I could hear my family behind me as I sprinted down the stairs and out of the house. They were calling in panic for me to stop, but I couldn’t! Not when I knew that Carmel was in danger!

I jumped off the porch, stumbling when I landed. Panting, I pushed off my feet and back into a sprint, running the long paths of the pack. The grassy hills were dewy and I slipped a few times but pushed myself back up to hurry. Even if there were pack members staring as I ran past them, I didn’t care.

The alpha homes were about two yards away when I climbed over the hill. I slipped again on the wet grass but caught myself.

“Ridge!” I gasped, panting while running past startled pack members. “Ridge!”

I saw Eden walking with her parents and she went wide-eyed, dropping the large basket of vegetables she had in her arms. She frowned, shoving her dad’s hand off her and ran over to me.

“Gigi! Gigi, are you alright?!”

Eden looked me over. She swallowed, apologizing for not seeing me any sooner because her parents kept her from leaving the house without them.

I shook my head, out of breath and gasped in between that I needed to see Ridge! That I needed to warn him!

Eden’s eyes widened, frowning as she warned that that was asking for trouble. She shook her head again, urging me to not go to the alpha’s house.

I groaned in frustration, yelling at her that I didn’t care if it was asking for trouble.

“Everyone is going to be in trouble if I don’t warn Ridge about what’s coming!”

“What are you talking about?” Eden frowned.

Shaking my head, I ran around her; telling her that I was losing time.

“Gigi! Wait!”

Looking over my shoulder, I spotted my family having caught up and so I had to pick up speed. If they caught up to me, they’d haul me back to the house for sure. I knew they would try to protect me but I couldn’t imagine being safe and sound when my pack was walking around with a rage-filled she-wolf coming for them. My determination was to make sure the humans residing in Carmel were evacuated before Madilynn’s army showed up.

“Ridge!” I panted out in a scream, running up the steps of the main alpha home and slammed my hand on the door over and over. I shouted for Ridge to open up. “Please! Please, Ridge, open up! It’s an emergency!”

The door swung open and I stepped back a bit. My heavy panting and wide-eyed look didn’t deter Molly any. She pursed her lips, lifting her chin and blocked the doorway. Her brow rose, eyeing me up and down before crossing her arms.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Molly demanded. “You’re not allowed anywhere near us alphas.”

I swallowed, frowning that it was important and that I needed to speak with Ridge.

“Ha! Like that’s gonna happen!” Molly scoffed, scrunching her nose. “Why would I let my mate anywhere around the likes of you? For all I know, you’ll try to steal him from me again!”

I realized Molly was going to make this a lot more difficult for me. She rather stand here and bicker over stupid childish things like a boy when there was so much more important things to worry about!

When I told her that this was so much more urgent than our mediocre issues because of the lives at stake, Molly rolled her eyes, scoffing that her life as Alpha Female was at stake.

I frowned, wide-eyed.

Molly stuck her nose in the air, warning me that I wasn’t going anywhere near Ridge because he was hers again. And that this time it was ensured that I wouldn’t be able to take what she wanted.

A low growl rumbled behind my lips and for a split second Molly was affected; her eyes wide and took a step back.

Narrowing my eyes, I shouted, “Do you think I fucking care anymore, Molly?!”

I didn’t miss the frown she was giving me.

“Do you honestly think I give a shit about what you did anymore?! Because I don’t!”

The audacity she had to pout made me growl, especially when Molly prodded if I was really going to give up Ridge just like that. Just had him over so easily.

Was this a fucking game to her?! My feelings? Ridge’s? Was she that fucking bored with her life she had to mess with other people’s?!

I growled, getting in her face as she yelped in surprise.

“Like I said, I don’t give a shit anymore. Ridge picked you. You got what you wanted. You took advantage of what happened to him and got on the bandwagon of whatever bullshit Mr. Beaumont fed everyone!”

Her blue eyes widened, blinking repeatedly.

I huffed, shaking my head that after everything that’s happened this second time around, there was no use in fighting for mediocre things when there were more things at stake. I didn’t have time for childish games.

“Ridge and I are never going to be. I’ve accepted that. That’s what you and Mr. Beaumont wanted and that’s what I’m fucking doing! I’m giving up on Ridge. You need to finally get that through your fucking head and let it the fuck go!”

I narrowed my eyes, growling through grit teeth.

“You got the Alpha Female title you wanted, along with the alpha male you are so desperately in love with, right? So now… you need to fucking be an Alpha Female and stand up for the people of Carmel. They are the ones you are meant to protect!”

“What—what are you talking about?” Molly swallowed, frowning at me. I could hear a waver in her voice; clearly she was confused to what I was saying.

Frustrated, I shouted at Molly that there was an army of wolves headed to Carmel as we speak and that I needed for Molly—as Alpha Female—to order an evacuation! That we needed to get the humans out and we needed to get them out now!

The Spirit World was testing my patience. I just knew it. Molly’s reluctance to comply with my desperate request was frustrating me.

My fists curled when Molly frowned, shaking her head and questioned what I was going on about. She said she didn’t believe me and that I was just looking like a crazy person.

“Molly!” I shouted, making her jump. My brows furrowed, my voice strained as I yelled at her, “I know you and I don’t like each other, and that’s fine! But please! Please help me just this once and help me save the humans!”

Molly just stood there. Her chin up and crossed her arms like a child. She shook her head that as Alpha Female she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want and especially if it came from me. Instead, Molly smugly pointed out that it was me who was going to have to follow her orders.

As if she hadn’t dug the knife in my back deep enough, Molly twisted it when she changed topic and “casually” mentioned while placing a hand on her stomach that she was sure the past few weeks ensured this time around she was having Ridge’s baby. Her blue eyes twinkled that with how much stamina her alpha had and how many times they fucked, it guaranteed an alpha heir.

She grinned back at me, and I curled my fists, hearing their knuckles crack as I shook my head. I wasn’t going to get through to this spiteful female. Not one fucking bit.

“Molly, what’s going on?”

Molly turned around, stepping aside to show Ridge now in view. His concerned scowl in place as he approached.

His father was behind him. Molly rolled her eyes and looked at me while using a bored tone to tell Ridge that I was being defiant and trying to threaten her again.

Ignoring her attempt to start a fight, I turned to Ridge, stepping back a bit as he and his father made their way outside the house.

Frowning, I pleaded with the alpha that he needed to evacuate Carmel immediately.

The alpha’s brow rose, blinking as he tilted his head. His voice low and cautious. “And why’s that now?”

He was so calm in asking, not picking up my panic and that was just making me panic more. The nerves inside me were making me uneasy, tense, and I trembled from the anxiety of when Madilynn shows up.

“Ridge… Please!”

Mr. Beaumont, standing on one side of his son scowled at me with a growl that I would be respectful and address the alpha formally. He reminded me that I had no right to be so informal.

Ignoring him, I focused on Ridge’s scowl as I swallowed and frantically pleaded, “I came to warn you about the army coming to Carmel!”

There were murmurs behind me and I looked around, seeing the crowd forming. My family at the front, watching me with worry.

Mr. Beaumont spoke and I faced the alpha family again. Mr. Beaumont narrowed his eyes as he stepped in front of Ridge, and growled out that I speaking nonsense!

Turning back to Ridge, I urged him to forget everything for a moment and listen to what I have to say.

“There’s a mad she-wolf coming to our town and she’s hellbent on a full out war. So please… help me by evacuate the humans! We have to get them to safety!”

Ridge frowned, his jaw clenched as he was staring at me. Those green eyes blinked a few times, his nose scrunching as he squeezed his eyes shut. He turned his head with a small groan. While he was doing this, his father spoke for Ridge that his son didn’t have to listen to me—a crazy and hostile she-wolf—and that as Alpha, his son was not going to send a panic to the humans over something that was, again, nonsense.

“It’s not nonsense!” I snapped back. “I promise you that there is a war coming and we need to prepare!”

Mr. Beaumont stomped down his porch, pointing at me as I stepped back with a frown.

“You’ve caused enough trouble as it is, Gigi! There’s no way that I am going to let your stupid delusions drag my son into some shit-faced fantasy you have! Ridge was being too lenient letting you live this long! And for all we know it is you who is waging war on this pack!”

“Father,” Ridge let out in a painful growl, wincing as he pressed the end of his palm against his temple.

But his father didn’t seem to hear him. Mr. Beaumont sneered that nothing good could come from a Quail Wolf and that it was because of me that our pack lost Alpha Hannibal’s as an ally. He wouldn’t let me get a word in while I tried to tell him that it was Alpha Hannibal who was plotting against Carmel this whole time. That the other alpha was involved with the crazy she-wolf from Ridge’s wedding.

“You are just trying to use what you are to trick my son into being with you again! You won’t be taking my son from me again, Gigi! Not today! Not ever!”

“You’re fucking one to talk!” someone shouted, making us turn.

My eyes widened, watching Mrs. Beaumont coming through the parted space the pack made for her. Behind her, a few warriors were dragging a reluctant and panicky man in a white coat. Mrs. Beaumont’s fiery gaze locked on her husband as she approached, something tucked into her side.

“Laura…” Mr. Beaumont swallowed, frowning as he glanced at those with his wife. “What… what are you doing? What’s going on?”

Mrs. Beaumont sneered, nodding at the warriors who threw down the man they carried. Then she tossed what she was holding onto the ground.

“You fucking tell me, Darren…” she chastised, eyes narrowing. “You tell me what in your Goddamn mind made you think that you could hide this from me?! From all of us?!”

I noticed Molly’s quick glances at the man on the ground and the metal box. Her face paled as Mr. Beaumont stammered that he didn’t understand.

Mrs. Beaumont’s brows rose, craning her neck. “Oh, no…? Let me help refresh your memory then, Darren.”

She jumped into explaining that for the past month, she’d been digging into the investigation that Mr. Beaumont put off on Molly’s deceitful behavior against their son and me. Mrs. Beaumont had to correlate every time that Molly had done something traitorous, how Mr. Beaumont always brushed it under the rug. And that’s what got her thinking that maybe Mr. Beaumont was having an affair— the man’s eyes widened, shouting that he would never though Mrs. Beaumont raised a hand to silence him because it was her turn to talk.

“So I focused on the time frame that Molly came into Ridge’s life… which was coincidentally after our son had expressed his feelings for our Head Warrior’s daughter…” The former alpha female narrowed her eyes. “Suddenly our son is going for doctor visits that were supposed to be routine physicals… but then he gets headaches all of a sudden—just out of the blue— and he’s having more doctor visits. Here I am thinking something is happening to our son…”

Mrs. Beaumont clenched her teeth and growled, “And I find out that there was never anything wrong with him… because of it was his father the entire time!”

Mr. Beaumont stared, unable to move while Ridge frowned between them. He questioned what was going on and shouldered Molly off him when she tried to pull him away and say that it was nothing.

“What the hell is going on?!” Ridge demanded.

“Nothing!” his father growled at him.

“Nothing…? NOTHING?!” Mrs. Beaumont shouted, drawing everyone’s attention. She turned to the man on the floor, growling at him to tell everyone what he told her.

The man whimpered, flinching when the former alpha female snarled at him. He shook, his voice trembling just as much when he clarified that when Ridge hit puberty around 12 or 13, that his father had brought him in for a check up. The check up was just a facade since the former alpha had made a unorthodox request that no one was to know about. Not even Ridge or his mother.

Ridge went in for his physical which required vaccines, but one of the vaccines was not part of the procedure. It was a special kind of suppressant that made a werewolf’s instincts dormant. That meant that the Recognition Process would not happen as long as the suppressant was consistently taken.

To keep up the facade, the doctor had turned the suppressant into pills that Mr. Beaumont convinced his son were vitamins for his well being.

The doctor paused, glancing at Mrs. Beaumont whose gold eyes shimmered as she growled, “Keep. Going.”

According to the doctor, Mr. Beaumont had concocted a plan since Ridge was thirteen years old, to suppress the boy’s wolf instincts in order for Mr. Beaumont to create a mate bond between Molly and his son. The doctor claimed that as the wealthiest family—aside from the alphas—Mr. Beaumont wanted for the bloodline of alpha superiority to continue between the Beaumonts and the Sinclairs. That they had qualities in the making of alpha status.

Mrs. Beaumont turned to her wide eyed husband, his face now pale too. “Tell them, Darren… Tell them all why you started this in the first place!”

“Laura—”

“YOU FUCK!” the she-wolf screamed. Her eyes wide and shimmering gold.

All of us were taken back. She’d never cursed like that before.

“You selfish! Entitled! Hypocritical! Sadistic coward of a man!” Mrs. Beaumont panted, jaw working as her eyes tears up. “What were you thinking?! How could do this, Darren?! How could you go against our ways of life! Our ways of being! And for what…? A rich bloodline?”

The former alpha raked his fingers through his hair, squeezing his eyes shut and shook his head that he was only looking out—

“For you!” his wife finished, teeth clenched. “You were looking out… for you Darren.” She gestured to me, tears in her eyes that Darren ruined my life, my reputation, and my mate bond. “You belittled her! Made her feel like she was in the wrong! Like she didn’t fucking matter!”

Her eyes still tearful, the she-wolf choked on a sob. Shaking her head, her voice trembling, Mrs. Beaumont went on.

“What did Gigi do so wrong, Darren? What was it that made you feel so self righteous to take our son away from her?! To— to put her family through fucking hell because my piece of shit husband couldn’t let them be happy?!”

She gestured to me, directing to her husband that I was a good girl. Always had been. That I put others before myself and fought for those who couldn’t defend themselves.

Mrs. Beaumont shook her head, exasperation in her voice as she accused “You… knew… what she was to Ridge. You… knew… that this fucking trollop—” she pointed at a pained stricken Molly. “Was a lying, manipulative, spoiled, arrogant, and vindictive whore! And you still let her near our son! Let our—” she slapped a hand to her chest. “My baby suffer! He was hurting, Darren, that day you forced the wedding and you still hurt him! Hurt Gigi!”

Swallowing hard, the she-wolf demanded to know why her husband couldn’t let me and Ridge be together. Why he had to intervene in what is so precious in our culture. Something that was a rarity in our way of life.

“WHY?!” Mrs. Beaumont shouted.

Mr. Beaumont swallowed, frowning at the ground the whole time until his wife’s last outburst and then his eyes widened under furrowed brows and shouted back, “She wasn’t good enough!”

Everyone went wide-eyed. And Mr. Beaumont nodded, growling that I wasn’t good enough to become alpha female because of my background. That as a daughter of the Head Warrior, I was meant to keep that rank. Allowing me to “promote” from that status would have meant that my father’s strength would exceed Mr. Beaumont’s. The power dynamic would have shifted to have my father’s daughter as an alpha female along with my father’s son becoming the new Head Warrior.

“I was trying to ensure that Ridge’s alpha title remained intact! That the Gomez children couldn’t take that from him!”

The former alpha female slowly shook her head, distraught and despair mixed into her features. Her shoulders drooped, a shaky breath escaping.

“And… and you thought… thought Molly was supposed to be the better choice? The better version of Gigi?”

I could see Molly’s eyes tearing up, humiliated by the former alpha female verbally dragging her face first.

Mrs. Beaumont kicked the metal box so hard that it slid, the lid popping open and revealed a syringe with a reddish brown liquid next to a metal round vial clasped with a corkscrew. Mrs. Beaumont nodded at the box, informing us all that her husband had no heart, no remorse, no feeling other than what benefited himself.

“You’ve been giving Ridge the suppressant again. For the entire time that he’d been in the coma. When his accident happened, you saw another way back into taking control of his life! Of keeping Molly around for your hope of having an heir between them!”

When her husband looked like he was going to argue, Mrs. Beaumont shouted, “DON’T. FUCKING. LIE TO ME!”

The man swallowed, dropping his gaze and winced as his wife sobbed, “You were drugging him, Darren! Our son! My— my baby!” Her hands clasped over the other on her chest. “He was a little boy! And— and you took away what was rightfully Ridge’s! He had a right to experience his love with Gigi, and you took that from him!”

Mrs. Beaumont scowled through her tears, pointing out—as she picked up the round vial and shook it in the air— that this was how Ridge was being manipulated to believe Molly was his mate. That with the suppressant in his system, the doctor had concocted a hallucinogenic with a strand of Molly’s hair that forced Ridge’s body and mind to react as a mate should with his actual mate, towards Molly only.

“She forced herself on Ridge, Darren! Say what you want and think, but to anyone else that is rape! Molly forced her-fucking-self onto my son while he was drugged all these years! And you are just going to fucking stand there and continue to make excuses?!”

My heart sunk, eyes wide as I let that sink in. Everyone else doing the same. Even if Ridge was conscious with his interactions with Molly… he had a hallucinogenic in his bloodstream the entire time. Everything he experienced was essentially against his will. And… and… And his father let it happen.

My gaze turned to Ridge, standing so still it was hard to tell whether he was listening anymore. His stare far off, tears slipping down his cheeks as his jaw clenched and his nostrils flared.

Mrs. Beaumont turned to Molly, snarling and the younger she-wolf yelped, taking a step back. A mother scorned was worse than any woman scorned, and Molly was about to get the repercussions of it. Mrs. Beaumont stomped over, grabbed onto Molly and tossed her into the middle of the circle near her husband.

“You have some fucking nerve looking petrified when all these years… all these months… you’ve been a smug little bitch! Taking advantage of my son! Of my hospitality! Deliberately hurting Gigi and watching her and her family take the fall for what your conniving ass cooked up with my husband?!”

“I’m sorry! I—I didn’t mean for it to go this far!” Molly wept, shaking her head that it wasn’t her fault or her idea. That she only went along with it because—

“Say another word and I’ll rip your throat out myself,” Mrs. Beaumont spoke in a low eerie calm tone.

The blonde dropped her face to her hands, sobbing into them.

Mrs. Beaumont faced her husband again, letting him know that she figured all this out just in time because of her son’s declaration against me. That she had to clear my name before her son regretted his decision.

She also admitted that the only reason Mr. Beaumont’s plan started to fall apart was because Ridge had stopped taking his pills while overseas. Upon his return, that first day at the park when he saw me, the suppressant had already dwindled from his bloodstream and allowed Ridge’s animal instincts to awaken as they should have properly done at thirteen.

“And you gave our son the suppressant and hallucinogenic again after his accident. Using Gigi’s attack towards Molly as the perfect opportunity to scramble what he had with Gigi… replacing them with Molly.”

Mrs. Beaumont narrowed her eyes, shaking her head that now it made sense why her son would feel so betrayed by me when I returned a few days ago. Because Ridge had felt betrayed when we were together but not because of me, because of Molly. Mr. Beaumont made the hallucinogenic worke so that Molly and I had switched roles in Ridge’s mind.

“You… sick… son of a bitch! Using our little boy for your own twisted amusement! Your own vindictive ploy to keep two innocent True Mates from one another because of jealousy?!”

Mrs. Beaumont raked her fingers through her hair, scoffing that she was just as bad for not seeing it all this time. For not protecting me and her son as she should have. She looked my way, past me and I turned to where my father’s malice stare was directed at Mr. Beaumont.

Facing forward, Mrs. Beaumont’s shoulder sulked as she whispered my name. Shaking her head, she whispered how sorry she was that I had to endure such terrible things all these past months. That she failed me as a leader, a mother, and a woman.

She narrowed her eyes at Molly and her husband again, growling that when this impending war was said and done, that they’d have to answer for their crimes.

Mrs. Beaumont raised her brows at her husband.

“You want to talk about treason, Darren? You are at the mother fucking top of the traitor list. And you will be dealt with!”

“Laura! You have to understand that I did it for us! For our family! For Ridge’s future!”

“She was supposed to be his future!” Mrs. Beaumont cried, pointing at me.

She cried, shaking her head and shouted while still pointing at me that I was who made her son happy. That I was who her son had wanted. And because of her husband’s interference, Ridge and I may never have that chance again because of Molly, once again, forcing herself on their son.

Growling at Mr. Beaumont’s attempts to apologize, Mrs. Beaumont shouted for the warriors to arrest him and Molly. To hold them off to the side and be watched while more important matters where taken care of.

As a mother, Mrs. Beaumont switched roles and made a beeline to her son. He’d hunched forward, hands on his knees and tried to breathe through a panic attack. Ridge groaned, shutting his eyes and tried gasping for air as his mother held him, trying to coax him down to calm. But her son shook his head, crying that he didn’t understand and that his head was hurting. He kept clamping his head, sobbing now as he asked why this was happening… that he didn’t know what to do or believe or say.

The severity of what Alpha Beaumont had done caused so much damage. So much hurt… rage… confusion… just a mess. And with the short time frame we had until Madilynn’s arrival… it was impossible for me not to let a loving, hurting mother comfort her panicked son after hearing such a heart wrenching truth.