“How long have they been here?” I asked Marcus.
“Since seven this morning,” Marcus said, embarrassed. “Alpha said he’d wait until you agreed to see them.”
I looked at the crowd below.
Besides Ethan, there were all the core pack members: Beta Marcus, Gamma Johnson, and several senior warriors. Even some of the pack elders were
there.
They all had the same expression: desperate, hopeful, and with poorly hidden guilt.
“Let me guess,” I looked at Grace and Marcus, “you’re the advance party, here to soften me up, and then they’ll all come up for some emotional blackmail?”
Both of them blushed.
“Sophia, we’re really desperate…” Elder Grace pleaded.
My phone rang. It was the hotel front desk.
“Ms. Sophia, there’s a group of people downstairs who say they need to see you. They say they won’t leave until they do. Other guests are starting to complain…”
I hung up and looked at Grace and Marcus.
“Tell me, do they know Ethan never really lost the mate bond?”
Elder Grace closed her eyes and nodded.
“They all know?”
“Most of them… yes.”
I nodded. “Then there’s nothing more to say.”
“Sophia…”
“Let them come up,” I cut Grace off. “Since we’re doing the big ‘happy reunion‘ act, let’s get it over with.”
Ten minutes later, my apartment was packed.
Ethan stood at the front, holding a bouquet of roses. The others formed a semicircle, all looking at me expectantly.
“Sophia,” Ethan took a deep breath, “we’ve come to ask for your forgiveness, and your help.”
We know we messed up,” Beta Marcus said. “We should have stopped Alpha from making that mistake.”
“We should have defended you,” Gamma Johnson added.
“We should have told you the truth,” a senior warrior said.
I looked at these familiar faces, feeling only cold amusement.
2/3
Chapter 8
“So,” I said calmly, “you
Ethan was lying?”
Silence from the crowd.
“You all knew I was deceived, humiliated, and treated unfairly?”
Even deeper silence.
“But now, when you need my help, you’ve suddenly found your conscience?”
No one dared to look me in the eye.
I saw them all for who they really were.
Facing their guilty yet hopeful eyes, I knew what they were expecting.
They expected me to choose forgiveness, to choose sacrifice, to put the pack’s needs before my own dignity, just like before.
But this time, they were dead wrong.
