Nathan’s breaths ca out ragged, heavy with anger, his movents rough, unrestrained, like he was trying to vent everything through Maddison. And he didn’t stop, didn’t even hesitate, despite knowing that there might be soone watching.
Maddison’s soft moans only grew louder under him, almost deliberate, almost performative.
And then...
Her eyes t Ashley’s.
A slow, knowing smirk spread across Maddison’s lips, sharp and taunting. She didn’t look away. Instead, she lifted her arms, wrapping them around Nathan’s neck, pulling him closer as if claiming him right then and there.
Her voice ca out soft, coaxing, laced with mock sweetness.
"Nathan..." Maddison murmured sweetly, her voice soft, almost playful. "Ashley’s been clinging to you over that mating ceremony lately... doesn’t it exhaust you?"
Ashley’s breath hitched, quiet, but painful, as the aning behind those words cut deeper than anything she could hear.
"Baby..." Nathan’s voice dropped, low and rough, laced with disdain. "Let’s not waste our ti talking about soone so irrelevant while we’re enjoying ourselves."
"You know all those promises I gave her?" he scoffed under his breath. "Nothing but lies. Just enough to keep her clinging on... so I can crush whatever pathetic hope she’s holding onto until tomorrow."
His tone hardened, turning colder and crueler. "I’ll make it clear who my Luna really is. There was never any question... It’s only gonna be you and only you."
He paused, then followed with a quiet, vicious chuckle. "Let her drown in it, watching everyone turn their backs on her while you take your rightful place. I’ll make sure she regrets ever existing... if that disgusting woman she calls a mother hadn’t switched you at the hospital, none of this would’ve happened.—" his jaw tightened, voice dripping with disdain, "—You, the true Alpha’s daughter, wouldn’t have wasted eighteen years suffering while that impostor lived in your place."
His words ca faster now, sharper, like sothing festering finally spilling out. "If things had been right from the start, you would’ve grown up beside ... as my future bride."
His breath steadied, conviction settling in. "We’re not doing anything wrong... we’re just putting things back where they belong. You don’t need to feel guilty over soone like her; she’s nothing."
And yet...
Not once did he hesitate.
Not once did he rember the years he spent with Ashley... the promises, the affection, the love he once swore was real.
They all called Maddison innocent. Pitiful.
But was Ashley ever truly at fault... or was she just the one chosen to be discarded?
Now, Ashley was finally seeing what kind of person he is.
This wasn’t a misunderstanding.
They were orchestrating everything... carefully, deliberately, setting her up to fall in one clean, rciless blow. Not just to hurt her, but to break her where it would matter most, her pride, her na, her future.
They wanted her humiliated. In front of everyone.
Because once that happened... who would still want her? Who would dare claim her as their mate after she’d been stripped of dignity and cast aside like she ant nothing?
It wasn’t just rejection.
They were closing every door, one by one, cutting off every path she could take, every chance she could have, until there was nowhere left for her to go.
Until all that remained... was for her to disappear quietly, miserably.
As if everything they once shared, every promise, every mont, every ounce of closeness, had never existed at all.
And from the way everything unfolded, it beca painfully clear that her father, her mother, even her two brothers... they had all been in on it.
Only now did Ashley understand why they had suddenly called her back, why they had softened their tone, why they had pretended to care. It was never about reconciliation, but a setup.
This had been Nathan’s plan all along.
He had drawn them in, convinced them to stand with him, to help "put Ashley in her place," all in the na of giving Maddison’s eighteen years of suffering an answer. But this wasn’t about justice; it was just a calculated cruelty. They didn’t just want her to apologize or make ands.
They wanted her broken.
They wanted her humiliated, dragged through the sa filth Maddison had endured—mocked, scorned, stripped of dignity—until she suffered just as much... if not worse.
Because Maddison had once been ridiculed, cast aside, treated like nothing... now they wanted Ashley to wear that sa sha.
But it didn’t stop there.
This wasn’t only about making Maddison feel better by comparison. No, this was a ssage. A warning.
They were going to brand Ashley in front of every pack, reduce her to sothing untouchable, sothing beneath contempt, so that no one would dare to pity her, no one would dare to help her.
Because helping Ashley... would an standing against them.
And no one was foolish enough to challenge two rising packs.
Ashley felt sothing inside her turn rigid, then cold, as if her heart had been sealed in ice. Slowly, she lifted a trembling hand and wiped away the tears clinging to her lashes.
She knew Nathan too well.
Cruel. Calculating. Relentless.
He would do anything to achieve what he wanted, because she had seen his thods before, witnessed the quiet brutality behind his victories. But never... never had she imagined that one day, those sa thods would be turned on her.
That realization hurt more than anything else.
But no matter how naïve she had once been, she wasn’t blind anymore.
After everything that had been revealed... it was obvious.
Maddison wanted her to hear it. Every word. Every truth.
She wanted Ashley to feel it.
To understand that everything she once held dear, every ounce of love, every bond she trusted, had been taken, twisted, and now wielded against her. The very people she cherished had beco blades in Maddison’s hands, cutting into her again and again, forcing her to feel every ounce of pain she had once ignored.
And now... Ashley finally understood.
Her chest rose sharply as she steadied herself, her fingers curling into fists.
She didn’t have the luxury of breaking down.
Not anymore.
Hadn’t it been her hesitation—her slow, fragile way of processing everything—that gave them ti to sche, to conspire, to destroy her piece by piece?
No.
She couldn’t afford that weakness again.
Not this ti.
And the cruelest part of it all... was that the one she had loved the most was the very person who had thought of everything, who had planned it, orchestrated it, and led everyone else to follow.
That truth cut deeper than anything else.
No wonder... when she collapsed and lay unconscious for three days after being banished, not a single ssage ca from the family she had grown up with. No concern. No panic. No love.
Only silence.
And then, the mont she woke and after Nathan had already spoken to her, after he had said what he needed to say, that was the ti when the ssages ca flooding in.
But now she understood.
They weren’t worried about her.
They never were.
Those ssages... were nothing more than carefully chosen words ant to guilt her. To push her into giving everything back and to return the company shares to Maddison without them having to lift a finger. And she had done exactly that. Worse... she had gone beyond it.
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