Chapter 11
The council hall was lit like a coronation chamber. I walked across the red carpet, each step of my heels clicking like a countdown.
“Is that… Alpha Evelyn Marcus?”
“The longlost Alpha heiress? She was supposed to be dead.”
“Looks insane to me.”
Let them talk. I didn’t come back to be silent.
Alpha Ethan sat on the high seat, dressed immaculately as always, his gaze sharp as a blade.
“Miss Marcus,” he spoke, voice calm but
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cold. “Is your presence today political… or purely theatrical?”
I smiled, pulling a bottle of wine from behind me. “A celebration, of course.”
Then I uncorked it and threw the entire glass at his tailored suit.
Gasps filled the room.
Alpha Ethan’s scent markers flared immediately–pine and blackwood, crashing
down like a storm.
But I didn’t flinch.
I released mine–cold iron and silver fox. The scent sliced through the air like a dagger.
He stumbled back.
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“She’s suppressing his scent markers!”
“She’s a toplevel Alpha!”
I stepped closer. “What’s the matter, Alpha Ethan? Can’t handle a woman who doesn’t bow anymore?”
A silverhaired man stepped forward, watching me with faint amusement.
“Miss Marcus,” he said in a smooth voice, “Alpha Daniel Reyes. Alpha of the Silver Pack.”
He extended a hand.
“Would you honor me with a dance?”
I was about to answer when another presence brushed against my senses.
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A cool, restrained scent–cedar and snow. An Omega?
He passed by me silently, but for one brief moment, our scent markers intertwined.
We both stopped.
He turned his head slightly. “You are?”
“Omega Silas,” he said. “Omega.”
For a heartbeat, we simply stared.
Alpha Ethan’s expression darkened from across the room.
I smiled. So you can discard me like trash but get jealous when others look my way?
Later, in the dressing room, I went to change -only to find a stack of old photographs
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inside the locker.
I frowned and pulled one out.
A faded picture. Children from the orphanage.
There I was–Emily–curled up in the corner with messy hair and toobig clothes.
On the back of the photo, a child’s handwriting circled one boy in red ink:
“I will always love Alpha Ethan.”
My throat tightened. I traced the words with my fingertip.
I wasn’t Emily anymore.
But the girl who once loved him with everything she had… she was still
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somewhere in here, quietly breaking.
“You love her now,” I murmured. “Then don’t you dare look back.”
A soft knock broke the silence.
I quickly wiped my face and turned.
It was Omega Silas.
“You again?”
He leaned casually against the doorway. “You unleashed a lot of scent markers earlier. Gave me a bit of a headache. Came looking for a calming brew.”
I handed him a vial from the cabinet.
As he took it, his fingers brushed mine.
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“You were… sad,” he said softly.
I froze.
“Omegas are sensitive,” he added. “You can lie with words, not with scent.”
I looked at him. His eyes were gentle. Steady.
“You can talk to me,” he said.
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…Thanks,” I whispered.
He smiled, pressing his thumb lightly against my palm–a quiet promise.
The door suddenly slammed open behind
- me.
Alpha Ethan.
His eyes were like ice. “Am I interrupting
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something?”
I turned, completely calm.
“You’re just in time to leave.”
That night, I didn’t sleep.
The orphanage photo lay beside me on the pillow.
You used to love him so much.
But now?
Now it was his turn–to break.
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