I Traded Up to the Alpha King

At the multinational company's annual gala, the new intern, Nadia, suddenly pointed at the bone ring on my fiancé's hand and said:

"I heard only the pack's future Luna can wear this bone ring. Can I try it on?"

Werewolf CEO Garrett didn't think twice. He gave a one-word answer: "Yes."

In an instant, every executive and great-family elder in the room turned to look at me.

Everyone knew I was his Luna-to-be, seven years at his side and still unmarked.

Together we had fought our way from the fringes of his family to the top of the company.

Yet even I wasn't allowed to touch the bone ring, the symbol of his mother's honor.

Dodging the stares, some pitying, some mocking,

I calmly watched him slide the bone ring onto his intern's finger with his own hand.

I suddenly realized it was time to end these seven ridiculous years with Garrett.

1

Under the crystal chandeliers, Garrett had already slipped the bone ring onto Nadia's hand.

The intern wore a victory smile she couldn't hide. She raised her hand so the pale ring caught the light with an eerie glow.

"Garrett, baby, it looks gorgeous," she said, her voice dripping with sugar. "It looks way better on me than in some box, don't you think?"

I ignored the pitying and mocking stares around me and glanced down at my phone.

An encrypted message flashed up: "Project Ark is ready."

Good.

I stepped into the shadow of the terrace and dialed a number, keeping my voice low. "Fenrir, you once promised to build me a castle out of the eternal glacier of the North. Does that still stand?"

At first the line was dead silent. Then came a beastlike growl and ragged breathing, held in so tightly it shook.

The grind of metal. The crack of glass. Then everything went still.

After a long while, a single word came through, so hoarse it was barely recognizable: "...Here."

"Wait for me."

I hung up, picked up a glass of champagne, and turned toward Garrett.

He was half-listening to Nadia's pouting, and the sickly sweet perfume on his shirt cuff, not mine, stung my nose.

Nadia was showing the ring to an elder like a trophy. "Look, my Garrett says this ring was made to be worn on my hand."

Garrett didn't deny it. He just waved a hand, bored.

"Garrett." I walked up to him.

He finally tore his eyes from Nadia and landed them on my face, irritated. "What now? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Our partnership ends here." I set a signed termination agreement on the table in front of him. The paper was thin, but it weighed a ton.

For the first time he really looked at me. The eyes I had loved for seven years held nothing but impatience and contempt.

He yanked at his collar, annoyed. "Stop being dramatic. She's just an intern. Do you really need a stunt like this to get my attention? You're still the same as ever, dull and jealous."

He didn't even glance at the agreement. He pinched it between two long fingers and tossed it into an ice bucket of champagne beside him.

The pages soaked through in seconds. My name blurred slowly in the liquid.

"Go," he said, too lazy to look at me again, jerking his chin toward the service desk. "Get me a hot towel. I drank too much tonight."

He didn't raise his voice, but every guest within earshot who had been listening caught every word.

I looked at him and suddenly laughed.

I didn't move.

He finally sensed something was wrong and frowned. "Are you deaf? I told you to go..."

"Garrett," I cut him off, every word crisp and clear, "you're fired."

He froze, as if he'd heard the world's dumbest joke.

"What did you say?"

"I said," I picked up my phone, tapped the launch button for Project Ark, and pressed confirm, "from this second on, you are no longer the CEO of this company."

On the giant screen behind him, the company promo video looping on repeat cut off instantly.

In its place came stacks of board removal notices stamped in red, and every piece of evidence that he had used his position to funnel favors to Nadia's family.

Garrett's face went white in an instant.

2

I dragged my suitcase out of Garrett's estate without a single backward glance.

The night wind swept past and carried off the last trace of this place that still clung to me.

The next day, the company's internal "Pack" forum blew up.

Not because of the CEO change, but because of Nadia.

She posted a photo of herself wearing the bone ring, feeding him soup in Garrett's study.

In the photo, Garrett looked haggard, yet the way he looked at Nadia carried the dependence of a man who had lost everything.

Nadia's caption: "So what if seven years by his side? My Garrett says some people are born to be Luna. Even if he's lost everything, I'll stand by him."

Below, Garrett replied from his private account with a doting emoji: "That's my girl."

The whole forum was singing praises to their "love that holds up in hard times."

No one remembered that study was something I had designed for him.

That desk was the battlefield I had survived with him through countless bloody nights.

I remembered three years ago, when I secured the key peace talks with the vampires, our ancient rivals, and came back covered in wounds.

I posted one line on the forum, "I'm back," hoping to get one word of approval from him.

Half an hour later, he replied publicly with an official company notice: "As my Luna-to-be, you must always carry yourself with dignity. Stop acting like a little girl angling for praise."