Chapter 7 You Don’t Resign From An Alpha

POV: Eric

The wait is a slow bite. My wolf will not stay still. He scratches at my ribs with a low, unbroken growl that rattles my chest. Ours. She is ours. Why did you let her go?

In my world, refusal does not exist. I was born into control. I imposed it on a whole pack at twenty-one when my father forced the title on me, so the idea that she could say no does not make me doubt. It just makes me want to raze everything. This will never be a love contract. Love is a weakness I buried thirteen years ago, the night my mother died, when I watched Karim, that invincible Alpha, die from the inside out. An Alpha who breaks over feelings is not an Alpha. I will never be him.

Catherine took the day off. Without her to screen calls and keep WSL standing, the firm feels dead. I canceled everything. I am here, waiting for her to fold.

Two knocks. The door opens on Karim.

Same scene every time: black felt hat pulled low, ebony cane tapping the floor with royal arrogance. Behind him, Gervais, his old beta, silent as a grave, a protective shadow. Karim sets his hat on my desk like he is marking territory.

“Your little girl is not here,” he says with that sarcastic smile that makes me want to rip his throat out.

“She took the day.”

“You should take a second one, Eric. Just one is risky. Especially when she is pretty.”

“One Catherine is enough, Karim.”

Cael comes up with lunch. We sit around the coffee table. Karim eats slowly, and his old predator eyes miss nothing. He does not waste time.

“Stevenson signed. Total exclusivity. Eight figures.”

“And Hydera?”

“Setback. Nothing serious,” I answer through gritted teeth.

“Fix it. It is priority.”

He leans toward me, and his tone gets sharper, more possessive.

“Find yourself a woman, Eric. An Alpha without a Luna loses power. You think the pack will follow you long if you play monk?”

The image hits me. Catherine, this morning. Those heels, that bun pulled so tight my hands burned to undo it and watch her hair spill down her back.

“Alpha? You with us?” Cael snaps.

“Yes.”

Karim stands and adjusts his hat with a precise motion. He sets a heavy hand on my shoulder, and his cold rings dig into my flesh.

“Stevenson is business. Hydera is the future. But your bloodline is the Pack. Do not forget the order, son.”

The door closes. Silence drops, heavy and suffocating. Stevenson, Hydera, the Pack… all of it feels trivial.

My phone vibrates on the wood. The screen lights up. One name: Catherine.

I grab it, and my muscles coil to breaking. I open the message.

“Mr. Wood, I will not sign your contract. Consider this message my letter of resignation. Catherine.”

The world stops. My wolf freezes for one terrifying, flat second before howling pure fury. SHE REFUSES?

Rage drowns me. She thinks she can resign from me?

I hurl my phone against the far wall. The device explodes in a crash of glass and plastic, but the silence that follows is even more violent.

“She is not resigning from anything,” I growl, and my voice is nothing but an inhuman rumble.

She is defying us! my wolf roars, and his claws virtually shred my mind. She thinks we are a human she can dump over text? Go get her. Bring her back. Show her you do not resign from an Alpha.

I stand and knock over my massive office chair like it is a toy. My joints crack, and my vision bleeds red.