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y
e ye
for Blackwood Group's expansion, and unofficially, three years since
nown each other f
rt seem like a joke. I
her degree, he first forgot to go with me to try on wedding dresses. Then, with
ficed for this company. That p
lec's office, wanting to find out
lla lattes w
r him. His favorite. Extra vanilla syrup, just how he liked i
ver of light and sound escaped into the hallway. I slowed my steps,
zed them
his Beta,
thing in their tone held me there, a cold knot tightening in my s
remony finalized?" Ethan's voice was low
ient sound. A
han. A show for the e
which had been steady, tightened. The paper cups groaned under th
hitched. A
pping even lower, "Kay has been by your
f being my Luna? She's a wolfless Omega, Ethan. She should be grateful I even loo
ntly I thought I might be sick. Wolfless. He'd never said it to my face, not with that kind of venom. It was the pack's dirt
egy was brilliant," Ethan argued,
coldly. "It was a good way for her to contri
or a dizzying moment, all I could see were the endless nights I'd spent poring over financial models, the we
e is back..." Ethan'
mega from a European noble line, just returned to the States. I'd seen pictur
all pretense. It was a confession. "She is the Luna this
sudden, roaring silence of my mind
tool. A seven-yea
eject Kay after the merger
through with the ceremony. It will appease the elders and secure the final votes. Once everything is s
skin, but the pain was distant. The real pain was a cold, sharp thing twisting in my chest, making it hard to breath
ct? The Phoeni
al cruelty of it knocking me back a step. "A we
from the ground up. The one I was sup
I had given up a full scholarship to an Ivy League school for him. I had believed his promiseAll
s weekend." Alec continued, his voice shif
y. The one I'd told him about for months, t
r. The perfect, fragile illusion I had built my entire adul
air inside the office. Foo
conscious thought, only a primal instinct for survival. I
linder, was three feet away. In one fluid, decisive motion, I tipped the tray. The two vanilla
p spilled on the
e door open. I slipped into the adjacent doorway, pechoing in the concrete stairwell,
nally broke
ther. I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the gritty steps, my professional suit jacket bunching
wing my wallpaper: a smiling photo of Alec and me from last year's pack gala. His arm was a
began to burn through the shock. It started in my g
my settings and changed the wallpaper to the phone's defaul
ed a new, encrypted file. I ti
cation flashed across the top
Confirmation for Collin
y digital signature t
It was a harsh, ugly soun
ail opened. At the bottom were tw
eat. Then, I pressed "Reject." A confirmation box pop
d "Rejec
od measure, I de
ance. I made her a promise. I would not be the weak, crying Omega Alec e
k of ice in my chest. I stood up, brushing the dust from my skirt. I straig
nto the plush, silent hallway. The air was no longer
esk. I didn't go to the
he elevator bank and p
m the mirrored wall: pale, eyes a little too wide, but my jaw was set. The woman in the mirro
I wasn't just going to leave. I was going to erase myself from his life
I pushed through the revolving doors, a blast of reality that fel
walked to the curb, raise
ving the driver my address, I kn
ft my formal notic
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