Scarlett POV
"Negotiate," I repeated, the word tasting like ash in my mouth. I forced my spine to remain rigid against the back of the chair, refusing to let him see how my hands trembled beneath the table.
I slid the Annulment Agreement closer to him, tapping the clause I had highlighted. "It's simple math, Alpha Blackwell. Under human law, which governs our marriage license, all assets acquired during the union are community property." I took a breath, steeling myself. "According to the Financial Times, Blackwell Industries closed a merger yesterday worth two billion dollars. Your personal take was estimated at one billion."
Gideon, the Gamma, stepped forward, his face twisting into a snarl. "You insolent little—"
"Silence," Kaelen commanded. He didn't look at his Gamma. His gaze was fixed on me, heavy and unblinking.
"I want half," I stated, my voice ringing clearly in the cavernous room. "Five hundred million dollars. Transfer it, sign the papers, and I disappear."
Liam, the Beta, looked as if he might choke. "Alpha, this is extortion. She is an Omega. She has no right—"
"She has every right," Kaelen interrupted, his voice terrifyingly calm. He gestured to Liam. "Pull up the accounts."
"Sir?" Liam blinked, stunned.
"Do it."
The Beta scrambled to pull out a tablet, his fingers flying across the screen. He turned it toward Kaelen, displaying a string of zeros that would make most nations weep. Kaelen didn't even glance at it. He kept his eyes on mine, searching for something I couldn't name.
"You are correct," Kaelen said softly. "The sum is yours."
The air left the room. Gideon's jaw dropped. I stared at Kaelen, my heart skipping a beat. He agreed? Just like that? Five hundred million dollars, handed over as if it were pocket change?
"Transfer the funds," Kaelen ordered Liam.
"But Alpha—"
"Now." The command rolled off him like a shockwave. Liam flinched and tapped the screen. A moment later, the tablet chimed.
Kaelen leaned forward, resting his elbows on the mahogany table. "The money is in your account, Scarlett. You are now one of the wealthiest women in the country."
I felt dizzy. I had expected a fight. I had expected threats. I didn't know how to handle this... surrender. "Then sign the annulment," I whispered, pushing the pen toward him.
Kaelen looked at the pen, then back at me. He didn't pick it up.
"My grandmother," he said, his voice dropping an octave, becoming smoother, darker. "She is awake because of you. But she is frail. She believes I have finally found my Luna. If I tell her you have left... it could kill her."
I frowned. "That is not my problem."
"I will make it your problem," he countered, not with a threat, but with a lure. "A new deal. Don't annul the marriage yet. Stay. Play the role of my doting wife until she recovers."
I started to shake my head, panic rising in my throat. "No. I can't—"
"For every day you remain my wife," Kaelen interrupted, his gray eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made my skin burn, "half of everything I earn is yours. No questions asked. Yesterday was a billion. Tomorrow might be more."
Gideon made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. It was an offer that could buy kingdoms. It was a golden cage, gilded with enough wealth to silence any protest. He was trying to buy me. He thought I was like the others—that money could purchase my time, my presence, my submission.
But he didn't know about the promise I kept in my heart. He didn't know about the man waiting for me at the train station, the man who had loved me when I was nothing but a servant.
I stood up, my legs shaking but holding my weight. I looked at the check, then at the man who was arguably the most powerful Alpha in the world.
"I can't," I said, my voice clear and cold. "I appreciate the offer, Alpha Blackwell, but I must refuse."
Kaelen's eyes narrowed. The playful amusement vanished, replaced by a sharp, predatory focus. "You refuse? Do you think the price is too low?"
"It's not about the price," I said, clutching the edge of the table. "I have a Mate."
The silence that followed was absolute. It was the silence of a vacuum, sucking the oxygen out of the room.
Kaelen went perfectly still. Even the fire seemed to stop crackling.
"I gave him my word," I continued, desperate to make him understand, to make him sign the paper so I could leave. "We are to be Marked tomorrow. I need the annulment finalized by noon, so I can catch the train to meet him."
A low, vibrating sound began to emanate from Kaelen's chest. It wasn't human. It was a growl, deep and resonant, like tectonic plates grinding together before an earthquake.
His gray eyes bled into a feral, glowing gold. The air in the room grew heavy, saturated with the scent of ozone and burning rain. Gideon and Liam stepped back, their instincts screaming at them to flee.
Kaelen stood up slowly. He didn't look like a CEO anymore. He looked like a monster wearing a man's skin, his control snapping like a dry twig.
"You have... a Mate?" he whispered, the words sounding torn from his throat.
"Yes," I said, though my voice trembled. "And I intend to keep my promise to him."
Kaelen's hand slammed onto the table, cracking the thick mahogany right down the center. The sound was like a gunshot.
"No," he snarled, the human mask slipping completely. "You do not."
