I told my workers to send Ryder a gift to say congratulations. I didn’t want to talk to him anymore. Everything was fine until I went to my first Beta meeting. Ryder happened to be there too.
He held Chloe’s hand and pulled her along as he walked towards me. He looked at me with a complicated look in his eyes.
Chloe looked even more sad than she did a few months ago. She looked at me with anger in her eyes, but she didn’t dare to do anything.
I had stopped working with the Nightgale Pack ever since I came back to the Iceclaw pack. The Nightgale Pack took a big hit without the help of my pack.
Over the course of a few months, packs that were lower down kept leaving. Other southern packs even attacked the Nightgale Pack.
Of course, the pack members took out all of their anger on Chloe. Chloe had brought disaster upon them because she had betrayed the Luna.
“Zoe, I heard that your pack wants to join forces with the southern packs. I was wondering if you would be interested in working with me again,” Ryder said.
Ryder spoke in a way that was bossy and strong. It was nothing like how he had begged me to go back with him before.
“The Nightgale Pack doesn’t even have a rank in the south anymore. Why should I lower myself to work with you?” I raised my eyebrows in disbelief at his crazy request.
The Iceclaw pack had always been the biggest pack in the north. The Nightgale Pack was already falling apart without our help.
Ryder had done something behind my back, and his pup were almost ten years old now. Still, he had the guts to ask me to work with him. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t have any sense.
I mercilessly revealed Ryder’s terrible situation, which made his face change and become grim. He slowly tightened his grip on Chloe’s hand.
Chloe winced in pain. As time went on, her arm started to look bruised. She frowned a lot, but she didn’t say anything.
Ryder said, “I don’t think you know much about pack alliances. The Alpha makes the big decisions. You’re just a Beta. I guess I was talking to the wrong wolf.”
“Zoe, I know you’re not happy that I brought Chloe and the pup back. I needed someone to take over. The pup also need a mum. I did it to make our pack members feel better. “I can if it makes you unhappy.”
I cut him off right away. “That won’t be necessary, Alpha Ryder.”
“I don’t care what you and Chloe are up to or how you’re going to deal with your pups. It doesn’t matter to me anymore. We’ve already broken our bond as mates.”
I pointed to the door. “That’s all? You two can go now. There’s nothing else to talk about.”
“Zoe, do you really have to go this far? Was everything between us a lie for the last ten years?” Ryder said.
“Don’t make yourself look even worse,” I told him.
He didn’t say anything, but his face changed. He turned around and left, taking Chloe with him.
He seemed to be stuck in the past and didn’t want to face the truth.
This new alliance between the northern and southern packs would be very bad for him. That would make him open his eyes and finally see that we had really gone our separate ways.
Also, it was wrong of him to look down on a Beta. Ryder must have forgotten what I could do when I helped him run the whole pack.
A few Alphas from other southern packs came to talk to me after Ryder left. They really wanted to join forces with our pack.
