Chapter 2
ELODIE’S POV
It was just another Monday. But it felt like my funeral. Not literally... but something inside me—something warm, hopeful, had died long ago. And today, like every day, I was dragging the bones of what was left into the damn building just to look at him. To look at the man who ripped me apart piece by piece and still had no clue how deeply I bled for him.
God, I hated Mondays.
But more than anything... I hated myself.
For still hoping. For still waking up every morning thinking, maybe today he’ll see me... maybe today he’ll love me back.
Stupid, stupid girl.
I pulled on my coat, slapped on some lip balm so I didn’t look half-dead, and walked into the office like a ghost in her own skin. No one could tell though. I was always on time. Always put-together. Always carrying out my duties like a perfect little Gamma. Even my wolf was tired of me as she whined each day.
Meetings. Pack rosters. Investment briefings. Boardroom memos. Scheduling. I handled everything. I made sure the empire Calhoun was trying to build didn’t crumble from the inside. I was the hands behind the throne.
But he didn’t see that. He never did.
I kept myself busy all morning, burying my pain beneath back-to-back meetings and hollow smiles. I briefed the warriors. I double-checked the contracts coming in from the trading sectors. I filed the latest correspondence from the Nightbourne Pack, ironically addressed to his attention. Everything had to be perfect. Everything had to be in place.
Because I was just the assistant.
And he was the man I was slowly dying for.