KAILA CAIN POV:
I barely slept. Bryton didn't return. First thing in the morning, the removal crew hauled five years of my life out the door like garbage. Which, in a way, it was.
I put on a full face of makeup. Concealer over the dark circles. Sharp black eyeliner. A sleek black cocktail dress that hugged every curve. If I was going to war, I'd at least dress for it.
The Crimson Moon was Tessa's bar, the place where the Pack's upper crust went to drink and gossip. That was exactly what I needed. Gossip. Witnesses. If I confronted Bryton in a room full of Pack members, he couldn't drag me into a bedroom and rage at me unchecked. Meredith had my signed document, but she couldn't force her son to sign. I had to force it myself. Public humiliation was the one currency even the Finleys couldn't control.
I drove downtown, parked, and walked in with my head high. The stares hit me before I'd taken three steps. At the corner bar, Bryton's Alpha friends were already deep in their drinks. Their whispers crawled through the air. Look, the reject is here. No wolf. No family. Don't know what Bryton ever saw in her. My hearing was sharper than any wolfless Omega's should be. I heard every word. I walked straight past them. "Strongest whiskey you have."
Tessa caught my eye from behind the bar. Tall, silver hair cropped short, sharp cheekbones. She'd been running the Crimson Moon for years and had never once looked at me like I was broken. She slid a tumbler across the polished wood. "Heard from Lexi? She called last night. Said you weren't answering."
"Tell her I'm fine." I wrapped my fingers around the cold glass. Lexi. My best friend. The only person alive who knew my wolfless act was exactly that. An act. "I'll reach out soon."
Tessa's gaze flicked toward the door. "Heads up. Trouble just walked in."
The lounge door swung open, and the room's energy dropped the way it always did when an Alpha entered. Bryton strode in with Chantal draped on his arm. She was wearing a white dress that screamed innocence, her blonde hair cascading over her shoulders, her red lips curved in a smile of pure triumph. She saw me at the bar. The smile widened. She'd known I would be here. She'd dressed for me.
Bryton saw me a beat later. His stride faltered. He let go of Chantal's arm and crossed the room, his voice dropping low and dangerous. "Kaila. What are you doing here? Go home."
"Home?" I raised my glass, watching the light twist through the whiskey. "The apartment where you tore up our rejection papers, or the garage where your Range Rover is parked with your mistress inside?"
The tables nearby went quiet. Bryton's face turned to stone.
Chantal glided over right on cue. She took Bryton's arm with the ease of long practice. "Bry, don't be like that. Kaila's just in a bad mood. We all know how hard it is for someone of her background to keep up with Pack society." She tilted her head at me, sweet as poison. Painting me as the hysterical outsider while she glowed in white like the virgin bride. And Bryton swallowed every drop. He turned back to me, jaw tight. "Kaila. Don't embarrass me here. We'll deal with this in private."
"Embarrass you?" I laughed. The sound cracked through the room. Heads turned. "Alpha Bryton Finley. You parade your mistress through a bar full of your Pack while your fated mate watches, and I'm the one causing embarrassment?"
I stood up. Whiskey in hand. I walked toward him one step at a time, my heels hitting the floor like a countdown. I could see the warning in his eyes, the Alpha rage coiling beneath the surface. He was waiting for me to stop. To shrink. To fold back into the docile Omega he'd spent five years training me to be.
I raised my glass, toasting him and Chantal with a smile so bright it could blind. "This one is to your infidelity, Alpha Finley."
I flicked my wrist. The whiskey arced through the air and splashed across his face, his pristine white shirt, his open mouth.
Time stopped. A collective gasp sucked the air out of the room. Whiskey dripped from Bryton's jaw, darkening his collar, spotting his silk tie. Chantal shrieked and stumbled backward. At the corner table, his friends sat frozen with their glasses halfway to their lips. In five years of Silver Creek Pack history, no one had ever publicly humiliated a future Alpha. Behind the bar, Tessa gave me a slow, deliberate thumbs up.
"You." Bryton's roar rattled the glasses on the tables. His Alpha fury exploded outward, a crushing wave of dominance that made weaker wolves shrink into their seats. But I wasn't a weaker wolf. I just wasn't ready to prove it yet.
He lunged. His hand clamped around my arm, his grip iron tight, hard enough to bruise bone. "You crazy bitch," he snarled, dragging me across the floor. "You want a scene? I'll give you a scene."
I didn't fight him. I didn't scream. I let him haul me toward the exit, my face perfectly calm. That was the whole point. A room full of witnesses. A Pack full of whispers. A scandal no Finley money could scrub clean.
The cold night air hit my face as he shoved me through the door. Behind me, the lounge erupted. Voices rising, phones coming out, the story already tearing through the Pack faster than any wolf could run.
The war hadn't just left the study. It had gone public. And I was just getting started.
