My Ex-Alpha Wants Me Back

4

Alexander's POV

I actually thought divorcing Liora would bring me peace, but every day since she left was nothing but chaos

My phone rang before I even got out of bed.

"Alpha, there's been another attack," my beta said, his voice tight, and I was already reaching for my shirt before he finished the sentence.

When I got to the pack grounds two of my men were on the ground bleeding. It was the rogues again, and everyone was shouting at once, some blaming my leadership, others muttering about the Moon Goddess turning her back on us.

An older pack member didn't even bother lowering his voice.

"Nothing has gone right since Luna Liora left," he said to the man beside him, and I pretended I didn't hear it.

At Vale Group, the pack's company, the boardroom was already full when I walked in, and my CFO didn't waste time softening anything.

"Our biggest overseas investor pulled out this morning," he said, sliding a folder across the table, "the luxury estate project is suspended, shares dropped again overnight, and now there's a government audit opening on top of it." He listed everything out

Every executive in that room turned to me waiting for an answer but I didn't even know what to say because I was tired myself.

That evening Vivienne walked into my office without knocking and I hadn't even turned around when she wrapped her arms around me from behind.

I stepped away from her immediately.

"You've barely spent time with me lately," she said, forcing a smile.

"I'm working," I said, not turning around.

She reached for my face and tried to kiss me but I turned away at the last second, and for a moment I wasn't looking at her at all. My head was seeing Liora standing in our old kitchen with flour on her nose, laughing so hard at something she'd burned.

That memory made me go completely still and Vivienne noticed. Her smile dropped off her face immediately.

"What is it?" she asked, but I didn't answer her, I just told her I had work to finish and she left without another word.

I got back to the manor late that night and everything was quiet the way it always was now. I walked past a door I hadn't opened in three years and I didn't know what but my feet just stopped there.

It was Liora's old room.

I don't know why I unlocked it after all this time, but I did, and nothing inside had changed.

I picked up a framed photo of her from her dresser, it was of the two of us on our anniversary, and she was smiling so wide in it, while I stood beside her barely managing anything at all.

Her grandmother had forced it that we take the picture and she had come to beg me in the middle of the night to take the picture for her sake just to make Liora happy.

"You miss her," Damien, the Estate manager and pack advisor said quietly from the doorway, and I hadn't even heard him come in.

"No," I said, too fast.

He didn't argue, he just looked at the photo in my hands.

"Then why has no one been allowed to touch this room in three years?"

I didn't have an answer for that either so I didn't say anything.

"She waited for you every night," he said, "sometimes until sunrise, she always believed you'd eventually choose her."

My grip tightened around the frame until the edges dug into my palm and blood stained the frame.

The next morning Marcus called me into his study and I thought, for one stupid second, that he might actually ask how I was holding up.

"The company comes first," he said instead, not even looking up from his papers,

"The pack comes first, so stop letting your emotions distract you from what matters."

"What if I made the wrong decision?" I asked him, and I don't know why I said it out loud.

He looked at me then, and there wasn't a shred of sympathy in his face.

"Regret changes nothing," he said, and went back to his papers without looking at me.

Later that day, I had to go to a government meeting for a contract that could pull Vale Group out of this mess, and I actually believed we had it locked down until one of the officials cleared his throat.

"We've decided to partner with another company," he said, and the room went dead silent around me.

My chest tightened. This project was supposed to be mine. Why are they suddenly partnering with another company?

Another official slid a file across the table toward me.

"Our chosen partner has outperformed every competitor who applied," he said.

I looked down at the logo on the front page and it said "Ashwood Developments".

I frowned, because I'd never heard of them in my life.

"Who owns this company?" I asked.

The officials exchanged a look I didn't like, and one of them smiled just slightly.

"You'll be meeting the CEO in person, right now actually." He said

I was still turning the book over wondering which company dared put my company off a contract that could change our lives when my secretary suddenly came through the doors behind me.

"Alpha," she said, breathless, "the CEO just arrived."

I turned toward the conference room doors slowly, and they started to open.