He Scorned My Love, Now He Watches My Rise novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Watch
Lara hears the Alpha heir's circle call her a gold digger from outside his dining room, returns the watch at a loss with the whole circle watching, and walks out, then says yes to a three-year posting in the desert.
I was one step from the private dining room at the pack clubhouse when Gianna laughed behind the door.
In my hand was a gift box with a mechanical watch in it.
It was Luca's birthday present, and it had cost me six months of saved paychecks.
Ten minutes earlier Gianna, the Beta's daughter, had texted me.
"Lara, he's so excited. Walk straight in, don't knock. He wants to see your face."
She had been sweet to me for three years, so I had done what she said.
"Told you she wouldn't show up empty-handed," Gianna said inside. "It'll be something with a price tag."
"Girls from nothing packs never give for free."
"They give a little now so they can take a lot after the claim."
Luca sat right next to her.
He didn't say a word against it.
A man at the table laughed. "Luca, your Luna has a head for numbers."
A woman near the door noticed me and lifted her hand. The talking stopped.
Gianna turned her head and smiled at me.
"Honest people are so rare. Alphas like a woman who just asks for what she wants."
"Don't they, Luca?"
Luca looked at the table, then at me.
"Was all of it an act? Did you wait for the claim so you could take more?"
On paper we were only chosen partners, registered with the pack.
There was no claim and no mark between us.
Three years, and I had never taken a gift from him worth more than a dinner.
That was my answer to everyone who said I wanted the Luna title.
I pressed my thumb hard against the steel cuff on my left wrist.
My wolf knew the cedar and smoke on him.
For three years that scent had meant home, and now she pulled away from it.
I said nothing. I turned around and walked out of the clubhouse.
I went straight to the mall where I had bought the watch.
The saleswoman at the counter remembered me.
An hour earlier I had left her smiling. Now I set the box in front of her with the ribbon still tied.
"His name is engraved on the back," she said gently.
"We can't give you the full price. We can only buy it back as secondhand."
"How much?"
"Seven thousand dollars."
I had paid ten thousand. That was three thousand lost in one afternoon.
"Fine," I said.
She had just lifted the box when Gianna's laugh came from behind me.
"There it is. I said she would return it."
Luca had followed me, and so had everyone from the dining room.
They stood in a half circle around the counter, the best families in Nightfall, and watched me with their arms crossed.
One of them held up a phone and took a photo of the buyback slip.
"Ten grand on a watch. Next she'll want a sports car."
"A girl from the Cedar Pass border gets into the heir's bed and starts shopping. Give her credit."
My fingers shook.
They all belonged to powerful Nightfall families, and the staff heard every word.
Nobody was going to take my side against the heir and the Beta's daughter.
Gianna took the slip out of the saleswoman's hand and read it.
"You're all missing it. An ordinary gold digger asks for money."
"This one plays longer. She hands over a small gift, gets hurt, and takes it back."
"Then he feels guilty, and the car, the apartment and the Luna title follow."
The people next to her laughed louder.
I put my bank card in my pocket and turned for the door.
Luca took my wrist.
"Finished?"
He pulled a black card out of his wallet and pressed it into my palm.
"I was hard on you tonight. Buy something you like and stop sulking."
I looked at the card.
I had lived in his apartment for three years and never spent a cent of his money.
He still believed this could settle it.
I laid it on the glass counter.
"Luca. We're over."
His face changed.
Gianna clapped her hands once.
"Exactly what I said. The gift is step one. Threatening to leave is the real move."
She spoke to him.
"Three years of patience, and the claim is weeks away. She will not walk out."
"She wants you to hurry the ceremony."
"Then hurry it," a man called.
"If you wait, next she'll file to cancel her registration."
The crease between Luca's eyebrows smoothed out.
He looked down at me, relaxed and sure.
"If you want the claim, ask for it. Don't try to scare me with a walkout. It's immature."
I pulled my wrist out of his hand.
"I'm not trying to scare you. I'm leaving."
He stared at me, and whatever patience he had left ran out.
"Fine. Let's see how long that lasts."
I walked out of the mall alone.
I had barely sat down in a rideshare when my director called.
"Lara, we're short a coordinator on a project in Red Sand territory."
"It's a three-year posting, and you'd fly the day after tomorrow."
"The local partner is the Crimson Sand pack, and the conditions are rough. Interested?"
I had already turned down two overseas postings because of Luca.
"I'll take it," I said.
I booked a nine o'clock flight for Friday morning.
Forty-eight hours, and I would be out of Gray Harbor.
My phone buzzed before I could put it down.
Gianna: "So proud of you for standing up for yourself!"
Then a second text: "Heads up, the claim hall is booked for Friday at nine."
"Luca will hold the slot for you until the last minute."
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