After Abandoning My Fated Alpha, I Built My Own Wolf Pack and Ruled

Chapter 2 She Used My Secret Against Me

The next day, I went to inspect the new recruits at the young wolves' training grounds. To help Lily overcome her fear of werewolves, Kyle had given her permission to watch the open training sessions.

When I arrived, she was standing at the edge of the field, still wearing his coat.

Kyle was called away by the council, but Lily stayed. She watched as I taught the trainees to control their shifts. Then, with a smile, she called out a command only Kyle was supposed to know.

"Down, Sarah."

I went still.

Those were the words Kyle had used to bring me back the first time I lost control during a shift.

That night, I had nearly bitten another member of the pack. They chained me to the center of the training field with silver restraints. Kyle stayed beside me until dawn. Even when my claws tore his arm open to the bone, he refused to leave.

When I finally returned to human form, he held me and promised he would never tell anyone what had happened.

It was the most frightening, humiliating memory of my life.

And now Lily was making sport of it.

She took a silver restraint strap from the training rack and swung it idly from one hand. "Kyle told me you used to drop to the ground whenever he said that. Do people still have to chain you up?"

The young wolves stopped training. Every eye turned toward me.

Suddenly I was back beneath that moon, silver chains cutting into my wrists and ankles while my own pack watched me as if I were not one of them, but a rabid animal that might attack at any moment.

I crossed the field, snatched the strap from Lily's hand, and held on even as the silver burned my palm. Then I broke the metal buckle in front of her.

"What else did Kyle tell you?"

Lily took a step back, but her smile did not falter. "He said you were much more obedient as a child."

The broken strap landed at her feet.

"Do you have a death wish?"

"It was just a joke." She shoved a hand toward my injured shoulder. "Don't tell me you can't handle a little teasing."

I caught her wrist, twisted her arm behind her back, and pinned her against a training platform. Lily shrieked, her smug expression vanishing into terror.

"Let her go!"

Kyle's voice came from the entrance.

I looked up. He was standing there, and it was obvious he had heard everything—what Lily had said and who had struck first.

Lily burst into tears. "I was only joking with Sarah, and she tried to kill me!"

"There are cameras." I released her and pointed overhead. "We can let everyone watch and decide whether it was a joke."

Kyle did not look at the footage. Instead, he stepped in front of Lily.

"She's human. She doesn't understand our rules. Did you have to frighten her like that?"

"Why did you tell her about me?"

He was silent for a moment. "It came up in conversation. It happened so long ago that I assumed you no longer cared."

"You promised to keep it secret."

"Sarah, Lily didn't mean any harm."

I pulled up the training-ground footage. It showed everything: Lily taking the restraint, mimicking the command, and shoving me first.

"Make her apologize."

Kyle frowned. "You threw her into a training platform. You're the one who owes her the apology."

"She humiliated me. And she put her hands on me first."

"She gave you one little shove. You're the commander of Frostblade. You're really so thin-skinned you can't let one human girl slide?"

There it was again.

Lily was fragile, so whatever she did could be forgiven. I was strong, so when someone hurt me, I was the one who was supposed to act like nothing had happened.

Lily hid behind Kyle, crying quietly. He glanced back at her, and then his hand came up.

I looked at the hand that had once put itself between me and a silver blade, and the last thin bit of hope I'd been holding on to went out.

His hand never landed. I caught his wrist before it could.

Kyle tried to pull free and failed. His expression changed. It was as if, for the first time, he understood that my strength had never depended on standing at his side.

"You were going to hit me for her?"

"I was trying to get you to calm down."

"The proof is right behind you. It's not that you don't know the truth. You simply don't care because I'm the one being hurt."

I forced his hand down, inch by inch.

"Kyle. This is the last time."

His eyes went hard. "You're threatening your Alpha?"

"I'm warning the man who keeps betraying me and throwing away every bit of what I used to feel for him."

I let go of him and ordered the guards to keep Lily out of every Frostblade training ground from that day on. Kyle didn't step in. He just took her by the arm and led her away, his face dark.

Orion was waiting outside the training field. He handed me a requisition report.

"Word from the northern line. The cold came in early, and three outposts never got their scheduled fuel and lumber."

I turned to the last page of the transfer record.

Kyle's Alpha seal was sitting in the authorization box.

And the supplies had gone to—

Lily Hart's private greenhouse.