Chapter 24

Kingston

Tensions buzzed through the air like electricity before a storm. Throughout all of the chaos of the last few weeks, simmering beneath the surface had been the impending Alpha King elections.

I had nearly forgotten about them in the chaos of the lab burning down. And Cora.

Cora, covered in soot and ash. Cora, coughing up smoke-filled air.

But alive. Thankfully, alive.

And now that I knew she was safe and that she had saved the research, I could focus on the elections once again.

The first round of the Alpha King pre-election had begun, and the Silverfang estate felt like it was holding its breath. Every pack was watching. Every rumor was ammunition. And every misstep would be recorded, magnified, and dissected until it bled.

I had expected scrutiny—hell, I’d prepared for it. My team had vetted every inch of my past, buried what needed burying, and polished what needed polishing.

But I hadn’t seen this coming.

The damning photo was everywhere.

It started as a whisper, then a trickle, then an avalanche. A grainy image, snapped from an angle that had clearly been meant to be sneaky. Now this intimate moment was plastered across pack forums and private chats: me, holding Cora in my arms in the warehouse.

No context. No caption.

Just that single, damning moment.

I stared at the blown-up version on Ethan’s tablet, my jaw tight.

“Brad’s camp leaked it,” he said “He’s always been such an ass. I just didn’t know his camp would go this far.”

“Of course they did,” I muttered.

Red Moon always played dirty, and Brad was their dirtiest weapon. He didn’t care about leadership. He cared about winning. And to him, optics mattered more than character.

I suspected that Amy had gone to him, my biggest opponent for the title of Alpha King, and had made a pretty penny off of the image. While I couldn’t prove it enough to fire her, I was certain she was responsible for Brad’s new campaign attack.

“A human,” Ethan murmured, his tone dry. “That’s what they’re all foaming at the mouth over. They can’t wrap their minds around the fact that the Alpha King candidate is spending time with a human.”

“She’s more than—” I stopped myself. “It doesn’t matter what they think.”

But it did. Of course it did.

Because now they were questioning my judgment, overanalyzing all of my past decisions to find exploitable human sympathies. And they were attacking her.

Her.

Cora hadn’t even been trying to draw attention. She wasn’t flashy or manipulative. She was loyal. Smart. Courageous.

But none of that mattered to the pack members spewing filth in the comments.

Slut.

Gold-digger.

Using her body to climb the ranks.

The words made my blood boil. Hate-filled lies were endlessly plastered beneath the photo, with everyone piling on as if they knew her.

“She didn’t sign up for this,” I said quietly, still staring at the photo.

“No,” Ethan agreed. “But she also didn’t run. Not yet.”

I looked at him.

“She hasn’t gone home. Hasn’t taken time off. She’s still here and working.”

Of course she was. Cora didn’t run. She fought through panic attacks. She stood in fires. She saved lives.

And now, she was enduring a storm meant for me.

“Has anyone in the company—?”

“A few snide comments, but nothing direct. Yet,” Ethan said. “Most of them know better.”

I nodded, tension coiling in my gut. “That better stay the case. For everyone’s sake.”

Because if I heard even one wolf insult her to her face, I wasn’t sure I could stop myself from reacting. And who knew how that would affect my candidacy.

Ethan leaned against my desk, arms crossed. “You want my advice?”

“Always.”

“Get ahead of it. Make a statement. Control the narrative before Brad does.”

“What am I supposed to say? ‘Yes, I hugged her, but it was a life-or-death situation and she was hyperventilating because we were trapped in a warehouse where we almost died’?”

“Yes,” Ethan said bluntly. “Exactly that. Be honest. You’re not the kind of wolf who sneaks around. That’s his game. Not yours.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face.

“Also…” Ethan hesitated. “If this thing with Cora is more than just… proximity and adrenaline, you’re going to have to decide what you want. Fast.”

I looked up sharply. Was he fishing for answers about Cora to satisfy his own interest in her?

“Because right now, you’re playing the game like a politician,” he continued. “But if you keep pushing her away and shielding her from a distance, you’re going to lose both. The election and her.”

The thought chilled me more than I expected.

Because I already had been pushing her away.

I’d blocked her messages.

I’d ignored her email about the recovered hard drive. Not because I didn’t believe her, but because I didn’t trust myself not to rush to her side the second I saw her name.

And when I saw that photo—the other photo—the one Daisy had sent me through Cora’s phone, I’d let lust and guilt mix into something ugly.

That’s why I sent the transfer request. Because I didn’t trust my instincts anymore. Not around her.

And now?

Now I was watching her bleed under the spotlight I’d dragged her into.

Ethan was still looking at me. “You’re worried about Billy.”

I didn’t deny it.

“I thought marrying Daisy would protect him,” I said. “Make it all official. Legal. But then Cora told me about the custody laws…”

Ethan raised an eyebrow. “But now you know what the law really looks like. Yeah. It’s brutal.”

“Daisy’s not stable,” I said finally. “She still thinks we’re getting married. She is convinced that I’ll change my mind.”

Ethan sighed. “Then you’ve got another problem on your hands.”

I ran a hand through my hair, heart heavy. “What am I supposed to do?”

He gave me a look.

“You already know.”

Later that night, I found myself standing outside the east wing balcony, the city spread out below like a bed of glittering embers.

I pulled out my phone.

I hadn’t unblocked her.

My finger hovered over Cora’s contact, the Unblock button beckoning me. God, what an idiot I was. I didn’t even have the courage to text her, and yet I’d let her get ripped apart in public for my mistake.

I could picture her now—shoulders squared, chin lifted, pretending none of it hurt.

But it did.

It had to.

Even now, when I had shunned her from most of my life, cutting contact where I could.

And all I’d done was make it worse.

I tapped into the encrypted internal network and pulled up the media department’s contact list. I didn’t care what the strategists said—I was done playing defense.

I recorded a short video.

Unpolished.

Unscripted.

Just me.

“My name is Kingston, and I’m a candidate in the Alpha King election. Recently, a photo of me and my colleague was leaked to the public. I want to address this directly.”

I took a breath.

“That moment captured in the photo happened after we narrowly escaped a dangerous situation. Cora was having a panic attack. I comforted her. That is all that is occurring in that photo.”

Another pause.

“She is not a social climber. She’s not a scandal. She’s not an accessory to my campaign. In fact, she’s a human who risked her life to save vital werewolf-related data from a burning lab two days ago.”

I cleared my throat. “That photo was missing critical context. She’s a mother. She’s a brilliant analyst. And she deserves respect.”

I looked into the lens.

“If you want to attack someone, come after me. But if you think I’ll let you tear down a woman who’s done nothing wrong just because she’s not one of us, you’re dead wrong.

“Wouldn’t you want your next Alpha King to be honest with you and to stand up for what is right? Unlike my opponents, I will not feed you lies. To you, I offer only truth.”

I ended the recording and hit send. Let the packs chew on that.