Seraphina’s POV
Anna Blackwood—was soone I’d hoped never to see again for the rest of my natural life.
The mories ca flooding back with crystalline clarity, each one hitting like a physical blow. Anna and Valerie, standing over in the high school bathroom during my sophomore year, their cruel laughter echoing off the grimy tiled walls as they shoved my head toward the toilet bowl filled with murky water and discarded cigarette butts.
"Look at the pathetic little oga," Valerie had sneered, her manicured nails digging into my scalp as she held down. "Does she really think she belongs here with real wolves?"
Anna had been right there beside her, recording everything on her phone while she giggled. "This is going straight to the pack forum," she’d taunted. "Everyone needs to see what happens to ogas who get too uppity."
The taste of chlorine and humiliation had burned my throat for days afterward. But that wasn’t the worst of it. They’d made sure to ti their attacks perfectly—always when teachers were in etings, always when the hallways were empty, always when there would be no witnesses except their loyal followers who found oga-baiting as entertaining as a sporting event.
There had been the ti they’d dumped my entire lunch tray on my head in front of the senior class, then forced to clean it up while they stood there critiquing my "technique.” The countless mornings I’d arrived at school to find my locker filled with rotting at and notes calling "worthless breeding stock."
Anna’s specialty had been psychological warfare. She’d befriend for just long enough to learn my insecurities, then weaponize them with surgical precision. She’d discovered I had a crush on a boy in our chemistry class and had convinced him to ask to the spring formal—only to reveal it was all an elaborate prank when I showed up to find them laughing at in front of the entire school.
"Did you really think soone like him would want damaged goods?" Anna had whispered as I stood there in my carefully saved-for dress, humiliation burning through my veins like acid. "You’re just a charity case, Sera. Always have been, always will be."
For three endless years, they’d made sure I knew exactly where I stood in the pack hierarchy. Every day brought fresh reminders that I was nothing, nobody, a mistake that everyone tolerated only because the Moon Goddess apparently had a twisted sense of humor.
After graduation, she’d vanished completely. Valerie had ntioned once that Anna was "sleeping her way to the top" with various wealthy n, but I’d assud that was just typical Valerie venom. Now here she was, draped all over my mate like a cheap accessory, acting as if we were long-lost best friends.
"Know each other?" Anna’s voice pitched higher, that sa theatrical quality I rembered from our school days when she’d perform for whatever audience was available. "We were best friends! Isn’t that right, Sera darling?"
The casual lie made my wolf snarl with indignation. Ayla was pacing furiously in my mind, her ntal voice sharp with protective anger. *That bitch tornted us for years. How dare she rewrite history?*
But what made my chest tighten with real pain wasn’t Anna’s presence—it was the golden pendant she kept waving around like a trophy. The craftsmanship was exquisite, clearly expensive.
"Report to the office Monday morning," Damien said, his voice carrying that sa professional tone he’d used during my interview. "You’ll be working as a senior assistant. With Sera."
With .
The words felt like ice water being poured down my spine. This woman—this creature who had spent three years of my life making feel worthless—was being handed a position identical to mine. No interview, no qualifications check, no demonstration of ability. Just Damien’s word, apparently based on whatever sob story she’d fed him about their supposed romantic history.
"Excuse ," I managed to say, my voice steady despite the fury building in my chest. "But did this... candidate go through the sa interview process I did? Because I seem to recall multiple rounds of screening, reference checks, and a rather intense evaluation period before I was deed qualified for this position."
Anna’s perfectly manicured hand tightened on Damien’s arm, her artificially plumped lips curving into a smirk I knew all too well. "Oh, Sera," she laughed, that sa musical tinkle that had preceded so many of my teenage humiliations. "Always so concerned with rules and fairness. So of us don’t need to jump through hoops when we have... special qualifications."
She pressed herself closer to Damien, making sure her enhanced curves were pressed against his side in a way that would be impossible to ignore. The possessive gesture made my wolf howl with rage, and I had to dig my nails into my palms to keep from lunging at her throat.
"Special qualifications?" I repeated, my voice taking on an edge that made several passing security guards look in our direction.
"You don’t understand!" Anna’s voice rose to that familiar pitch of manufactured excitent, designed to draw attention and make everyone focus on her performance. "I’m Damien’s first love! His true mate from years ago!" She waved the pendant frantically, the gold catching the overhead lights. "He promised all of this—the job, the position, everything! I might even beco his Luna!"
The bottom dropped out of my world.
Damien’s face had gone carefully blank. But his silence spoke volus. He wasn’t denying her claims. Wasn’t correcting her assumption about their relationship status. Wasn’t even stepping away from her touch.
My mate—the man who’d rescued from Michael’s assault, who’d made love to with desperate passion in the back seat of his car, who’d looked at like I was everything he’d been searching for—was standing there letting another woman claim his future.
And not just any woman. The woman who’d spent three years of my adolescence convincing I was worthless.
"Well then," I said quietly, my voice carrying a calm that I definitely didn’t feel. "I suppose congratulations are in order."
I looked directly at Damien, eting those blue eyes that had haunted my dreams for the past week. Eyes that now seed cold and distant, like he was looking at a stranger rather than the woman he’d claid as his mate.
"I hope you’ll both be very happy together," I continued, each word carefully asured and precisely delivered. “And I’ll go ho right now.”
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