The Ultimatum

Kaelen

Three agonizing, blood-soaked weeks later, I am relentlessly pacing the dark hardwood floor of my massive office. I can barely contain my monstrous inner wolf, Torr. The beast inside me is completely, violently unhinged; he is throwing himself against the mental cages of my mind, desperately wanting to forcefully drag Lyra back here by her hair. He wants to brutally mark her neck for everyone to see, sinking his fangs so deep the scar will never fade, and severely punish her for daring to run from us.

It has been three excruciating weeks since she boldly stood in that hotel room and formally rejected me, severing her side of our sacred mate bond. I honestly don't know how much longer I can mentally or physically keep Torr from completely snapping, breaking through my control, and hunting her down to drag her home by force.

This chaotic nightmare was absolutely never part of the original, calculated plan. It was supposed to be a simple, clean political assassination. We were simply supposed to drug her, get some highly provocative, compromising photos of her completely naked at the club, and use those explicit images to ruthlessly blackmail her arrogant father, Alpha Bronson. The goal was to forcefully remove him from his powerful seat on the supernatural high council. Instead, the universe played a sick joke. I accidentally discovered his precious, sheltered daughter was my fated mate, completely derailing my entire political strategy. Torr wanted her, and all rational thought went straight to hell.

A heavy slam breaks my dark, violent brooding. Judd, my ever-practical Beta, loudly drops a thick stack of council documents onto my polished desk.

"Pull yourself completely together, Kaelen," Judd sharply snaps, his tone entirely lacking his usual careful respect. He watches me pace like a caged animal. "What about our plans? This was your brilliant idea all along. Find her. Take some highly scandalous pictures of her naked. Destroy her corrupt father and get him off the council. You should be absolutely rejoicing that she rejected you and saved you the massive political headache of being permanently tied to his bloodline."

Torr violently snarls in my head at his dismissive words, the sound vibrating deeply in my chest.

"It’s not exactly that. I’m just extremely pissed off that she beat me to it and rejected me first," I dangerously growl, my eyes flashing a brilliant, lethal silver as my wolf pushes to the surface.

Instead of formally rejecting her back in that hotel room to cleanly sever the tie and be done with it, my damn, possessive wolf violently took control of my body. He stubbornly decided we were keeping her no matter the cost. Now, the ethereal bond is only permanently severed on her side, leaving me fully feeling the agonizing, one-sided pull pulling at my chest every waking second.

Judd leans back against the leather sofa, sweeping his ash-blond hair from his eyes. "You can’t go through with it, can you?"

I exhale harshly and press my lips into a thin, grim line. If I do formally reject her now to save my own pride and sever the remaining tether, Torr will completely lose his mind. He will go on another horrific, blood-soaked killing spree through our own ranks just like he did years ago. Covering up the last massacre was nearly impossible.

"It was a perfect strategy until I realized she was my mate," I mutter bitterly.

Judd stares at the ornate ceiling, utterly exhausted by my erratic, violent moods over the last twenty-one days. "If you don’t want to actually do it, fine. But at least formally call her and stop fucking moping around the packhouse like a wounded pup. If you want her, go get her. I hold no judgment." I let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through my hair. "Seriously, bro," Judd continues, standing up and heading for the heavy oak door. "Just pick up the damn phone and call her. At least then you can finally decide to officially reject her or not."

After Judd frustratedly steps away, leaving me alone with my raging beast, I reluctantly pull out my cell phone. I scroll through the encrypted contacts and manually dial the private home number I explicitly tracked down through our underground informants when I was drinking a few nights ago.

The line rings a few agonizing times, echoing in the quiet office, before her father, Alpha Bronson, forcefully answers.

"Who is this?" Bronson aggressively demands.

I roll my eyes at his immediately insufferable, arrogant tone. The man is a colossal prick who thinks he rules the world.

"Alpha Kaelen, Bronson. Now, put your daughter on the line," I sharply snap, completely bypassing any false pleasantries.

"You have no reason to be calling my daughter. What do you want?" Bronson aggressively and loudly barks, his chest-beating posturing radiating through the speaker. "Answer me! My daughter holds no rights over my pack. If you’re thinking of trying to get her to persuade me to change my mind on the council vote, I can assure you my precious daughter hates you just as much as I do."

Entirely bored with his pathetic, predictable Alpha routine already, I deliberately decide to drop the massive, explosive truth right in his lap.

"Where is Lyra, Bronson?" I ask coldly.

"You stay the fuck away from my daughter!" he roars.

"No can do, Bronson. Lyra is my fated mate. So, when my mate finally gets home, tell her to ring me immediately," I arrogantly tell him. I don't give him a single second to respond. I fully enjoy the stunned, horrifying silence that suddenly falls on his end of the line before I abruptly hang up the phone.

I stare at the black screen of my phone, a dark smirk playing on my lips, until I hear a slight shuffle by the entrance. Judd is stepping cautiously back from the door frame where he had clearly been listening.

"Are you done eavesdropping?" I ask him.

"Do you think deliberately antagonizing her highly volatile, abusive father like that was a wise strategic move?" Judd quietly questions.

I exhaustedly rub my incredibly tired, bloodshot eyes. I’ve barely slept a full hour in weeks. I haven't even left the packhouse grounds, absolutely terrified that if I step foot outside, Torr will forcefully take over my body, hunt her down in the middle of the city, and ignite a massive, catastrophic pack war.

I walk slowly across the room to the crystal bar cart. I grab a heavy glass and a bottle of premium whiskey, pouring us both a stiff, burning drink. I hand one to Judd before calmly laying out my final, ruthless ultimatum.

"If she doesn’t ring me by tonight or physically come find me to beg for forgiveness, we immediately leak the sex tape and the naked photos I sent to your encrypted phone," I tell him, my voice completely devoid of mercy.

Instantly, Torr violently snarls in my head at the horrifying thought of other random men seeing her beautifully naked and completely vulnerable. The vivid image of strangers staring at her bare skin makes his terrifying, suffocating aura violently rush out of my body. The sheer pressure of his dark energy spikes, and the crystal whiskey glass in my hand suddenly cracks loudly under my tightening grip.

I quickly and desperately force my breathing to slow, pushing the beast down. *You gave her a fair chance,* I tell my wolf silently. *If she doesn’t call back, we leak the sex tape, Torr. She will absolutely come crawling back then. Lyra will have nowhere else to go.* Torr grumbles darkly, but his snarling finally recedes, appeased by the twisted logic of my trap.

Judd warily watches me over the rim of his cracked crystal glass, clearly doubting my extreme, unhinged methods. "You aggressively leak those explicit photos to the media, and it will entirely destroy her life, Kaelen. I don’t think it is the brilliant winning move you think it is, Alpha."

"She had her chance," I coldly reply, downing the burning amber liquid in one swift motion. The alcohol burns down my throat, but it does nothing to soothe the raw ache in my chest.

I know her vicious father intimately well. Alpha Bronson is entirely obsessed with his public image. This massive, extremely public scandal will be a catastrophic blow to his fragile reputation and his oversized ego. It will inevitably and permanently remove him from the high council, achieving my original goal. But more importantly, Bronson will violently banish Lyra from the pack territory to selfishly save his own face. Once she is exiled, no other pack in this entire city will ever dare take in a disgraced, ruined rogue with a leaked sex tape attached to her name.

She thinks she can simply walk away from us. But by tomorrow morning, Lyra will have absolutely nowhere else to go but to crawl directly to me, entirely dependent on my protection to survive.