Chapter 2

I tried to hold my tears until I was alone.

“John? Do you know her?” Alyssa asked placing a hand on his che-st. The one 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 bi-tch 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 woman he cheated on me with. I glared at him, holding back the tears pooling in my eyes.

I scoffed. “Oh, that's your genius idea? A quick bang in a hotel room?”

John got in my face and gripped my shoulders so tight that I winced. “Lower your fking voice.

We don’t need other members hearing this…” he paused. “Misunderstanding.”

At that moment, I saw red and completely lost my mind. “MISUNDERSTANDING?!” I screamed.

“ENOUGH!” John pressed out his Beta aura, making me snap out of my rage. Regardless that I was the former Beta’s daughter, John was still above me in rank and could make me submit.

“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.

But I wouldn’t go down that easily. I stood tall and craned my neck up so I could meet his eyes. John was a good ten inches taller. I pushed my pointer finger at his body.

“We are done.”Final words delivered. I turned and left.

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?

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. 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 my 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.

“No freaking way! I just saw him yesterday and he was perfectly fine,” I shouted.

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

“I will contact him now” I immediately text my dad. 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 danmed, 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?