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I didn’t mean to look. But my name was in bold: “Alpha’s Optics: Contract Luna’s Public Redemption Tour“?
Below the headline, a photo from the sanctuary outing was centeret like a glossy insult. I stood beside Logan is the image. slightly turned toward him, hand mid–gesture. He wasn’t even looking at me–his gaze was on something distant, his expression was cold.
If someone had asked me before that moment, I would’ve said it had been a good day. That something real had passed betweens
- us.
Now I couldn’t breathe.
The mug slipped from my fingers, splashing coffee across the table before I managed to catch it. I swore under my breath and moved quickly to clean up the spill.
I left the kitchen and walked straight to my rooms, slamming the door behind me with more force than I meant to. My hands trembled as I paced the room.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. I knew what the media did. I’d lived through worse headlines when Michael and Chloe paraded their betrayal around the Packs.
But this…this felt different.
This wasn’t just about shame. It was about being reduced again. Again. To a headline. A story. A punchline. Optics.
Like I was a charity case paraded in front of the cameras for show. Like Logan had taken me to the sanctuary because I was broken and needed fixing.
Not because I wanted to share a piece of me with him. Not because he’d seen something in me worth standing beside.
Not because I mattered.
My breath came faster now, shallow and angry. I opened my tablet and scrolled, searching for damage control, for clarity, for something that would make it sting less.
But the story had spread.
One outlet quoted a “close source” from my Pack who claimed I was “leaning heavily on Titanfang’s image to make up for years of instability.” Another speculated I’d “used Logan’s sympathy” to gain the sanctuary spotlight.
My jaw clenched so tightly it hurt.
I’d worked so hard to stand on my own.
Every report I filed. Every number I’d triple–checked. Every time I spoke openly about my dormancy.
And now it was all reduced to optics.
I thought of Logan, how he hadn’t hesitated to offer me his arm in front of the cameras. How he’d watched me, not like I was broken, but like I was something worth admiring.
How his voice had gone quiet when I spoke to the young girl at the sanctuary who asked me if wolves without shifts could still be strong.
He’d seen that moment. He’d felt it.
And now… now I didn’t know what was real.
I dropped the tablet on the desk and leaned against the window, forehead pressing to the cool glass.
I am not weak. I repeated the words like a mantra.
Chapter 24
But inside, it didn’t feel strong in that moment, it felt like doma
My mind went back to being sixteen, standing at a Pack bondi
pretending I didn’t care.
Back to Chloe whispering at a school dance, loud enough for evrye to her, “She’s put tofactor fly
The articles didn’t feel new. They felt like history repeating, sharing its teeth
There was a knock at the door. A pause, I assumed Logan had seen the articles with mixed inter
But right now, I just needed to be alone.
Eventually, his footsteps retreated.
I stayed at the window, watching the sun creep over the distant trees, lighting to the grass in pale gold
Because suddenly, all I could think about was how easy it was for people to believe I was lucky to have been dissen
Even when I’d spent my whole life proving I was worth more than that
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