Jasper
The past few weeks had been nothing but numbers and signatures. Meetings. Contracts. Endless paperwork.
On the surface,Stone Lake Pack was thriving again. Trade agreements were solidified,disputes resolved,finances stabilized.
From the outside,I was the Alpha who had everything under control. šššš¦šššššš·šš.šøš°š
But inside? Iād never felt more hollow.
Every meeting without Freya was an echo. Every report she used to prepare felt heavier in my hands. I caught myself turning to her empty chair too often,expecting her calm,steady voice to cut through the noise,only to be met with silence.
Mia filled the space with perfume,drama,and shallow commentary. But she wasnāt Freya. She never would be.
That emptiness gnawed at meāuntil Timothy slid a flash drive across my desk one evening.
"Alpha," he said quietly. "You should see this."
Security footage. Clear. Unmistakable.
Mia. Reed. The betrayal laid bare.
I stared at the screen,the truth burning through every frame. My chest clenched,not with surprise,but with fury. Because deep down,Iād known. Iād felt it every time Freya looked at me with those eyes full of things she never said. And Iād ignored it. Iād chosen wrong.
Regret sank its claws into me. Sharp. Merciless.
I had driven Freya away. I had let Mia poison me against the only person who had ever been real.
That regret curdled into something darker. Something hotter.
Hatred.
Hatred for Miaās lies. For my own blindness. For every moment she had stolen from me and from Freya.
I would not be played again.
Iād never felt so cold inside.
So hollow.
And yet,rage seared through my veins like wildfire,relentless and scorching.
As I stared at Miaāthe woman I once believed was fated for meāall I saw now was a stranger. A venomous parasite,wrapped in silk and lies,who had systematically dismantled everything good in my life.
The security footage Timothy had shown me looped endlessly in my mind. Her fake tears,her whispered manipulations,the way sheād slithered between truths and twisted them into weapons.
"Jasper,baby,this is all a misunderstanding," Mia cooed,tears shimmering in those blue eyes I used to find so captivating. "That footage was doctored. You know Freya hates meāsheād do anything to come between us."
I almost laughed.
My knuckles turned white as I clenched my fists. The wolf inside me was a razorās edge,snarling,ready to tear through the skin. This woman had made me doubt FreyaāFreya,the one person who never asked for anything in return. Sheād turned me into the very thing I despised: a weak,blind fool.
"Stop. Talking." My voice cut like ice,quiet and lethal. Mia recoiled as though the words had slapped her.
Sheād never seen this version of me before. The real Alphaānot the man sheād dressed in pink and dragged around like a prize.
Then she broke character.
Her gaze flicked toward the door Freya had exited earlier,and the hate that twisted her face made my stomach churn.
"This is all her fault," Mia spat,voice dripping venom. "That plain little nothingās been obsessed with you since day one. Sheās jealous. Sheāll never have what we doāa true mate bond."
A chilling smile curved my lips as the truth slotted into place.
"What we have," I said,voice as still as death,"is nothing."
I stepped closer. She flinched.
"There never was a mate bond,was there,Mia?" I whispered,each word laced with contempt. "You rejected me. Remember that?"
Her pupils contracted. Her mouth opened,closed,but no sound came.
"All these years," I went on,"I thought I was broken. That I was weak for feeling the pull,for chasing a bond that wasnāt there. But the only thing I wasāwas manipulated."
I bared my teeth,not in a smile but a snarl.
"You played me. And I let you."
Her face lost all color.
"Time for some karma."
I seized her arm,fingers digging into soft flesh. She squealed,heels skidding uselessly across the polished floor as I dragged her toward the door.
"Jasper! Stop! Youāre hurting me!"
"Funny how you suddenly care about being hurt." I didnāt loosen my grip. "Did you care when you humiliated Freya? When you made her serve drinks at her own damn birthday party? When you poisoned everyone against her just because she outshone you by existing?"
She whimpered. Pathetic.



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