REJECTED BY MY MATE CLAIMED BY THE BILLIONAIRE ALPHA

A NEW PACK

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*CHAPTER 10: A NEW PACK - PART 1/3*

The first morning without sirens felt wrong.

I woke up at 6am out of habit. No red texts. No cuff burning. No pounding on the door.

Just sunlight through pine trees and the sound of the lake hitting the rocks outside.

Kade was already awake. Standing at the kitchen counter making coffee. In sweatpants and nothing else.

Our kitchen.

Not the penthouse. Not the safehouse. Not the tower.

A small log house. Two bedrooms. One bathroom. Wood floors. By a lake in Montana.

“Morning,” he said. He handed me a mug. Black. The way I liked it now. “You sleep okay?”

“Yeah,” I said. My voice was still rough. “Weird though. Too quiet.”

Elara came out of the second bedroom. Hair in a braid. Also in sweatpants. She looked 10 years younger without the Council pins and the politics.

“Quiet is good,” she said. She stole Kade’s coffee and took a sip. “Quiet means we’re alive.”

Damian came out last. He still walked like his ribs hurt. He’d taken two bullets for Kade in Ireton.

“Coffee smells good,” he said.

He looked at me. “Morning, Kira.”

“Morning,” I said.

Four of us. In a house the size of Kade’s old walk-in closet.

And it felt bigger than any mansion.

*Week 1: Learning Normal*

We had no staff. No drivers. No security drones. No Council guards.

We had groceries from the town 20 minutes away. We had a busted old truck that Kade couldn’t drive. We had each other.

Kade tried to cook on day 2. Burned eggs. Burned toast. Set off the smoke alarm.

“I’m a billionaire, not a chef,” he said, scraping black stuff into the trash.

“I can cook,” Elara said. That night she made stew. Real stew. With potatoes and carrots.

Damian did dishes. I swept floors.

At night we sat on the porch. All four of us in old chairs.

No news. No Council. No Elena.

Elena was in a federal prison now. Life sentence. No parole.

The Council had scrubbed her name from everything. From the records. From history.

“Do you think she’ll try something from inside?” I asked on night 3. I was sitting on the porch steps. Kade was behind me.

Kade shook his head. His chin rested on my head.

“No,” he said. “I made sure of it. No phone. No visitors. No contact. She’s cut off.”

Elara was quiet. She was staring at the lake.

“She’s still family,” she said softly. “Even if she’s sick.”

Damian nodded. He was cleaning his gun.

“I know what it’s like to do bad things for family,” he said. Looking at me. “To think you’re protecting them.”

I reached over and took his hand. His fingers were cold.

“You’re not that person anymore,” I said.

He squeezed back.

*Week 2: The Letter*

The mail came once a week. The mailman in the little red truck.

One envelope. No return address. Plain white.

Inside: a single sheet. Thick paper.

`The Moon Goddess makes no mistakes.`

`But she does make exceptions.`

`You’re one of them.`

`- M`

M. Moon Goddess?

Kade read it and burned it in the fireplace that night.

“Nobody’s contacting us,” he said. “Not yet. Not until it’s safe.”

But the cuff went blue. Warm.

It hadn’t done that in weeks.

That night I had a dream.

A silver wolf. Standing in the lake up to its chest.

It looked at me.

`You chose each other. That is enough.`

Then it was gone.

I told Kade in the morning while he was making more burnt coffee.

He stopped. Put the pan down. Pulled me into his lap right there on the kitchen chair.

“Then we’re good,” he said. “If the Goddess says so, we’re good.”

*Week 3: Visitors*

A car came up the dirt road on Thursday.

We all froze.

Council Elder Rowan got out. Alone.

No guards. No car. Just him.

“Alpha Vore,” he said. “Kira. Elara. Damian.”

He looked at our little house. At the chipped paint. At the garden Elara was trying to grow.

“It’s... smaller than I expected,” he said.

“What do you want?” Kade asked. He was standing in front of me.

Rowan sighed. He looked tired. 10 years older than last time we saw him.

“The Council wants to offer you something. A pardon. Official. For all of you. And a position.”

He looked at me. “Head of the new Wolfless Affairs Division. You’d report directly to the Council. You’d have funding. You’d have authority.”

I blinked.

“Me?”

“You,” Rowan said. “You changed things. At the press conference. People listened. Wolfless kids are coming forward now. Because of you. Because you stood up and said ‘I’m still here.’”

Elara looked at me.

“It’s your choice,” she said.

I thought about it. About Ireton. About the cells. About the kids with no cuffs.

“Okay,” I said. “But on one condition. We do it as a pack. All four of us. Or not at all.”

Rowan smiled. The first real smile I’d seen from him.

“The Council was hoping you’d say that.”

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*End of chapter 10*