KATHY’S POV
At first, I wasn’t completely sure. But after spending a few hours with her in the Alpha’s office, sitting close and listening to her voice, watching the way she acted, it became clear that she was my best friend, Charlotte
She wasn’t pretending not to know me. I watched her closely. She truly didn’t remember me. And that scared me. It made me wonder what really happened to her after she was exiled six years ago. I hard searched for her the little way I could but I didn’t find her.
We became friends many years back, when she was brought into the pack after her mother died. She barely spoke then. She stayed to herself and avoided everyone. Most people ignored her. I liked her and I genuinely wanted her to be my friend
She looked shocked when I asked her to be my friend. “Why do you want to become my friend?” she asked me back then. “Nobody sees me in this pack. And the few people who do, they don’t like me. They say I’m ugly.”
She reluctantly accepted. What shocked me was the way she was waiting for me to hurt her the same way everyone else did. Only after she realized I wasn’t there to hurt her, and that I truly didn’t think she was ugly, did she start to open up to me.
When the Alpha saved her from the rogues, she ran straight to me to tell me everything. Her dull eyes were bright whenever she talked about him. Her teenage heart fell for him. It shattered, the day he started dating her sister. And then the Moon Goddess played her cruel game by pairing them as mates.
The Alpha was proud and arrogant. He would never openly choose someone he saw as beneath him. But even then, I noticed he liked her, even if he never said it. Charlotte believed she was invisible, but she wasn’t.
He noticed her in small ways. Like the time Moon ruined the cake we baked for Charlotte. The next day, a new cake showed up. He didn’t bring it himself. He sent it through Damien, making sure no one knew it came from him.
I could never forget the night Charlotte and I were heading to my house to work on a math assignment. She was supposed to sleep over. On the way, we passed a group of boys. They started mocking her, laughing, calling her ugly. Then one of them, Bryce, stepped forward and punched her in the face.
Charlotte ran off, crying so hard. I acted without thinking. I stomped on his foot with my boot twice and ran. He shouted and started chasing me. My heart was pounding loudly with fear. Then, suddenly, their footsteps stopped.
I turned around.
The Alpha was there. He was hitting them, one after the other, his fists moving fast. They didn’t stand a chance. “You’re weak and pathetic,” he said. “You can beat up a girl, but you can’t even throw a proper punch at me. Pathetic.” It didn’t take long. They were all on their knees, blood dripping from their faces.
“Next time you call her ugly,” he said, his voice tight with anger, “you won’t be able to use your tongues again. You’ll apologize to her tomorrow.”
Just like the Alpha commanded, they all came the next day. One after the other, they apologized to Charlotte with tears in their eyes.
Charlotte didn’t see it happen, but I did. She still believed she was invisible, that no one noticed her. But the Alpha did. He noticed her more than anyone else.
On her birthdays, when her father didn’t buy her anything, dresses would show up. No name or note. Just the gifts. I knew he was the one behind all of it. I always saw Damien sneaking them in. Charlotte thought they were from me, and Damien
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4.34 pm
Chapter 16
asked me to let her believe that.
But everything changed after that night. The Alpha rejected Charlotte after being intimate with her. He chose Moon over his mate. That was when something in me broke. I started to dislike him.
It became worse when he sent her into exile for something she never did. That was the moment I started hating him.
I got back to my apartment in the pack, took a quick bath, and changed into plain black pants and a black shirt. I tied my hair into a ponytail. Even as I moved around, my mind wouldn’t rest. Images of last night kept pushing their way in. I never imagined the Alpha was carrying that much pain and hiding it so well. No one in the pack knew. Maybe only the few people closest to him did.
He had never shown weakness. I had never seen him like that before.
When I was done, I stepped outside to wait for my ride. I was balancing my bag and paperwork when someone suddenly blocked my face.
“Excuse me,” I said with a hiss, trying to move past.
I looked up.
It was that damned Gamma, Damien. The same Damien who used to sneak gifts to Charlotte many years ago.
“Still as feisty as ever, aren’t you?” he asked, a smirk on his face.
“Yes,” I snapped, “and I might scratch out your ugly face if you don’t get out of my face this instant.”
He laughed. “You know I’m anything but ugly. I’m sure you dream about my handsome face when you sleep at night.”
Damn him. He wasn’t wrong. He had one of the most handsome faces I’d ever seen, with his black hair and those piercing black eyes that pins you down.
“Come,” he said. “I’ll drive you to the office.”
I scowled at him. He only chuckled. “You can also keep standing there forever.”
He pulled his car to a stop right in front of me. I got in without another word. I wasn’t about to stand under the sun any longer.
When we got to the office, I went back to work while he headed straight into the Alpha’s office. A few minutes later, I went in to remind him that the meeting with the executives had been moved to tomorrow. That was when I heard Damien say something that confirmed my suspicion.
“…Charlotte has amnesia. She lost every memory from her past. According to what my source found in London, Alpha Graves brought her to live with him six years ago. No one knows how or where he found her, but he treats her like his daughter.”
“How did she lose her memory?” the Alpha asked. “What exactly caused the amnesia?”
“I believe it was an accident,” Damien replied. “When he brought her in, she was in a coma and stayed that way for some time. Everything else about her past is sealed.”
I gasped before I could stop myself. The words slipped out. “I knew it. She must have lost her memory. That’s why she doesn’t recognize me.”
The Alpha growled loudly, the sound filled with warning. “How dare you barge into my office without permission,” he snapped. “I’m tempted to fire you for the second time today.”
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I quickly bowed my head. “I apologize, Alpha. I was only…
Damien’s chuckle cut me off “She’s only been working here for less than a week and you already want to fire her she mus
be really annoying to work with”
He was mocking me, and my fingers curled at my sides. I wanted to punch his nose,
“I was surprised when I hugged her yesterday and she acted like she didn’t remember me,” I said, forcing myself to stay calm. “At first. I thought I was mistaken because the birthmark on her face wasn’t there anymore. But after seeing how she treated you last night, I knew for sure she wasn’t acting.”
“How she treated me?” the Alpha asked, looking confused.
“Yes,” I said, my voice shaking. “After you chose her sister over and over. After you sent her to the cage, where she was die. You whipped every day with whips soaked in wolfsbane. After you rejected her and exiled her without even listening or giving her the benefit of the doubt.” My chest rose and fell hard. “Even an angel would have walked away and let you deserved it.”
My hands clenched as the words kept coming. “But she didn’t. Last night, she stayed. She hovered around you, checking you, fighting to keep you alive. I’m sure that…”
Damien cleared his throat, cutting me off.
The Alpha’s chair scraped as he stood. A low snarl tore from his chest. His eyes shifted, locking on me like I was prey.
I bowed my head again, my heart racing but my mouth still moving. “I’m sorry, Alpha. But I only said what you did. You treated her like a traitor. Like she was nothing. When all she ever did was love you.” I swallowed. “I’m glad she forgot about you.”
“KATHRYN!”
His voice exploded through the office. The walls trembled. The air shifted.
Even if he fired me right now, I didn’t care. My hands were shaking, my heart pounding, but for the first time in years, my chest felt lighter. I finally said what had been burning inside me for years.
“I came a few times to beg you on her behalf, but you punished me by leaving me under the sun for hours.”
Damien growled low, his teeth clenched in displeasure. The sound made my skin crawl. I couldn’t stand the heat and tension in the office.
Without thinking, I turned and ran.
An Alpha and his Gamma growling at the same time wasn’t something I ever wanted to witness again.
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AD
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
