25 Chapter 25


    Seraphina’s POV 1


    Anna ckwood-was someone I’d hoped never to see again for the rest of my natural life.


    The memories came flooding back with crystalline rity, each one hitting me like a physical blow. Anna and Valerie, standing over me


    in the high school bathroom during my sophomore year, their cruelughter echoing off the grimy tiled walls as they shoved my head


    toward the toilet bowl filled with murky water and discarded cigarette butts. 1


    “Look at the pathetic little omega,” Valerie had sneered, her manicured nails digging into my scalp as she held me down. “Does she really


    think she belongs here with real wolves?”


    Anna had been right there beside her, recording everything on her phone while she giggled. “This is going straight to the pack forum,”


    she’d taunted. “Everyone needs to see what happens to omegas who get too uppity.”


    The taste of chlorine and humiliation had burned my throat for days afterward. But that wasn’t the worst of it. They’d made sure to time


    their attacks perfectly-always when teachers were in meetings, always when the hallways were empty, always when there would be no


    witnesses except their loyal followers who found omega-baiting as entertaining as a sporting event. 1


    There had been the time they’d dumped my entire lunch tray on my head in front of the senior ss, then forced me to clean it up while


    they stood there critiquing my “technique.” The countless mornings I’d arrived at school to find my locker filled with rotting meat and


    notes calling me “worthless breeding stock.”


    Anna’s specialty had been psychological warfare. She’d befriend me for just long enough to learn my insecurities, then weaponize them


    with surgical precision. She’d discovered I had a crush on a boy in our chemistry ss and had convinced him to ask me to the spring


    formal-only to reveal it was all an borate prank when I showed up to find themughing at me in front of the entire school.


    “Did you really think someone like him would want damaged goods?” Anna had whispered as I stood there in my carefully saved-for


    dress, humiliation burning through my veins like acid. “You’re just a charity case, Sera. Always have been, always will be.”


    For three endless years, they’d made sure I knew exactly where I stood in the pack hierarchy. Every day brought fresh reminders that I


    was nothing, nobody, a mistake that everyone tolerated only because the Moon Goddess apparently had a twisted sense of humor.


    After graduation, she’d vanishedpletely. Valerie had mentioned once that Anna was “sleeping her way to the top” with various


    wealthy men, but I’d assumed that was just typical Valerie venom. Now here she was, draped all over my mate like a cheap essory,


    acting as if we were long-lost best friends.


    “Know each other?” Anna’s voice pitched higher, that same theatrical quality I remembered from our school days when she’d perform for


    whatever audience was avable. “We were best friends! Isn’t that right, Sera darling?”


    The casual lie made my wolf snarl with indignation. A was pacing furiously in my mind, her mental voice sharp with protective anger.


    *That bitch tormented us for years. How dare she rewrite history?*


    But what made my chest tighten with real pain wasn’t Anna’s presence-it was the golden pendant she kept waving around like a trophy.


    The craftsmanship was exquisite, clearly expensive.


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    “Report to the office Monday morning,” Damien said, his voice carrying that same professional tone he’d used during my interview.


    “You’ll be working as a senior assistant. With Sera.”


    With me.


    The words felt like ice water being poured down my spine. This woman-this creature who had spent three years of my life making me feel worthless-was being handed a position identical to mine. No interview, no qualifications check, no demonstration of ability. Just


    Damien’s word, apparently based on whatever sob story she’d fed him about their supposed romantic history.


    “Excuse me,” I managed to say, my voice steady despite the fury building in my chest. “But did this… candidate go through the same


    interview process I did? Because I seem to recall multiple rounds of screening, reference checks, and a rather intense evaluation period


    before I was deemed qualified for this position.”


    Anna’s perfectly manicured hand tightened on Damien’s arm, her artificially plumped lips curving into a smirk I knew all too well. “Oh,


    Sera,” sheughed, that same musical tinkle that had preceded so many of my teenage humiliations. “Always so concerned with rules and


    fairness. Some of us don’t need to jump through hoops when we have… special qualifications.”


    She pressed herself closer to Damien, making sure her enhanced curves were pressed against his side in a way that would be impossible


    to ignore. The possessive gesture made my wolf howl with rage, and I had to dig my nails into my palms to keep from lunging at her


    throat.


    “Special qualifications?” I repeated, my voice taking on an edge that made several passing security guards look in our direction.


    “You don’t understand!” Anna’s voice rose to that familiar pitch of manufactured excitement, designed to draw attention and make


    everyone focus on her performance. “I’m Damien’s first love! His true mate from years ago!” She waved the pendant frantically, the gold


    catching the overhead lights. “He promised me all of this-the job, the position, everything! I might even be his Luna!”


    The bottom dropped out of my world.


    Damien’s face had gone carefully nk. But his silence spoke volumes. He wasn’t denying her ims. Wasn’t correcting her assumption


    about their rtionship status. Wasn’t even stepping away from her touch.


    My mate-the man who’d rescued me from Michael’s assault, who’d made love to me with desperate passion in the back seat of his car,


    who’d looked at me like I was everything he’d been searching for-was standing there letting another woman im his future.


    And not just any woman. The woman who’d spent three years of my adolescence convincing me I was worthless.


    “Well then,” I said quietly, my voice carrying a calm that I definitely didn’t feel. “I suppose congrattions are in order.”


    I looked directly at Damien, meeting those blue eyes that had haunted my dreams for the past week. Eyes that now seemed cold and


    distant, like he was looking at a stranger rather than the woman he’d imed as his mate.


    “I hope you’ll both be very happy together,” I continued, each word carefully measured and precisely delivered. “And I’ll go home right


    now.”


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