Too Late, Alpha. She's Already Someone Else's

Chapter 3

I could feel Jude staring at my back. A lower-ranked wolf would have looked away immediately under the gaze of an Alpha like him. Submission to higher-ranking wolves was instinctive.

I merely raised my eyes and met his stare across the crowded restaurant. I neither flinched nor backed down. I gave him a small nod, then looked away and continued eating with Jemma.

I could feel Jude's Alpha presence from half a room away even though he wasn't deliberately trying to intimidate anyone. It was simply part of him. Instinct made me wary, while another part of me still found it painfully familiar.

"Want to switch seats?" Jemma asked quietly.

I shook my head. There was no reason to dodge him in a public place. Avoiding him would only make me look unsettled and put me at a disadvantage.

Jemma lowered her voice and warned me that openly challenging an enraged Alpha was rarely wise. I knew she meant well, but I had no intention of spending this life hiding from people.

Jude's stare never left me throughout the meal. I never looked back at him again.

Only after I stepped outside into the evening breeze did I finally relax. I said goodbye to Jemma and drove back to the Pack House alone.

Jude had arrived before me. He stood in the center of the living room, waiting. His face was grim, and anger seemed to weigh on the entire entryway.

"You did that on purpose today, didn't you?" he demanded. "You deliberately went to that restaurant, then deliberately ignored me."

"It's a public restaurant. I was having lunch with a friend. There was nothing deliberate about it." I met his eyes. "You're the one who took another pack member out with my daughter. The three of you looked very comfortable together."

"Clarice is my Beta. When she's with me for pack business or helps with Elowen, it's work. Nothing more." He frowned. "Stop imagining things."

I had heard versions of that excuse for years. It no longer affected me.

"I don't want to stay trapped in the Pack House as a full-time homemaker anymore," I said. "I want to work. I want a position within the pack's business operations and a career of my own."

That ignited his temper.

"You're my Luna and my mate." He stepped closer, his voice low and hard. "You belong to this territory. You belong to me. You can't just go out there and act as though you answer to no one."

There it was again. In his eyes, I had never been an independent person. I was something he considered part of his territory. He could indulge me or show me off, but he couldn't tolerate me slipping beyond his control.

"If you think I'm such an unfit partner," I said, "then let's sever the mate bond and separate."

Jude froze. Shock filled his eyes. It had never occurred to him that the obedient wife he knew might be the one to leave. In his mind, I had long since grown accustomed to depending on him.

Whatever he had been about to say died in his throat. He only stared at me. For years, I had rarely looked him in the eye. Most of the time, I lowered my head and let him take every bad mood out on me.

"Do you understand what you're saying?" he asked through clenched teeth, his knuckles whitening against the edge of the table.

"Perfectly." I held his gaze. "For years, you failed as a husband and barely took part in raising our daughter. I carried this entire household alone. If this goes before the Council of Elders, you'll be the one found negligent, not me. I can secure both custody and educational decision-making rights."

I had aimed directly at what mattered most to him: his reputation and the pack's opinion of him as Alpha.

In an old pack like Black Pine, a formal finding by the Council of Elders that an Alpha had neglected his duties could damage his authority more than any scandal. That was the first lesson I had learned in this second life. If I wanted to win, I had to strike where it would matter most.

After a long silence, he finally gave in.

"Fine. You want to work? There are two hotels near the border that have been losing money for years. No one wants them, and they've been draining pack revenue. You can run them."

He paused, contempt flashing through his eyes. "If you can't turn them around within 6 months, you come back to the Pack House and never mention working again."

He was certain that years spent at home had left me ignorant of business. He expected me to fail, crawl back in humiliation, and surrender the idea altogether.

I understood exactly what he was doing. Giving me the hotels wasn't a concession. He was handing me a challenge he was sure I would fail, hoping that defeat would crush the last of my resistance.

He didn't know I was no longer the woman who waited for scraps of his approval.

"Agreed," I said without hesitation.

The moment we made that verbal agreement, the restless part of me finally settled. Those two hotels weren't a fallback. They were my first foothold in a new life.

Jude clearly hadn't expected me to accept so quickly. He gave a cold snort and walked away.

For the first time in years, the knot in my chest loosened. I could finally pursue a life of my own without begging anyone for permission.

Later, while scrolling through Black Pine's private social feed, I saw a pinned post that made my eyes narrow. Jude was holding Elowen's hand while Clarice stood beside them at a baking counter. The three of them were kneading dough and decorating pastries beneath the caption, Baking day with Elowen and Beta Mercer. Nothing beats family time.

Every word pushed me further out of the picture and put Clarice more firmly in my place. Pack members were already praising her in the comments. I scrolled past them one by one without so much as a tremor in my fingers.

Late that night, steady footsteps sounded in the hallway. They belonged to Jude. I went still as his footsteps drew closer and stopped outside my bedroom.

I stared at the door and wondered what he wanted at this hour.