the time we arrived outside the glass tower that housed the company. I gathered my bag and made a run for the entrance, my heels slapping against the wet pavement, when a car swerved past far too close to the curb and sent an entire wave of gutter water crashing over me.

"Are you kidding me?" I shouted, ducking under the awning, soaked through and furious, whipping around to see who'd done it.

The car door opened at a leisurely pace. An umbrella came out first, and then Derick Mondragon stepped out beneath it, entirely dry, smiling like this was the best part of his day.

"Hope you don't mind the shower, Sophia," he said, looking me over with open amusement. "You look lovely, soaked."

"You did that on purpose," I said, water dripping steadily from the ends of my hair.

"Maybe I did. What are you going to do about it?" he asked, tilting his head as though genuinely curious how far I'd push it.

"I'll go change and come right back," I said, already turning toward the doors.

"Don't bother," he said, his tone shifting to something colder. "If you want to keep this job, you'll go in exactly like that."

"You want me to work a full shift soaked to the bone? In front of the entire office?" I asked, disbelief plain in my voice.

"That's the offer. Take it or leave it, Sophia," he said, unmoved by the outrage on my face.

"Fine. I'll take it. But don't expect me to thank you for it," I said, jaw tight.

"Wasn't expecting to," he replied, already turning away.

He walked past me without another glance, leaving me standing there dripping under the awning while employees hurried past on either side, pretending not to notice.

I went in dripping, past colleagues who stared openly and whispered behind their hands, and made straight for the restroom to try to salvage what I could of my appearance.

It was a lost cause almost immediately. My clothes clung to me, ruined, and there was nothing to be done about it beyond patting myself down with paper towels.

That was when I realized someone else was already in there, tucked into one of the stalls. No werewolf scent reached me, which meant she was human, and something about the quiet made me pause instead of leaving right away.

"Hello? Are you all right?" I knocked gently on the stall door.

Quiet sniffling was the only answer, muffled and trying hard not to be heard.

"Can I help with anything?" I asked, softer this time.

Still nothing, so eventually I left her to whatever privacy she needed and headed back to my desk, my shoes squelching faintly with every step, where Mia was already waiting, arms crossed, clearly counting the minutes.

"Where have you been?" she demanded the moment I came into view.

"I heard someone crying in the restroom. I had to check on them," I said, trying to keep my voice even despite how exhausted I already felt.

"Why do you look like trash? This is a company, not a psych ward," she said, eyes raking over my soaked clothes with open disdain.

"You could wait to hear my side before judging," I said.

"I'm not interested in your side. If someone's in the restroom, that's not your job to handle. Don't let things that aren't your business get in the way of the things that are," Mia said, already turning back to her own desk as if the conversation were beneath further attention.

I nodded and went back to the papers waiting for me, trying to ignore the whispers that trailed after me for the rest of the morning like a scent I couldn't shake.

It was Mia who finally pushed things too far, sweeping her arm across my desk and sending a stack of freshly sorted photocopies scattering across the floor in front of half the office.

"Oops. My mistake," she said, not even bothering to sound sincere, watching me crouch down after the pages.

"You did that on purpose," I said, gathering the sheets one by one, my knees pressed to the cold tile.

"And so what if I did? Rejected mate." She laughed, the sound carrying further than it needed to.

"What's so funny about that?" I asked, straightening, papers clutched to my chest.

"You don't get it, do you? You're a nobody. No one wants you. Not even your own mate," she said, arms crossed, clearly enjoying every second of it.

"That's not true," I said, mostly to convince myself, the words feeling thinner even as I spoke them.

"Really? Then why are you here, working for your own pack's rival? Your father banished you, didn't he. Now you've got nowhere else to go," Mia pressed, stepping closer.

"I don't need your pity," I said, my voice starting to shake.

"Pity? I'm just stating facts. You're a rejected mate, and you'll always be a nobody," she said, delivering the line like it cost her nothing at all.

That was the one that finally broke my hold. I turned and walked out of the photocopy room with tears spilling over at last, not caring anymore who saw.

"Aw, is the rejected mate crying again?" Jessica called after me from somewhere behind, her voice pitched to carry. "Someone get her a tissue. Or a pack."

I didn't turn around. I didn't trust myself to say anything that wouldn't cost me my job, so I kept walking, faster now, until I reached the sink and gripped the edges of it with both hands.

"I'm going to prove every one of you wrong," I said quietly, to no one, wiping my face in the mirror. "Watch me."

The mirror didn't answer. But by the time I'd splashed enough cold water on my face to look presentable again, I'd made myself a promise I intended to keep, whatever it took, and whatever Mia, or Derick, or anyone else in this building thought I was capable of.