Elara POV

I took the small box from his hand.

I slowly pulled the ribbon and opened the lid.

Inside was a cheap, mass-produced human music box.

It was the kind you could buy at any corner store for a few dollars.

I swallowed the bitter lump in my throat and forced a small nod.

"Thank you," I whispered, the words feeling like ash in my mouth.

Kael groaned, leaning his massive weight against me.

I struggled to drag his heavy Alpha frame across the room to the large leather couch.

When I finally let him down, a single, hot tear escaped and struck the wooden floor with a faint tick.

I sat on the edge of the coffee table, looking at him.

"How was the meeting?" I asked, my voice steady despite the storm inside me.

"Tough," Kael muttered, closing his eyes. "The territory negotiations took hours. My Beta had to call a car for me."

He was lying without a single hesitation.

"Kael," I said directly. "Are you hiding anything from me?"

He opened one eye, reaching out to grab my hand.

"Never," he slurred, and he drew his lips back into a smile, but the muscles around his eyes remained inert, a strained and hollow performance. "You are the gift the Moon Goddess gave me. I would never betray my mate."

He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles.

A few minutes later, his breathing evened out. He was fast asleep.

I leaned in closer.

Under the dim living room light, I clearly saw the faint smudge of pink lipstick on his jawline.

The sweet, sickening perfume of Selene filled my nose.

Suddenly, Kael's phone slipped from his pocket and landed on the rug with a soft thud.

The screen lit up with a new message notification.

It was from Selene.

Thank you for tonight, Alpha. The gift was perfect.

I held my breath, my fingernails digging so hard into the plastic casing of my own phone that the pads of my fingers turned a bloodless white.

I picked up his. He had been so arrogant in his security that my thumbprint remained a registered key. I pressed it to the sensor, and the device yielded to me without a fight.

I opened his messages with Selene.

They were not a confession, but a ledger. There were photographs of a designer bag, the same one from the receipt.

I scrolled up and found the bank transfer notification.

He had used four thousand dollars from the Pack's emergency funds to buy a bag for Selene's younger sister.

My hands shook as I closed the messages and opened the Pack's internal financial app.

Kael always told me the Pack was struggling, that we had to save every penny for the winter.

Seeing the numbers again on his phone, the reality of his theft solidified, and a sensation like swallowing crushed ice spread from my stomach, a chill that crept up my spine, yet my hand was perfectly steady as I placed the phone back on the rug with deliberate slowness.

His dividends as the Pack CEO were massive. There was no financial crisis.

I opened his offshore banking app.

Millions of dollars had been quietly transferred out of the shared Pack accounts over the last year. The latest transfer memo read: Villa Deed Transfer — Father's Name, Vivienne Control.