Chapter 5

Eliana POV

The room reeked of ozone and raw anguish. Dustin was writhing on the floor, his fingers clawing at his chest as if trying to rip his own heart out.

*Why?* his wolf howled through the mind-link. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated devastation. *Why did you cut us?*

I didn't answer. I slammed the iron gate of my mind shut.

The connection was severed instantly, but the echo remained-a phantom limb pain where my soul used to be attached to his. I felt lightheaded, the adrenaline crashing hard, but deep within me, my Inner Wolf was purring.

She was already licking her wounds, triggering the accelerated healing process unique to the White Wolf bloodline. The pain was fading, replaced by a cold, crystalline clarity.

"Dustin!" Jami shrieked, dropping to her knees beside him. "What's wrong? What did she do?"

She looked up at me with genuine terror. She didn't understand. She was a regular wolf; she couldn't comprehend the spiritual devastation I had just unleashed.

I ignored them both. I raised a shaking hand and tapped my earpiece.

"Laura," I said, my voice steady despite the throbbing ache in my ribs. "Execute Phase One."

"Copy that, Luna-I mean, Ms. David. We are breaching."

Seconds later, the heavy double doors of the mansion burst open.

Six figures marched in. They weren't warriors. They were worse.

They were lawyers and movers, flanked by four massive Gamma wolves from a private security firm.

Laura, looking razor-sharp in a tailored black power suit, stepped into the study. She surveyed the chaotic scene-Dustin gasping on the floor, me bleeding against the mahogany desk-and her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Document everything," she ordered the Gammas.

One of them immediately stepped forward, camera shutter clicking rapidly as he cataloged my injuries and the destroyed manuscript scattered across the carpet.

I pushed off the desk and walked to the center of the living room, where the Obsidian Pack crest was inlaid into the hardwood floor.

"What... what is happening?" Dustin gasped, trying to force himself upright. The rejection pain comes in waves; he was currently in a lull, but the next wave would be worse.

"I'm taking what's mine," I said.

I reached down and picked up a heavy iron poker from the fireplace. I walked back to the crest.

"Eliana! Stop!" Dustin shouted, his voice ragged. "That is the Pack symbol!"

"A symbol built on lies," I replied cold.

I jammed the tip of the poker under the central tile-a piece of rare, polished black onyx I had bought for him three years ago-and leveraged my weight against it. The grout cracked with a satisfying, dry *pop*.

"She's crazy!" Jami yelled, scrambling backward. "Security! Avi!"

"Avi works for the Pack," Laura interjected smoothly, stepping forward to hand me a silk handkerchief for my split lip. "But the security system? The cameras? The payroll software? That belongs to David Tech. And we just revoked your license."

As if on cue, the lights in the house flickered and died.

A second later, the emergency backup engaged, bathing us all in a hellish, crimson glow.

"You..." Dustin stared at me, realization finally dawning through his haze of pain. "You can't do this."

My eyes flashed-not the warm gold of a normal wolf, but the pure, blinding silver of the White Wolf.

The atmospheric pressure in the room shifted instantly. It wasn't just Alpha dominance; it was something ancient. Divine.

"I can," I said softly.

"You betrayed the bond. You broke the covenant. Now, I am collecting the debt."

I gestured broadly to the furniture, the oil paintings, the imported Persian rugs.

"Take it all," I ordered the movers. "If my name is on the receipt, it goes."

"You're stripping the house?" Dustin roared, trying to summon the Alpha Command. But his voice cracked mid-shout. Without a Mate, an Alpha is unstable. His command washed over me like a gentle, harmless breeze.

"I'm not stripping the house, Dustin," I said, dropping the heavy onyx tile into my bag. "I'm repossessing my life."

I turned to the lead mover, my expression void of any emotion.

"Start with the master bedroom," I commanded. "I want the mattress gone."

Dustin's face went ghostly pale. That was the ultimate insult, the erasure of their infidelity.

"You dare?" he whispered.

"Watch me."