Chapter 0002

Zoe’s POV

“Is this what your business is?” I had asked, trying to hold my tears until I was alone.

“John? Do you know her?” Alyssa asked placing a hand on his chest. The chest that I was rarely allowed to touch for years.

“Lyssa, it’s not what you might be thinking. This girl and I, we’re just friends.” John lied blatantly on my face and I was shocked to bear witness to this side of him.

“Don’t get the wrong idea by what she is wearing. She is going through some stuff. Must’ve gotten upset when I couldn’t be there to help her.” He had the audacity to twirl a stray lock of her blonde hair around his finger as I stood watching in shock.

“Oh, in that case, hi. I’m Alyssa. I think I remember you from today’s meeting. You were sitting at the back right?” The man-stealing bitch smiled and it stung like a viper. She extended a hand as an offer to shake mine and I glared at it.

John squirmed as I refused to shake hands with the whore he was cheating on me with and glared at him, not allowing the tears that were pooling in my eyes to drop yet.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what he said next.

“Zoe, you need to leave us alone. You are making a scene. And if you don’t care about your reputation, coming here dressed like that, then respect our privacy. I hope you can manage that.”

I couldn’t believe my ears.

Respect his privacy?

Alyssa pulled her unshaken hand back and looked at John as if complaining how I was supposed to shake her filthy hand but didn’t.

That somehow made him angrier.

“What are you still doing here? Leave, or I’ll make you and you won’t like the way I’ll do it.” I stood there speechless as he scolded me, his five-year-long girlfriend for this new chick, who had just joined the pack.

My heart was shattered into pieces. The one I had imagined to be my one and only had pushed me down and stomped all over me with his new girl.

Didn’t I at least deserve a proper breakup? A reason for why he was doing this to me?

When he excused himself and stepped closer to me to whisper harshly in my ear and grabbed my upper arm roughly, “You’ve embarrassed me enough for one night. Go back home.”

That’s when my tears dropped.

I hadn’t meant to cry but his actions and his words stung too much. Each word was like a knife in my heart. I cried despite myself. I thought I was strong but not more than heartbreak.

Without another word, I turned and rushed back home.

Everything was clear, I had been the blind one.

That night I cried myself to sleep, woke up at midnight, and cried more. No ice cream could ease the pain of my broken heart. I kept asking myself, how could I have loved such a heartless person?

By morning I had no motivation to ever leave my bed. My eyes were swollen from all the crying.

My phone rang.

It was my best friend and neighbor, Maisy, calling me. She never called me this early. It was barely morning.

I reluctantly picked up the phone,

“Zoe, did you hear it?”

“Hear what?” I asked groggily.

“Omg, you don’t know!”

“Don’t know what?” I asked, nearly snapping at her for making me solve riddles.

“Your dad. Uncle Simmons,”

“What happened to Dad?” I sat up. The panic in her voice made me anxious.

“Zoe, some men came at night and arrested him for some huge embezzlement from the pack’s finances. He will be sent to the dungeons soon.”

“What?!” I screamed at my phone.

That was impossible. My dad and embezzlement couldn’t be in the same sentence.

“Have you lost your mind?” I asked getting upset. Was one bad news not enough? That I had to face this, first thing in the morning.

“Zoe, Luv, I know it must have come as a shock-”

“You bet! Who told you?” I asked. I needed to get to the bottom of it. It was possible that it was all just one big misunderstanding and my sweet, kind, responsible, and well-respected Dad still lay sleeping his retirement away peacefully in his bed.

“We live in the same neighborhood, girl. And when the men came, my dad went to check. He returned making sure that the men had the pack’s emblem on them. They sounded very serious. Even my Dad was scared for a while.

“You know what? I gotta go!” I told, as I cut off the call and jumped into the shower.

Heartbreak be damned, my father needed me.

I quickly took off my embarrassing reminder of last night and cleaned myself up to go to the pack house at once. If my Dad truly had been arrested, that’s where they’d be keeping him and that’s where I would find everyone responsible for it too.

In about an hour, I was driving fast towards the upper part of the town where the Packhouse was.

I rushed in and was met with one of the Elders talking to a guard.

“Make sure he is well-guarded. Any slip-up will be punishable by death. He may be old, but he was a beta. Be extra careful until he is shifted to the dungeons.”

And just like that, I knew what Maisy had told me was true.

Of course, they could’ve been talking about another prisoner, but the coincidence was uncanny.

“Sir, I need to see my father. Where is he? You know he didn’t do what he is being framed for doing!” I started as soon as the guard left.

The Elder, Mister Wyatt, used to be a close friend of my Dad. He shook his head in disdain and my heart broke, “Sir, you know he would never-”

“Zoe, my child, I understand that it must be a shock but there is proof against your father having embezzled of ten million from Pack finances. As you can understand, it is no small amount. It cannot be excused.”

With that, he led me to a room with many guards around the entrance, “Your father is here. Say your goodbyes, you might not get another chance.”

This could not be it. I was in denial of everything the Elder had told me, but I was grateful to him for letting me talk to my father. He told the guards to allow me through.

I opened the door and saw him chained to a wall post in someone’s study, a makeshift prison for my Dad.

The moment he saw who it was he spoke with urgency, “I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it, Zoe. I’m being framed.”

“I know, Daddy. I know.” I rushed to hug him and saw that he had been crying. How could he not? His lifetime of earning respect got ruined in one night due to a cruel lie.

“But who would frame you like this?” I asked desperately. I didn’t know how much time I had but it couldn’t be long.

“John did it! He did it and framed me. He came here and confessed. Made it look like he found out about it when he came to the office as my successor. Created all the proof. No one would believe me if I called him out. He knows only the Werewolf Council can find out the truth and they have no reason to meddle in the pack’s private affairs like these.” My father had fresh tears brimming in his eyes and it made me tear up too.

How could I be so blind to never see who John really was?