Chapter 156: Steffany

Oril

The woman in the navy suit looked up from her clipboard, her eyes wide with sudden curiosity. The man with glasses raised an eyebrow, adjusting his frames.

"Really?" the middle woman asked, leaning in. "Your packmate plays ice hockey? That’s quite a specialized background. Do you manage him or help in any sort of way?"

No. "Yes I help him all the time, in fact I do all this planning." The lies I’m telling to get this stupid job are insane.

The three interviewers looked at each other. The woman with the bun made a long, drawn-out scribble on her notepad, ticking a small box at the bottom of the page that I would be anything to see what it was. The man with glasses just stared at me, his expression entirely unreadable.

Yep. That’s it,I lost the job. I totally blew it. ’Helped him all the time, could I have sounded any more incompetent if I tried? They’re ticking the ’do not hire’ box right now.

The middle woman closed her folder with a soft, definitive snap. "Well, thank you for your time today, Oril," she said, offering a generic, polite corporate smile. "We have a few more candidates to speak with, but we will contact you by the end of the week regarding our decision."

"Thank you very much for the opportunity," I said, pushing myself out of the chair. I shook their hands, my palm felt horribly cold, and turned, walking out of the conference room as calmly as my trembling legs would allow.

The moment the door shut behind me, I let out a massive, shuddering breath, dragging a hand down my face.

Unbelievable. That was an absolute disaster.

I walked down the long corridor, pushed through the heavy glass exit doors, and stepped out into the bright, afternoon sunlight. The city noise hit me instantly, the rumble of traffic, the distant blare of car horns, the chatter of pedestrians rushing along the sidewalks. I shoved my hands back into my pockets and trudged toward the parking lot, heading straight for car.

As I crossed the main avenue, a sudden commotion near the plaza caught my attention.

A crowd of people had gathered near the corner of the block, their heads tilted upward, staring up at the massive digital billboard mounted on the side of the skyscraper across the street. A bright, high-definition news broadcast was playing, the audio booming from the street-level speakers.

I paused on the curb, casually glancing up at the giant screen, and completely froze.

There, projected fifty feet high against the glass skyscraper, was Lorali.

She was standing in front of a sea of flashing cameras, holding a microphone away from her face with a radiant, utterly terrifying smile.

"...My pack loves me so much that they are planning the biggest, grandest wedding you’ve ever seen!" her voice echoed across the entire city block.

My jaw dropped open. I stood there on the sidewalk, paralyzed, staring up at the screen like I had been turned to stone.

The footage abruptly cut back to a sleek news studio, where a polished female anchor was sitting behind a glass desk, looking directly into the camera with an excited, sensationalized expression.

"There you have it, folks!" the anchor announced, her voice dripping with dramatic flare. "That was the first exclusive footage of the Spade Pack’s Second Omega, who just shocked the athletic world today by taking second place in the local figure skating competion! Rumors of her seclusion have been officially shattered, and it seems a grand Spade wedding is officially on the horizon!"

The screen shifted to a static image of Lorali on the ice, frozen mid-glide, looking like an absolute icy phantom under the arena lights.

My mind went completely, totally blank.

What... what on earth just happened?!Lorali was skating?! In a competition, did Torin know?! And she just announced a wedding to the spade pack on live national television?!

I stood alone on the crowded sidewalk, the city noise buzzing around me, completely unable to process a single word of what I had just seen.

Walter

Finally after so long of avoiding the public light, I was back doing what I love the most, shining. I sat in front of the vanity mirror in my private dressing trailer, staring at my reflection while a stylist frantically dusted translucent powder over my forehead.

Sitting in the plush armchair right next to me, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her designer heels violently clicking against the floorboards, was Steffany. My one and only best friend.

By the way, she’s looking at me. I know I am going to die in this chair, I thought, a cold knot of dread twisting in my gut as I watched her venomous glare in the mirror’s reflection. Of all the ad campaigns in the city, of all the commercial sets I could have been booked on today, why did it have to be this one? Why did she have to be my co-star?

I had been dodging her calls for weeks. I had ignored her texts, faked sudden conflicts in my calendar, and practically run in the opposite direction whenever I saw her car parked near my studio. Because I knew this moment was coming. I knew that the second she got me trapped in a room without a publicist or a crew to shield me, she was going to tear me apart.

And Goddess knew I deserved every single bite.

Every time I looked at Steffany, my mind instantly dragged me back to that catastrophic day on set, the day Lorali brought my costume and lost me the most important deal of my life. Just thinking about that day brought a cold, sickening shiver down my spine. The sheer humiliation of that afternoon, the toxic heat wave that had seized my body, the vicious, cruel words that had spilled out of my mouth toward Lorali... it was a nightmare that kept me awake at three in the morning, staring at my bedroom ceiling in pure self-loathing.

"Are you even listening to me, Walter?!" Steffany’s voice snapped, sharp enough to cut through the hum of the air conditioner.

I winced, waving away the stylist who wisely grabbed her makeup brushes and practically sprinted out of the trailer, slamming the door shut behind her.

"I’m listening, Steffany," I said softly, turning my chair around to face her directly.

"You let me believe she was a home-wrecking bitch!" Steffany exploded, her eyes wide with furious, frantic energy as she slapped her hands onto her knees. "You sat right there, Walter! You let me think this girl was some gold-digging, manipulative parasite trying to tear your pack apart! Do you have any idea how I treated her that day?! Do you have any idea what I said to her face?!"

I know,I was there. I watched you insult her, and instead of stopping it, I encouraged it because I was too scared, too bitter, and too consumed by my own wretched pride to see straight.

"I know," I said aloud, keeping my voice low. "I know, Steff. And I am so, so sorry."

"Sorry?!" She let out a harsh, hysterical laugh, throwing her hands up toward the trailer ceiling. "You’re sorry?! Walter, I looked like an absolute mean girl! I looked insane! I cornered a girl who was literally innocent, throwing insults at her while you sat there acting like a victim, like you didn’t know the girl was fated to your pack!"