Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 14

POV: Seraphina

The applause for Sylvie was a wave of acid washing over me, eating away at the carefully constructed composure I wore like armor. I sat through the rest of the banquet, a perfect marble statue of a Luna, smiling, nodding, laughing at the appropriate times while my insides churned with a cold, clear rage. This humiliation was no longer just a source of pain; it was a clarifying fire. It burned away the last lingering wisps of sentimentality and showed me the truth in stark, brutal relief.

Saving my family from a temporary supply shortage wasn't enough. That was reactive, a desperate plug in a crumbling dam. As long as my father's pack, and others like it, were economically dependent on powerful Alphas like Damian, they would never be truly free. Their dignity, their very lives, would always be subject to the whims of a tyrant. My personal suffering was just a symptom of a much larger, systemic disease.

After the last guest had departed, I didn't go to my room to weep. I went back to the library, the scent of Sylvie's triumphant perfume still clinging to the air from where she had stood beside Damian, accepting praise for my work. I didn't bother turning on the main lights; the moonlight slanting through the tall windows was enough, painting the room in shades of silver and shadow. I pulled out my old journals and Killian's data, spreading them across the large mahogany desk.

My first small victory had been a defensive move, a reaction to a crisis. But now, fueled by the white-hot forge of public degradation, a new idea began to form. It was audacious, dangerous, and utterly thrilling. It wasn't about defense anymore. It wasn't about survival. It was about attack.

What if there was another way? A system completely outside the existing power structures that were designed to keep alphas like Damian on top and alphas like my father dependent. I envisioned a new network, a clandestine alliance of medium and small-sized packs, the ones constantly being squeezed and bullied. A trade coalition based on mutual benefit and fair exchange, not dominance and submission. We could create our own supply chains, our own routes, our own economy. We could cut out the powerful Alphas altogether, starving them of the tribute and control they craved.

I framed the query carefully, disguising my revolutionary plan as a purely theoretical, academic research project on "economic interdependencies and systemic vulnerabilities in major wolf pack alliances." It was a bold request, one that hinted at a scale of ambition far beyond a simple trade route.

I was no longer just trying to escape my cage. I was planning to dismantle the entire system that had built it.

I hit send, the click of the mouse sealing my new resolve like a vow.