My "generous offer" made Dahlia snap.
“No! NO!” she screamed hysterically, clinging to Zane’s arm. “Zane! Save me! She’s crazy!”
“I’m not cleaning any toilets! I won’t do it!”

Zane looked down at the sobbing woman in his arms, his face a mask of pain and conflict.
Just then, the doors to the council hall were thrown open again.
A young Beta, Zane's second-in-command, ran in, drenched in sweat.
“Alpha!” he yelled, out of breath. “It’s bad! It’s really bad!”
Every eye in the room turned to him.
“The Royal Enforcers just seized all of our mines!” he panted. “The silver mines, the iron mines, even the moonstone quarries! They’re all frozen!”

Zane’s face went chalk white.
“And that’s not all!” the Beta continued. “Our properties in the cities, our shops, our bank accounts… they’ve all been seized!”
A collective gasp went through the hall.
Those assets were worth tens of millions.

“They said…” the Beta swallowed hard. “They said if you don't sign the abdication agreement in the next half hour, you’ll be branded a traitor to the Alliance. A rogue with a price on your head.”
That last sentence broke Zane.
To be branded a traitor meant being cast out from the entire werewolf world, a stray dog for anyone to kill.
Dahlia heard it too. Her sobbing stopped.
She stared at Zane in disbelief, then looked at me.
“No… this isn’t real…” she mumbled. “It’s just a bad dream…”
But it was real.
Marcus walked up to Zane and presented him with a document.
“Zane of Dark Moon, please sign here,” he said, his voice flat and cold. “Relinquish all power and status granted to you by the Royal bloodline.”
Zane stared at the agreement, his hands shaking. If he signed, he would lose everything.
If he didn’t, he was a traitor. His fate would be even worse.
“Twenty-five minutes remain,” Marcus noted.
The elders in the hall began to whisper amongst themselves.
The ones who had supported Zane were now backing away, putting distance between them.
“Zane…” Dahlia tugged at his sleeve, her voice full of despair. “What are we going to do? What do we do?”
Zane gave her a long, hard look, his eyes swirling with complicated emotions.
Then he looked up at me.
“Cassia,” he said, his voice raw. “Are you really going to be this cruel?”
I just stared back at him, my face a blank slate.
“Five years of history. You’re just going to erase it all?” he asked. “Can’t you just… give us a chance?”
“A chance?” I scoffed. “Did you give me a chance when you betrayed me?”
Zane clenched his jaw, his knuckles turning white. The seconds ticked by.
“Twenty minutes,” Marcus announced.
Finally, Zane grabbed the pen. With a trembling hand, he signed his name.
The moment he was done, he looked up and glared at me.
“You’ll regret this,” he snarled, his voice pure venom. “You’ll come crawling back to me one day!”
“You think you can stay on your throne forever? One day, you’re going to need me!”
I took the agreement without even glancing at him.
“Marcus, deliver this to the Royal Guard,” I said calmly. “And notify all packs. The Royal family has severed all ties with the Dark Moon pack.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
I turned and walked out of the hall. Behind me, I could hear the elders whispering.
“The Dark Moon pack is finished…”
“They’re nothing without Royal support…”
“We should cut ties with them, quickly…”
“Yes, before we get dragged down too…”
Zane and Dahlia stood alone in the center of the hall, like two abandoned wolves.
……
Three months later.
“Your Highness, the report you requested.” Marcus placed a file on my desk.
I opened it and began to read.
“Without his Alpha powers, Zane has been reduced to a common wolf. He was exiled by the Dark Moon pack.”
“He and Dahlia now live in the slums outside the city. They survive on odd jobs.”
“Dahlia can’t stand the poverty. She fights with Zane constantly. Neighbors report hearing them screaming at each other every day.”
I nodded and turned the page.
“Zane has tried to join other packs, but no one will take in a former Alpha cast out by the Royals.”
“Dahlia’s pregnancy has been difficult, and the medical bills are piling up. They are deeply in debt.”
One month later, late at night.
Gordon knocked urgently on my door.
“Your Highness, there is someone kneeling outside the manor gates,” he said, his voice hesitant. “It’s… it’s Zane.”
I put down my book and walked to the window.
In the moonlight, a gaunt figure was kneeling outside the gates.
Was that really the Zane I knew? The once proud Alpha, now so pathetic.
“How long has he been there?” I asked.
“All night,” Gordon replied. “He started last evening.”
I watched him in silence for a moment, then put on a coat and went outside.
Zane heard my footsteps and looked up.
His eyes were red and swollen, his cheeks hollow. He was painfully thin.
“Cassia…” his voice was a broken rasp. “I was wrong.”
I stood before him, looking down.
“Dahlia manipulated me,” he choked out, his voice shaking. “I was a fool, blinded by her empty promises.”
“She never loved me. She only loved the power and the money.”
His voice was thick with regret and pain.
“The moment I lost everything, she became a stranger. So cold. Every day she complains. Complains about how hard life is, about how useless I am.”
“Cassia, I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.”
He grabbed the hem of my dress, his eyes red and desperate.
“Give me one more chance, please? I swear, I will never betray you again. I can start over. I can climb my way back up from the bottom. Just forgive me. Just say you’ll take me back.”
I didn’t even look at him. I just lifted the toe of my boot and pushed his hand off my dress.
“Get out.”