Eulalie POV
The tears I shed on the subway yesterday were the last I would ever waste on Caden Madden. Today, I didn't need a mate. I needed hardware.
I pushed my shopping cart down the sterile, brightly lit aisles of Micro-Center. The air smelled of new plastic and ozone. A young male clerk in a blue polo shirt leaned against a display rack, a condescending smirk playing on his lips as he eyed the NVIDIA H100 GPU and industrial-grade thermal paste in my basket.
"Building a crypto-mining rig for a lucky boyfriend?" he asked, his tone dripping with arrogant amusement.
*Let the pup bark,* Nyx sneered in my mind, her White Wolf presence cool and unbothered.
I didn't waste time arguing. I met his gaze with dead calm. "I need specific shielded CAT8 cables and physical hardware keys to build a neural network architecture capable of simulating Pack pheromone flows and bypassing Alpha-level firewalls. Which aisle?"
His smirk vanished instantly, replaced by slack-jawed shock. He blinked, suddenly realizing he was entirely out of his depth. He pointed a trembling finger toward aisle nine.
I walked past him without another word, claiming my weapons. Step one of the Ghost's Nest was complete.
*
Caden POV
The heavy mahogany table in the War Room groaned under the force of my fist.
"Explain it again," I growled, letting my Alpha aura bleed into the room until the air grew thick and suffocating.
Miller, my lead tech developer, wiped a bead of sweat from his collar. He looked like he was seconds away from throwing up. "Alpha, the core algorithm is completely locked. A developer known only as 'Ghost' implemented a CUAP protocol encryption signature. It's impenetrable. The entire Pack financial network is paralyzed."
*Rage*, my inner wolf, thrashed against my ribs, furious that our territory was being threatened by an invisible enemy.
"I pay you to solve problems, not to praise the code of some fucking Rogue hacker!" I roared, the sheer force of my voice making Miller's knees buckle. "Fix it, or I'll have your hide tanning in the sun!"
Miller scrambled out of the room, terrified. The door had barely clicked shut when it opened again. The suffocating stench of cheap rose perfume preceded Adalynn.
She walked in carrying a latte, her hips swaying. She stepped behind my chair, her soft fingers immediately reaching for my temples to massage away the tension. A faint, irritating sting prickled my skin at her touch—a dull ache I always blamed on stress, ignoring the unnatural friction of a severed mate bond.
"Why stress over old, garbage code, baby?" she purred, leaning down so her chest pressed against my shoulder. "The Global Tech Summit is this week. Let's just go look at that new Nexus AI company and buy their tech instead. Problem solved."
The fog of my anger parted. It was a simple, aggressive solution. Exactly what an Alpha needed.
"You're a genius, Addy," I breathed, turning my head to kiss her forehead. "Get us VIP front-row tickets."
By the time I returned to the penthouse that evening, my patience was nonexistent.
A high-pitched scream echoed from the nursery. I stormed down the hall and shoved the door open. Elara was tearing her toy box apart, throwing plastic blocks across the room like a feral little terror.
"I want Mommy! I want Mr. Fluff!" she shrieked, her face red and blotchy with tears.
The noise grated against my frayed nerves. *Rage* snapped. I didn't see a grieving cub; I saw a challenge to my authority, a glaring reminder of the mate who dared to walk away and make me look like a fool.
"Quiet!" I barked.
Elara ignored me, sobbing harder as she dug frantically through the toys.
I stepped over the mess, my face twisting into a snarl. I let my Alpha aura crash down on her, heavy and unforgiving. "Your mother isn't here! She left us! Stop asking for her!"
The sheer force of my command slammed into her tiny body. Elara choked on a sob, her eyes widening in absolute terror. She curled into a tight ball on the floor, whimpering like a wounded animal, too terrified to even look at me.
In the doorway, Martha, the senior Pack servant, stood frozen, her face pale with horror.
I turned on my heel and walked out, leaving my daughter trembling on the floor.
