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The color drained completely from Grayson’s face.
“You’re such a busy man,” Logan continued with mock sympathy. “So busy you didn’t even notice your secretary’s betrayal. Or your mate’s medical procedures.”
“Lucky I took over those hunting grounds when I did. If Blackwater Pack faces a resource crisis, for Aria’s sake, I might consider
helping you out. But if other packs had taken them…” He shrugged. “That wouldn’t be a joke.”
Grayson looked at me with such raw hurt.
Three Months Later.
Stella’s ending came first, swift and brutal.
After I’d exposed her betrayal to Logan, she’d been immediately expelled from Blackwater Pack. As an Omega without pack
protection, she became easy prey in the harsh world outside.
She spent weeks wandering from territory to territory, begging for shelter. Most packs turned her away-no one wanted a traitor.
The few that took her in used her mercilessly before casting her out again.
Her once-pristine appearance deteriorated rapidly. Her clothes became rags, her hair matted and dirty. She lost dangerous
amounts of weight, her omega body unable to survive long without pack bonds and proper nutrition.
Desperation finally drove her back to Blackwater Pack’s borders.
She crawled through the mud and rain, her hands bloodied from clawing her way through the forest. When she reached the pack
house, she collapsed on the front steps, sobbing.
“Please,” she begged when Grayson emerged. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Take me back. I’ll do anything.”
But Grayson was no longer the man who’d once shown her kindness. Months of drinking and rage had turned him into something
else entirely.
“Anything?” he snarled, his eyes wild with alcohol and fury. “You destroyed everything. My mate, my pack, my life-all for
money.”
“I didn’t mean-
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“You sold our secrets to Logan! You made me lose Aria!”
Stella scrambled backward as he advanced, but she was too weak to run.
“Please, Alpha, I was desperate, I needed-”
The knife went through her heart before she could finish.
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Grayson stabbed her again and again, his howls of rage echoing through the empty pack grounds. When he finally stopped, there was nothing left of the omega who’d once smiled so sweetly in his office.
He left her body for the scavengers and stumbled back inside to another bottle.
Six Months Later, Grayson’s alcoholism consumed him completely. He stopped attending pack meetings, stopped making decisions, stopped caring about anything beyond his next drink.
Blackwater Pack crumbled around him.
Without strong leadership, members began defecting to stronger packs. The territory I’d fought so hard to secure was lost piece
by piece to neighboring alphas who sensed weakness.
Finally, a younger alpha named Marcus issued a formal challenge.
The duel was pathetic to watch.
Grayson could barely stand, let alone fight. His wolf was sluggish, weakened by months of neglect and substance abuse. Marcus
tore him apart methodically, showing just enough mercy to keep him alive.
“You’re no longer fit to lead,” Marcus declared as Grayson lay bleeding in the dirt. “I claim Blackwater Pack as my own. You have
twenty-four hours to leave these territories forever.”
Exile was the ultimate humiliation for a fallen alpha.
Grayson had nothing left-no pack, no status, no purpose. He’d lost everything that defined him.
That’s when he came crawling to me.
I was reviewing territorial expansion plans in my office when my assistant announced his arrival.
“Alpha, there’s a… former alpha here to see you. Grayson Reed.”
I almost didn’t recognize him when he was brought in.
The proud, commanding man I’d once known was gone. In his place stood a broken vagrant-hollow-eyed, unshaven, clothes
hanging off his skeletal frame.
He dropped to his knees the moment he saw me.
“Aria, please,” he sobbed, his voice barely human. “I’ve lost everything. The pack, my status, my home. I have nowhere else to
go.”
“I know I don’t deserve forgiveness. I know I destroyed us. But please just let me stay on your territory. I’ll work, I’ll do anything. I just need somewhere to belong.”
I looked down at him with nothing but pity.
“You had everything, Grayson. A strong pack, loyal warriors, a mate who would have died for you. And you threw it all away for
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what? A pretty face? Novelty?”
“I was wrong!” he cried, reaching toward me desperately. “I see that now. I was so wrong-”
His plea was cut short when Logan appeared behind him.
“I think that’s enough,” Logan said calmly before his fist connected with Grayson’s jaw.
The former alpha crumpled like paper.
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Logan didn’t stop there. Months of watching me hurt, seeing the damage Grayson had caused, finally erupted in controlled
violence.
He beat Grayson methodically, professionally-never enough to kill, but enough to ensure the message was clear.
“You had twelve years to appreciate her,” Logan said between blows. “Twelve years to treat her with the respect she deserved.
Instead, you made her feel worthless.”
“Don’t ever come here again.
When it was over, Grayson was barely conscious, curled on my office floor like a beaten animal.
“Get him off my territory,” I ordered my guards. “If he comes back, kill him.”
As they dragged him away, I felt nothing but relief.
The chapter of my life that included Grayson Reed was finally, definitively closed.
Logan straightened his suit and turned to me with concern.
“Are you alright?”
I nodded, surprised by how calm I felt.
“I am. For the first time in years, I really am.”
Through my office window, sunlight streamed across the maps of my expanding territory. My pack was thriving, my status as Alpha was secure, and my future was bright.
The simple wedding ring I still wore caught the light-not out of sentiment anymore, but as a reminder of what I’d overcome.
Some people don’t appreciate what they have until it’s gone.
But by then, it’s always too late.
I was done being anyone’s second choice.
I was Alpha now, and that was exactly where I belonged.
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