Chapter 81 *

Chapter 81 Chapter 81
Angelina’s POV
So I hadn't imagined it.
He was really here.
Caelan was dressed in a black suit. Perfectly tailored. His dark hair was styled immaculately. Everything about him screamed power and wealth.
The entire casino floor went quiet. People stopped gambling. Stopped talking. Everyone was staring.
Rowan stopped in the center of the room. His eyes swept across the crowd with cold assessment. Then he spoke. His voice carried across the entire floor.
"I am Rowan, Beta of Evergreen Pack."
The reaction was immediate.
Gasps. Whispers. Someone dropped their drink.
"Evergreen Pack?"
"No way..."
"That's the Pack from East Asia..."
"They're one of the strongest in the world..."
Franklin appeared from somewhere in the back. His face was pale. He walked toward Rowan quickly, looking worried.
"Beta Rowan," Franklin said, his voice careful. "This is unexpected. We weren't informed of your arrival."
Rowan didn't answer right away. He just looked at Franklin with those cold eyes.
Then his gaze moved past Franklin. Scanning the crowd.
Looking for something. Or someone.
His eyes found me. And stopped. I felt the weight of his stare.
Behind him, Caelan's expression remained neutral. But I could see the slight tension in his shoulders. The way his eyes tracked my every movement.
Patrick and several other Creek Pack members came running from the back offices. They stopped when they saw Rowan and Caelan, their faces going white.
"Evergreen Pack," Patrick breathed. "What are they doing here?"
The tension in the room was suffocating. Everyone knew what Evergreen Pack represented. They were one of the only Packs in the world that could match Riverbend's strength.
Franklin stepped forward again. "Beta Rowan, may I ask what brings Evergreen Pack to Wyoming? If we'd known you were coming, we would have prepared a proper welcome."
Rowan's eyes stayed on me for another moment. Then he looked at Franklin.
"We're not here for Redmeadow Pack," Rowan said simply.
Franklin's confusion was obvious. "Then... may I ask who you are here for?"
Rowan's POV
I'd been halfway back to Evergreen Pack's territory when the call came through.
Alpha Caelan's voice had been cold and direct. "Turn around. Come to Casper, Wyoming. Silver Fang Casino."
No explanation. No context. Just orders.
I'd obeyed immediately, of course. After ten years of serving him, I knew better than to ask questions when he used that tone.
But I'd been confused as hell during the entire flight here. Why Wyoming? Why Creek Pack's territory? We had no business with them. Creek Pack was small, dirty, ran trafficking operations that even other criminal Packs looked down on.
So what could possibly bring Alpha Caelan to this backwater casino?
I walked through the entrance with Caelan behind me. The crowd parted immediately. The casino floor went silent. Hundreds of eyes turned toward us.
I stopped in the center of the room and let my gaze sweep across the crowd. Assessing. Calculating.
"I am Rowan, Beta of Evergreen Pack."
The reaction was instant. Gasps. Whispers. Fear.
An older man approached quickly, trying to look calm but failing. I recognized him from intelligence reports—Franklin, former Alpha of Redmeadow Pack.
"Beta Rowan," Franklin said carefully. "This is unexpected. We weren't informed of your arrival."
I didn't answer right away. Just looked at him with cold assessment.
Then I scanned the crowd again. Looking for whatever had brought us here.
And that's when I saw her.
A teenage girl. Black dress. Standing near the entrance with a young man beside her.
Dark hair. Green eyes. That face—
Everything clicked into place instantly.
I understood now. I understood exactly why Alpha Caelan had summoned me back here. Why we'd flown to Wyoming. Why we were standing in this trashy casino in the middle of nowhere.
It was because of her.
I fought the urge to laugh. Or cry. I wasn't sure which would be more appropriate.
Ten years of watching him remain completely emotionally detached from everyone and everything except Pack business.
Never interested in women. Never interested in relationships. Never interested in anything that didn't directly benefit Evergreen Pack's power and influence.
And now here he was. Chasing a teenage girl to Wyoming.
This was going to be a disaster.
Franklin was still talking. I barely heard him.
Behind me, I could feel Alpha Caelan's presence. That overwhelming aura of power that made even other Alphas nervous.
Creek Pack members started appearing from the back offices. They stopped dead when they saw us. Their faces went white.
"Evergreen Pack," one of them breathed. "What are they doing here?"
The tension in the room was suffocating. Everyone knew what Evergreen Pack represented. We were one of the only Packs in the world that could match Riverbend's strength at its peak.
Franklin stepped forward again, trying to maintain diplomatic composure.
"Beta Rowan, may I ask what brings Evergreen Pack to Wyoming? If we'd known you were coming, we would have prepared a proper welcome."
Before I could figure out how to answer that diplomatically, Alpha Caelan moved.
He walked past me. Straight toward the girl.
The crowd parted for him like water. Nobody dared stand in his way.
He stopped directly in front of her. "We need to talk," Alpha Caelan said.
Every single person in that casino turned to look at the girl. Creek Pack's leadership. Redmeadow Pack's people. The casino guests. Everyone.
Their expressions were identical. Shock. Disbelief.
This teenage girl knew someone from Evergreen Pack?
A big man—Patrick, according to my intelligence—actually gasped out loud. "She knows Evergreen Pack?"
Murmurs spread through the crowd like wildfire.
"No way..."
"That's impossible..."
"How does she know them?"
The young man standing next to Aria looked like he was about to have a heart attack. His eyes were huge.
Franklin's expression had shifted from diplomatic concern to complete bafflement.
I understood their reactions. Evergreen Pack didn't associate with random American teenagers. We operated on a completely different level.
Then Aria spoke. "I don't know him."
Her voice was cold. Completely dismissive.
The entire casino gasped. I felt my eyes widen despite my best efforts to maintain composure.
What?
I had seen countless women try to get close to him. Daughters of powerful Alphas. Wealthy heiresses. Beautiful models and actresses.
All of them had thrown themselves at him. Desperate for his attention. And he'd ignored every single one of them without a second thought.
Now here was a fifteen-year-old girl. And she was actively trying to distance herself from him.
I looked at Alpha Caelan. His jaw tightened. Just slightly.
He was not pleased. Oh no. This was bad. This was very bad.
Franklin seemed to sense the danger. He moved closer to Aria, his voice dropping to a careful whisper.
"Aria," he said gently. "This is someone from Evergreen Pack. You should be careful—"
"I said I don't know him," Aria interrupted.
More gasps. Someone dropped their drink. The crash of glass on marble echoed through the silence.
Creek Pack's leadership looked like they were about to pass out. Patrick's face had gone from white to gray.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop. The air became heavy, oppressive.
This was Alpha Caelan angry. His expression remained neutral. Not shouting. Not violent. Just... controlled. Dangerous.
The worst kind of angry.
"You're mine." His voice was quiet. But the weight behind those words— the unquestionable claim of ownership—hit the room like a physical force.
I wasn't surprised. Not even a little bit.
Because I knew Alpha Caelan. I knew how he thought. How he operated.
I first met Caelan when he was fifteen years old.
I was twenty-three then. A werewolf slave in an underground fighting ring. I'd been captured during a Pack war, sold to humans who ran illegal supernatural combat arenas.
Every night, they forced us to fight. To the death, usually. For entertainment. For gambling profits.
I'd survived three months of that hell. But I knew I wouldn't last much longer.
Then one night, everything changed.
A boy walked into the arena compound. Just fifteen years old. Skinny. Poorly dressed. He looked like he belonged in a school cafeteria, not a place where people died for sport.
But his eyes—cold. I watched from my cage as that fifteen-year-old boy killed every single person who ran the fighting ring.
Not struggled. Not fought desperately.
Just... killed them. Efficiently. Like it was nothing.
When he unlocked my cage, I asked him why.
"You're useful," he said. "And they were in my way."
He'd already awakened as a werewolf by then. I could sense it. I swore loyalty to him that night. And in those years, I learned everything about Caelan Thorne.
His mother was a prostitute. His father was the previous Alpha of Evergreen Pack.
Caelan was conceived during a drunken encounter. An embarrassment.
From the moment he was born, he was labeled a bastard.
The "proper" members of Evergreen Pack made sure everyone knew Caelan didn't belong.
His father refused to acknowledge him. His father's legitimate children treated him like garbage.
So Caelan grew up in the slums. In the absolute worst parts of the city.
The kind of place where children learned to fight before they learned to read. Where finding food was more important than finding shelter. I'd heard the stories from people who'd known him back then. How he'd lived with his mother in buildings that barely had walls. How he'd fought older kids—and adults—for scraps of food, for dry places to sleep.
If you wanted something, you took it. If you couldn't take it, you didn't deserve it.
That was the world Caelan grew up in.
By the time he was eighteen, with my help, he'd taken Evergreen Pack from his father. Killed everyone who'd looked down on him.
Now he was one of the strongest Alphas in the world. Evergreen Pack controlled territory across multiple countries. We had wealth, power, influence that most Packs could only dream of.
But some things never left him. His obsessive cleanliness, for example. The way he couldn't stand dirt or disorder. That came from those years in the slums.
And his worldview—the core belief that drove everything he did:
If you want something, you take it. If you can't take it by asking, you take it by force. And once you have it, it's yours. No one can tell you otherwise.
That's how Caelan Thorne saw the world.
And right now, he wanted this girl.
Which meant she was his. Whether she agreed or not.
The casino had fallen into complete silence after Alpha Caelan's declaration.
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.
I looked at Aria. Her expression hadn't changed. Still cold.
She knew what Alpha Caelan was doing. She understood the claim he'd just made.
And she wasn't happy about it.
This was going to get very interesting.