Worthless Mate Chosen

Chapter 5

The Puppet Pulls Back

Oliver Hayes's Point of View

The ceremony was close to starting.

Oliver stood near the edge of the main hall, dressed in clothes that had cost more than most wolves in this pack would earn in a full season. He had checked his appearance twice already. Everything was exactly right. The fabric sat clean against his shoulders, the collar was straight, and the ceremonial details were pressed and precise.

Around him, wolves moved in every direction with purpose and energy. Last-minute arrangements were being made. Decorations were being adjusted. The air in the building had that particular charge to it that only comes right before something significant happens.

He let himself enjoy it for a moment.

This was his day. Everything that happened from this point forward would carry his name attached to it. He crossed one leg over the other and let a quiet hum move through his chest, something without a melody, just sound for the sake of feeling good.

Then Victor walked in.

Oliver saw him from across the room and felt the good feeling drain away like water through cracked stone.

Victor arrived the way he always did, like the space around him owed him something. His clothes were not just formal. They were extraordinary. The fabric was richer, the cut sharper, the details more considered than anything Oliver had on. A small group of attendants moved with him in a tight cluster, adjusting things, leaning in, anticipating. He walked through the crowd and the crowd made room for him without being asked.

Oliver watched all of this with his jaw set.

Victor was Gamma. That was his rank. Gamma. And yet standing here watching him move through this room, someone who had never met either of them before today would have had no trouble at all pointing to the wrong man and calling him the Alpha.

Victor reached Oliver and stopped. He looked at him with the particular kind of look that carries more weight than the words that follow it.

"Stand up straight."

Oliver got to his feet.

"Good morning."

"From this day forward, the Alpha title is yours." Victor rested one hand briefly on Oliver's shoulder, applying just enough pressure to make the gesture feel like something other than warmth. "Carry it with intention. Do your job well and keep your focus where it belongs. Do not allow yourself to get pulled off course by small things."

He paused for a moment, letting the next part land carefully.

"We werewolves understand the importance of where we come from. We understand what it means to be grateful. Never let yourself forget who kept this pack strong while you were still too young to lead it. Never forget who made it possible for you to be standing here today in this position."

Every single word had a second meaning sitting underneath it. Oliver heard both layers clearly.

This was not encouragement. This was a line drawn in the ground.

He smiled. He made sure it reached his eyes enough to look genuine.

"I will carry your guidance with me every single day. What you have done for this pack is something I could never repay fully. You have my word that I will not forget it."

Inside, something cold and heavy moved through him.

The Alpha position had never been Victor's to give. It had always been Oliver's. It had belonged to him from the moment he was born into this bloodline. Every year that passed under Victor's quiet and iron-like management of pack affairs was a year that belonged to Oliver that had been borrowed without permission and held onto past the return date.

One day, and Oliver had already decided this as clearly as he had decided anything, he would take back everything that had drifted into Victor's hands during those years. Every piece of it. All of it.

But today was not that day.

"Good." Victor's smile came back, smooth and practised. "Just make sure it stays that way. I will be watching."

Oliver nodded once. He held the smile steady and kept his posture open and relaxed.

Victor seemed satisfied. He turned and moved away through the crowd with his attendants trailing behind him like a slow current.

The moment he was fully out of sight, Oliver turned and drove his foot into the side of a nearby waste bin. It hit the wall with a hollow crash and tipped sideways, spilling its contents across the floor. A passing servant froze for half a second before quickly moving to clean it up without making eye contact.

Oliver stood over it breathing evenly, pulling himself back together.

Victor had done that on purpose. He had dressed deliberately, arrived with his people arranged around him deliberately, and chosen every word of that little speech with full awareness of what each one was meant to communicate.

He thought Oliver was a figurehead. Something decorative. Something that would sit in the Alpha seat and give his decisions a name and a face while Victor continued to be the actual force running things from the side.

That thought had kept Oliver awake before. Tonight it would keep him awake again.

But first, there was other business.

His subordinate approached him slowly, reading the mood before committing to full proximity.

Oliver dropped into a chair and looked at him with flat eyes.

"Report."

"Freya Ashford has been secured, sir. As you requested."

Something in Oliver's chest shifted. He could not fully identify what it was or where it came from, so he pushed past it immediately.

"Good. Take her to the room set aside for Prince Lucian. Leave her there."

The subordinate hesitated for a fraction of a second, which was enough for Oliver to notice.

"Is there something you want to add?"

"No, sir. Right away."

He left quickly. Oliver leaned back in the chair and let the plan settle over him.

Freya Ashford had walked out of his room that morning with her chin up and a thank you on her lips like he had done her a kindness. She had accepted his rejection without a single c***k in her expression. She had looked him in the eye from the floor after he had put her there and asked if she could go back to work.

He had gone over that moment more times than he would admit since she walked away.

Prince Lucian was a specific kind of man. His reputation traveled far ahead of him everywhere he went, and none of the stories were comfortable ones. He had arrived in this region by chance, passing through on his way back from wherever he had come from, and the pack had invited him to the ceremony out of the kind of cautious respect people extend to someone they are slightly afraid of.

Oliver had seen an opportunity and taken it.

Freya would be in that room. Prince Lucian would enter it. Whatever happened after that would be a lesson she had brought entirely on herself by choosing pride over sense.

That was what he told himself.

He told himself that clearly and firmly and with full conviction.

Theo said nothing for a long moment. That in itself was unusual enough to notice.

"You are quiet," Oliver said internally.

"I am trying to decide if there is a version of what you just did that I can find acceptable."

"And?"

"There is not."

Oliver stood and adjusted his collar. The ceremony was almost ready to begin. He needed to be at the front of the hall in a matter of minutes. His name was about to be called out in front of every wolf gathered here today. His title was about to become official.

He walked toward the front of the hall and took his position.

When the banquet had run through most of its course and the formal part of the evening was settling into the slower hours, Oliver spotted Prince Lucian near the far end of the hall. He had seen him arrive earlier, and the room had quietly rearranged itself around his presence the same way a river rearranges around a stone dropped into it. Tall, dressed in silver that had clearly been made specifically for his frame, and carrying a coldness in his expression that made the wolves nearest to him keep a small but consistent distance.

Oliver crossed the room and approached him.

"Prince Lucian. I am very glad you were able to attend today. I am Oliver Hayes, the new Alpha of the Black Moon Pack."

Prince Lucian looked at him. It was the kind of look that categorizes rather than connects, the kind that files you away under a heading and moves on.

He said nothing.

Oliver kept his expression open and easy.

"You must have traveled some distance to get here. Please, make yourself comfortable. There is a seat ready for you whenever you want it."

The evening moved on. Oliver did what the evening required of him. He spoke when called upon, received the ceremonial acknowledgments from the pack, accepted the formal transfer of authority from the elder wolves who presided over the ritual, and said the words he had prepared. Through all of it, Prince Lucian remained at the edge of things, present but separate, eating and drinking without appearing to enjoy either.

Every attempt Oliver made to draw him into conversation went the same way. A glance. Maybe a short sound of acknowledgment. Nothing that could be called a response.

As the banquet moved toward its close and the energy in the room began to ease, Oliver approached him one final time.

He leaned in slightly and lowered his voice.

"I had a room prepared for you tonight, Prince Lucian. A comfortable one. And I took the liberty of leaving something there for you. A small personal gift. I hope it is to your taste."

He let the words carry their meaning without spelling it out further.

Prince Lucian looked at him for a moment. Still no expression. Still nothing that gave anything away.

"I hope your evening is a good one," Oliver added, and stepped back.

He walked away from that conversation and did not look back.

Somewhere on the other side of this building, in a room that had been prepared and locked, Freya Ashford was waiting without knowing what was coming.

And Oliver Hayes, the brand new Alpha of the Black Moon Pack, had just pointed one of the most dangerous men in the territory directly at her door.

The question that followed him through the rest of the evening, the one he could not quite silence no matter how many times he tried, was a simple one.

What had he just set into motion, and was there any part of him that still had the power to stop it?