Alicia I went to my room but Matt's t hreat and everything else he had said continued ringing in my head.

I could not sit in one place and kept pacing through my bedroom nervously, wondering what to do next.

I did not want Matt, I was sure of that but I also did not want Caleb. Not after seeing those pics.

He had just used me and left the changing room after he felt sated.

I had not shown much of my anger or any other emotion in front of Matt but now I felt utterly devastated.

I did remember the way I had started to care for Caleb and the way he had pushed me away, saying that he did not need an emotional baggage.

He had always been a casanova and it looked like I was just another girl he had fucked and gotten over with.

A stupid part of me had hoped that the little make out session in the changing room had been his desperation to come see me.

That he had missed me in the past six months and somehow could not force himself to walk away after seeing me. And my stupid body had just given in to the urge of being touched by him.

I could still feel his hands running all over my body, still feel his lips on my skin and the pleasure he evoked. I had been in a daze and felt as if somebody had suddenly fueled my body with much needed energy.

I thought he had returned to me after realizing that he could not live without me, that he wanted me as much as I had craved him at one point.

But all of that had been just my wild, wild imagination. And I could not even blame him. The fault was mine.

It was stupid of me to fall for his tricks. Again and again.

And now as I sat in my office, or rather my father's office, I kept staring at the email sent through the official correspondence address.

It stated how Alpha Caleb had devised a new strategy to reduce losses by levying additional fees to use certain trade routes.

This was related to the ram pant thievery on certain roads that were used to transport goods and services.

My fingers gripped the pen hard, my knuckles turning white.

He had been kissing his betrothed, then come to me to fuck me and then walked away from the changing room without a word.

And then, this was what I received from him. Business correspondence.

That was followed up by a few texts of please respond and let me know when you are free fora discussion.

Polite. Dry. bland.

It was as if he was pretending that he never came to me, never whispered words of how he had wanted to touch me and see my face in the past six months.

He was down to business. That made angry tears sting at the back of my eyes.

I was beginning to hate him, loath e him.

I was not even sure who was more evil between the two- Matt or Caleb.

My phone buzzed and I opened the text message. Just one line again.

Awaiting your reply.

Same again. Dry. Business oriented. To the point.

To his credit, he had given me a call a few times as well but I did not get my hopes up for nothing. My beta informed me it was standard protocol to send reminders to other alphas and if they had a cordial relationship, a few even exchanged texts and calls.

I was not sure if my relationship with Caleb was cordial. In fact, I was not even sure what he meant to me anymore.

Staying true to his word, Matt had let word spread all around that Caleb and I had been under a contract marriage. Now, everybody knew that it had been a big farce.

My only saving grace was that I was still his wife, even if on paper. That meant my pack was under his protection and if I asked him to help us, he would come to our aid.

People had seen him deploy his forces to my pack until things returned to normal and I took back control of everything.

However, nobody knew that I did not want to ask him for help and degrade myself further. Though telling that to others was not important. They could live under the assumption that he would still help me and my pack, his contract wife's people.

I leaned back on the chair, confusing thoughts churning through my head. Matt had been tactful and avoided taking names of which packs he had aligned with and who would attack my people on his orders.

I tried to be resourceful and wriggle out information from him but he had never given me any names.

Patricia called his bluff and said that he was just faking it to make me believe him. She and David were the two people I began to trust with matters related to our pack and its future.

I kept all my personal issues to myself. Sometimes, I opened up to Violet but I did not bug her after realizing in our last meeting how selfish I had been with her.

There was a knock on the door and David peeked his head through the slit, dragging me out of my thoughts.

“ Are you busy?” he asked.

' Not really. Come in'I replied.

“I just wanted to check with you if you have made up your mind about attending the next pact meeting.” Every month, one pack would hold a pact meeting inviting other alpha s to discuss business opportunities with them and update others about their progress, etc. It was a way to entice other packs to invest in their pack and bring in more business.

This month, it was Caleb's pack's turn. In the last six months, I had attended all the meetings since he was not around. He had sent some representatives to a few and completely avoided attending some.

And there was a good reason for it. The lesser known packs would not give him much. His time was precious given that his pack was the most influential pack in town.

“I am still not sure about that, David. How about you go in my stead?”I asked.

But David took a step forward and explained,“I have absolutely no problem going to the meeting. But everybody knows I am not in charge. And our pack's position is not exactly the strongest amongst other packs.” That was true. Despite my pack having made a lot of progress in the past few months, the fact remained that our pack was just a low hanging fruit but an unripe one for now.

The moment we soared, the hounds would come at us to take away everything. My contract term with Caleb was also expiring in a few months.

I rubbed a hand on my temple.

“ When is the meeting you said?”I asked.

“ In two days, Luna Alicia” David supplied.

I did not want to see Caleb's face again but I also did not want to show how much his betrayal affected me. I wanted to look him in the eye and appear careless, unaffected.

“ Fine, I will go,”I said at last.