5. Inheritance ceremony

Caden

“Now, now, Omega, that’s no way to clean the floors,” Jared hissed at Chloe, who was on her hands and knees cleaning the floor with a rag. My knees ached at the thought of having to crawl across the tile like she had been doing for the better part of an hour.

Chloe ignored him and continued to dip the rag in the sudsy water. I could tell from the mean glint in Jared’s eyes that he wasn’t about to give up. I wanted to stop him, but I didn’t. It wasn’t my place anymore.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Jared smirked before kicking over the bucket, soaking both Chloe and the floor in soapy water she now had to clean up.

I jerked in their direction before I managed to control myself.

Part of me wanted Chloe to fight back, even if it wouldn’t make anything better. The old Chloe, who’d been my mate, had always been spirited, even if a little quiet sometimes.

Jared walked off, laughing his head off.

Before I could make my way over to Chloe to do something, anything to help, Mariah poked her head out of the kitchen.

Seeing the mess, she screeched, “You stupid girl! What the hell are you doing? You’re supposed to be cleaning up the mess, not making a bigger one! You have one hour to clean this up, you hear me?”

Chloe bowed her head, avoiding the older woman’s yes. “Yes, ma’am.”

This should have been the most exciting time of my life, and instead, I was miserable. I’d thought that when my father demoted Chloe to Omega, I wouldn’t have to run into her anymore, but the opposite was true. She was constantly underfoot. Logically, I knew that had more to do with her working on my Alpha Inheritance ceremony, but it almost felt personal, like she was throwing it in my face that I’d abandoned her.

I hadn’t been consulted – Father was still the Alpha, and as Chloe had been my mate, he’d assumed I was too close to the issue to make a fair decision, and perhaps he was right. Since the moment I’d felt our mate bond snap into place, I’d been a bit dumb where she was concerned.

“Son, I’ll be demoting Chloe to Omega.”

The words shocked me, but after a moment I nodded. She had to be punished to continue the pack justice, but we didn’t have enough to kick her out of the pack completely. She hadn’t been abusing Leah, unlike her mother.

“I know this must be hard for you,” my father started.

I cut him off. “It’s not. It’s what needs to happen.” I stared back at my Alpha, hoping he didn’t see the weakness for Chloe I still held.

“Caden!” By the tone of voice, I knew they’d been saying my name for a while.

I blinked and realized I was glaring across the room at Chloe working. With a scowl, I turned to look down at Leah. “What?”

She rolled her eyes and sent me what I assumed she thought was a coy smile. In reality, it looked like she had a twitch.

I halted my thoughts and winced inwards. It wasn’t Leah’s fault I found her annoying, and it wasn’t her fault that the Alpha had failed her – that I had failed her by extension. She was my age, give or take, and I should have noticed that she was being abused by that woman. Someone should have said something.

My gaze involuntarily returned to Chloe for a brief moment, anger heating my chest. She would have known – she had to have known – and she’d done nothing. On all our dates over the last two years, Chloe could have told me at any point that her mother was abusing Leah, and she hadn’t. She’d kept it to herself, letting her stepsister get hurt in the process. I didn’t think I could ever forgive her for that.

“Omega!” one of the warriors called out to Chloe.

I watched as she picked herself up off the floor to face him. “Yes?”

“Clean my room next.”

I could see the weariness drooping her shoulders, but there was nothing I could do.

“Of course,” she agreed.

I realized for the first time that Leah was still talking, having not noticed my attention was directed elsewhere. I tried to tune back into what she was saying, but from what I gathered, it was more of a monologue about the dress she was planning to wear at my inheritance ceremony than an actual conversation, which was fine by me. I didn’t know if I had it in me to respond to someone at the moment.

While I may have broken the mate bond with Chloe, my wolf still sensed her presence and reacted, having not gotten the memo that she was not ours anymore. I wanted to ask someone if it was going to be like that forever, but I wasn’t sure who to ask. One of the pack healers, maybe? Dr. Friendman was always nice, although she’d been present when I’d broken things off with Chloe. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to look her in the eye if I asked her.

Leah stopped talking, and I glanced down at her. Realizing she was waiting for a response, I shrugged. “If you want.”

Apparently, that was the correct answer because she smiled wide and ran off to go do… something. I had no idea. I hadn’t heard a word she’d said.

A large hand clasped my shoulder as my gaze returned to Chloe.

“You’re in a difficult position, son,” my father, the Alpha, sighed.

“No, I’m not.”

He cut me a sharp glance. “While I might have never broken a mate bond, I do have a basic understanding of what happens. It’s a terrible pain, one that I doubt will ever go away.” He paused for a moment. “Do you regret your decision?”

I shook my head. “No. I could never be with someone who allowed anyone to be abused like that. Leah may not be my favorite pack member, but she didn’t deserve what Susanna put her through. It’s not right.”

“Are you mad at me for demoting Chloe to omega?”

The question surprised me and I turned to my father. “No, of course not. If the situation had been reversed and I had been Alpha, I would have done the same thing.”

“You’re going to be a good leader, son.” He clapped me on the shoulder once more before leaving.

Only a few days later, I was back in the gardens, standing underneath the high platform that held the pack warriors. My father and I were underneath as was tradition, dressed in our finest.

I thought I would savor every second of my inheritance ceremony, but it was mainly just a blur of oaths and activity and a quick prick as I lay my blood down for my pack.

My pack. What a beautiful thought.

Instinctually, I gazed out over the crowd, searching for Chloe. I found her to the side of the stage, her face deathly pale. I paused, confused. She looked… scared? Of what? Then I watched as Jared leaned over and whispered something in her ear. The color drained from her face, and I wondered what he’d said to her. She’d already been banished to the worst seat in the house. What else could she suffer?

It was only as this thought crossed my mind that I heard the slight creaking of the high platform above us. I glanced up just in time to see the support buckle, sending the entire thing down on top of my father and me.

I was going to die. Even my superior wolf response time wouldn’t save me from this.

Something hard barreled into me, and I flew back onto the grass. I heard the screams and crash a second later while I still lay on the ground, stunned. I pushed myself up and saw, to my growing horror, that while my father and I had made it out from under the platform before it collapsed, my savior hadn’t. Chloe hadn’t. She’d realized what was happening just in time to push me out of the way and get crushed instead.

Blind, all-consuming panic filled me. I rushed forward and pulled Chloe out of the rubble, desperate to find any signs of life. She was bruised, but she was still breathing. I stood, carrying her in my arms, and sprinted off towards the hospital without another thought. She might not be my mate anymore, but I wasn’t going to let her die. The idea was unbearable. She had to be okay. She had to be.

Chloe

The silence was what woke me. That, and the pounding in my head. I opened my eyes slowly as my head was still protesting, but the tree branches overhead filtered the sunlight that made its way through. I sighed in relief. I rolled to my side and nearly screamed in pain. It all came back to me in a rush – the inheritance ceremony, the platform falling, saving Caden, and then nothing. I pushed myself up and inspected the forest around me. How the hell had I ended up here?

It was only then that the silence finally clicked in my brain, and I froze. The forest – any forest – were many things, but they weren’t quiet. The only time they were was when a predator was around.

Panic gripped me, and I tried to breathe past it, desperate to figure out a way out – a way home.

I felt my wolf prowling beneath my skin, begging me to let her out. Normally I kept a tight leash on her, but not now.

I let her go, revealing in the feeling of skin peeling back and revealing fur. Shifting didn’t hurt, but when you were done, there was a definite ache in your bones that couldn’t be ignored.

Sniffing the air, I didn’t smell anything, but that could just mean that whatever threat there was was standing downwind from me.

“Hello?” I called out. I didn’t really expect there to be a response, but I was still unsettled when no one answered.

Picking a direction at random, I started off, running as fast as I could between the thick trees. The sooner I was out of this forest, the better.

I’d run for maybe a quarter of a mile before something bowled me over, snapping at my neck as we rolled.

“We’ve got her!” someone cried out.

I was so shocked that I recognized the voice that I shifted back to human, unable to hold my wolf shape.

“Jared?” I gasped, looking around for the warrior I’d known for years. My mind instantly flashed back to when he’d kicked the bucket, spilling the soapy water all over the tile. It’d taken me over an hour to clean up the mess by hand.

He strolled out of the trees, flanked on either side by wolves. “So nice to see you, dear Omega,” he sneered.

“Why are you doing this?” I hissed, moving into a crouching position.

Jared raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think, Omega? Because you are nothing, and you deserve nothing.”

His words stung, partly because I was beginning to believe them. Maybe I was nothing. Maybe I was worth nothing.

I glanced at the other wolves circling me now and recognized all of them from the pack.

“Let me go, and I’ll leave. I’ll never come back,” I promised, even though the words cleaved me in two to say.

“Not good enough.”

As if this was a cue, the wolf on the right launched itself at me.

I drove to the side, having just enough wits about me to turn into a wolf, so when the other’s body landed on me, it didn’t crush me. I threw the wolf off me, only to have a second and then a third emerge stalk towards me.

Standing my ground, I growled. I wouldn’t go down without a fight, even if I was injured.

They came at me at once, and I tried my best to fend them off with snapping fangs and sharp claws, but there were too many. Someone slashed my side, and I felt the blood grow sticky in my pelt.

It was only a matter of seconds before I was down, and then I was unconscious again, lost to the world as my body was ravaged.