Cora
The company-wide email hit my inbox first thing in the morning.
Subject: “Our New Alpha King”
I stared at the bold headline as the room around me seemed to go still. My coffee sat forgotten at my elbow, steam curling in lazy ribbons. A thousand unread messages blinked in the corner of my screen, but that one line was all I could focus on.
Kingston had secured the majority vote. Effective immediately, he was now Alpha King.
There was no exclamation point or dramatic fanfare. The email was just a line of simple, clinical text. But my chest still tightened as I read it again—and again.
It was done.
Despite the photo scandal. Despite the whispers. Despite the lab fire. Despite the furious headlines that had branded me everything from a seductress to a career-hungry leech to try
