Rejected by the Billionaire Alpha: The Hidden White Wolf

Bryn POV:

Cathey Terry threw herself down the last three marble steps of the penthouse staircase, landing in a twisted heap of pale silk. She scraped her knee and elbow against the stone floor, and fat tears spilled from her eyes right on cue.

I stood at the top of the stairs, my fingertips trembling from the sheer absurdity of her performance. For ten years, this ambitious Beta woman had used herbal sachets to mask her mediocre scent, pretending to be the fragile angel who saved my husband's life. I didn't reach out to help her. I just curled my lip in a cold sneer.

The heavy double doors of the White Enterprises penthouse slammed open. Harden White strode in carrying the freezing chill of the Manhattan night, his tailored suit sharp and imposing. As the billionaire CEO of White Enterprises and the supreme Alpha of the White Pack, he commanded absolute terror. His dark gray eyes locked onto Cathey on the floor, his pupils contracting before a suffocating wave of Alpha aura erupted straight toward me on the second-floor landing.

In our world, an Alpha's Command carries a biological compulsion that no lower-ranking wolf in the pack can resist. Because I had spent the last decade suppressing my true royal White Wolf bloodline to live as a "wolfless"-a genetic defect born without an inner wolf-I had to play my part. I dropped to one knee under the crushing weight, my forehead slamming against the iron railing. Warm blood immediately trickled down my temple.

"You vicious woman! How dare you push my savior?"

Harden roared, taking the stairs three at a time. He lunged forward and clamped his large hand around my jaw, forcing my head up.

I was forced to meet the disgust in my fated mate's eyes. Beneath my blouse, the jagged, blackened scar on my left shoulder throbbed with a dull ache-the permanent mark of a silver blade I had taken for him ten years ago, an honor Cathey had stolen while I lay in a coma. I clenched my teeth, my voice devoid of any warmth.

"I didn't push her. She rolled down on her own."

"Enough! I saw the whole thing with my own eyes!"

Blair White, Harden's spoiled younger sister, sprinted down the hallway. She stomped her designer heel, the pink diamond on her ring finger flashing under the chandelier, and shoved my shoulders with both hands.

Already pinned down by Harden's aura, I lost my balance completely. My back crashed into a tall antique porcelain vase. The ceramic shattered on impact, and a sharp shard sliced across the back of my hand, spilling bright red drops onto the imported rug.

"Don't blame Bryn... It was my own fault for losing my footing..."

Cathey sobbed weakly from the bottom of the stairs. She lifted her arm just enough to expose the woven herbal pouch tied around her wrist. That fake, cloying scent drifted upward, making Harden's brow furrow deeper as his fury spiked.

Thud. Thud.

"Harden! You ungrateful bastard! Let go of your wife this instant!"

Grandma Vivienne, the only person in the White Pack who had ever treated me like family, walked out of her bedroom suite. She trembled violently with rage, slamming her wooden cane against the floorboards upon seeing my bloodied face.

Instead of letting go, Harden pressed his aura down harder. His icy voice echoed through the grand hall.

"Grandma, she is nothing but a wolfless piece of trash without an inner wolf! She doesn't deserve to be the Luna of the White Pack! Today, she will kneel and apologize to Cathey!"

Vivienne gasped for air, her chest heaving at his words. Her face drained of all color, and she clutched at her heart before falling straight backward.

"Grandma!"

My pupils shrank. Ignoring the tearing pressure of Harden's dominance, I wrenched my chin from his grip and lunged toward Vivienne, my fingers only managing to brush the hem of her robe before she hit the floor.

Harden froze in shock, instantly retracting his aura. He bolted down the hallway, scooped his unconscious grandmother into his arms, and bellowed at the pack guards stationed outside the door.

"Bring the car around! Get us to the Healer clinic!"

Chaos swallowed the foyer as the guards rushed in. Blair hurried past me on the stairs and spat viciously at my feet.

"If anything happens to Grandma, you wolfless freak, you'll pay with your life!"

Harden carried Vivienne out in long strides, while a pack guard carefully supported a limping Cathey behind him. Not a single person looked back at me lying in the pool of my own blood.

The heavy front doors clicked shut, leaving the massive penthouse dead silent. The blood on my forehead and the back of my hand began to clot. I deliberately suppressed my White Wolf's rapid healing ability, letting the sharp sting spread through my nerves.

Staring at the dark red stains soaking into the carpet, I felt the last shred of my ten-year obsession dry up and turn to ash.