The night Alpha James was supposed to stand beside me before our entire pack, he kissed another woman in her wedding dress.
Chapter 4
Two years later, I stood forty stories above downtown Charlotte watching the sunset turn the glass towers gold.
The High Council had offered me a position shortly after the investigation.
Silas never treated me like a wounded woman he needed to rescue. He gave me work.
Real work.
He studied my reports, challenged my decisions, argued with me when he disagreed, and trusted me when I was right.
Within eighteen months, I became director of regional logistics.
The title mattered less than the respect.
I had spent years believing love meant proving how much pain I could endure.
Silas taught me something different without ever saying it aloud.
Real love did not require suffering as evidence.
“You’re working late.”
I turned.
Silas stood in the doorway with his jacket over one shoulder.
“So are you.”
“I’m here because you’re here.”
I smiled. “That sounds suspiciously sentimental.”
“I’m getting old.”
“You’re forty-one.”
“Ancient.”
He came onto the balcony and handed me a folder.
“Northern territory.”
My old home.
I felt no stab of panic.
Only curiosity.
“What happened?”
“Robert Mercer died six months ago. James tried running the territory himself.”
“Tried?”
“Lily emptied a large portion of their reserve funds buying property in Atlanta under her name. Then a rogue group tested the western border. The pack couldn’t cover its defense contracts.”
My smile disappeared.
“Casualties?”
“Minimal.”
I exhaled.
Whatever I thought of James, innocent families still lived there.
“The members revolted,” Silas continued. “Half left. Your father challenged James for leadership.”
I stared at him.
“David?”
“He lost.”
“Obviously.”
Silas almost smiled.
“James exiled him. But the pack is nearly bankrupt. Today we received a petition asking for emergency financial assistance.”
He held out a folded document.
The seal looked painfully familiar.
“Who brought it?”
Silas met my eyes.
“He’s downstairs.”
Ten minutes later, guards escorted James into my office.
For several seconds, I did not recognize him.
He had lost weight. His expensive suits were gone. His once-perfect blond hair hung unevenly around a hollow face.
He stopped when he saw me.
“Emmy.”
“Director Carter.”
His throat worked.
“Right. Of course.”
I remained standing behind my desk.
“You requested council funding.”
He stared at me instead of the documents.
“You look beautiful.”
“This meeting concerns your pack.”
His eyes filled.
“She left me.”
I waited.
“Lily. When the border attacks started, she took the remaining cash and left.”
“That is an internal matter.”
“She was sleeping with one of my guards.”
Still I said nothing.
James laughed once, a broken sound.
“I found the messages. Do you know how that felt?”
My expression hardened.
“No.”
He looked confused.
“You don’t?”
“You do not get to compare discovering Lily betrayed you with what you did to me.”
His face crumpled.
“I know.”
“No. You know what losing Lily feels like. You still do not know what it felt like to bury my mother, trust the boy she died protecting, spend eight years carrying his responsibilities, and then stand in a wedding dress while he kissed another woman in front of everyone.”
Tears ran down his face.
“I was stupid.”
“Yes.”
“You held everything together.”
“Yes.”
“When you left, everything fell apart.”
“That was because you never learned how to lead. You learned how to let me lead while you took the credit.”
He lowered his head.
“I need you.”
There it was.
Not I love you.
I need you.
Exactly the truth.
James stepped closer.
“The pack needs you. Come home. Please. I’ll change. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it right.”
“No.”
“Emmy—”
“Do not call me that.”
He flinched.
His eyes moved to the framed photograph on the corner of my desk.
Silas and me at a council charity dinner.
Something inside James seemed to collapse.
“You’re with him.”
Before I could answer, the adjoining office door opened.
Silas entered.
He walked to my side and rested one hand gently at my back.
Not possessive.
Not controlling.
Simply there.
James stared at that hand.
At me.
At Silas.
And finally understood.
There was nothing left to win back.
I picked up the bailout petition.
“The council will not fund failed leadership without restructuring.”
I tore the petition cleanly in half.
James closed his eyes.
“However, we will send transportation tomorrow. Any member of your territory who wishes to relocate will be offered temporary housing, employment assistance, and protection while applying to join another pack.”
He stared at me.
“You’re taking everyone.”
“No. I’m giving them a choice.”
“Then what happens to me?”
I thought about the mountain road.
The rain.
The locked car door.
The woman I had been, limping downhill in a wedding dress because every person who claimed to love her had decided she deserved to suffer until she became more convenient.
“That depends on what you do next.”
He looked almost relieved.
Then I continued.
“But it will have nothing to do with me.”
James covered his face.
“I’m sorry.”
For years I had imagined hearing those words.
They sounded smaller than expected.
“I believe you regret what happened,” I said. “That does not mean I owe you access to my life.”
He nodded slowly.
The guards entered.
This time James did not resist.
At the door, he looked back once.
“I did love you.”
I studied him.
Maybe, in his own broken way, he believed that.
But love without respect had nearly destroyed me.
“You loved being forgiven.”
His face fell.
The doors closed behind him.
Silence filled the office.
Silas came closer.
“Are you all right?”
I looked down at the torn petition.
Eight years of sacrifice.
Eight years of excuses.
Eight years of convincing myself that patience would someday turn disrespect into devotion.
A tear slipped down my cheek.
Silas wiped it away with his thumb.
“Regrets?”
I thought about my mother.
For years I had believed honoring her meant staying with the man she died to save.
Now I understood.
She had sacrificed herself so I could live.
Not so I could spend my life disappearing.
“None.”
Silas smiled.
Outside the windows, evening lights began appearing across the city one building at a time.
He offered me his hand.
“Dinner?”
“Only if you’re cooking.”
“That seems unfair.”
“I survived eight years with James. I’ve earned unreasonable standards.”
He laughed.
It was warm, easy, and completely free of fear.
I slipped my hand into his.
There had been a time when I thought being chosen by an Alpha was the greatest security a woman could have.
I had been wrong.
The safest place I ever found was inside the life I finally chose for myself.
And this time, when I walked out the door beside a man who loved me, nobody asked me to follow behind him.
He walked beside me.
THE END.
⚠️ All characters and events are fictional. Do not imitate or apply them in real life. 😌😌😌
