Chapter 8
Before he died, Finn of the Varyn family had secretly met Dad.
He was fiercely loyal and believed his descendants would always stand behind the Alpha.
But he feared that one day, some disgraceful heir would chase power they didn’t deserve, using his legacy as an excuse. So he begged the former Alpha–my grandfather–to give a special token to the one son he trusted
most.
That son was Micah.
He wasn’t fit to be a Delta himself, he preferred business over war but was loyal to the bone.
Before Finn died, he wrote a final letter. If any Varyn family member ever betrayed the pack, his son could use the token to command every Dominic warrior to serve the true Alpha.
My father never thought that the token would actually be used. But it turned out Finn had seen the future more clearly than anyone. That token saved the pack from total destruction.
When we exited the prison, Magnus and all their warriors were already under control, kneeling on either side of the path.
Elise clutched Daisy tightly, crying and shouting that she was innocent, but the guards stuffed a cloth in her mouth.
She still struggled to make noise, desperate. Then she saw us. The moment we appeared, her eyes went red.
I raised a hand, and the guards pulled the cloth from her mouth. She shouted instantly, “Rowena? No way! Frost Fang Pack has an army of a hundred thousand!”
“This is our territory. Even if you brought an army, how could you beat our numbers?”
“But… but the Royal Guard already surrendered…”
Her legs gave out. She crumbled, whispering in disbelief, “It’s all fake- everything was fake.”
I smiled softly, then motioned for them to drag over Dominic, now a broken, bleeding mess.
“Elise,” I said, “yes, we did lie to you. But if it makes you feel any better, this man loved you. Truly. Not that it matters. Love doesn’t mean much when it’s all built on lies.”
Dominic lifted his blood–smeared face. Daisy took one look and burst into tears, screaming, “Daddy!”
Micah stepped forward and tossed something in front of Elise. The severed head of Frost Fang’s Alpha.
“Here,” he said. “Take back your father.”
Elise’s mind shattered. She fainted on the spot, eyes rolling back in her head.
Dominic, trembling, dragged his broken body to my feet and grabbed my ankle. “Rowena, she tricked me. I was under her spell. I didn’t know what I was doing. But I don’t deserve to die for this?
“Please… please… For the sake of the years we were married. I’ll do anything to serve you–grovel if I have to. Just let me live, Rowena.”
I yanked my leg back, disgusted, frowning as I looked down at him. “Dominic, weren’t you the one who said you’d thrive without me? That you didn’t need me to make your name? Well, I’ve already spoken to my father. He agreed.”
“Agreed to what?” he asked, eyes wide with panic.
“I, Rowena Thalor, daughter of the Red Moon Alpha, officially reject you, Dominic, as my mate.”
The second the bond broke, Dominic screamed and rolled on the ground, unable to handle the pain tearing through his body.
My father helped steady me. I looked down at Dominic with eyes cold as ice.
“From now on, we’re nothing.
“You go chase your dreams. I’ll keep living the life of an Alpha’s rich, powerful, untouchable daughter.”
He didn’t answer right away. But after a long silence, blood welled up in his eyes and slid down his cheeks, mixing with the blood on his face. He looked even more pathetic than before.
Dad didn’t spare him another glance.
“Kill them all,” he ordered. “Don’t leave a single one.”
Micah hesitated. “Even the five–year–old girl?”
I turned slightly and asked, “Micah, didn’t Finn say that the Alpha’s orders come first above all else?”
“Understood.”
Behind me, bodies fell one after another. My father and I walked forward
without looking back.
A few days later, Micah returned the token to my dad. Then he left the pack, taking the entire Varyn family with him.
Dad asked me to escort them out.
So I stood at the Pack Gate, watching their silhouettes fade. I thought about my past life–how Micah had died of illness two years before Dominic became Alpha.
Would that life have ended differently if he had lived just two years longer?
But it didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was that I protected the Thalor family’s Alpha seat this time and saved the rest of the Varyn family, minus one.
I didn’t waste this second chance the heavens gave me.
Once they were gone, I turned and walked home.
Yesterday, my father asked if I wanted to open the mate selection again. I turned him down.
What he doesn’t know is that there’s already a letter in my pocket–a love letter from the Lycan Prince.
