? 50%


    Julian’s POV


    I returned to headquarters and went straight to my office. I buried myself in work, pouring over my documents inplete silence, distracting myself with theplex legality of the words.


    Beta broke the silence as he brought my daily coffee, his question a cautious probe. “Alpha, what’s wrong?”


    I sat in silence. Of course Beta could tell that something besides my usual moodiness was going on. He knew me too well.


    Finally, I dropped my pen. “Amber has changed. A lot.”


    Her appearance had changed, the bright gold of her hair bringing her features to life in a way that made her somehow even more


    beautiful. Her aura was stronger, more like an Alpha.


    Even her attitude had changed. She no longer immediately softened andpromised when she saw him angry, worried about


    making him unhappy. Now, she boldly demanded to have her independence, using him of harassing her.


    I stared at the coffee Beta had made for me. Amber had always cold-brewed my coffee for me the night before, making it exactly


    the way I liked. She would bring it to me as I headed out the door for work, over ice so it would remain cold throughout the


    morning.


    Beta, though, just used the coffee machine. Amber’s absence these past five years had made life seem wobbly, unstable, like


    sitting in a chair with a missing leg.


    “Do you n to go see her tomorrow?” Beta asked.


    I shook my head. “Keep surveilling her house, Beta. I want daily reports of herings and goings. I want to know where she


    works.”


    Over theing while, Beta followed my instructions, but Amber always seemed to know she was being followed. She’d drive like a pro, always losing the tail Beta had assigned to her.


    One day, I decided I’d do it myself. I’d taken to driving myself over the past five years, enjoying being in control of where I went, every stop and start on my terms, not a faceless driver’s. Nobody blinked an eye when I grabbed the key to the car myself.


    I’d gone to her house and parked down the street, waiting for her to emerge, then waiting a few more seconds before following her


    down the street.


    We ended up at arge supermarket. I watched her walk inside,


    She must be working at the supermarket, a low-level job that was so beneath a woman like her. Why did she still refuse toe home, where she could have all theforts in the world provided to her?


    I decided to acquire the supermarket chain myself.


    12:36 PM Tue 26 Aug


    50%


    +25 BON


    I’d taken to stayingte at the office every night. I was avoiding Olivia. She was clingy, always upset at my inability to reciprocate her attempts at intimacy, and I no longer had any patience for it.


    Olivia’s POV


    “What?” Olivia said into the phone. “He’s workingte again?”


    “Yes, ma’am,” Beta responded. He refused to address Olivia as Luna until she’d been properly assigned the title.


    “He hasn’t seen me for two weeks, since thest time I had an appointment at the hospital,” Oliva said, her voice rising higher and higher as she spoke. “If he’s going to avoid me like this, he could at least make better excuses!”


    Beta began his usual apologies, exining the Alpha’s busy work schedule. Olivia hung up the phone, fed up with the act.


    That night, Olivia put on a sexy red lingerie set, pulling a trench coat on over top of it, and headed to the corporate building that housed Julian’s office. She would seduce him. She would make him want her.


    She didn’t even make it inside.


    “Sorry, ma’am,” the secretary said, blocking her path towards the elevators. “Alpha instructed me not to let anyone in. He’s in a very important meeting.


    “I’ll wait,” Olivia replied, sitting down on a sleek bench in therge lobby.


    She sat there for two hours, the cold metal ufortable under her thighs. She became more and more angry the longer she waited until finally she shoved past the secretary and to Julian’s office.


    It waspletely empty.


    “He lied to me!” Olivia roared, her anger erupting into furious screams like angry redva from a volcano.


    Rage and panic mixed into a stormy cocktail inside Olivia. She couldn’t shake the fear that Julian had another woman besides her.


    She sat down in Julian’s chair, behind hisrge, expensive Alpha’s desk, and pulled out her phone. She dialed her private investigator.


    “I need you to look into the Alpha’s movements,” Oliva said.


    “Miss Olivia, you want me to tail the Alpha? My livelihood would be threatened if I got caught,” her private investigator responded.


    Olivia replied back with a sum that was too great for the private investigator to refuse. Reluctantly, he agreed, and Olivia hung up the phone, satisfied. She sat at therge desk, imagining possessing the immense power of taking meetings and running the pack, before sweeping out of the office.


    Later, when Olivia was back at her house, the private investigator sent over a file with a full report, along with photographs. Julian hadn’t been workingte. He hadn’t been working at all. Instead, he’d been lingering near a particr residential building.


    Olivia flipped through the photos the investigator had provided, trying to make sense of the situation. She’d never thought Julian


    12:37 PM Tue 26 Aug


    50%


    was smart enough to see through her advances. She’d thought all he wanted was a pretty thing to carry on his arm.


    Then, she came to one photograph of a woman standing outside the house Julian had been near, unlocking her car. The woman’s


    face was visible, uninhibited by any hat or sunsses.


    Olivia pressed her face closer to the screen, trying to make sure she was seeing clearly. Her eyes widened in disbelief.


    The woman’s face – she could never forget that face.


    12:37 PM Tue 26 Aug