The Day It All Went Down

Today was supposed to be the most glorious day of my life. The day I would present to the pack elders a cure capable of reversing rogue madness, and finally become the first female Alpha of my pack.

I was born an omega. That was the lowest ranking a female werewolf had. I was basically the disposable one.

The girl people overlooked in meetings, dismissed with a wave of the hand before I even opened my mouth.

Growing up, I learned very early what it meant to be insignificant. To be reminded, every single day, that my existence was something to be tolerated at best, endured at worst.

But my father, the Alpha of the southern claw pack, had never seen me that way.

Right before he died, he placed the future of our bloodline into my hands. He passed down the right of leadership to me, trusting that I would succeed where others believed I would fail. But the pack elders had laughed at the very idea.

A female Alpha? Impossible. An omega leading us? That’s so laughable.

So five years ago right after my father died, I made them a bet.

If I could create a cure for rogue madness, something no scientist before me had been able to do then they would recognize my claim.

Until then, my father’s Beta would assume the title of Alpha in name only, holding the seat that was meant to be mine. I made the bet boldly, because of how much I believed in myself, even when no one else did.

What followed were years of relentless struggle. Sleepless nights spent hunched over lab tables. Countless failed trials that ended with shattered vials and bloodshot eyes. Endless rejections from institutions that refused to fund research led by an omega woman.

I endured it all.

I pushed myself past exhaustion, past doubt, past fear, until my hands trembled constantly and my body ached even in rest. When no one would back me, I founded my own company. When no one believed in my vision, I became my own investor.

And I succeeded.

I created something no one else could.

A chemical that didn’t merely suppress rogue madness but reversed it entirely.

Today was supposed to be the day the world finally saw me as more than just an omega. I was already on my way home to prepare for the ascension ceremony when my phone vibrated beside me.

I opened it thinking it could be a sweet message from my husband, Leonard.

But it was from an unknown number. I clicked it and saw pictures of Leonard with his childhood friend, entangled in white sheets, they were both naked, and their bodies were pressed together in a way that left nothing to a different interpretation. The message beneath the images included a hotel address, typed with deliberate cruelty.

My heart stuttered violently in my chest. No!

That wasn’t possible.

I stared harder, forcing myself to breathe, forcing logic to take over before emotion could consume me whole. Technology had advanced too far for anything to be trusted at face value. Images could be fabricated. Lives could be destroyed with a few convincing edits.

Yes.

That had to be it. I diverted my car immediately, I started speeding to the address attached to the pictures sent to me. I arrived just in time to see Leonard stepping out of the hotel entrance with the woman he had known since childhood, the same woman he had always sworn was nothing more than a sister to him. It made something inside me snapped so violently that I felt it physically.

My hands clenched around the steering wheel until my palms burned, nails biting into my skin as rage and devastation collided inside me. My mate. My husband.

The pain in my chest was unbearable.

I struggled to breathe, each inhale shallow and strained, my lungs refusing to cooperate as the reality I had been denying settled brutally into place. He always made me feel so stupid, and unsettled every time I complained about their closeness, but turns out I wasn’t overthinking it.

With trembling fingers, I reached for my phone, and called him.

“Leonard,” I said the moment he answered, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it. “Where are you right now?”

There was a brief pause on the other end. Not surprise. Not guilt. Just mild impatience.

“I’m currently experiencing a bit of a holdup, honey,” he replied smoothly, and effortlessly. “But I promise, I won’t be late.”

Honey?

The word scraped against my nerves.

He didn’t notice the tremor in my voice. Or maybe he did and simply didn’t care.

“I… okay,” I whispered, forcing the word past my tight throat before ending the call.

The silence that followed was deafening. I was sitting in my car, watching my mate betray me without even the decency of shame.

How could he do this to me?

The question barely finished forming in my mind when a wave of physical pain ripped through my chest and I suddenly gagged, my hand flying to my mouth as blood spilled between my fingers.

My breath hitched in terror. Oh no… no, no, no.

I forced myself to stay calm, panic threatening to consume me whole as I pressed a trembling hand to my stomach. My palm rested there instinctively, protectively.

I was finally pregnant after three years.

Three years of countless consultations, whispered judgments and silent despair. Three years of being told my body was failing, that I was defective, that I was the problem.

But now… there was life growing inside me.

His child. I had planned to surprise him tonight. During the ceremony.

I swallowed back a sob as tears streamed down my face, wiping at them harshly even though they refused to stop. My chest ached, my heart splintering under the weight of betrayal, but I refused to break.

I could've stormed over there, and confronted them.

But I didn’t.

Tonight was the ascension ceremony. If I lost control now, if I allowed my emotions to take over, it would damage everything I had sacrificed five years of my life for.

And those elders… they would seize that moment eagerly. They would call me unstable. Unfit. Emotional.

They would use it as the perfect excuse to strip me of the Alpha position I had fought so hard to earn.

I couldn’t let that happen. So I did the only thing I could. I drove away.

I returned home, numb and in pain at the same time, moving on pure instinct as I prepared myself. I changed my clothes. Fixed my hair. Composed my face until no trace of devastation remained.

Then I went to the event hall. When I arrived, Leonard was already on stage.

My steps slowed. He cleared his throat, the sound echoing through the grand hall.

My fingers curled tightly into my palms, nails biting into skin as anger simmered beneath the surface, hot and violent but my expression remained calm, and detached. I had learned long ago how to hide pain.

He looked out at the crowd and said, “There’s something I need to tell everyone.” A strange unease crept through me, cold and crawling, settling deep in my bones.

Then he continued, his voice laced with feigned regret. “It hurts me to say this… but I can no longer remain silent about this injustice.”

My heart skipped violently. What was he trying to do?

Then he called out my name, clutching his chest as if in severe pain.

“Mia has been experimenting on innocent wolves under the guise of searching for a cure for rogue wolves. So many of them have died because of her.” The world stopped.

My blood ran cold, draining from my limbs in an instant.

The hall erupted.

“That’s horrible!” “How could she?!”

The words hit me like physical blows, each one tearing into me with ruthless precision.

Rage exploded inside me, raw and uncontrollable.

“What are you saying, you lying bastard!” I screamed, my voice ripping through the noise as I couldn’t contain the amount of anger coursing through my veins.